Obituary to The Who's 'Ox'

The Who bassist John Entwistle’s body was discovered in Las Vegas’ Hard Rock hotel room on Thursday, 27 June 2002; the 57-year-old musician apparently died of a heart attack, although the cause is to be determined by a post-mortem. The Who were in Vegas preparing to start the North American tour the following day. (The band hasn’t decided what to do about the two-months of live commitments but continuation is unlikely.)

“There were no signs of drugs, alcohol or violence,” said an official. “It looks as though he simply died in his sleep from natural causes.” Entwistle, known as an artist of cartoon portraits of himself and his fellow musicians, was also in town for an exhibition of his work. He's been reportedly writing a novel for the past six years.

The legendary band has been delivered another blow in a career which failed to fully acknowledge their contribution to popular music, i.e. shaping Rock into different moulds and even inspiring punk movement in the UK some 15 years after formation. They had always been overshadowed by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones although have done for rock-music more (some of it not so wise) than The Stones, probably.

John Alec Entwistle was born on 09 October 1944 in Chiswick, London; he grew up and was schooled around the White City/Acton area in the west part of the city. Entwistle knew Pete Townshend from school and both played in a Dixieland band in their teens, with John on trumpet and the future guitar-hero on banjo. They also played together in a rock band but Entwistle left to join Roger Daltrey (a lead guitarist then) in the Detours. When they needed a replacement for a rhythm guitarist Entwistle suggested Townshend; Daltrey left guitar alone and took over the lead vocal, Keith Moon joined on drums, the band transformed into High Numbers but it would be 1964 when they adopted the Mod image, demolish-instrument show finale and The Who name, boasting playing the ‘Maximum R’n’B’.

Their reputation as rebellious voice of youth had already been cemented with their energetic and destructive act and the hits were coming regularly with their fourth release, the generation-defining ‘My Generation’ only reaching No. 2 in October 1965. The band’s songwriting was monopolised by Townshend but Entwistle managed to sneak few in, ‘Boris The Spider’ on the band’s second album ‘A Quick One’ (Dec. 1966) being the best known, and it became his signature-tune/alter-ego for a number of years.

His real nickname was the ‘Ox’ for his impassiveness but under that controlled onstage façade was a creative frustration that led him to be the first Who member to issue solo album, ‘Smash Your Head Against The Wall’ in May 1971 (although there was a compilation of his Who songs some five months earlier, ‘The Ox’). During the next ten years he’d issued another four albums, the last being entitled ‘Too Late The Hero’ (Nov. 1981) aptly and ironically commented on his and the band’s career.

The Who have largely been overlooked in the history of Rock (although Inducted in The Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame) and are usually remembered for wrong reasons: aside demolishing instruments (a very expensive gimmick), Moon’s manic drumming and driving a Rolls into a swimming pool, there is the ‘rock opera’ they ‘invented’ with ‘Tommy’ marking the moment ‘rock-going-intel’. (The album was turned into a movie in 1975, directed by Ken Russell.) To be fair, the long-player that preceded it, ‘A Quick One’, contained a mini-operatic piece in its 10-minute title track that was released shortly before The Beatles’ ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ album.

They’d also inspired the ‘Mop-tops’ to record ‘Helter Skelter’ after The Who claimed to have written the heaviest-song-ever, appeared at both major Festis of the 1960s, the Monterey Pop (where Jimi Hendrix allegedly stole their show!) and Woodstock; for the latter one, they got paid (the only ones/ or one of the very few – depending on whom you are talking with) because they couldn’t fly back home otherwise. The Who’s stage act had cost the band so much that it took them more than a decade from formation to get into the ‘black’. The also were one of the very few bands to have been accepted by the 1970’s punk-rock fraternity and even The Sex Pistols were very proud to embrace ‘Substitute’.

What distinguished The Who was mixing thunderous drumming of Moon with very melodious-but-powerful bassing of ‘The Ox’ with Townshend weaving intricate guitar-lines over it but often was windmilling, firing riffs and smashing guitar to be actually playing. He was helped by Moon and Daltrey who destroyed the rest of the equipment, while Entwistle stood there solid (as a rock), silent and stoically enduring the goings-on. Once I asked him about it and his reply was that “Somebody had to play the melody lines while Pete was windmilling; I had to concentrate on playing bass lines and his parts.”

He also claimed that he could make any band sound like The Who and it is easy to belive him. He wasn’t really a quiet one and argued, with a great sense of humour, that “Everybody else is loud.”

John was a gentle giant; one of the tallest musicians-ever – and with his preferred cowboy boots adding few inches, he really was a tower-of-human – who didn’t hind behind diplomacy. He spoke openly, directly, honestly and never skirting an issue. The way he played that bass…

Ray Manzarek, keyboardist for The Doors, described Entwistle as “One of the great, great Rock’n’Roll bassists of all time. A real genius.”

Oasis’ Noel Gallagher also paid his tribute to the departed bass-boss: “John was one of the great bass players of all time in one of the greatest bands of all time.”

“He did for bass what Jimi Hendrix did for the guitar,” is the conclusion of Steve Loungo who drummed for The Ox’s band for 15 years.

“The Ox has left the building – we’ve lost another great friend,” reads a brief message on the Townshend’s site. “Thank you for all your support.”

The Who, fans and the world of music will forever miss ‘The Ox’…