OBVIOUSLY FOUR BELIEVERS

Sly Stone’s wedding, held at Madison Square Garden, and attended by 20,000 who, for the most part, were more interested in going “Higher” than his nuptials, was an attempt to create a memorable pop event, something like a more personal Woodstock or Watkins Glen. Mott the Hoople tried to arrange an event of similar significance by becoming the first rock group to play Broadway, with their week-long Uris Theater engagement. Both groups played well, but neither one made the kind of lasting impact they might have wished. Ultimately, nothing was left but another evening’s relatively expensive entertainment.

But the Who, playing a relatively simple four-night engagement at the Garden — the sort of stand the Moody Blues, Chicago and Jethro Tull book as a matter of course these days — managed to excite imaginations and provide the sort of thrills to which the others only aspire. The Who set New York abuzz in a way that only Dylan and the Stones are able to do — they did it with their mere presence, no gallows humor, no dry ice, not even a hint of costuming or choreography.