John Alec Entwistle

[Garrett]

John Entwistle
Oct. 9, 1944 / Jun. 27, 2002

John Entwistle would have been 66 years old today! He was a amazing Bass player. May he rest in peace!

[Chris P.]

After selling and buying my collection gets more and more 'Entwistle', with a Fiesta P, a 4005, a Longhorn, a T-bird, a Buzzard, an Explorer, a Rivoli, ..

[Basvarken]

All you need now is a Fenderbird...

[Highlander]

Sorry Chris, mines not for sale...

RIP John (Enthwistle and Lennon)

Never realised that Entwistle and Lennon shared the same birthdate...

[uwe]

Alas, famous and excellent bass player that he was, he was scarcely influential. Which is a pity. Same applies to Jack Bruce, Paul McCartney, Chris Squire,
Andy Fraser, Jim Lea, Steve Harris, Geddy Lee etc ... I hear almost no influence of theirs in modern top 40 rock music and what is even worse only a very limited influence of theirs even in less commercial market segments. Ok, you'll find a few young prog bands where the bass player has obviously heard Squire and Lee, but name me one bass player in a well-known band that has a noticeable Jack Bruce or JAE influence and is not close to sixty years old?

I think that is hugely deplorable. Guitar heroes like Jimmy Page, Hendrix, EvH, The Edge, Tony Iommi have all left their very audible mark, but bass playing which was liberated in the late sixties and early seventies has been hugely dumbed down and re-caged in modern music. When did you hear the last song on the radio that had a spectacular or at least a memorable bass line? Larry Graham has probably had a more lasting influence on funk and modern RnB than the above bass players combined have had on modern rock and pop.

A crime really.

Rant over!

[Chris P.]

Great Rob!

[uwe]

John Entwistle
Oct. 9, 1944 / Jun. 27, 2002

John Entwistle would have been 66 years old today! He was a amazing Bass player. May he rest in peace!

Case in point: What does this type pf bass solo have to do with most of what goes on bass-playing-wise in todays pop music? Zilch. 

That said and with all due respect: JAE is incredibly fast, but it's largely all pentatonic or - even less melodic - chromatic runs. He doesn't keep time in quite a few places. The sound is abrasive and without much bottom (due to the speed with which he plays a bassier sound wouldn't work, Stanley Clarke has the same issue when he plays that fast). I venture forth the argument that if a guitar player played the same type of solo note for note one octave higher and it was posted here, he would meet some derision.

I like John's (even solo) playing within songs (and he has a sense of melody and harmony as his horn arrangements show), but his bass solos of the above type appear adolescent and born out of frustration (along the lines of "I might not write the songs here, but I sure am the fastest instrumentalist of the group"). It sounds gimmicky and without emotion, a bass athlete. 

[nofi]

finally, i agree 100%.

[lowend1]

The reason we hear so little of the abovementioned players' influence is that by and large, bass became an undervalued instrument during the 80s and 90s leaving a huge hole in time. The advent of synth bass, sampling etc., pretty much emasculated it in pop music. The players that did flourish were hardly riff-happy rockers, with the exception of Billy Sheehan and Steve Harris.

[Lefty SSB]

I enjoyed the hard-to-find "Bass Guitar Master Class with John Entwhistle" VHS this summer (from Hot Licks). The man had crazy long fingers & could use them like no other! Saw the book of his "collection" too - geesh! Obsess much? Lol. I bet they could continue to sell his entire collection for the next 50 years at one instrument per day! I'd never look right with a Buzzard, but he sure did.
Didn't realize he & Lennon had the same b-day either. Rad!

[Freuds_Cat]

Case in point: What does this type pf bass solo have to do with most of what goes on bass-playing-wise in todays pop music? Zilch. 

That said and with all due respect: JAE is incredibly fast, but it's largely all pentatonic or - even less melodic - chromatic runs. He doesn't keep time in quite a few places. The sound is abrasive and without much bottom (due to the speed with which he plays a bassier sound wouldn't work, Stanley Clarke has the same issue when he plays that fast). I venture forth the argument that if a guitar player played the same type of solo note for note one octave higher and it was posted here, he would meet some derision.

I like John's (even solo) playing within songs (and he has a sense of melody and harmony as his horn arrangements show), but his bass solos of the above type appear adolescent and born out of frustration (along the lines of "I might not write the songs here, but I sure am the fastest instrumentalist of the group"). It sounds gimmicky and without emotion, a bass athlete. 

I very rarely disagree with your opinions Uwe and from a stricktly analytical perspective I guess there are certain valid points in your comments above.
But,   .........

I dont know about JAE but when I write a bassline I dont (or cant) analyse my playing to the extent that experts are able to years after the recording has been done. Regarding Pentatonic/chromatic lines, I think the whole thing of critiquing any player based upon their lack of the use of modes and more complicated scales (Jazz?) Is akin to critisising Robert Johnson for not using the Phrygian mode enough in his solo's.

Just sayin'   

[uwe]

Frank Zappa, Eric Clapton, Brian May and Jack Bruce are all largely pentatonic players, I'd never criticize them for that (they are all melodic), much less a blues giant like Robert Johnson where I am not even worthy. JAE could play a wonderfully melodic bass solo based on pentatonic scales I'm sure. And as his horn arrangements and bass runs within the music show, he knows the difference between a major and a minor run. He does a wonderfully melodic bass solo on a Who by Numbers track which is often falsely credited to Townshend. Yet when he steps out for one of his "all by himself solos", all he does/did is that relentless, overtly techncal shredding. That is a waste of his huge talent and we wouldn't let a guitarist get away with it here.

I would prefer to hear JAE soloing with PT delivering harmony chords in the back. It escapes me why bass players do that so seldomly. Same applies to drummers. Having the band drop out for a bass or drum solo tends to let the technical aspects of whatever solo that follows become too dominant.

But my point wasn't to knock JAE but the fact that his playing hasn't really left an imprint with most bass players and can hardly be heard in music today. He deserves better, shredding excesses or not.

[ack1961]

I can watch him run over strings all day long...brings a smile to my face.

I love his playing and he was one of several bassists who was able (for me) to finally lift the bass from the depths of the studio recordings and wake me up.
Graham Maby, Gary Thain, Roger Glover & Chris Squire, Wetton, etc....these guys (and their sound engineers/producers) really boosted pop/rock music by bringing the bass into prominence. I guess certain types of music and/or certain bassists just impact different listeners in different ways.

Hell, there are many folks who absolutely love Michael Anthony's bass solos...now, I know none of you want me to post videos of that.

[birdie]

I agree with Uwe wholeheartedly about the bass being so often just left to hang in an empty sonic space. Horn players, guitars, keys, you name it, they will have this rhythmic and harmonic foundation over which they can build and allow them to play in context. In my experience, few things empty out a room quicker than a "solo" bass solo.
Jaco et all are excluded from the above, although they don't appeal to such a wide audience, sadly.

[patman]

In jazz, it is customary for the bassist to blow over the changes...

Don't know why the rock "bass solo" came to mean meaningless wanking with the drums, rather than a well contructed solo over the changes.

Listen to Scott LaFaro on old Bill Evans records.