Led Zeppelin is my favorite all-time band (John Paul Jones was no slouch either), but no denying Entwistle was the best bassist who ever lived. INCREDIBLE.
To all the haters: If you think The Ox sucks, please post a video of your amazing bass playing. Until then, please refrain from typing on this video about your so-called "greatness".
pgzzz Eh, I'm not one for debates really but I can think of a few Bassists that could give him a run for his money. He is incredibly talented, no doubt. But I feel guys like Jack Bruce, Jaco Pastorius, and probably others I don't even know of could hold their own with him. I think Entwistle was an amazing Bassist but to say he is downright the best player ever is...well not wrong but I think that "best" in music is all subjective to opinion. I just can't say any one certain Musician is the best because they can't possibly record every style they enjoy or take influence from.
pgzzz Les Claypool is pretty damn good bass player. Primus has many great songs with bass. Geddy Lee of Rush, Jack Bruce, John Paul Jones, There's plenty of great Bass players but OX is in a league of his own.
Love the fact that roger takes a break and sits down on the stage at 2:05. It almost as if he's saying "better sit down. When thunder fingers starts thundering we'll be here for a while"
He was such an incredible pleasure to watch when he played. He had a unique pluck style. He didn't slap, but it sure sounded like he did. His tone was so outrageous and awesome. I see he had the tapping thing down. The Who are a much better band than I admit. I never really got into them, but John, by far, is one of the best of all time. Just because you don't have the stage presence of the guitarist and late drummer doesn't mean you aren't any good. Someone in the band had to be the rock and hold it together...and the Thunderfingers of the Ox did just that and more. What an awesome bassist he was!
What more can be said. His bass says it all. Call him the Ox, the Quiet One, Johnny Thunderfingers, whatever. I'm just proud to have seen him play and live in his time.
The fact that arguably the current best Bass player in the world GEDDY LEE from Rush has him as his favourite bass player of all time means a lot... RIP the OX...
This man is one of the greatest bass guitar players to walk this earth. no doubt about it. He's influenced many people, inlcuding myself, and helped to bring new generations of bass players. Rest in peace Ox.
John Entwistle was and is one of the greatest bass players of all times. In the 1960's, he was maybe not the first, but one of the first bassists to explore all the possibilities of his instrument. In my opinion, one of the greatest merits of Entwistle was to reveal that the bass guitar could be a full part soloist instrument and not just a simple accompaniment instrument. Also, this very gifted artist was an outstanding melodist. Entwistle virtuosity is never gratuitous. It's always at the service of a melodic thought. Also, his playing is so fluent. Each time I listen one of his solos, I have the feeling to hear a powerful version of a sea wave. So much power and so much liquid softness in one symphonic movement. A lot of very talented bassists followed your path: Flea, Billy Sheehan, Geddy Lee, just for naming a few. R.I.P., bro. We'll never thank you enough for all the rich legacy you left us. ✌✌✌🤟🤟🤟🙏🙏🙏👍👍👍🎼🎼🎼
I think one of the scariest things about John Entwhisle is that he was one of the earliest rock bass players that can shreds, but even today, this is still very impressive. And all the cool looking basses he had. He just seems like come from the future to his time
Cracks me up, some of you yahoo's claim he is not a good bass player??? He is on youtube with his band, The Who. If you all are better bass players or have a better band, put your money where your mouth is, lets see how good you are!! RIP John.
Primus is awesome and Les is a great bassist!!! My comment was aimed at the naysayers that claim John Entwistle is NOT a good bass player. My reasons are, if some is going to bash a bass player, drummer, guitarist, etc. you better be better than the person your bashing. I may not like all musicians but I do give them the respect for mastering their craft!!
John is quite possibly the best bass player I've ever seen (RIP) there's an awesome documentary I saw recently, John Entwistle: An Oxes Tale, I just downloaded it off Itunes, I would recommend it to any fans out there.
Mark King, Victor Wooten, Flea, Geddy Lee, Cliff Burton, Lemmy, whatever and whoever...they're all great bass players with different styles from different backgrounds with unique histories. To argue that one is better than the other is ridiculous. They've all had a hand in bringing the instrument to the foreground and they have all influenced others. I loved Entwistle because I loved the who but I appreciate other bass players as well. I will say this though, John had the best fashion sense. ;)
There is no Who without the Ox. They managed to do fine after losing Keith, but without the Ox's searing bass lines, The Who just isn't The Who anymore.
Agreed Link. The thing that strikes me the most about The Who is each member plays Lead at what they do. No band comes to my mind that has each member at the very pinnacle of their chosen musical position. The Ox is flat out impressive. Keith Moon has never been replicated or ever will be,Roger has a range so difficult no one will try and cover him and Pete's incredibly solid guitar playing always seems to set the mood for his amazing works. His Quadrophenia is an absolute masterpiece.
This man was a force of nature. Like Pete said "he changed the fucking instrument!" Will we ever see anyone so amazingly talented? I don't know. I guess in whatever afterlife place you believe in, John's jamming away with Jimi Hendrex and Janis Joplin is singing the tune. Now there's an album I'd buy anyday!
John Entwistle made bass playing look effortless!! I'm honored to say that I was able to witness his undeniable talent in concert. He was an asset to the rock world!
People have differences of opinion on who's the greatest or the best of, whether it's a rock band, a lead guitar player, or the greatest bass guitar player. There are many great players out there for sure. I first saw John Entwistle way back in the '60's before the band became 'The Who'. Even then, John was playing the bass much like one would play a lead guitar. John was way ahead of his time even back then. He was bringing the bass guitar out on a level of that of lead guitar. As Pete Townsend once said in a documentary, that John had the ability to change the fucking instrument, to bring it forward. I have seen John play rock, blues, or jazz & nothing I saw ever defeated the man.
The Ox didn't just make the Bass sound like a Bass he made it sound like a Guitar and Machine Gun. Other than Jerry Scheff if the Who had decided to call it quits in 1969 the only other Bass Player I would approve playing in the TCB Band with Elvis Presley's Concerts is John Entwistle.
@Mr2010Jamie those are all great. I don't really get into clapton or page much. I always gravitated toward the cleaner techniques (page was a bit sloppy in his solos but he was a great musician). Brian May I like a lot. Very musical. Never got into Beck much either. Then there are technique monsters that also are too heavy on technique a lot so somewhere in there is a good medium. Joe Satriani is another i really like. Steve Vai is another.
@Mr2010Jamie I think the Metallica rhythms are way way better than the solos by Kirk. He just is out of control during solos like he's panicking or something. uneven vibrato and just weird. The guys I liked were VH, Randy Rhodes, Ted Nugent (yeah, he could rock in the day) and late 70s early 80s stuff. Neil Schon of Journey kicked much butt, Alex LIfeson was creative and had good sounds. So many great players. Angus Young. Great blues rock player. etc
@Mr2010Jamie The problem for me is that he's built up to be this great god of bass and a solo is your chance to show off some of those chops and musicality but for me, this solo seemed kind of redundant and sloppy. I could try to explain it in more detail but just a lot of pentatonic runs that are building blocks of music but not really music just played up or down. IOW, I simply think he's way overrated technically BUT he is a great bass player. Maybe that makes sense?
@Mr2010Jamie "The Beatles didn't know a thing about musical theory," ? I doubt they knew NOTHING about music theory. I'm quite sure they knew the basics such as the chords in a scale and the notes of the scale and so on. And you're preaching to the choir. I'm a firm believer in the end sound being what matters. No one looks at a house and goes wow, great foundation! No one looks at a mondo painting and goes wow, nice coating of gesso under that.
@mowdowndafaces4 they don't have very diff styles. they both play bass. 4 string, to be precise. they both use the fingers of their right hands. mainly the 1st three. they both play ROCK. Thing is this: i've been listening to music for 48 years and playing guitar for almost 40. I can hang with MOST rock guitarists and I know my shit. Entwhistle is a really good bass player but this solo didn't show me that.
@mowdowndafaces4 When I say better, it has to be quanitifed/nailed down. IOW, better HOW? so, imo, sheehan has WAY better technical skills than Entwhistle. That's not saying E. isn't a really good bassist. people get emotional like monkeys when you state facts that they can't understand and don't want to believe. as if you slapped their mother or something. Sheehan is also more melodic, imo of course. This means you use ALL 7 notes of the scale, not just 5.
@oregonlasalle this is the standard comeback by people who don't understand the points made in the original comment. Let me ask you a simple question: does a doctor have to have a brain tumor in order to remove one and understand what they are, etc? I DO play guitar but not bass in particular. You missed the whole point. My pt was that his solo was hardly what you'd call advanced and if you compare him to many others like Billy Sheehan or Victor Wooten you can see (well, maybe).
@Pelleman666 No, not ironic at all. He's simply nowhere at all near any great bassists of today in terms of BOTH technique and musical sense. His entire solo consisted of pentatonic notes (5 notes of the 7 note scale). He didn't show anything much that a GREAT bassist would do. I mean, even Geddy Lee is more melodic than Entwhisle. He's simply overrated bro. It's just my opinion so don't hate me for using my brain and being a musician for almost 40 years. Yes, technique isn't everything.
Rather sloppy and non-melodic. No chords. No two-hand tapping. No arpeggios. No 7 note (full) scales or partial scales. No fully ascending or descending sections. all on 2 strings at a time. He was great in the 60s. but guy's like Billy Sheehan make him look like he just learned to play yesterday.
@oregonlasalle FYI, I DO have vids of me playing guitar. But they're just random uploads of me doing cover tunes but I also have tunes from my '94 album. I just don't have a music or guitar channel. It's mostly my views about religion.
La voz de Daltrey ya no era la misma, pero Entwistle (RIP) todavía mostraba por qué integraba la numerosa elite (??) de extraordinarios bajistas Británicos surgidos en los 60 (Paul McCartney, Jack Bruce, Glenn Cornick, John Paul Jones, John McVie, Chris Squire vienen a mi memoria).
@@josemiguelpallaresdiaz2054 seee, rankings no, dudaba la época, pero todavía pertenecen a los 60s, igual y debió haber otros bajistas muy buenos pero no conocidos, como músicos d sesión. Es como ahora q hay por todos lados en las redes, así como debe haber buenos músicos q sólo tocan para sí sin compartir
I yearn to play as good...... I'm about one third of the way there. Cried the day he died. John, you were my idol and a role model for bass players on the planet we call earth, but I honestly think that the aliens of the universe were listening to something alien to them.
John is probably the only base player I've ever seen play so quick and so fluid like he's playing a six string guitar. Entwistle and Geddy Lee are tops in my book.
Great bass solo! The essence of the bass is still there unlike other solos by other people where they sound like a frustrated guitar player. RIP John Alec "Thunderfingers" Entwistle
Sandy Cohen Guitars usually have 6 strings. Bass guitars, which are, to put it very simply, rhythm instruments that sound like very low guitars, generally have 4 strings, such as the one that Entwistle was playing.
You can tell at around 4 minutes in John was pretty satisfied with that solo, you see the slight smile after. And I would be too, I only wish I could do this
good and melodic, I don't know if it's overdriven or the audio is bad but if you can imagine the distortion not there, it sounds great. any bass player who dares lift up in to the trebles is awesome to me!
To Tony Thompson comment. I see you have Jack`s "The Chicken" on your video file. Listen to Federico Meleman`s version on this. This guy has to be one of best bassist playing today. Also check out multi instrumentalist Fabio Vadermarin`s video Slap Happy Bass. Everybody has room to express their talents. John was a good rock bass player. These guys are the teachers who explain what it all means are far as technique on this instrument. They have abilities far beyond those of mortal men.
So good! I loved his album Smashing Your Head Against the Wall. Very heavy but awesome, great riffs and melodies. I only wish he had more songwriting in the who during their glory period. My wife is such a cool song on that who's next album. As for who's best, I don't really care. I like whoever is playing me good music! I will say that victor Wooten is bomb and he wrote a very cool music book. I will also say that Colin greenwood writes just stellar bass lines for radiohead. Bass alone doesn't get me off but it's probably the most fundamental piece of music as far as feeling it. Treble is more intellectual and emotional, but bass is gut feelings and physical sensation. Without that heavy, bold, warm, all encompassing tone pulling through my body, I'd give a polite golf clap at all music events. You can say solo guitar doesn't have a lot of bass, but just see what neil young can do when he goes drop D; just a little bit of the low goes a long way. All right, RIP John and RIP all rude opinionated folks trying to crap on a dead talented man.
Also amazing how even brings the solo down and then back into the song itself. The man was an absolute musical legend on multiple instruments....things that would have probably existed at some point, but unless he did it way back when, would have missed an entire generation of bass players we all love now.
Hi ! This message for "jamiro quay" : We talked about bass, not "masturbation" on a bass guitar with ugly slap ... I love Slap also, but played by real bassist ... not by an ex-young guy who plays like I go to work ...
LOL, one thing I always found so funny with bassists in general is it seems like the vast majority of the time, you get two polar opposites-you get the guys like John Entwistle that are real serious & don't even appear to move, but then on the other end of the spectrum you have the Flea types that are jumping all around the stage acting crazy. LOL, & it's never in-between, it always seems to be one or the other.
John is to the bass what Jimi was to the guitar: a virtuoso that revolutionized what the instrument was capable of; as a solo instrument and part of a band. John and Jimi are jamming up there with Wolfgang, Ludwig and Johann B right now ... and I bet they're rockin the Heavens!
People keep wondering why everyone hates on Entwistle. Maybe it's because his fans aren't very nice to peoples opinions about other bass players. I mean, i've seen at least 10 videos with people hating on the bassist from other bands and cursing them out.
Funny story about one of his best bass lines. In Real Me, he was just screwing around on the bass, and they recorded it, then said, yup, we are using that. He was just playing around on the bass and yet we get one of the best bass lines ever.
He’s famous because of is rocknroll lifestyle and he was a good bass player for rock but let’s be honest, he wasn’t good for solos… this is musically really poor (pentatonic newbie plan for those who know a bit of guitar)
He legit took a formal course in playing bass guitar as i have read somewhere. No doubt he was a gifted bass player RIP the ox , their wont be another you.
