John Entwistle 5: Too Late The Hero

A lot had changed in the Who world since John Entwistle’s last solo album, and with those albums mostly forgotten, he gladly took the money offered via the band’s latest deals to surface with another. Too Late The Hero was more in line than the occasional song he’d given to the last few Who albums, and pointedly free of gimmicks. It also helped that the band consisted of him, plus Joe Walsh on all the guitars—and there are a lot of them—with Walsh crony Joe Vitale on drums, lending to a lean, tight, cohesive mix throughout.

Right up to date, “Try Me” begins with a riff slightly pinned synthesizer bed under a clever chorus. Six years made a big difference, as his voice is noticeably huskier, but he can still harmonize with himself. A more aggressive riff drives “Talk Dirty”, with nicely layered vocals—not too dissimilar from Pete Townshend’s solo work—that the chorus doesn’t quite pay off. “Lovebird” almost qualifies as sensitive, a regretful farewell to an affair. Humor returns on the otherwise ordinary “Sleeping Man”; it doesn’t help that the vocals are mixed too low to catch all the words, but that’s why they print lyrics on inner sleeves. “I’m Coming Back” is another “life on the road” song; he’s done better, but Ray Davies did more, some of which were worse.

The disco thump of “Dancing Master” (or “Dancin’ Master”, depending whether you read the back cover or the record label) forebodes nothing good except lengthy dueling bass solos that invite Joe along for few bars. The mildly cautionary “Fallen Angel” follows his familiar trope of changing chords over the same single bass note, but the key change helps. “Love Is A Heart Attack” begins with his other trope, the descending and ascending chromatic scale, but this time it’s over the Walsh-Vitale pulse, and it’s generally more interesting than all that, even if the metaphor isn’t very thought out. But the majestic title track makes up for all the shortcomings. From the chords to the lyrics, with the verses, choruses, bridges, and coda all of the same high quality, this may be his greatest-ever song (“Boris The Spider” and “My Wife” notwithstanding).

Considering we hadn’t expected much, Too Late The Hero is surprisingly enjoyable, and only dated where noted. Moreover, it’s an excellent showcase for Joe Walsh in between Eagles albums and his own solo career.

He’s not on any of the demos included as bonus tracks on the eventual reissue, but we are going to assume that’s Kenney Jones on the drums, since he was thanked for his help on the original back cover. Four of those are runthroughs for the album, but “Love Is A Heart Attack” is a completely different, and superior tune. There’s also a gothic “Overture”, performed on piano and synthesizers, that may or may not be from the project that gave us “905”. It’s another example of his classical training, and a shame he didn’t pursue it more.

John Entwistle Too Late The Hero (1981)—3
2006 Sanctuary reissue: same as 1981, plus 5 extra tracks