Customer Reviews

Rigor Mortis Sets in

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John Entwistle s' 1973 follow up album to his best one "Whistle Rymes" is a great Rock & Roll album and in addition to "My Wife", contains a song that could have been a smash hit for him: "Made in Japan". If you have a group and are lookin for a great song to cover, "Made in Japan", coulbe be a great hit for you. "Peg Leg Peggy" is another one to cover. If you are a fan his best solo are this one "Whistle Rymes" and his recent "Life for Dead". Hi also plays in another "lost" cd with Keith Moon, Kenny Jones and Alice Cooper among others "Flash Fearless and the Zorg Women".

This is not the kind of lp you would play over and over for months, but you could plop it down 20 years later and still love it, like I have. That this lp came out when it did - at the height of the Who's touring with excruciating sound levels and in the post-Who's Next popularity explosion - is an interesting aspect. 50's Rock n Roll nostalgia was popping up all over, from Keith Moon's favorites ShaNaNa, the Beatles veering into the same territory during the Get Back period, Led Zep throwing Elvis and Ricky Nelson tunes into their shows, and though John Lennon's Rock N Roll Lp a bit after. Entwistle did them all better, and did it his way. He opens with the rip-roaring demand to Gimme That Rock N Roll, and there is no doubt about what it is he wants. And he wasn't getting it from arena-rock and a festering hippie culture. The jacket - featuring the gravesite and coffin of Rock N Roll (proclaiming it didn't really die, just faded away) tells the story to anyone who was paying attention. Modern 70s Rock, which he was making a fabulous living at, was devoid of all the fun that drew him into it 20 years before.

My Wife and Made In Japan are bookends for this dose of nostalgic Rock n Roll. They are a pair of great tunes and stand out as the only two that are Rock without the Roll, and to that end they fit in production-wise but not in the vibe of the disc. The tunes reflect his dark sense of humor and above all his reverence. He concocts solid doo-wop-ish tunes with lyrics that are downright warped without trashing the form, especially Roller Skate Kate, a classic dead girlfriend tune in the vein of Teen Angel, Tell Laura I Love Her, or Last Kiss. Peg Leg Peggy is a rocking tune, but the lyrics are about the dance stylings of an amputee. As arguably the planets baddest bass player, he tackles the 50s novelty rocker Mr Bassman. He could have ruined the song with a send-up that went overboard or twisted rearranging, but he does it his way which was not too far off the original. But of course that was sung by a girl originally, which he didn't try to send up. Elvis and Little Richard covers were mandatory, and he rips into them with an energy he didn't put on vinyl too often. He is true to the fun of 50s rock but not into a sound-alike vibe, which Keith Moon played around with.

There are a few 50s rock discs by 60s and 70s rock stars who wanted to pay tribute to the oldies, or run away from what was happening musically. This one is maybe the best of them, and a fascinating piece of Entwistle's (and the Who's) work. Great for anyone who wants to understand where the music came from. A great part of his early 70's trilogy, and a lot better than some of the stuff they would crank out a few years later.

After I listened to Entwistle's first solo album, "Smash Your Head Against the Wall," I realised it was a lost gem, and I thought that someone who made an album that great couldn't possibly make something as bad as the critics claimed it was--which goes to show that the critics aren't always wrong. The only worthwhile cuts are a remake of "My Wife" and "Made in Japan." Everything else is lackluster, '50s-style covers or corny, derivative originals, devoid of the black humour you'd expect from a guy who made a classic song out of squishing a spider.

I hoped for send-ups of old tragedy songs (think of those moldy oldies that are begging to be made fun of, like "Teen Angel" or "Last Kiss" or "Leader of the Pack"); the closest it gets is "Peg Leg Peggy" and "Roller-Skate Kate", but there's not enough weirdness or catchiness to make it interesting. There's no hooks that make you want to dig for the humor, and the music itself sounds like half-hearted '50s pop and rock: think "Rock Around the Clock", except that it gets bored and tired with itself at about six o'clock. The originals fare better than the covers, but that doesn't mean much.

It's not out-and-out bad, but it feels an idea with wasted promise. Minus a remake of his contribution to the Who's classic 'Who's Next' and one and a half decent new tracks, there's not much to get into here. Stick with 'Smash Your Head Against the Wall' and 'Whistle Rymes.'