I distinctly remember the day that I became interested in music.  Sure, I'd always enjoyed listening to the radio, but was never concerned with more than the top 40 hits.  The summer after my junior year in high school (1980) however, my best friend Steve called me up and asked if I wanted his extra ticket for the upcoming Who concert.  I knew that they played Pinball Wizard and, oh, that other song… so I said what the heck and went to my first concert.

Now Steve told me they were good seats, but everyone always claims to have good seats.  When we arrived at our chairs on the floor of the arena, ten rows from the stage, I was impressed, but nothing could have prepared me for what was to come.  The next couple of hours were absolutely fantastic.  Roger Daltry was swinging his mic like he was about to fly off the stage, Pete Townshend was jumping around, swinging his arm and playing his guitar with more energy than I'd ever scene.  I was dancing, as was everyone else, even to songs I'd never heard before, it was impossible to keep still.  After a few songs I noticed that the bass player, John Entwistle, wasn't moving at all.  He wasn't even tapping his toe.  How could he be up there, in front of thousands of screaming fans and not get into it just a little bit???   Then I started picking out the bass riff in the music.  Watching his hand fly up and down the neck of his instrument and seemingly effortlessly while playing such a complex part impressed the hell out of me.  I was a fan of the band, and Entwistle's from then on.

John died on June 27, 2002 in the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas Nevada.  In 2005, a documentary about his life, An Ox's Tale: The John Entwistle Story, was made and it has just made its way on to DVD.  While this isn't an in depth and close look at this amazing musician's life, it does give a nice overview of the man and contains some insightful interviews with both John Entwistle and Pete Townshend.

After a brief overview of his birth and childhood the film discusses John's meeting with a young Pete Townshend and their common love of music.  It covers the formation of The Who, their early success, Tommy, Entwistle's relationship with the other band members, and his emergence as a songwriter.

Narrated by Peter Frampton, the biography is filled with interviews with John himself (not too long before his death), Pete Townshend, The Who's sound engineer, and John's son as well as concert clips from various Who concerts and TV appearances.  Roger Daltry is conspicuous in his absence however.  (I have heard rumors that he's working on his own project documenting the history of The Who and therefore isn't giving interviews for projects like this.)  The show does a great job at explaining just why John is such a respected bass player.  They talk about the famous bass solo in My Generation (the first time a bass ever had a solo in a rock song) and how Entwistle changed the way that people looked at the instrument.  Included are interview with various musicians (including Billy Squire and Ray Manzarek of the Doors) who sing John's praises in no uncertain terms.  The interviews with Pete Townshend were particularly interesting.  He related many stories about his friend and band mate and talked about hearing of John's death and the reasons why he and Roger went ahead with the Who tour that was scheduled to kick off the next day.  (Though I'm second to none in my admiration of Mr. Townshend, I still can't believe they went ahead with the tour missing only the first two dates.)

Though this documentary does many things right, it is ultimately unsatisfying.  I felt that it was too superficial and only scratched the surface of just who John Entwistle was.  There were a lot of topics that were mentioned only briefly or not at all.  They note that John was feeling dissatisfied that more of his songs weren't getting on Who albums and recorded a solo effort in 1971, but they don't discuss his early solo career at all.  He recorded five LPs between 1971 and 1981 (of which I had a complete set until a flood ruined my record collection while in college, but I digress…) and while they never reached the top of the charts, they were all very good.

This documentary doesn't discuss his sense of humor either.  He was responsible for some dark yet hilarious songs like Peg Leg Peggy ("Peg Leg Peggy, she really knows how to hop") and Do the Dangle (about hanging yourself).  Even his songs that made it onto Who discs are filled with black comedy such as his most famous song My Wife.  ("My life's in jeopardy, murdered in cold blood is what I'm gonna be.  I ain't been home since Friday night and now my wife is coming after me….give me a body guard: a black belt judo expert with a machine gun…")

This was also a somewhat sanitized version of Entwistle's life.  Drug and alcohol abuse was only mentioned in the most veiled terms, and the cause of his death, a heart attack brought on by cocaine use, wasn't even mentioned.  While I don't think that drug use should be glamorized, it shouldn't be ignored either.
 

Audio:

The stereo soundtrack was adequate but not outstanding.  Some of the interviews were recorded under less than optimal circumstances and sounded a bit muffled, but these were the exception rather than the rule.  The range wasn't as great as I was expecting, and some of the songs that were played weren't of the highest fidelity, but this was most likely due to the quality of the original recordings rather than a fault of the disc.  There are no subtitles unfortunately, they would have been nice in a few spots when someone's British accent was a bit strong.

Video:

The 1.78 widescreen video (which is not anamorphically enhanced!) looks good but not more than that.  Much of this looks like it was recorded on digital video and the problems associated with that format are present in many of the interviews.  There is aliasing and a bit of blocking in places and some video glitches that are a bit irratating.  This doesn't ruin the documentary, but it doesn't enhance it either.

Extras:

There were some great extras included on this disc.  First off is a rather touching interview with John's son, Chris Entwistle. He tells of the last time he saw his father alive and how he heard that he had died.  Next is seven-minutes worth of home movies that show John goofing around with his bass and showing off his palatial estate.

Music isn't forgotten either.  There are two concert clips by the John Entwistle band.  The first is three songs from the Woodstock '99 concert (The Real Me, Shakin' All Over, and Young Man Blues, the very beginning of the last song is clipped for some reason.) The bonus items wrap up with a 14-minute excerpt from a concert that the group gave in Detroit.  Though the video quality to the last one left something to be desired, this is the only place on the DVD to see John perform some of his non-Who songs.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, this was a good but brief and superficial look at this influential and important bassist.  The interview clips with Entwistle and Pete Townshend are worth the cost of the disc, and while this doesn't give any new insights into John's personality, it is a nice tribute to an amazing musician.  Recommended. Special thanks to AJ for information about the Who's tour following John's death.