How Good of a Bassist Was John Entwistle?

OK.. well, when I hear someone say either.. I can tell you right off... they might "play" Bass.. but they know nothing of the instrument? Many are Metalheads who just cannot believe superior musicians exist anywhere outside of Metal, others are just n00bz who hate the Who, or the like.

Anyone with the least bit of ability to be objective, even if they don't care for the style Entwistle played would have to recognize the technical brilliance and improv of the man. He was the guy who wrote the book on bass playing that other guys like Cliff Burton later used to found their own styles.

Others who bash are often Jazz Fusion snots, who confuse the usually busy style of playing in Jazz with actually being "superior". Which is akin to saying because Malmsteen fits a million notes a minute into his stuff he is the best guitarist ever. Simply not so. There are many fine and even GREAT bassists in Jazz, make no mistake (Jaco, anyone?) but first and foremost in being a GREAT musician is playing music that FITS the rest of the band. The overly busy stylings of Jazz would not fit most Rock and Metal songs.

Also, you have some Metalheads who think that Bass starts and ends with Cliff Burton ( who IS my favorite Metal bassist, but still...) and John Myung, and refuse to look at any others.

Basically..it's simple ignorance and n00bery that is amplified by the anonymity provided by the internet. Any fool can SAY they play bass, Keys, guitars, etc..but usually their answers prove them to be full of crap.

Exhibit A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVl39LBZGMw

Any fool who says he is boring and talentless after that, is a lost cause.

John Paul Jones must be My standard out of the two for 3 motives. a million i like Led Zeppelin greater effective useful than The Who 2 Entwistle must be a greater physically powerful useful Bassist, yet John Paul Jones is a miles greater effective useful all around Musical Virtuoso 3 Jonesey's Mellotron, Keyboard, and String arrangements quite made diverse of Zep's perfect songs.

He's not a good bassist at all.

He's an AMAZING bassist. And I'm not over-exaggerating. The people who say he's "boring" and "talentless" are probably exactly what they call him, just trying to alleviate the guilt from their own sorry selves.

Every talented person is boring to somebody.

Some people find Freddie Mercury to be boring, Entwistle is in the top 10 all time for me.

One of the best ever, and the bassists who think he was 'talentless" are probably talentless themselves, or 14 years old and dont' know any better.

Try to imagine My Generation without Entwhistle's bass.

He was the best #1.

Followed by Chris Squire - Yes

Almost as good as Geddy Lee and Chris Squire!

Almost.

'I am a drummer, Neil Peart is a n00b'

'I am a guitarist. Jimi Hendrix knew nothing about guitars'

How difficult was that?

He was one of the best ever