OX ON THE RUN

Were the members of the Who half so fertile and productive collectively as they are individually, they would undoubtedly be the most prolific, as well as one of the best, rock bands in the world. Unfortunately, solo albums, individual tours, movies and general hanky-panky have rent them asunder for the time being, although all four deny that they’re separating permanently.

For straight-ahead facts about the group, untouched by the philosophies of Townshend, the inanities and insanities of Moon, or the passions and pets of Daltrey, we are left with large, stolid John Entwistle. Maybe his message isn’t any more reliable, but it’s certainly more lucid. Entwistle, in person as on stage, is nothing if not straight-forward.

While in the U.S. recently (“because a friend of mine’s son was being bar mitzvahed and I said I’d come”) he touched on some of the problems and pleasures of being in the world’s second greatest rock band - or whatever it is - as well as, oh yes, his solo projects. (Entwistle’s tour of the U.S. with his five piece solo group, Ox, was scheduled to begin in February.)

Entwistle said he thinks that the Who will not break up in the forseeable future. “Maybe we’re frightened of giving up a good thing,” he offered. “Or perhaps we’re frightened of playing with other people, or that we’ll flop with our other projects.”

But, he admitted, the four are not as close as they once were. “We’re hindered in several ways. We live separate lives and meet socially only by accident. The only time we all get together is to talk music, or to discuss group projects. On the tours, we’re all doing the same things but at home, we’d have to stop doing something else in order to be together. Unfortunately, our friendships have suffered because of it - Keith and I used to be very close, we used to travel together. Now, we’re not.” He shrugs.

“I think I have most in common with Pete,” added the gargantuan 6’4”, 200 pound bassist. “I can talk to Keith the easiest. Roger, on the other hand, has set opinions which he never - or rarely - changes. He’s the one I may not always agree with.”

Entwistle’s Mad Dog tour will be the first by a member of the Who without the other members of the group. “But it’s because I’m in a different position. I’m the only other writer. Even if-the Who did one side of Townshend songs, and one side of mine, it still wouldn’t be enough. I’ve just got too much material. Also, until recently, I’ve never been able to write for Roger’s voice. I could now, I’ve learned to write a song to order.

“That’s what I was doing with Rigor Mortis (the last Solo album) and all those old rock and roll type numbers. When I first wrote it, Rigor Mortis was intended to be a stage production. Different things that could be used on stage had been in mind all through my solo album. It started out as 9 people, then I decided to use girls for Chiffons and Ronettes sort of effects.” Entwistle was originally planning to tour with $50,000 worth of equipment and a 12 member group. He has since trimmed this to the current five members, no doubt because of economic considerations. “By the time you’ve got offstage,” he said while still contemplating the costly horrors of such a large group, “it’s all gone. It costs me $5,000 a week to rehearse. The booze bill is astronomical.”

Entwistle says he has grown up as a songwriter with the new band. “I tried to do all the material for Wistle Rymes in four weeks. Musically, I was going in about 50 different directions. I had no real path to go on.

“Then, my producer suggested I use an all old-rock concept, to see if I could write a whole album like that. I’m sort of working my way through rock and roll history. Right now I’m up to about 1964, and I hope to catch up with myself soon. There’s a new kind of music buzzing around in my brain.”

Some of that new music should have been released by the time you read this, on the first Ox album, Mad Dog. “The material has changed,” acknowledged the rock star once celebrated as the most perverse mind in the music (English Div.; there was a boy named Reed in Manhattan...). “It’s much more commercial, though the humor is there. It’s not as black, though, it’s much more subtle. I’ve been trying to get away from morbid subject matter for ages. I can write funny ha-ha now instead of for sniggers. It began to lighten up with the last LP. That dark stuff only appealed to a certain amount of people anyway, all the black stuff. Even other musicians figured I must be into black magic, witchcraft and all of that.

"That dark stuff only appealed to a certain amount of people anyway... Even other musicians figured I must be into black magic, witchcraft and all of that."

“The new LP has the first and last love song I’ve written. It starts out as a love song, and winds up explaining how difficult it is to write one without using cliches. Then it uses all the cliches. Another one is an updated ’50s song, a sort of ‘American Graffiti’ type, about drive-in movies updated to 1974 - the couple is married now and thinking about getting a divorce;”

And, according to this notorious pillar of stolidity, the Ox tour may also see the end of the famed Entwistle Immobilization. (As all Who fans know, Entwistle has not moved a muscle during a performance since 1964.) “If I moved,” he said, “the Who couldn’t do as much. With the Who, with everyone else leaping about, I couldn’t do anything but stay still. If in Ox, on the other hand, someone is playing both keyboards or a keyboard and a synthesizer, I’ll have to move.” Not, you’ll note, that he really cares to.

Ox’s tour will include the release of their Mad Dog album and hopefully a stint on NBC’s Midnight Special. Meanwhile, Entwistle has kept himself sufficiently busy with other projects. He put together the latest Who Oldies release, Odds and Sods, by himself, and he’s been at work with Pete Townshend on the Tommy movie’s soundtrack. He’s also working on a stage show LP called Flash Fearless, about the details of which he was evasive. If that ain’t enough, he’s going to co-produce the third Sharks LP.

Still, he says, he doesn’t really feel pressured or pompous. “It’s only the last couple of years that it’s gotten out of hand to be in the Who,” he,said with a smile. “You don’t feel like a pop star, you know. You just go home from the studio and feed the fish.”

creem