It felt to Queen’s bassist John Beacon that each of his bandmates had assigned roles, almost like a predestinated will, and as John was quite shy in nature, he thought he fit the ‘silent bass player’ archetype perfectly. He even named himself the ‘John Entwistle‘ of Queen, as the Who bassist also preferred to step back from the spotlight and kept it to himself.
The ‘quiet’ bassist theory seemed to be valid after all as not only Beacon but Entwistle himself confirmed it by once calling that he needed to step back from the spotlight and become the balancing force to keep the band together since bandmates Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, and Keith Moon had no intentions to keep it to themselves while jumping three feet into the air.
However, even after John passed away two decades ago, Townshend seemed to have figured out a way to maintain the balance in the band while doing his beloved circus tricks and improving his musical abilities. The guitarist even shared it with Rolling Stone in 2012 while he and Daltrey had hit the road after years.
Pete was telling all about his stage shows while describing how he couldn’t live without performing since whenever someone would hand him a guitar; the rocker felt like he’d entered a different dimension. The feeling was so electrifying that he felt almost addicted to it, and it also possessed him to perform stage tricks he usually couldn’t do.
So, Townshend became somebody else when he was performing live, feeling like he’d descended into a trans, as his spirit would embody the abilities of a true showman. The guitarist then also remarked how his playing had improved greatly, especially since bandmate Entwistle passed away and Pete needed to fill in for the musical gap John left behind.
The bassist was such an essential force of the Who that it seemed like he would keep an eye on the musical quality of the band’s live sound while his bandmates didn’t have anything to worry about, trusting Entwistle to orchestrate them while performing their stage shows. So, after John’s passing, Pete had to fill in for that spot, and he felt that his playing improved because of that.
The guitarist’s words on touring and filling in for John:
“I’ve got limited choices now [with performing live]. Not just because of my hearing but also because something happens to me when I’m on the stage, particularly when I’ve got an electric guitar in my hand and a great band behind me. The zone I go into is not the same as the zone Carlos Santana goes into.
I become almost like an idiot dancer meets Baryshnikov, meets some great athlete. I start to do things that I shouldn’t be doing, sometimes my guitar gets too loud – but those are the moments that the crowd really seems to adore the most: when I get into this huge, demonstrative, physical display, accompanied by extraordinary guitar-playing
I play so much better today than I did when I was a young man. Maybe the biggest quantum improvement has been since John Entwistle died because he left me the space to fill.”
John was clearly an essential piece of the Who puzzle, especially when it came to live shows, as he was the bridge who maintained the musical quality between his bandmates’ shows, as they were usually busy entertaining the audience. After Entwistle’s passing, Townshend had to fill that spot, and while he kept an eye on the musical quality, the rocker also improved his playing.
