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Entwistle...Help me understand the appeal

#5
Distinctive style and sound for one. There's a zillion famous bassists out there that if I heard just their bass track it'd be difficult to tell who it was. With Entwistle, his style and tone is so distinct I can tell right away...
 
#6
Part of it is he was a major trend setter, his style and tone set the standard for many rock bassists to come. IIRC he helped to develop the first round wound strings. I love his playing. My Generation was one of the first 'bass solos' I ever got down.
 
#9
The "fuss" is that he took a background foundation instrument, and really explored and pushed it upfront, both in style and tone, to co-lead status. The Who has essentially all lead players, Moonie played drums like a lead, Daltry....lead singer, Townsend, lead guitar, they all meshed so well while totally standing out.

If you're serious with this thread you would do well to educate yourself instead of what appears like dismissal or trolling. The man was a master.

The Real Me
Boris the Spider
Won't Get Fooled Again
I'm one
a Quick One
Amazing Journey / Sparks
My Generation
Behind Blue Eyes
Pinball Wizard
Pictures of Lily...

the list goes on and on. The Ox always strove to hold it down and push it forward. If you don't "get" it after really digging into even a bit of the list of faves mentioned here, then forget it.

The man is a rock bass icon for good reason.
 
#12
Similar to how James Jamerson pushed the limits of what you could play in soul/R&B and influenced countless others who came after him with his melodic lines and that driving thumpy tone of his...Entwistle was very much like this for Rock, with his singular tone, technique and melodic phrasing (and as someone already said, was one of the first to really show what you could do with roundwounds on bass).

Sometimes you have to step out of the modern day bubble and realise that nobody sounded/played like those guys at that point in time.
 
#13
I was never a huge Who fan, though I've come to appreciate them more over the years, but Entwistle was basically the father of roundwound, trebly, lead bass playing. I remember reading that as a youngster, Chris Squire was inspired by Entwistle while attending early Who gigs.
 
#14
A 2011 Rolling Stone reader poll selected him as the #1 rock bassist of all time. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Who in 1990.

The man played fast and lived even faster. He died in a hotel room at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in June 2002. He had gone to bed that night with a stripper/groupie, Alycen Rowse, who woke at 10 am to find Entwistle cold and unresponsive. John E. RIP.
 
#16
It must have been around '75 when I heard Live at Leeds, it still blows me away. One thing you have to remember is context, it was 1969, equipment and technique has come along way since then, the possibilities and role of the bass guitar were just being discovered. You can pretty much thak Entwistle for the use of treble and the concept of lead bass.
chanson said:
Listen to Live at Leeds...you'll get it.
Click to expand...
 
#20
MonkeyBass said:
Notice the OP never came back. I think we've all been trolled.
Click to expand...

He wrote it last night close to midnight EST. It's now 9 hours later. He might still be asleep, or at school (I'm guessing he's younger if he's asking this question). It wasn't worded in a troll-y way.


My vote is for Live at Leeds. Listen to that, and you will understand the power of a fully functioning Death Sta--I mean, Ox.

:bassist:
 

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