The Ox

February 24, 2020
In this powerful biography, Rees (Robert Plant: A Life) makes a strong argument that The Who’s John Entwistle (1944–2002), the so-called “Quiet One,” was just as self-destructive as he was stoic. Sandwiched in between the towering personalities of his bandmates—guitar-windmilling Pete Townshend, strutting frontman Roger Daltry, and wild drummer Keith Moon—bassist John Entwistle was the steady hand on the tiller. Drawing on Entwistle’s unfinished memoir, Rees begins with a workmanlike march through the band’s early history in the late 1960s, but things liven up as the band gains massive popularity with its early 1970s American tours. Onstage, Entwistle was the calm “Ox,” but offstage his life was a riot of booze, cocaine, infidelity, and manic shopping sprees (he had a fleet of cars but never learned to drive), and he often paired himself with the fun but unhinged Moon, whom he considered “a little brother.” The Who broke up in 1983, and Rees describes Entwistle’s reclusiveness and decline in health that followed (“The Who had made him, and now The Who was gone”) until his death of a heart attack in a Nevada Hard Rock Hotel bedroom with a stripper by his side. Fans of The Who wanting insight into the enigmatic band member need look no further.

March 6, 2020

Bass players are the most wooden, boring, and decidedly unsexy musicians on any rock stage--at least according to common wisdom. This biography of The Who's John Entwistle demonstrates that there are sometimes germs of truth at the core of clich�s. Entwistle was indeed known for playing his bass while standing stock still, stage right, and nearly expressionless while his bandmates unleashed kinetic mayhem around him. Beyond that, stereotypes fail. Rees (Robert Plant: A Life) reveals that Entwistle was an enigmatic character who led a fairly domestic married life when home, but a quintessential rock star's life while touring. Nicknamed "the Ox" for his ability to consume large amounts of alcohol--and sometimes drugs--without betraying signs of intoxication, the seemingly quiet, gentlemanly Entwistle--aided by his more sloppy and notorious partner-in-crime, drummer Keith Moon-- typically engineered the legendary destructive after-parties, orgies often shunned by bandmates Pete Townsend and Roger Daltry. Entwistle was also an extremely flamboyant shopaholic and collector of curiosities such as antique weaponry and medical mannequins, all of which he loved to show off. VERDICT Solidly researched and written, and fleshed out with the recollections of Entwistle's son, Chris, this biography of one of the genre's finest bass players and most intriguing personalities will strike a chord with serious fans of classic rock.--Jeffrey Hastings, Howell Carnegie Dist. Lib, MI

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