[no subject]

The Who's Ox will carry no more
Appreciation 
By Rob Hiaasen
Sun Staff
Originally published June 30, 2002

"I'm not the quiet one, everyone else is too loud,"
bassist John Entwistle sang on the Who's otherwise
forgettable Face Dances album in 1981.

Still, John Entwistle - who died of a heart attack
Thursday in Las Vegas - is remembered as the quiet one
of the Who, which joined with the Beatles and Rolling
Stones to form the great triumvirate of British rock
bands. Entwistle, 57, was found dead in his hotel room
on the eve of the Who's American tour, which was set
to begin Friday in Las Vegas.

Band mates Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey wrote this
on Townshend's Web site: "The Ox has left the building
- we've lost another great friend."

Nicknamed the Ox for lugging the band's equipment in
the early years, the stoic Entwistle stood as a
bystander on the Who's stage, as Daltrey would give
his microphones whiplash, Townshend would windmill his
guitar often to death, and drummer Keith Moon would
assault his drum set.

There, stage right, Entwistle played his six or
eight-string bass - no traditional blues, but rather
complex melody lines, his diving fingers moving faster
than any bass player seen in rock.

Entwistle was the Who's anchor man. And the Ox played
loud. Everything the Who did was loud, of course, but
who ever heard such a loud bassist before?

Who ever heard of a bass solo at a rock concert? Who
ever heard of a rock band occasionally featuring a
French horn?

Then, people heard John Entwistle.

He had formal musical training in London before
playing Dixieland jazz in 1958 with a scrawny kid
named Townshend. Entwistle, Townshend and Daltrey then
started the Detours in 1960; by 1964, the mod Detours
had become the mod Who, with Keith Moon on drums, and
on bass a man who could play the trumpet, piano and
French horn.

Listen to Entwistle's French horn in "My Wife," a song
he wrote:

My life's in jeopardy

Murdered in cold blood is what I'm going to be

I ain't been home since Friday night

And now my wife is coming after me ...

Like his quiet counterpart on the Beatles, the late
George Harrison, Entwistle's contributions were
overshadowed by his band mates. But unlike Harrison's
classic love song, "Something," Entwistle's "My Wife"
was a nasty little affair of the heart. His other Who
tunes included "Boris the Spider" and "Fiddle About."
They are not first-date songs. They are songs from a
man who had a dark, sensible sense of humor.

He clearly had a supporting role in the Who, but he
was never buried. His stage non-presence had presence
- unlike the Stones' quiet one, bassist Bill Wyman.
Clearly there was a place for Entwistle's music in the
band. In 1969, the Who even kicked off its Woodstock
set with Entwistle's "Heaven and Hell."

Anyway, how could anyone stand out in a group with the
hyperactive Moon (who died in 1978), prototypical lead
singer Daltrey and prototypical tortured genius
Townshend?

Since Entwistle's death, it's the little things that
stand out:

In "Summertime Blues," Entwistle's vocal cameo as the
congressman: I'd like to help you son, but you're too
young to vote. Entwistle's connect-the-dots artwork
for the cover of The Who by Numbers album. And from
the Who's 1978 documentary, The Kids Are Alright,
Entwistle seen skeet shooting, using his gold records
as targets.

With his death comes that familiar kick in the gut.
After we get our wind back, we are reminded once again
that the greatest rock bands are indeed dying before
they get old. The Beatles are two. The Who are now
two. The Stones - who lost founding member Brian Jones
so many years ago, and then Wyman left the band to
almost no one's notice - will tour again. It won't be
pretty, but it probably will be profitable.

The Who will regroup. A later posting on Townshend's
Web site Friday read: "We are going on. First show
Hollywood Bowl. Pray for us, John, wherever you are."
But there is never any replacing pieces of a wonderful
whole, merely substitutions.

For fans, it just seems harder to regroup with each
missing piece. 
Copyright ) 2002, The Baltimore Sun 


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