[no subject]

Frankenstein's money 
(Filed: 14/05/2003) 

Is it too extravagant to suggest that the story of
John Entwistle's guitar can be read as a sort of
fable? The late Mr Entwistle was the bass guitar
player in the anti-establishment band The Who and
composer of the matchless song Boris the Spider.

Yesterday, at Sotheby's, an auction house more
accustomed to worsted than denim, his cherished
"Frankenstein" guitar - a bass he soldered together
from the smashed remains of five other instruments -
went for #72,000. Not bad for a member of a band that
boasted in an early song: "I was born with a plastic
spoon in my mouth."

Of course, old rock stars get rich and the relics of
dead rock stars get valuable. Any safety-pin will be
worth more at auction if it has at one time or another
been through the nose of Sid Vicious.

But The Who are a special case. This, you'll remember,
was the band that thrilled its g-g-generation, and
showed its contempt for the materialism of the
generation previous, by smashing its instruments to
matchwood at the end of its concerts.

Had there been no smashed instruments, there would
have been no Frankenstein. And after all these years,
the memorabilia market would be glutted with
well-preserved old Who kit.

Frankenstein's #72,000 price tag is a lesson for all
system-smashing young pop rebels on the inexorable law
of supply and demand.


=====
-Brian in Atlanta
The Who This Month!
http://www.thewhothismonth.com

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