The Who: “My Generation” (Live at Leeds) – John Entwistle’s Isolated Bass (Isolated Bass Week)

Better strap in for this one. John Entwistle really laid it out for this live performance of The Who’s “My Generation” at the Live at Leeds festival in early 1970.

Here’s The Ox in all his glory… isolated bass goodness.

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Share your thoughts

  1. Dear God. This is incredible!

    • Stuart Smith

      AWESOME FLOORING SOUND!!!!!- and he doesn,t even have a Gibson Bass Guitar on this!!!

  2. Love this bassline so much! Used to play it live with my old band, was great fun :)

  3. I love John Enwhistle. That whole album is great.

  4. I wonder if he was useing Sunn or Hiwatt amps on this? :-i

  5. @ chance carrico, he was using Hiwatt Amps and cabs at this gig! This album and this song in particular has defined bass tone for me. NOTHING like an aggressively played and overdriven Precision bass! Perfection.

  6. The unique sound of ‘Frankenstein’ as he called this bass was due to the pickups and wiring from a 66 ‘Slab P Bass’ which he installed into a standard P Bass body. I’m sure the Hiwatts helped though.

  7. Think of the fact this was early 1970. What a genius and bass god. All other groups were just using bass as a fill in and this genius was not just fillings, but leading. Listen to some late 70’s isolated tracks and its obvious the guy was not only the greatest ever, but was the greatest in 1970. Simply brilliant.

  8. I love this album! And his bass cuts through so clean with a bit of dirt in the sound

  9. That was … without a doubt, a jaw-dropping experience. I’ve seen the band so many times, but this J.A.E. isolated bass experience was just extremely great. I’m still in shock.

  10. Once again, all a bass player needs is a good quality P Bass. Entwistle’s sound is nothing less than magnificent at this performance. Many people consider this to be the best live rock album from that, or any other era. The Who, at their peak.

  11. Larry Taylor had a 66 slab body P Bass. They were very rare. He claimed that they had a different ‘ sound from standard Precisions from that era

  12. What can be said!

  13. Now you know why they called him “Thunderfingers”!

  14. After looking through all the comment, I agree with what’s been said about Entwistle’s equipment lineup….just one missing ingredient…RotoSound Swing Bass Strings (.105, .80, .65, .45), which he helped develop with James Howe Industries, back in the mid sixties. Anyways, this was the album that made me want to pick up the bass guitar about 30 years ago! After hearing that crushing tone, and that brilliant performance, I knew that I wanted to do THAT!!!

  15. To appreciate his lines from the leeds gig, you need to understand how he played off of Pete’s guitar and Keith’s drumming. The sum was by far, greater than the individual parts.

  16. Keith

    So complete in every way. Imagine getting to stand beside his amp stack when this went down.

  17. Michelle Rose

    Gawdalmighty! The man’s bass sounds like a sty of giant hogs in heat. I think he was using Hiwatt 200’s, wasn’t he? I can get pretty close to that sound with my Rick and an Ampeg short-stack but there ain’t no way I can play that friggin’ fast.