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John Entwistle
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
John Entwistle was an English bassist, singer and songwriter, born in Hammersmith, London, in 1944. His father played trumpet and his mother piano. He had piano lessons, switched to trumpet at school and played horn in a youth orchestra. With his school friend Pete Townshend he played in a small jazz band. Because he could not hear his trumpet in a rock band, he chose the bass guitar, partly because of Duane Eddy's low guitar sound. He built his first bass himself.
Music and breakthrough
Roger Daltrey asked Entwistle to be the bassist in his band The Detours, and Entwistle made sure that Townshend joined too. With drummer Keith Moon the group became The Who. On stage Townshend and Moon jumped around and smashed their instruments, while Entwistle stood still. To hear himself above the din, he was one of the first to use large stacks of Marshall amplifiers. He wrote a few songs on almost every Who album, such as Boris the Spider, and played horn and trumpet on records such as Tommy. In 1971 he was the first member of the band with a solo album, Smash Your Head Against the Wall.
Influence
Entwistle was the only member of The Who with a musical education. His nicknames were The Ox and Thunderfingers. He played the bass not as background, but as a lead instrument, with fast melodic lines and a sharp, high sound at full volume. In this way he became a model for generations of rock bassists. He died in 2002.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 1971Smash Your Head Against the Wall
- 1972Whistle Rymes
- 1973Rigor Mortis Sets In
- 1975Mad Dog
- 1981Too Late the Hero
- 1996The Rock
- 2006Edge of the World
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 2: Youth Cultures 1950-1980NL Reader