Search - John Entwistle :: So Who's the Bass Player: The Ox Anthology

Grab bag of thunder

T. Elwin | Arlington, VA United States | 05/26/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"John Entwistle is my biggest musical influence, as a bass player and musician. As a song-writer he is wry and deadpan, at times musically and lyrically brilliant, but with an equal amount of just plain awful songs. This collection is worth "Bogeyman", alone. "Bogeyman", "I Wonder", and much on disc 1 are solid. It is the mid-to-late 80s and 90s work that someone needed to talk John Entwistle out of.



I have seen him and his solo bands many times and realize his desire for heavy-metal/hollywood-hair band music styles, but hearing the results are painful, embarrassing, and, I hope, forgettable.



This could be a 5-star rating if it was a complimentary cull from his writing with The Who: "905", "You", "When I Was a Boy", "I've Been Away" are all fantastic examples of Entwistle compositions. I guess he needed the wisdom of Daltrey, Townshend, and Moon to temper and hone his songs to greater brilliance. Competing egos tend to have a positive influence on your own inability to view yourself with clear eyes. I will caveat that by also saying I believe there is nothing a solo Beatle did, with any consistency, that holds a candle to the combined effort of The Beatles.



Grab Entwistle's Whistle Rhymes album. That is an Entwistle solo album of track-to-track brilliance. Short of that, pick and choose all his songs written with The Who and some nuggets from his solo work and then you will discover a gifted, wry musician - make sure it includes "When I Was a Boy"."

Excelent!!! The Who s' Bass Player best colection of songs!!

luco | Panama | 10/27/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"John Entwistle is part of a number of great musicians and authors relegated to remain under the shadow of other very talented member of his band. That club is called: "the quiet ones" and among its members are George Harrison (the Beatles), Dave Davies (the Kinks), John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), Bill Wyman (Rolling Stones), Jack Bruce (Cream), Tony Banks, Anthony Phillips & Steve Hackett (Genesis), Chick Churchill (Ten Years After), Greg Rolie (Santana), the late Tom Fogerty (Credence Clearwater Revival)and many many others. This is an excelent place to start to know his solo music and includes songs from all his solo cds to date including the little unknown "Flash Fearless" cd and even 3 new songs with Keith Moon on it. Still some excelent solo songs are missing, particularly from "Wistle Rymes" his best solo cd ever and maybe the best cd ever recorded from a member of the Who. Also there are no songs from his concerts with Ringo Starr (see Ringo s cds), his cd with Steve Hackett (Wind and the Willows), his recordings with the Strawbs guitar player Steve Lambert and other live recordings. Even with that this is an excelent colection of songs from The Who s bass player and one of rock masters."

Buy his first two albums.

H. E. Fernau | NYC, NY | 07/14/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This collection makes it very clear how unecessary anything in his solo catalogue but 'Smash Your Head Against The Wall' and 'Whistle Rymes' are. His first two albums are dark, clever and clearly were comprised of material he'd had brooding inside for quite some time.



Frankly I find any of the tracks on which Entwistle himself doesnt sing on, and there are a few in this collection, utterly pointless. The CD features some live cuts as well, which are forgettable, though it should be noted this is the only time 905 was performed live.



The only saving grace for the second disc is Bogeyman, featuring a 'Who Are You' era Keith Moon on drums and simple bass and synth, making it a stripped-down treasure for Who and Entwistle fans alike.



So go buy his first two albums and hunt down 'Bogeyman' by some other means."