{"id":24468,"date":"2023-01-27T05:30:38","date_gmt":"2023-01-27T10:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=24468"},"modified":"2022-12-09T11:36:40","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T16:36:40","slug":"take-5-john-entwistle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/27\/take-5-john-entwistle\/","title":{"rendered":"Take 5: John Entwistle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As critic John Swenson astutely observed in the 1979 edition of <i>The Rolling Stone Record Guide<\/i>, bassist John Entwistle \u201chad the misfortune to be a good songwriter in a group (The Who) with a great one.\u201d Here are five standout tunes from the pen of John Entwistle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<b>Heaven and Hell\u201d<\/b> \u2013 The Who recorded this Entwistle track in 1970 for BBC radio, and subsequently released it as a B-side of \u201cSummertime Blues,\u201d a live cut from <i>The Who Live at Leeds<\/i>. \u201cHeaven and Hell\u201d was a mainstay of the band\u2019s live set for some time; The Who opened their Woodstock set with the song.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BxIMnSb8kf8\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<b>Success Story\u201d<\/b> \u2013 John Entwistle\u2019s acerbic humor and storytelling skills come together perfectly for this superb track included on 1975\u2019s <i>The Who by Numbers<\/i>. An amusing music video clip made for the song would be included in the motion picture documentary <i>The Kids Are Alright<\/i>, released in 1979.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GMMILbi3LOo\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<b>Cell Number 7\u201d<\/b> \u2013 The four members of The Who found themselves in a Montreal, Canada jail cell in 1973; Entwistle wrote this witty reminiscence of the experience for 1975\u2019s <i>Mad Dog<\/i>, his fourth solo album. The rock and roll revival-style cut features a spirited female backing chorus as well.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/77Cy-qphoK8\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<b>Trick of the Light\u201d<\/b> \u2013 Entwistle set aside his trademark sardonic humor and focused instead on themes of insecurity and self-doubt for this excellent deep cut from 1978\u2019s <i>Who Are You<\/i>. The roaring guitar sound on this track is actually Entwistle\u2019s thunderous eight-string bass guitar. \u201cTrick of the Light\u201d was released in the U.S. as a Who single, with another Entwistle track, \u201c905\u201d as the flip.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0frdbc1v2dA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n\u201c<b>Too Late the Hero\u201d<\/b> \u2013 A 1981 album made with guitarist Joe Walsh, the bassist\u2019s fifth solo album T<i>oo Late the Hero<\/i> came in for critical dubbing. But this uncharacteristically emotional ballad nonetheless ranks among Entwistle\u2019s most forthright songs. \u201cToo Late the Hero\u201d bubbled under on the U.S. singles charts, reaching #101; it fared a bit better in the UK, where it reached #76.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rH6pK890ZgU\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As critic John Swenson astutely observed in the 1979 edition of The Rolling Stone Record Guide, bassist John Entwistle \u201chad the misfortune to be a good songwriter in a group [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24469,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[5015,2190],"class_list":["post-24468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","tag-john-entwistle","tag-the-who","cat-27-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24470,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24468\/revisions\/24470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}