Rolling Stone reviews Left For Live: Deluxe

[Brian Cady <brianinatlanta2001@xxxxxxxxx>]

On line at:
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp?nid=17092

Entwistle Comes Alive on CD
Double-album features twelve unreleased tracks

When bassist John Entwistle died of a heart attack on
June 27th on the eve of the Who's summer reunion tour,
he left behind many aggrieved fans and several
unfinished projects. Some of that business will be
settled on November 26th with the release of Left for
Live: Deluxe, a twenty-four-track expanded version of
the John Entwistle Band's 1999 Left for Live album.

In addition to a healthy dose of Entwistle solo
material ("My Size," "Love Is a Heart Attack," "Too
Late the Hero"), Who songs ("The Real Me," "Boris the
Spider") and classic covers ("Summertime Blues,"
"Shakin' All Over"), the album features a never
officially released Keith Moon drum track behind
"Bogeyman," the band's walk-on music.

"This is something John and I planned to do before he
died," said Entwistle's long-time friend and drummer,
Steve Luongo, who produced the album following
Entwistle's death. "I had listened to board mixes and
there was no rush about it [at the time]. We thought
the expanded version was a great opportunity to
recreate a full one of our shows so people could hear
what the band sounded like live. I re-sequenced things
and added his stage chatter from different shows,
because that was half the fun of it, how loose he was
on stage. He was a very different guy in his own band
than when he was with the Who."

The album chronicles more than fifteen different dates
from the 1998-99 Left for Dead: The Sequel tour by the
band -- Entwistle, Luongo, guitarist Godfrey Townsend
(no relation to the Who's Pete) and keyboardist Gordon
Cotton. It tacks twelve previously unreleased songs
onto the 1999 original.

"This album is the best representation of this band
that exists in the world," Luongo said. "And it lays
to rest that whole 'quiet one' thing. John always used
to say that when the Who were first taking off, Keith
was the maniac, Roger [Daltrey] was the face and Pete
[Townshend] was the intellectual, but nobody knew what
to do with the bass player, so they made him the quiet
one. Well, he wasn't, and you'll hear that on this
album, which is what John intended."

In addition to his thundering bass lines, Entwistle's
signature dark humor is all over the set, none of it
more chilling than in the introduction to "Darker Side
of Night." "This song is probably the last song I ever
wrote," Entwistle says of the track from the never
officially released Vanpires soundtrack album. Luongo
quickly corrects his pal, saying, "most recent song .
. . let's hope it's not the last." In an ironic twist
the morbid bassist would have loved, Luongo says, it
was the last completed song Entwistle penned on his
own.

Earlier this year, Entwistle teamed with Luongo to
write a dozen songs for possible inclusion on a
potential Who album. Luongo said he is also
considering recording one of the scotched Who songs
for the debut record from his new band, Torque.
Another Entwistle Band studio album might also
eventually be released, composed of a least a dozen
songs recorded for a never-aired second season of the
syndicated Vanpires animated show.

In the meantime, Luongo is editing an Entwistle
documentary he shot with Justin Kreutzmann, son of
Grateful Dead drummer, Bill. "It covers his life from
the time he was three years old and dancing on tables
at a working man's club to how he was feeling about
going out on tour with the Who this summer," said
Luongo of An Ox's Tale, which has not yet secured a
distributor.

Left For Live: Deluxe track listing:

Bogeyman
Horror Rock (Nightmare)
The Real Me
Sometimes
My Size
You
Darker Side of Night
Love is a Heart Attack
Success Story
Trick of the Light
Cousin Kevin
Under a Raging Moon
Boris the Spider
905
Had Enough
Endless Vacation
I'll Try Again Today
Whiskey Man
Too Late the Hero
Young Man Blues
Shakin' All Over
Heaven & Hell
Summertime Blues
My Wife

GIL KAUFMAN
(November 20, 2002)


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