The Ox: The Authorized Biography of The Who’s John Entwistle

In this powerful biography, Rees (Robert Plant: A Life) makes a strong argument that The Who’s John Entwistle (1944–2002), the so-called “Quiet One,” was just as self-destructive as he was stoic. Sandwiched in between the towering personalities of his bandmates—guitar-windmilling Pete Townshend, strutting frontman Roger Daltry, and wild drummer Keith Moon—bassist John Entwistle was the steady hand on the tiller. Drawing on Entwistle’s unfinished memoir, Rees begins with a workmanlike march through the band’s early history in the late 1960s, but things liven up as the band gains massive popularity with its early 1970s American tours. Onstage, Entwistle was the calm “Ox,” but offstage his life was a riot of booze, cocaine, infidelity, and manic shopping sprees (he had a fleet of cars but never learned to drive), and he often paired himself with the fun but unhinged Moon, whom he considered “a little brother.” The Who broke up in 1983, and Rees describes Entwistle’s reclusiveness and decline in health that followed (“The Who had made him, and now The Who was gone”) until his death of a heart attack in a Nevada Hard Rock Hotel bedroom with a stripper by his side. Fans of The Who wanting insight into the enigmatic band member need look no further. (Apr.)