If a rock band were a human being, and the members were different parts of that individual, clearly songwriter-guitarist Pete Townshend would be the Who's brain and singer Roger Daltrey its voice. Until his death in 1978 from a drug overdose, drummer Keith Moon was the legs on which the group moved.

But what of the enigmatic John Entwistle?

The tall, bearded bassist who typically stands motionless onstage, nonchalantly peeling off astonishingly unconventional parts that would challenge many a lead guitarist to duplicate, represents the Who's central nervous system, without whose complex yet cohesive playing everything else would collapse on the floor in a flailing heap.

He's widely regarded as one of the most accomplished bassists in all of rock—one who helped give the instrument a place of prominence alongside the lead guitar. Yet his profile in the Who was long overshadowed by the showier stage antics of the windmill-style guitar-thrashing and smashing Townshend, the microphone-twirling Daltrey and the drum-kit-bashing Moon.

Entwistle is secure with his place as the emotional and musical anchor, though, he says, "it took a long time to get to that space." Readers of Total Guitar magazine recently voted him "Bassist of the Millennium," an accolade he accepts with pride.

His approach to the bass "came from a need to have a much clearer bass sound." Early on, Entwistle recalls, "our manager, Kit Lambert, said, 'The bass sounds like a big blur—I can't hear the notes you're playing.' To stop that, I just turned the treble up. It all started there. . .

"I'd always played fast lead figures on the bass, and once you turn the treble up you can hear them," he says. "It's much harder to play with the treble up than without it. You can get away with murder on the bass with the treble down."

Entwistle has amassed a collection of hundreds of basses over the years—he doesn't know exactly how many he owns—first out of interest as a collector, later to create an arsenal to have at his disposal in the studio depending on what was called for.

"I have several stage basses I rely on and use all the time . . . one eight-string and three four-strings," he says. "But my favorite is the one I used to record 'Tommy' and 'Live at Leeds': It's called 'Frankenstein,' because I took parts of five smashed basses and stitched together one good one. I always seem to go back to that one."

—RANDY LEWIS

WHO: Low-Key Side Man Maintains a Solo Career

Continued from B8

Because of the long breaks between Who albums and tours historically, Entwistle also has maintained a solo career, which began with his 1971 album "Smash Your Head Against the Wall" and has continued most recently with "Left for Live," a 1999 album documenting his quasi-disastrous U.S. solo tour the previous year.

"It was a bit of an ordeal," he says. "We had agent problems in the middle of it—they didn't come through with a lot of the dates they'd promised. So because there were a lot of holes to fill, we got the idea to play in tiny little places just to keep playing, so we wouldn't get cold. That kind of thing costs money, but it was worth it."

The album includes Entwistle's versions of such Who staples as "The Real Me," "Shakin' All Over" and "Young Man Blues," along with such Entwistle compositions as "905," "Had Enough" and "Too Late the Hero," plus several he wrote with his John Entwistle Band collaborator Steve Luongo.

The solo efforts aren't simply to keep him from twiddling his thumbs between Who projects.

"I needed to play my own music," says Entwistle, who also wrote Who favorites including, "My Wife" from "Who's Next" and "Boris the Spider" from "Happy Jack."

"The Who only play one or two of my songs [per concert or album]. I've discovered a lot of people out there want to hear me, and there are a lot of Entwistle solo fans who don't even like the Who. I'm playing for them for that reason," he says, adding with a chuckle, "I'm certainly not playing [solo shows] for the money."

■ The Who, Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, 8808 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine. 8 tonight. $31.50-146.50. (949) 855-6111. Also Thursday, San Diego Sports Arena, 3500 Sports Arena Blvd. 7:30 p.m. $25 to $150. (619) 224-4171.