MUSIC

For now, solo the only way to go for Entwistle

By Roger Catlin

The Hartford Courant

When it came time for The Who to argue about whether to tour, one member was always ready to go.

"I liked recording, but it wasn't my idea of what rock 'n' roll was all about," says John Entwistle, the band's co-founder and bass guitarist.

"I like to go out there and play."

So when The Who played its final tour in 1982 and its 30th anniversary really, really final tour in 1989 (Entwistle says there will be no further Who tours "in the foreseeable future"), the bassist known as the Ox found ways to continue touring.

He toured with former Who lead singer Roger Daltrey in 1994, was a member of Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band last summer, and was about to embark on another half-a-Who tour with Daltrey this year in Germany, South America and Australia. "But when Australia fell through, I thought I'd go out and tour myself."

Entwistle's first solo tour in eight years began this week in Connecticut. It comes as The Who's original albums are being reissued in newly remastered editions with extra tracks, and Entwistle's own five albums are being readied for reissue, beginning with a 20-track best-of on Rhino.

"There seems to be a resurgence of my solo stuff," Entwistle, 51, says from New York. "I decided to remix about 21 songs from my solo albums.

So many people had been asking where they could get them — and they've never been out on CD."

Entwistle was the first of the original Who to release a solo album, in 1971.

"Smash Your Head Against the Wall" was a reaction in part to the frustration he had in getting his own material on Who albums.

Though tracks like his "Boris the Spider" and "Whiskey Man" had been highlights of Who albums, Entwistle shared a similar fate as that of George Harrison of the Beatles and Dave Davies of the Kinks — being overshadowed by the dominant songwriters in the band (in Entwistle's case, Pete Townshend).

Some of Entwistle's material — which showed a dark humor in comparison to Townshend's optimism — ended up being centerpieces of Who concerts anyway, such as "Heaven and Hell" and "My Wife" from "Who's Next."

If his writing wasn't always appreciated by the band, his groundbreaking bass-playing was. Because the explosive sounds of The Who were carried by three instruments, with Townshend playing a lot of rhythm guitar, many of the lead parts would fall to Entwistle's distinctive playing.

His furious playing wasn't always noticed. "It was frustrating in a way," he says. "The stuff I was playing people thought was Pete."

Entwistle's task wasn't made easier by working with Keith Moon, the most explosive drummer in rock.

"It wasn't difficult," he says, "But it was tricky sometimes. When we started, it was way before monitors and stuff like that. Sometimes I couldn't actually hear him very well. I'd have to look and see what he was doing."

Entwistle's life isn't all music. He's putting on a traveling art show of cartoons he has drawn of rock figures; it follows a lithograph of the cover he drew for "The Who by Numbers" album.

He's also busy on the first of what will be three books on the history of The Who.

"It's the funny stories that happened to us," he says. "It's more like a novel than a reference work." The first chapter, due next year, ends at the close of The Who's legendary 1967 U.S. tour with Herman's Hermits, on Moon's 21st birthday, during which a limousine somehow ended up at the bottom of a swimming pool and the band was forever banned from Holiday Inns worldwide.

"I've done most of the research, but it's hard," Entwistle says. "I have to be in a good mood to write it. And one phone call can put me in a bad mood."