'Who' the hell is that guy?

The Who was a zany lot.\nThe singer shouted and yelped and whipped his microphone around like a lariat. The guitarist tore apart his fingers on the strings and smashed his guitar to pieces. The drummer flailed his arms and pounded his kit and sent his drums flying across the stage.\nAnd that was just the band's on-stage persona. The musicians were just as wacky out of the limelight. Vocalist Roger Daltrey and guitarist Pete Townshend frequently hated each other, and their relationship at times deteriorated into fistfights. Drummer Keith Moon, meanwhile, was an out-of-control alcoholic who dressed in women's clothing on a regular basis.\nThen there was John Entwistle. The band's bassist was the "quiet one." He stood still on stage as madness erupted around him, and he was at times the Who's sole voice of sanity.\nHe was also the band's most talented and underrated member and one of the greatest bass players in rock history (only Motown's James Jamerson, Yes's Chris Squire and P-Funk's Bootsy Collins could compare to him). His deft ability as a songwriter has long been overshadowed by Townshend's legendary compositions. Throughout the Who's career, Entwistle not only displayed a virtuosity on the bass, but he also contributed numerous songs that stand out as some of the Who's best.\nHis best-known cut is "Boris the Spider," a tale of a pesky arachnid that meets a messy demise. But the Entwistle catalog runs much deeper. He was a master of the macabre, an author of creepy, cheeky and off-kilter ditties that, underneath the tongue-in-cheek humor on the surface, exposed the darker side of modern society.\nIn the 1960s Entwistle produced several standout cuts, including "Whiskey Man" in 1966, about a man who shares his mind with an alcoholic alter ego, "I've Been Away," also from 1966, an eerie song about a wrongly convicted felon who takes murderous revenge on his treacherous brother, and 1967's "Doctor, Doctor," about a poor sap who suffers from paralyzing hypochondria.\nIn 1971 the Who released the classic album Who's Next, and the best song on the disc was perhaps Entwistle's "My Wife," which detailed a desperate man's flight from a vengeful wife. The lyrics represent Entwistle at his best: "Gonna buy a tank and an aeroplane / When she catches up with me won't be no time to explain / She thinks I've been with another woman / And that's enough to send her half insane." In the end, the man accepts his condition: "I may end up spending all my money," he says, "but l'll still be alive."\nAs the Who drifted into the 1970s and Townshend became mired in heroin addiction and depression, Entwistle's songs were often the best tracks on the band's albums. Who Are You, released in 1978, contained two standout Entwistle tracks that easily outshined the vaunted title track. A sci-fi excursion, "905" is about a genetically-engineered human, while "Trick of the Light" features a self-doubting but smitten shlub who pleads a prostitute to run away with him.\nAlong the way, Entwistle, who was also proficient on trumpet and French horn and played those instruments on most Who albums, contributed several other outstanding tracks, including "Heaven and Hell" (1970), "Postcard" (1974), "Success Story" (1975), "You" (1981) and "Dangerous" (1982). The 1981 Who album Face Dances included Entwistle's autobiographical "The Quiet One," in which he sings the virtues of subtlety: "I ain't never had time for words that don't rhyme / My head is in the clouds / I ain't quiet / Everybody else is too loud."\nBut perhaps Entwistle's best song is 1971's "When I Was a Boy," in which he looks back wistfully on his childhood and laments its passing: "When I was boy I had the mind of a boy / But now I'm a man ain't got no mind at all / When I was in my teens I had my share of dreams / But now I'm a man ain't got no dreams at all."\nBecause Townshend's compositions dominated every Who album, Entwistle frequently overflowed with ideas that didn't make the band's cut. As a result, he also released several solo albums, including the incredible Whistle Rhymes in 1972. Easily the best solo release of any Who member, Whistle Rhymes tells tales of degenerates, lovable losers and broken-hearted souls who are beaten down by life and unable to get up.\nThe Who was an exceptional band, and its three other members Daltrey, Townshend and Moon were all talented and unique parts of the puzzle. But the quartet was underpinned, both musically and personally, by John Entwistle. The other personalities in the band have long overshadowed him, but that doesn't diminish his abilities or accomplishments or the special place he holds in the heart of every devoted Who fan.