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John Alec Entwistle (9 October 194427 June 2002) was an English musician, best known as the bass guitarist for the rock band the Who. Entwistle's music career spanned over four decades. Nicknamed " The Ox" and " Thunderfingers", he was the band's only member with formal musical training and also provided backing and occasional lead vocals. Entwistle was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Who in 1990.
Renowned for his musical abilities, Entwistle is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rock bass guitarists of all time. His instrumental approach featured pentatonic scale lead lines and a then-unusual treble-rich sound ("full treble, full volume"). He was voted as the greatest bass guitar player ever in a 2011 Rolling Stone readers' poll and, in 2020, the same magazine ranked him number three in its list of the "50 Greatest Bassists of All Time".
His musical career began at age 7, when he started taking piano lessons. He did not enjoy the experience and after joining Acton County Grammar School aged 11, switched to the trumpet, moving to the French horn when he joined the Middlesex Schools Orchestra. He met Pete Townshend in the second year of school, and the two formed a trad jazz band, the Confederates. The group only played one gig together, before they decided that rock and roll was a more attractive prospect. Entwistle, in particular, was having difficulty hearing his trumpet with rock bands, and decided to switch to playing guitar, but due to his large fingers, and also his fondness for the low guitar tones of Duane Eddy, he decided to take up the bass instead. He made his own instrument at home, and soon attracted the attention of Roger Daltrey, who had been in the year above Entwistle at Acton County, but had been expelled and was working as an electrician's mate. Daltrey was aware of Entwistle from school, and asked him to join as a bassist for his band, the Detours.
The band considered several changes of name, finally settling on the name the Who while Entwistle was still working as a tax clerk (temporarily performing as the High Numbers for four months in 1964). When the band decided that the blond Daltrey needed to stand out more from the others, Entwistle dyed his naturally light brown hair black, and it remained so until the early 1980s. Around 1963, Entwistle played in a London band called the Initials for a short while; the band broke up when a planned resident engagement in Spain fell through.
Entwistle picked up two nicknames during his career as a musician. He was nicknamed "The Ox" because of his strong constitution and seeming ability to "eat, drink or do more than the rest of them". He was also later nicknamed "Thunderfingers". Bill Wyman, bassist for the Rolling Stones, described him as "the quietest man in private but the loudest man on stage". Entwistle was one of the first to make use of Marshall stacks in an attempt to hear himself over the noise of his band members, who famously leapt and moved about on the stage, with Townshend and Keith Moon smashing their instruments on numerous occasions (Moon even used explosives in his drum kit during one television performance on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour). Townshend later remarked that Entwistle started using Marshall amplification to hear himself over Moon's rapid-fire drumming style, and Townshend himself also had to use them just to be heard over Entwistle. They both continued expanding and experimenting with their rigs, until they were both using twin stacks with new experimental prototype 200 watt amps, at a time when most bands used 50–100 watt amplifiers with single cabinets. All of this quickly gained the Who a reputation for being "the loudest band on the planet"; they reached 126 decibels at a 1976 concert in London, listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the loudest rock concert in history.
The band had a strong influence at the time on their contemporaries' choice of equipment, with Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience both following suit. Although they pioneered and directly contributed to the development of the "classic" Marshall sound (at this point their equipment was being built or tweaked to their personal specifications), they only used Marshall equipment for a few years. Entwistle eventually switched to using a Hiwatt rig, with Townshend later following suit. Townshend said that Jimi Hendrix, their new label mate, was influenced beyond just the band's volume. Both Entwistle and Townshend had begun experimenting with feedback from the amplifiers in the mid-1960s, and Hendrix did not begin destroying his instruments until after he had witnessed the Who's "auto-destructive art".
in Ludwigshafen, Germany, 1967|alt=]]Entwistle's wry and sometimes dark sense of humour clashed at times with Townshend's more introspective, intellectual work. Although he wrote songs on every Who studio album except for Quadrophenia, Entwistle was frustrated at Daltrey not allowing him to sing them himself. As he said, "I got a couple of on per album but my problem was that I wanted to sing the songs and not let Roger sing them." This was a large part of the reason that he became the first member of the band to release a solo studio album, Smash Your Head Against the Wall (1971), which featured contributions from Keith Moon, Jerry Shirley of Humble Pie, Vivian Stanshall, Neil Innes and the Who's roadie, Dave "Cyrano" Langston.
Entwistle was the only member of the band to have had formal musical training. In addition to the bass guitar, he contributed backing vocals and performed the French horn (heard on "Pictures of Lily" and throughout Tommy), trumpet, piano, bugle, and Jew's harp, and on some occasions he sang the lead vocals on his compositions. He layered several horns to create the brass section as heard on songs such as "", among others, while recording the Who's studio albums, and for concerts, arranged a horn section to perform with the band.
in Toronto, Canada, 1976]]While Entwistle was known for being the quietest member of the Who, he in fact often exerted major influences on the rest of the band. For instance, Entwistle was the first member of the band to wear a Union Jack waistcoat. This piece of clothing later became one of Townshend's signature garments.
In 1974, he compiled Odds & Sods, a collection of unreleased Who material. Entwistle designed the cover art for the band's seventh studio album, The Who by Numbers (1975), and in a 1996 interview remarked that it had cost £30 to create, while the Quadrophenia cover, designed by Pete Townshend, had cost £16,000.
Entwistle also experimented throughout his career with 'Bi-amping', where the high and low ends of the bass are sent through separate signal paths, allowing for more control over the output. At one point his rig became so loaded down with speaker cabinets and processing gear that it was dubbed "Little Manhattan", in reference to the towering, skyscraper-like stacks, racks and blinking lights.
Entwistle wrote "Cousin Kevin" and "Fiddle About" for the Who's fourth studio album Tommy (1969) because Townshend had specifically requested Entwistle to write 'nasty songs' that he felt uncomfortable with. "My Wife", Entwistle's driving, comedic song about marital strife from the band's fifth studio album Who's Next (1971), also became a popular stage number. He wrote "Success Story" for The Who by Numbers (1975), for which he also drew the illustration on the album cover; "Had Enough", "905", and "Trick of the Light" for Who Are You (1978); "The Quiet One" and "You" for Face Dances (1981); and "It's Your Turn", "Dangerous" and "One at a Time" for It's Hard (1982), his final studio album with the Who.
In 1995, Entwistle also toured and recorded with Ringo Starr in one of the incarnations of Starr's All-Starr Band. This one also featured Billy Preston, Randy Bachman of the Guess Who, and Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad. In this ensemble, he played and sang "Boris the Spider" as his Who showpiece, along with "My Wife". Toward the end of his career he used a Status Graphite Buzzard Bass, which he had designed. From 1999 to early 2002, he played as part of the Who. Entwistle also played at Woodstock '99, along with Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead, being the only performers there to have taken the stage at the original Woodstock. As a side project, he played the bass guitar in a country rock studio album project of original songs called the Pioneers, with Mickey Wynne on lead guitar, Ron Magness on rhythm guitar and keyboards, Roy Michaels, Andre Beeka on vocals, and John Delgado playing drums. The album was released by Voiceprint Records. Shortly before his death, Entwistle had agreed to play some US dates with the band including Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, following his final upcoming tour with the Who.
In 2001, he played in Alan Parsons' The Beatles tribute show A Walk Down Abbey Road. The show also featured Ann Wilson of Heart, Todd Rundgren, David Pack of Ambrosia, Godfrey Townsend, Steve Luongo and John Beck of It Bites. That year he also played with the Who at the Concert for New York City. He also joined forces again with the John Entwistle Band for an 8-gig tour. This time Chris Clark played keyboards. From January–February 2002, Entwistle played his last concerts with the Who in a handful of dates in England, the last being on 8 February at London's Royal Albert Hall. In late 2002, an expanded 2-CD Left for Live Deluxe was released, highlighting the John Entwistle Band's performances.
Entwistle wrote this on one of his pictures:
Now ... ! I'm still the bass guitarist. If you're reading this bio at a show – don't forget to wave – I'm the one on the left. If you're reading this at an art show – Help support a starving Artist BUY SOMETHING!
Entwistle and Wise had a son, Christopher, in 1972. The marriage ended in divorce and Entwistle later married Maxene Harlow. At the time of his death, his long-term partner was
Lisa Pritchett-Johnson.
Entwistle had undergone a medical examination for insurance purposes before the Who's 2002 tour started. The exam revealed high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Entwistle's authorised biographer Paul Rees has suggested that a more detailed physical examination would have revealed that three of his arteries were blocked and necessitated surgery.
His funeral was held at St Edward's Church in Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, England, on 10 July 2002. His body was cremated and his ashes were buried privately in the grounds of his mansion, Quarwood. A memorial service was held on 24 October at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London. Long time friend and band mate Steve Luongo was invited by The Who and John's family to deliver the eulogy.
Entwistle's huge collection of guitars and basses was auctioned at Sotheby's in London by his son, Christopher, to meet anticipated taxes on his father's estate.
, London]]On Pete Townshend's website, Townshend and Roger Daltrey published a tribute, saying, "The Ox has left the building—we've lost another great friend. Thanks for your support and love. Pete and Roger."
Entwistle's mansion, Quarwood, and some of his personal effects were later sold off to meet the demands of the Inland Revenue; he had worked for the agency from 1962 to 1963 as a tax officer before being demoted to filing clerk, prior to joining the Who.
One aspect of Entwistle's life which emerged after his death came as a surprise even to those closest to him, including the members of the Who. "It wasn't until the day of his funeral that I discovered that he'd spent most of his life as a Freemasonry", said Townshend.
Welsh bassist Pino Palladino, who had previously played on several of Townshend's solo studio albums, took over for Entwistle onstage when the Who resumed their postponed US tour on 1 July 2002 at the Hollywood Bowl. Townshend and Daltrey spoke at length about their reaction to Entwistle's death. Some of their comments can be found on The Who Live in Boston DVD.
On the opening night of their Vapor Trails tour, which began in Hartford, Connecticut on 28 June 2002 (the night after Entwistle's death), Geddy Lee of Rush dedicated the band's performance of the song "Between Sun and Moon" to Entwistle.
Pearl Jam's seventh studio album Riot Act, released in late 2002, was dedicated to Entwistle, among others. Photo
Oasis played a cover version of "My Generation" during their Summer 2002 European Tour as a tribute to Entwistle. Beady Eye's single "The Beat Goes On", from their 2011 album Different Gear, Still Speeding, contains a reference to Entwistle and bandmate Keith Moon, with the lyric: "The Ox and Moon were counting me in, I had to give in".
In some concerts of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' By the Way Tour, such as the gig at Slane Castle in 2003, Flea got on stage wearing a version of the skeleton suit Entwistle wore during the Who's 1970 tour, as a tribute.
The Who's studio recordings seldom did justice to Entwistle's playing, in part because he was better heard in concert, where he and Pete Townshend frequently exchanged roles, with Entwistle providing rapid melodic lines and Townshend anchoring the song with rhythmic chord work. At the same time, Townshend noted that Entwistle provided the true rhythmic timekeeping in the band, while Keith Moon, with his flourishes around the kit, was more like a keyboardist. In 1989, Entwistle pointed out that, by modern standards, "the Who haven't got a proper bass player."Guitar Player's Chris Jisi in 1989
Entwistle also developed what he called a "typewriter" approach to playing the bass. It involved positioning his right hand over the strings so all four fingers could be used to tap percussively on the strings, causing them to strike the fretboard with a distinctive twangy sound. This gave him the ability to play three or four strings at once, or to use several fingers on a single string. It allowed him to create passages that were both percussive and melodic. This method should not be confused with tapping or slapping, and in fact predates these techniques. Modern players such as Ryan Martinie of heavy metal band Mudvayne have used similar techniques. Entwistle can be seen using this technique in Mike Gordon's documentary film, Rising Low (2002). Notable in his left-hand technique was his use of slides, positioning his left hand for octaves, and his use of the Pentatonic scale when playing with the Who.
Entwistle was notorious for the extremely high volume at which he played bass, going so far as to rig pick-ups to each string on his instruments. This led to him developing hearing loss, similar to Townshend. Although not as public about his problems as Townshend, he reputedly had to rely on lip reading to understand speech in his later years. Randy Bachman of Bachman–Turner Overdrive claimed that towards the end of his life, Entwistle mostly played by feeling the rush of air from his giant amp stacks. Randy Bachman's Vinyl Tap Stories, p. 45 Entwistle blamed his hearing loss on using headphones.
Entwistle continues to top 'best ever bass player' polls in musicians' magazines. In 2000, Guitar magazine named him "Bassist of the Millennium" in a readers' poll. J. D. Considine ranked Entwistle No. 9 on his list of "Top 50 Bass Players". He was named the second best rock bassist on Creem Magazine's 1974 Reader Poll Results. In 2011, a Rolling Stone Magazine reader poll selected him as the No. 1 rock bassist of all time.
Entwistle's collection of guitars and basses was auctioned at Sotheby's in May 2003.
Death and legacy
Entwistle died in Room 658 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Paradise, Nevada, on 27 June 2002, one day before the scheduled first show of the Who's 2002 United States tour. He was 57 years old. Entwistle had gone to bed that night with Alycen Rowse, a local stripper and groupie, who awoke the next morning to find Entwistle cold and unresponsive. The Clark County medical examiner determined that his death was due to a heart attack induced by an undetermined amount of cocaine. Entwistle already had severe heart disease and usually smoked 20 cigarettes a day.
Technique
in 1981]]Entwistle's playing technique incorporated fingerstyle, plectrum, tapping, and the use of . He changed his style between songs and even during songs to alter the sound he produced. His fingering technique involved plucking strings very forcefully to produce a trebly, twangy sound. He changed his thumb position from pick-up to the E string and occasionally even positioned his thumb near the pick-up. His plectrum technique involved holding the plectrum between his thumb and forefinger, with the rest of his fingers outstretched for balance.
Influence
Entwistle identified his influences as a combination of his school training on French horn, trumpet, and piano (giving his fingers strength and dexterity). Musicians who influenced him included rock and roll guitarist Duane Eddy, and American soul and R&B bassists such as James Jamerson. In turn, Entwistle has been a considerable influence on the playing styles and sounds used by generations of bassists that have followed him, including Tom Hamilton,Aerosmith (2 June 2011). "Tom Hamilton: Favorite Bass Players". Retrieved 25 February 2020 – via YouTube. Brian Gibson, Geezer Butler, Krist Novoselic, Geddy Lee, Billy Sheehan, Victor Wooten, Tom Petersson, John Myung and Chris Squire.Soocher, Stan: "Squire's bass fire", Circus Weekly, 13 March 1979, 33.
Equipment
Entwistle collaborated with bass guitar manufacturers such as Alembic Inc, Warwick, and Status Graphite.Entwistle, John. Bass Culture: The John Entwistle Guitar Collection. Sanctuary, London 2004, .Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: His bass solo on the "My Generation" single was a Fender Jazz Bass with stock tapewound strings.
Discography
Solo albums
with the Rock
with the John Entwistle Band
(2025). 9780753512173, Virgin Books. ISBN 9780753512173
External links
Categories: 1944 Births, 2002 Deaths, 20th-century English Bass Guitarists, 20th-century English Composers, 20th-century English Male Singers, 20th-century English Singers, Atco Records Artists, English Male Bass Guitarists, British Rhythm And Blues Boom Musicians, Cocaine-related Deaths In Nevada, Decca Records Artists, English Freemasons, English Horn Players, English Male Songwriters, English Rock Bass Guitarists, English Rock Guitarists, English Rock Musicians, English Rock Singers, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award Winners, Musicians From The London Borough Of Hounslow, People Educated At Acton County Grammar School, People From Chiswick, People From Stow-on-the-wold, Polydor Records Artists, Ringo Starr & His All-starr Band Members, The Best Members, The Who Members
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