I was just a kid with a bass guitar
Burning ambition
Just a kid on a shooting star
Man with a mission
Nobody told me life up here
Was an endless vacation
Hope I get old before I die
M m my degeneration

All the King's horses and all the King's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again

You just sit on the fence, afraid of the past
No plan for the future
Watching the world go by so fast
Just do what suits you
Nobody told me life up here
Was an endless vacation
Hope I get old before I die
M m my degeneration

All the King's horses and all the King's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again

I'm still the kid with the bass guitar
Still got ambition
But you tie me down with these golden chains
Too many conditions
Give me a stage, give me four strings
And someone to listen
Give me a song any fool could sing
And the right musicians

All the King's horses and all the King's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2012-06-27 02:28 by tatters.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-06-27 02:41 by tatters.

He was the man. A great bassist and a true rock star.

Deserves props for most "rock star" death you can get.

Found dead with coke and a hooker in a Las Vegas hotel room. The real deal right to the end.

I remember getting into my car after getting off work on June 27, 2002, putting on the radio, hearing my all time favorite Who track, "Bargain", and cranking it up. When the song ended, the DJ came on and said something about how "We're all still in shock this afternoon, as we remember the late John Entwistle." I couldn't believe it. Total shock and disbelief. Then, of course, I thought about the tour, which had been scheduled to begin the following night. I had tickets for both Michigan dates, Detroit and Grand Rapids (third row in Grand Rapids, for which I had paid $450 for the pair, to this day the most I've ever paid for a pair of concert tickets), and, I have to admit, a thought along the lines of "Hey, ass hole, you're f__king up my good time!" did enter into my head, along with much genuine sadness, of course.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2012-06-27 03:23 by tatters.

I saw him in Detroit at Harpos, and it was one of the loudest shows I have ever seen. The man rocked and was as steady as a metronome. A rocker till the end, and by all accounts a good guy to hang with! RIP John.

Daltrey's comment was: "The Ox has left the building."

John's body was found on the afternoon of the 27th, and the tour was supposed to start on the evening of the 28th. I remember the morning guy on my local classic rock station going on air on the morning of the 28th and saying, That's it. They're done. They have to cancel the tour. I called him up and we had a long on-air chat about it and I said, No, I don't think so. If any band epitomizes the "get on with it' spirit of rock and roll, it's the Who, and besides, I've got third row for Grand Rapids and I want my Who show! Sure enough, the very next morning (June 29), he gets back on the radio and says he's "flabbergasted" to learn that the tour may, in fact, still be on! Later that day, Just 48 hours after the death of the only bass player they'd ever had, the Who announced that they had found someone, as Townshend would later say, "to stand over there and play the bass." The first two shows of the tour were rescheduled, and, after just two days of rehearsals with their new bass player (and just four days after Entwistle's death), The Who opened their tour at the Hollywood Bowl on July 1. After the fourth show, on July 6 (during which Pete smashed a guitar), the Who flew back to England for John's funeral.



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 2012-06-27 07:05 by tatters.

The man is a beast!

Quote
lettingitbleed
Found dead with coke and a hooker in a Las Vegas hotel room. The real deal right to the end.

Now THAT is the proper way to kick the bucket. Rock'n'roll for sure.

This picture on John is very The Who...it will be my contribution to remember him on this day:



2 1 2 0

Quote
tatters
John's body was found on the afternoon of the 27th, and the tour was supposed to start on the evening of the 28th. I remember the morning guy on my local classic rock station going on air on the morning of the 28th and saying, That's it. They're done. They have to cancel the tour. I called him up and we had a long on-air chat about it and I said, No, I don't think so. If any band epitomizes the "get on with it' spirit of rock and roll, it's the Who, and besides, I've got third row for Grand Rapids and I want my Who show

You're right Tatters and in fact some of the tour entourage were convinced the tour would be cancelled and were on planes back to London when the decision to continue was made. Frantic phone calls were made to ensure they did not get on their connecting flights but told to turn around and head back to Vegas.

Thanks John!





Just as long as the guitar plays, let it steal your heart away

Quote
lettingitbleed
He was the man. A great bassist and a true rock star.

Deserves props for most "rock star" death you can get.

Found dead with coke and a hooker in a Las Vegas hotel room. The real deal right to the end.

I heard that he died in a coke orgy with TWO hookers in Vegas.

Hey, the two hookers part is one of the perks of his occupation, but methinks a 57-year-old man on heart meds should've avoided the coke.

Quote
Manofwealthandtaste

Quote
tatters
John's body was found on the afternoon of the 27th, and the tour was supposed to start on the evening of the 28th. I remember the morning guy on my local classic rock station going on air on the morning of the 28th and saying, That's it. They're done. They have to cancel the tour. I called him up and we had a long on-air chat about it and I said, No, I don't think so. If any band epitomizes the "get on with it' spirit of rock and roll, it's the Who, and besides, I've got third row for Grand Rapids and I want my Who show

You're right Tatters and in fact some of the tour entourage were convinced the tour would be cancelled and were on planes back to London when the decision to continue was made. Frantic phone calls were made to ensure they did not get on their connecting flights but told to turn around and head back to Vegas.

I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the meeting when Pete and Roger made the decision to go on with the tour. I guess it came down to money. It would have cost them an awful lot to cancel it. They also realized that as long as Pete and Roger were still there, no one would be asking for their money back. In fact, ticket sales actually increased after John died. Fans were curious to hear what this new version of the Who would sound like, and maybe some of them thought that once they'd honored their contractual obligations and completed the tour, they would, finally, call it a day. I think that's what they should have done. I don't think any of their subsequent tours have served any real purpose, and Endless Wire, or whatever its called, might just as well have been a Townshend solo album.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-06-27 15:04 by tatters.

Quote
ab

Quote
lettingitbleed
He was the man. A great bassist and a true rock star.

Deserves props for most "rock star" death you can get.

Found dead with coke and a hooker in a Las Vegas hotel room. The real deal right to the end.

I heard that he died in a coke orgy with TWO hookers in Vegas.

Hey, the two hookers part is one of the perks of his occupation, but methinks a 57-year-old man on heart meds should've avoided the coke.

Like a lot of fans, I mistook John's calm demeanor on stage as evidence that he must be the "sensible" member of the Who, but off stage he was just as crazed as Townshend and Moon. I remember being at a party at a club in NYC called Tramps, and this guy walks up to John and asks him if he wants to get high with him, and I'm thinking, What the hell, man? This is 1996, not 1967. John doesn't want to smoke your damn weed. And sure enough, he didn't. He made the universal finger-on-the-side-of-the-nose gesture, indicating that what he really wanted was some blow.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2012-06-27 16:38 by tatters.

Here's something even I had never seen until last night. From the dawn of the MTV era, John's only solo music video! Poor quality sound and picture, but rarer than rare!

You really need to hear the full LP version, though. Sounds kinda like Genesis, but really good Genesis!

I was in LA by the time of his death, and had tickets for the Hollywood Bowl concert. Heard about the death, and went to get back the money to the Bowl. They told me that the show was on. If I remember well, Pete said during the concert something about all the crew members that needed the tour to go on due to financial issues. Would have loved to hear him in concert, the best bass player.

July 1, 2002. I don't know how they were able to get through this show.






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-06-27 16:10 by tatters.