By the age of twelve, John Entwistle was into playing in school bands and fortunately he met a fellow student who played the banjo. This banjo-strumming, fellow student was Pete Townshend. Eventually they became friends and attended gigs by local popular bands. They then eventually formed a band of their own with other local lads. John had at first played brass in the band, but was finding himself being over powered by the rest of the guys and their guitars. John's idea was this- play a guitar, but not an electric one! No, something easy... with less strings... a bass! Sadly, John later confessess that the bass ended up being as hard, if not harder than the electeric guitar... In anycase, we're glad he did this. One day, he was carrying his bass home with his then girlfriend, Alison lugging his amp and someone by the name of Roger Daltrey apporached them~
"I remember Roger said, 'I hear you play the bass' which I thought was funny considering I was carrying one without a case!" ~John Entwistle
Evevtually this lead (with a few name changes and a new drummer) to The Who. A band in which John would step back and allow Pete to become the unspoken leader of.
"If Pete says he can do it today, he's lying of course. But if we pretend to believe him, he'll be certain to be able to do it next week."~ John E.
On stage, John in infamous for simply standing there and playing vigorously on his bass, earning nicknames such as~ The Ox, Thunder Fingers, and Rigor Mortis.
"I started getting paranoid because the girls in front weren't screaming out my name, so I figured 'Well, I'll try moving'. So I tried moving and they screamed my name out, so I thought to myself 'Well, now I know. I'll stop moving again'. So I stopped moving. Once I knew they'd scream at me if I started moving, it didn't matter anymore. "~ John E.
It became clear that the two extrems in the group would become best friends. John Entwistle and Keith Moon did in fact become best friends and often shared a room while on the road. Of course, the room would have something blown up by the end of the trip, but that was ok. The toilet didn't matter that much. In anycase, the rythme section of the band stuck it out together.
"To be a bass player, you have to think like a drummer, anyway. I mean, if you play a run off the top of your head that matches what the drummer just played off the top of his head, you're going to sound like a couple of geniuses." ~John Entwistle |
