John Entwistle
1944 - 2002
John Entwistle, the bass player for veteran British rock band The Who, died in Las Vegas Thursday at age 57, just one day before the group was set to begin a North American tour in the city, officials said.
Entwistle, a bearded, taciturn type affectionately known as "Ox" or "Thunderfingers," died at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, said Clark County Coroner Ron Flud. An investigation was under way into the cause of death, he added.
The Who, known for such raw percussive hits as "My Generation," "Pinball Wizard" and "Won't Get Fooled Again," were scheduled to begin their three-month tour in a small club at the hotel.
With Entwistle's death, The Who are down to just two original members -- singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist-songwriter Pete Townshend. Original drummer Keith Moon died of an accidental pill overdose in 1978.
In addition to his lightning finger work on the bass, Entwistle helped out on backing vocals, supplying an alto-tenor on "A Quick One While He's Away" and "Summertime Blues." His unique playing style mixed bass melodies with a more rhythmic role, producing a trebly sound that essentially became the band's lead instrument.
On stage he rarely moved from his spot, allowing his colorful bandmates to vie for the spotlight.
His songwriting contributions were mostly limited to a few album tracks and B-sides. The first song he wrote for the Who, 1966's creepy-crawly gem "Boris the Spider," was resurrected on their 1989 reunion tour. Other songs he wrote for the Who included "My Wife" and "Whiskey Man."
Entwistle released a half-dozen eclectic solo albums that revealed his wry sense of humor, and he also dabbled in art. He had spent the last dozen years writing a novel, though he noted in a recent interview that "at the current rate of writing they're gonna have to engrave the end on my tombstone."
Born John Alec Entwistle in the London suburb of Chiswick on Oct. 9, 1944, he studied piano, trumpet and French horn as a youngster before moving on to a homemade bass. The formal music education proved helpful later on as he performed and arranged all the brass parts on the Who's records.
At the age of 14, he formed a traditional jazz band at his grammar school, the Confederates, and invited schoolmate Townshend to join the short-lived combo. He then joined the Detours, a band formed by an older boy at their school, Roger Daltrey. At Entwistle's suggestion, Daltrey brought in Townshend, and the early Who started to take shape.
After leaving school, Entwistle worked as a tax clerk by day and played with the band by night. The group changed its name to The Who in 1964, and Moon joined later that year, replacing drummer Doug Sandom, who did not play aggressively enough for the other members of the band.
Influenced by the likes of bluesman Jimmy Reed, rocker Eddie Cochran and soul giants James Brown and Jackie Wilson, The Who made an immediate impression on the London "Mod" scene with its seemingly undisciplined garage rock, which it dubbed "Maximum R&B."
The band trashed its equipment at the end of each show, and it was years before it made enough money to pay off its bills for new instruments.
After briefly flirting with a new name, the High Numbers, The Who released its first single in early 1965, "I Can't Explain." It followed up with "Anyway Anyhow Anywhere" and its signature anthem, "My Generation," famed for Townshend's nihilistic lyric "Hope I die before I get old."
With Townshend and Daltrey often at loggerheads with each other, and Moon busy pioneering the lifestyle of a destructive rock star, Entwistle became the first member to release a solo album, 1971's "Smash Your Head Against the Wall."
"I never really wanted The Who to do more of my songs because I thought at the time they would mess them up," Entwistle once said.
He released a succession of follow-up albums, and launched a money-losing tour of Britain and the United States with his own band, the Ox, in the mid-1970s.
The Who, meanwhile, became one of the biggest bands in the world, even earning a mention in the 1976 Guinness Book of Records for playing the loudest concert -- 120 decibels, the same intensity as a jet engine.
Albums such as the 1969 rock opera "Tommy," "Who's Next" (1971) and "Quadrophenia" (1973) cemented its position as the third band in the great triumvirate of British rock, just below the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
After Moon's death in 1978, shortly following the release of "Who Are You," the band recruited former Faces drummer Kenney Jones. But the group had lost its momentum and released its last studio album in 1982, "It's Hard," accompanied by a farewell tour. It regrouped in 1989 and toured sporadically.
Daltrey told Reuters earlier this year that he was confident that the band could keep playing indefinitely because "nothing is forever."
Entwistle was married twice and has one son from his first marriage, Christopher.
John Entwistle
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Link #1
THE OX - The John Entwistle Homepage
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Link #2
www.bassfrontiers.com/
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Link #3
John Entwistle @ IMDB
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Link #4
The Quiet Ox
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Link #5
Jack's "The Who" Home Page
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Link #6
The Who Webring
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Link #7
The Who in Concert!
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Link #8
Quadrophenia.net
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Link #9
dr_jason_smith/
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Entwistle Novel Will Go Unfinished
Bass guitarist John Entwistle of The Who quietly toiled for a dozen years on a novel inspired by his experience with one of the most influential bands in rock history, but he never finished it.
Entwistle had gotten just eight chapters down on paper before he died on Thursday, at age 57, on the eve of the band's latest tour.
In one of the last interviews he gave before his death, the bearded musician described his book as a fictionalized account of The Who drawn from actual characters and anecdotes from the band's nearly 40-year history.
"It's just basically a novel," he said last Friday, before leaving his British home for the United States. "It's got words that we actually said and stuff like that. ... It's basically the funny things that happened, that'll be in there, but the true story."
Then, in an off-handed remark eerily prescient of his fate, the musician joked about the snail's pace of his literary ambition. "At the current rate of writing, they're gonna have to engrave the end on my tombstone."
The untitled book was one of several works in progress that had occupied Entwistle in the final years of his life.
Preparing to pack his bags for what would have been his 24-venue North American tour with the band, Entwistle spoke of his burgeoning career as an artist, specializing in illustrations he produced for lithographs.
He had planned to open a traveling exhibit of his work, including a collection titled of "Guitar Gods" featuring the likenesses of Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend, in Las Vegas on Thursday.
"(The art) is a relaxation from the music, and then my music becomes a relaxation from the art," he said. "I get a sense of satisfaction when I finish a drawing. I have people who are interested enough in the work to want to sell it for me."
Meanwhile, Entwistle said he was looking forward to The Who's upcoming tour and "the magic that happens onstage when we play together." Keeping the band fresh was its knack for improvised performances, he said.
"We're improvising quite a lot," he said. "I used to get bored with playing the same part twice. I'd go off on a slight tangent, just a little embellishment or another sort of melody line in there. Or you're playing two notes instead of one. That would satisfy me."
He said the band also was in the early stages of preparing music for a new studio album, The Who's first since 1982's "It's Hard," reviewing some preliminary "sketches" of songs by singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist Pete Townshend.
Entwistle's Novel
