Any word on drummers yet? I own the "Live at Royal Alber Hall" DVD and Zach Starsky plays drums. He rips it up too. Not the stage presence of Moon, but he definately has the energy and holds up well. BTW, has anyone gotten the 3 disc set of that show yet? I aim to score it soon.

Starky played on Daltry's "Plays The Music of Pete Townsend" tour.....and he totally rocked. definitely in the spirit of Moon.

There's more information in the post I made the other day about this (http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/09/23/123718.php) From what I've heard, the Who is now Pete and Roger supplemented by Zak Starkey on drums and Pino Palladino on bass. I question Pino on bass, just because he's a jazz guy and I can't imagine this is his dream gig. But I guess you could find much worse work than playing the lines of Entwistle.

Entwistle was very jazz influenced as it was. He was a great bass player. I don't think he got the credit he deserved. I watch him on the Live at the Royal Albert Hall w/ my mouth dropped at points. He was truely amazing.

Starkey on the other hand, blows my mind. He's definately better than "daddy". No blasphemy intended.

Entwistle was astounding. He had such a fluid grace to his playing - anthing he played displayed his immense talent. And I never got the sense that he was simply showing off - what he played was just what happened to come through his fingers at that moment. I think The Real Thing stands as a perfect testimony to his skill, being just him screwing around in the studio, jamming a few ideas for the song. The reigned-in "previously unreleased" take on the Max. R&B box really illustrates how vital his bassline was to the drive of that song, and to the band in general.

Damn, I miss him. Seeing Pino play in his place last year was fantastic as well, as he's equally amazing and I LOVE seeing a great bassist in action, but he's amazing in a very different way. The Ox truly can't be replaced.

Well, I at least hope it's a listenable offering and not in the vein of the horrid "Iron Man" & "Psychoderelict"...Entwistle is daunting to replace; Moon was impossible (and I don't expect that to change with all respect to the talented Mr. Starkey)...As brilliant as Pete was (past tense is advisable),Moon was the one who transformed them from what would have been a pretty good band to a great one...An excellent read is the book "Moon" by ( I can't remember his 1st name) Butler...It goes beyond the "Rock Stars Do The Dumbest Things" side of Keith and really takes him seriously as a musician and a person.

exactly. Entwistle was just flat out graceful and tasteful, and those 2 things rarely accompany each other. There are a lot of great bassists, but for the most part, aren't tasteful.

Entwistle's bass playing on his two solo albums* Whistle Rhymes and Smash Your Head Against The Wall is outstanding in spurts. He's capably backed up on guitar by a flamboyantly brilliant Peter Frampton (yes, Mr. I'm In You can indeed play the guitfiddle) and pens some tunes that make his quirkier stuff for The Who (Boris the Spider, My Wife, etc.) look positively down to earth. My two favorite of his tunes are both on Whistle Rhymes, I Feel Better and I Found Out.

I Feel Better begins:
"When I'm feeling blue, I stick a pin in the picture of you beside my bed and I Feel Better."

I Found Out has a very odd way of looking at unfortunate circumstances:
"I Found Out this morning the uncle that I was mourning was living off the insurance in South America" and
"I Found Out tonight you're not the woman I want, you're not the woman I was looking for and thought I'd found. I found out tonight you're married with three little kids and a great big husband who weight lifts."

Who fans, and more precisely Entwistle fans, should seek these two albums out - they're a very revaling look at this talented, if somewhat dark, guy.



*He may have more solo albums, the two listed are the ones I own, and I'm too lazy to look him up.

I can think of 3 other Entwistle solo albums- "John Entwistle's Ox", "Rigor Mortis Sets In" (both from the Mid-70's)and "Too Late The Hero" (about 1981)...Naturally, I was wrong about the name of the Author of the book "Moon"- it's actually Tony Fletcher...Keith's old assistant (& partner in crime) Dougal Butler wrote about their days together in "Full Moon" in the early '80's...The must-have Who book is "The Who: Maximum R&B" by Richard Barnes.