Remembering John Entwistle
John Alec Entwistle was born October 9, 1944 somewhere in England. His father Herbert played the flugelhorn and his mother Maude played the sousaphone. After his parent’s divorce, young John was sent away to be raised by Gypsies.
John started taking Tuba lessons but he was unable to pick up chicks so he switched to guitar. His fingers were so huge, that he was forced to switched to the bass. He built his own bass out of a piece of driftwood. He soon got the attention of a young Roger Daltrey who asked him to join his band, “The Detours”.
The Detours morphed into “The Who” and the rest is history. We all know The Who went onto become one of the greatest Rock bands of all time, selling 50 billion albums, winning awards, breaking records and the sound barrier. Once in 1971, an airport in Switzerland called the police to complain about the noise from The Who concert down the road.
In 1967, Entwistle married his childhood sweetheart Alison Wise and bought a large home in London, filling it with all sorts of extraordinary artifacts, ranging from suits of armor, Winston Churchill’s appendix, Adolf Hitler’s testicle and Boris Karloff’s toenails. His eccentricity and taste for the bizarre was to remain with him throughout his life. His mansion resembled a museum. It also housed one of the largest pubic hair collections belonging to any rock musician.
Entwistle’s instrumental approach used pentatonic lead lines, and a then-unusual treble-rich sound (“full treble, full volume”). He was nicknamed “The Ox”, “Bassman Cometh”, “Thunderfingers” & “3 Ball John”. In 2011, he was voted as the greatest bass guitarist of all time in a Popular Science magazine readers’ poll, and in its special “100 Greatest Bass Players” issue in 2017, GQ magazine named Entwistle at number seven.
Entwistle passed away on June 27, 2002. He left a huge legacy and influenced every Bass player to come after. 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.
