"Most of the time," explains drummer Steve Luongo, "I look out from behind my kit and see my friend playing bass-but every so often I'll glance his way and think to myself, Holy cow! That's the bass player from the Who!" This dichotomy sums up the career of John Entwistle. On one hand, he's a bonafide member of rock & roll royalty, a pioneering bass virtuoso in one of the genre's most legendary bands. On the other, he's a soft-spoken, down-to-earth chap who makes regular appearances at NAMM-show jam sessions and who has toured with such less-than-legendary bands as Luongo's Rat Race Choir. All because, more than anything else, he loves to play.
John Alec Entwistle's initial desire to play was instilled by the sounds of the family radio in the West London town of Acton. He consented to piano lessons at age six and moved on to trumpet and French horn by the time he was 12. Then came rock & roll, and with it, an aural and visual attraction to the bass guitar. Accustomed to being in the spotlight on horn, Entwistle soon scoffed at his cumbersome new instrument's supportive role and vowed to use his piano dexterity and brass-borne melodic sense to forge his own concept. Playing along with records by Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Buddy Holly, the Ventures, the Shadows, and especially Duane Eddy, John further shaped what was becoming a highly guitaristic approach. (Rarely has the term "bass guitarist" been more aptly applied.) The final piece of the puzzle didn't fall into place until several years later, when he began to refine his style yet again to blend with the bombastic drumming of Keith Moon, the versatile guitar work of schoolmate Pete Townshend, and the vigorous vocals of Roger Daltrey. During a run-through of the Who's first hit single, "I Can't Explain," in an empty concert hall, the group's manager told John, "It's all very well that you play so fast, but I can't hear the notes in the back. Why don't you add a bit of treble?"
What followed were historic bass-in-your-face solos on such tracks as "My Generation" (transcribed in April '95), "Call Me Lightning," "The Real Me," "Dreaming from the Waist," and "Success Story," along with his development of roundwound strings with the Rotosound company. Alas, it took years for recording engineers, fearful of adding volume and high-end frequencies to the bass track, to catch up. Although Tommy and Quadrophenia began to turn people's heads around bass-wise, it wasn't until the late-'70s release of Who Are You? that "The Ox," as he had become known, was truly able to present his sound. As a result, fans finally felt the full force of his techniques: standard fingerstyle and pick playing, a technique he calls "crab-claws," backhanded chords, string pops and smacks, harmonics, and left-hand hammer-ons. Then there's his impressive "typewriter technique," a forerunner of today's bass tapping, in which he strikes the strings at the base of the neck with his four right-hand fingertips in quick, typewriter-like motions, enabling him to play rapid triplets and various other drum-like devices.
Inspired by penning such Who hits as "My Wife," "Boris the Spider," and "Happy Jack," Entwistle parlayed the band's frequent downtime into five solo albums, beginning with 1972's Smash Your Head Against the Wall. By the conclusion of his fifth album, 1982's excellent Too Late the Hero, John had covered a vast amount of musical terrain. Memorable stopping points included the "Boris"-sequel "My Size," a tongue-in-cheek cover of the doo-wop classic "Mr. Bassman," the horn-driven funk of "I Wonder," the twisted humor of "Peg Leg Peggy," the pre-Phil Collins pop of "Too Late the Hero," and a pair of wicked bass anthems, "Talk Dirty" and "Dancing Master" (the latter a delicious attack on disco). Unfortunately, John's multi-directional music, coupled with his indecisiveness over whether to front the band vocally or hire a singer and focus on his bass antics, prevented him from sustaining a solo-career groove, even after the Who's 1983 farewell tour.
Following a prolonged rest period, in 1986 Entwistle hit the studio to record his sixth solo album, the unreleased The Rock. A short time later came the Rat Race Choir tour (which, fittingly, occurred after he jammed with the New York-based group at a Chicago NAMM show), after which the John Entwistle Band made a few appearances in support of The Rock's anticipated but postponed release. The Who then beckoned with a huge 25th anniversary reunion tour in 1989. Since then, John's been biding his time for another solo go 'round by joining the road shows of Ringo Starr and Roger Daltrey as well as preparing for his art tour, which will feature cartoon lithographs of rock stars drawn in different periods of world history. Now, at last-with a break in his schedule and a deal with Rhino Records to release a compilation disc drawn from his five solo albums-"Thunderfingers" (as he's also known) has returned. With the help of rhythm section-mate Luongo, Entwistle lined up a U.S. club run that began in late January. The state-of-the-art Left For Dead tour features limited-edition copies of The Rock and daily access on the World Wide Web, among other goodies. We spoke to John about these and other developments as he was preparing to come to New York and begin rehearsals.
How did the Left For Dead tour come about?
I'd been wanting to do a small-scale club tour where I could actually see my audience face to face, rather than from behind a barrier 100 meters away. Steve Luongo, whom I met when I toured with Rat Race Choir and who played drums on the 1988 John Entwistle Band tour, had been after me to put something together. Finally, when the South American leg of Roger Daltrey's tour was canceled, I pushed back my art tour and made the commitment. Steve then began coordinating everything.[Ed. Note: Entwistle had been participating in Daltrey's The Music of Peter Townshend & the Who tour; see November '94.]
You've been using the Internet to help promote the tour. What are the advantages of that?
In addition to announcing the tour to fans and enlisting corporate support through the World Wide Web, Steve has developed what he calls a "Virtual Entourage." Fans will be able to log on every day on a local, personal level as we go from town to town. There will be live chats with the band, images and text to download, and audio clips, thanks to the involvement of Cakewalk Music Software. One of the immediate benefits has been the amount of fan response. I've been pleasantly surprised to see how many people of all ages know my solo records and want to hear my music, as opposed to a set of Who tunes.
Who's in your touring band?
Steve, myself, Godfrey Townsend-no relation!-and Alan St. Jon. Godfrey is a guitarist with whom Steve and I have jammed the last few times I've been in New York. Steve also recommended Alan, who's best known for his keyboard work with Billy Squier. I'm really excited about playing with these guys. We're going to share the vocal duties as well; Steve and I will sing my solo stuff, Godfrey will cover the Who tunes, and Alan will do the songs from The Rock.
We've picked out a wide range of material to learn. In fact, we'll probably end up doing medleys of different songs, because there's so much to cover. I like to wing it, too, which means that even after we've rehearsed, we'll be taking a sort of spontaneous, Live at Leeds approach to whatever we play. I want to focus on my bass playing, so the Who songs will be things like "My Wife," "Boris the Spider," "The Real Me," "My Generation," "Success Story," "Won't Get Fooled Again," and some of my solo tunes, such as "Dancing Master," "Talk Dirty," "Love Is a Heart Attack," "Peg Leg Peggy," and "My Size." Also, it would be nice to add a bass solo in a song that doesn't usually have one, as I did on the last Who tour with "Shakin' All Over."
You recently signed a deal with Rhino Records to release a 20-track compilation disc from your five solo albums. When will that be available?
It should be out in the spring. Making the selections was very difficult; instead of compiling a "best of" collection or picking the "hits," we chose songs from all the albums that we felt fit together well in one package. Rhino is also going to re-release each individual album, so they'll all be available on CD.
Did you remix the songs or redo any of the bass parts?
We remixed the tracks, but there was no need to redo any of the bass parts or change the tone, because it sounded good when we got it up on the tape machine. Unfortunately, that was never the case with the Who. In most instances my true bass sound, with all the treble frequencies, was never printed to begin with. The live tapes are a bit better, because you can push up my vocal mike and get the stage bass sound. For the compilation we just added a little more "fairy dust" to the whole thing. I did put on a solo I'd always wanted in "Drowning" [from Mad Dog]; I used a Chandler six-string baritone guitar and played a lot of high whammy-bar stuff.
How do you feel about your solo albums?
I like them all. The first one, Smash Your Head Against the Wall, was a lot of fun, and I love the last one, Too Late the Hero, because it's very well produced. In between, Rigor Mortis Sets In and Mad Dog were good, straight rock & roll albums. The one I've got the most softness for is my second album, Whistle Rhymes; I was going in a very strange direction then, writing most of the songs at about five in the morning after feeding my infant son.
To whom do you attribute your penchant for black humor?
Probably my grandfather. He used to take me to see some pretty strange movies, and we would often get tossed out of the theater for throwing popcorn at people in front of us. When my uncle died of cancer-he used to smoke 200 cigarettes a day-we went to the cremation, and my grandfather looked up at the chimney and said, "The old bastard is still smoking!" I guess it came from that. I saw an exorbitant amount of horror movies before I was 14. One of the reasons I was attracted to the bass guitar was that I liked its sort of sinister, low drone. When I started writing, my first two songs were "Boris the Spider" and "Whiskey Man."
Were your solo albums an effort to stay busy in between the Who's tours and recordings, or were you responding to a creative need the band didn't fulfill?
Both, I suppose. The Who got me into writing songs, and I couldn't stop. But there was no place to put them all. At one point I had ten tunes, so I made Smash Your Head Against the Wall. It went on like that. I figured I'd keep writing songs and use the leftovers for my solo albums. The problem came in performing them live; back then, I was often writing the bass parts first and then the vocal parts, which made them difficult to play together. I had to either design a song with a bass line I could play and sing at the same time, or have someone else sing.
Compositionally, you got to explore some new territory.
The one thing I hate in a piece of music is knowing what's going to happen next. I like writing chords that no one expects; I just sense where the harmony is supposed to resolve, and then I go somewhere else instead that feels good. The first weird progression I wrote was "Heaven and Hell." [Ed. Note: "Heaven and Hell" was released as the B-side of "Summertime Blues" from Live at Leeds.] I was the first person to use that [I-bVI-IV-I] progression in rock & roll, and a hundred people have had hits with it since!
What about lyrics?
Townshend once told me I use up about ten song ideas in one tune; he said he could get a whole bunch of songs from the first four lines of one of mine. I like finding new words you don't expect, just as I do with the harmony. Lyrics, though, are much more difficult for me to write than music. It once took me three days to find something that rhymed with "Napoleon"; I finally woke up in the middle of the night and screamed out, "DeLorean!"
The Rock will be a key part of your upcoming shows.
That's right. For now, it will be available as a limited-edition CD, which includes my artwork, only to the people who attend our concerts. We remixed one song, but the rest of it is as is-although we remastered it to bring out more low-end warmth. I used my Warwick Buzzard basses and recorded them by miking the top end and bottom end of my rig. The album also has Henry Small on lead vocals and Mark Adams on guitar. [Ed. Note: Mark Adams is now known as Devon Powers.] They wrote half the tracks together. Gene Bloch provided additional guitars, and Zak Starkey played drums.
Your bass approach is interesting throughout; rather than consisting of lead lines or fills thrown in between support parts, the bass often provides the central themes.
On The Rock I really concentrated on getting the bass out front without taking over everything. When we remixed, we even pulled back the bass some and re-EQed it to get more presence. I'm proud of it; I didn't play anything mind-blowing, yet the bass has a key role. Nearly all of my heavy riff songs over the years have been written on 4-string or 8-string bass, including several tracks on this album. Most of the time, though, I write on piano or synth.
If "Last Song" is your nod to the Who, it speaks volumes about your contribution to their overall sound.
Obviously, that's difficult for me to comment on, although I'm confident about my contribution to the Who's sound. Let's just say I damn well know I can make any band sound like the Who! [Laughs.] That track is my anthem song; what I like about it is that it repeats only once. It's always developing, almost like classical music.
Tracks like "Susie" and "Billie," and some of your older songs, like "I Wonder" and "What Kind of People Are They?," have a prominent R&B influence-especially in the bass.
I've always been a fan of early R&B, which I grew up with, right through Motown and James Brown. I was honored to contribute to the James Jamerson project, Standing in the Shadows of Motown [Hal Leonard]. In truth, it's not the style of bass playing that matters-it's the style of the music, and that's the way you play bass if you're playing that style of music. But I would never profess to be an R&B bassist, just as I don't play funk in the same manner as a traditional thumb-slapper. I play my interpretation of the style-although, in some ways, I suppose my sound and style could have had an influence on that idiom.
My favorite bass performance is on "Too Much, Too Soon," because you combine powerful bottom-end riffs with a melodic fretless solo in the bridge.
That was my Warwick Buzzard fretless through a harmonizer. We wanted some kind of brass or euphonium solo in the bridge, and instead we tried to get that effect with the bass. A lot of my high bass parts, for instance on Tommy and Quadrophenia, are based on my French horn background; the bottom-end twang comes from my Duane Eddy/Gene Vincent roots.
Do you feel as though you're still growing as a bassist?
Generally, yes, but recently I haven't had the proper vehicle to grow. Touring with Roger and Ringo was sort of a step back, although I had some fun playing straight bass. I like to prove I can do it, but eventually I get bored with it; it makes me itch for the other things I can do. I would say the last time I felt growth as a player was when I did my instructional audio tape [The Master Series: John Entwistle, Hot Licks], which I like better than my instructional video. That got me to examine my technique closely, and in turn I developed some new techniques. The whole process taught me a lot about my playing.
Do you listen to contemporary rock & roll and other bass players?
Not enough. My girlfriend handles the programming, and I sometimes hear bands I like, but I can never remember their names. I'd like to hear some new bass players, too, for inspiration. One thing I've noticed is that what's being called "alternative rock" isn't very alternative, and it's not particularly well played, either. I don't mean to sound critical, because when I was that age my playing was at that stage, too. The only difference is that I wasn't already famous.
What else inspires your music?
The film Fantasia changed both my and Townshend's outlook on music. I had already appreciated classical, but it's incredible to see it actually tell a story through works like Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain. We did an extended version of "Boris the Spider" on Roger's tour where I incorporated bits of both of those pieces, as well as the theme from Jaws.
Do you think your writing will evolve into film or orchestral music?
After the tours, I'm going to have to concentrate on doing another record. But to tell you the truth, the last few times I've written in my studio it has been instrumental music, so I could move in that direction. Right now, though, I plan on being in "play" mode for a while.