Five Years Gone

The Entwistle death anniversary was actually June 27. But better late then never.

From Before I Get Old: The Story of the Who by Dave Marsh:

In Ealing, John Entwistle was talking with a group of Irish journalists when he was summoned to the telephone. Pete gave him the news, which greatly shook John, the most reserved of the band but also the one who was in many ways closest to Keith, playing with him in the intimate way that bassists and drummers must share, his roommate in the beginning. Pete was understanding but asked that John avoid telling the interviewers, if possible. Keith’s mother had not yet been informed. (His father had died only a few weeks before.) Kim and Mandy Moon also hadn’t been told.

John went back to the interviewers and sat down, resuming the conversation as calmly as he could. But when one of them asked him about the Who’s future plans, he couldn’t hold back any longer. Entwistle, the stolid ox, burst into tears, confessing that the Who could not know their future because Keith Moon was dead.

From “Won’t Get Fooled Again” (in Love and Hydrogen) by Jim Shepard:

One thing no one ever seemed to understand: When Pete smashed his guitar, it was because he was pissed off. When Keith threw his snare out into the front row, same thing. And why did I never move? Why did I stand there in the midst of all this mayhem, like a bloody statue? It was my way of making my mark and erasing my mark, simultaneously. There’s nothing like it for exaltation and nothing like it for rank, flat-out failure. You’re working as hard as you can to get one fucking song across – to get some livable part of you across – and it’s never really perfect, it’s never really acceptable, it’s never even really right, is it?

• John Entwistle, “The Real Me” (live) (buy here)