''Rigor Mortis Sets In'' is the third solo studio album by the English

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

musician

John Entwistle John Alec Entwistle (9 October 194427 June 2002) was an English musician, best known as the bass guitarist for the rock band the Who. Entwistle's music career spanned over four decades. Nicknamed "The Ox" and "Thunderfingers", he was the band ...

, who was the bassist for

the Who The Who are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup (1964–1978) consisted of lead vocalist Roger Daltrey, guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon. Considered one of th ...

at that time. Distributed by

Track Records Track Record (a.k.a. Track Records) was founded in 1966 in London by Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, then managers of the rock group The Who. It was one of the first British-owned independent record labels in the United Kingdom. The most succ ...

, the album was named ''John Entwistle's Rigor Mortis Sets In'' in the US. The second album to be co-produced by Entwistle and John Alcock, it consists of two 1950s

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

covers, one 1960s cover, a new version of the Entwistle song "

My Wife My Wife may refer: *My Wife (1918 film), ''My Wife'' (1918 film), an American silent film *''My Wife'', English language title for the 1942 Indian film ''En Manaivi'' *My Wife (1964 film), ''My Wife'' (1964 film), an Italian comedy film *My Wife (so ...

" from

's fifth studio album ''

Who's Next ''Who's Next'' is the fifth studio album by the English rock band the Who, released on 2 August 1971, by Track Records in the United Kingdom and by Decca Records in the United States. It developed from the aborted '' Lifehouse'' project, a m ...

'' (1971), and new tracks (only six of the ten songs were original material). ''Rigor Mortis Sets In'' set in motion Entwistle assembling his own touring band during the increasing periods of the Who's inactivity. Bearing the dedication "In Loving Memory of Rock 'n' Roll 1950–

∞ The infinity symbol () is a List of mathematical symbols, mathematical symbol representing the concept of infinity. This symbol is also called a ''lemniscate'', after the lemniscate curves of a similar shape studied in algebraic geometry, or " ...

: Never Really Passed Away Just Ran Out of Time", Entwistle's affection for 1950s rock and roll was evident by

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

s of

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

's " Hound Dog", and

Little Richard Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American singer, pianist, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as the "Ar ...

's " Lucille". As

George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker and philanthropist. He created the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founded Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairman ...

had released ''

American Graffiti ''American Graffiti'' is a 1973 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by George Lucas, produced by Francis Ford Coppola, written by Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz and Lucas, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat ...

'' (1973) at the same time as ''Rigor Mortis Sets In'' was released, creating a huge market for 1950s nostalgia, Entwistle's timing was uncannily prescient. In Entwistle's original material for the album, light whimsy prevailed over the darker (and more creative) vein of '' Smash Your Head Against the Wall'' (1971) and ''

Whistle Rymes ''Whistle Rymes'' is the second solo studio album by the English rock musician John Entwistle, released on 3 November 1972 by Track Records in the UK and on 4 November 1972 by Decca Records in the US. Entwistle co-produced the album with John Alco ...

'' (1972). The album was completed in less than three weeks, ultimately costing $10,000 in studio time and $4,000 on liquor bills. The

cover art Cover art is a type of artwork presented as an illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product, such as a book (often on a dust jacket), magazine, newspaper ( tabloid), comic book, video game ( box art), music album ( album ar ...

of the

gatefold A gatefold cover or gatefold LP is a form of packaging for gramophone record, LP records that became popular in the mid-1960s. A gatefold cover, when folded, is the same size as a standard LP cover (i.e., a 12½-inch 2.7-centimetresquare). ...

LP features on one cover an outdoor photo of a grave, whose heart-shaped

headstone A gravestone or tombstone is a marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. A marker set at the head of the grave may be called a headstone. An especially old or elaborate stone slab may be called a funeral stele, stela, or slab. The u ...

is engraved with the dedication described above, while the grave's footstone is

inscribed An inscribed triangle of a circle In geometry, an inscribed planar shape or solid is one that is enclosed by and "fits snugly" inside another geometric shape or solid. To say that "figure F is inscribed in figure G" means precisely the same th ...

"V.S.O.P." (a grading acronym for cognac). The opposite cover features a wooden

coffin A coffin or casket is a funerary box used for viewing or keeping a corpse, for burial, entombment or cremation. Coffins are sometimes referred to as caskets, particularly in American English. A distinction is commonly drawn between "coffins" a ...

bearing a brass plate engraved with the album's name. The UK (Track) LP used the coffin on the cover and the gravestone on the inner gatefold, while the US (MCA) LP had the opposite arrangement. CD releases have been fronted with Track's original coffin cover, with the gravestone cover proportionally preserved inside as part of the liner notes. ''Rigor Mortis Sets In'' had a rough launch due to its title and cover art.

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

refused to play the album and banned it, ironically in part due to the influence of

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

(DJ)

Jimmy Savile Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile (; 31 October 1926 – 29 October 2011) was an English media personality and DJ. He was known for his eccentric image, charitable work, and hosting the BBC shows ''Top of the Pops'' and ''Jim'll Fix It''. A ...

who had just suffered a death in his family. The album's US debut was problematic for

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc. established in 1972, though MCA had released recordings under that name in the UK from the 1960s. The label achieved success in the 1970s through the 1980s, often by acquiring other ...

(Track's new American distributor), who insisted on appending the artist's name to the title, out of concern that the album's sales would be weak without the Entwistle name in the title.

Critical reception

The album was considered by

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

to be a "nosedive" in Entwistle's career compared to ''Smash Your Head Against the Wall'' and ''Whistle Rymes''. Critic Donald A. Guarisco opined that the covers of "Hound Dog" and "Lucille" were "so lifelessly performed that it sounds like the band is merely attempting to imitate

Sha Na Na Sha Na Na was an American rock and roll and doo-wop revival group formed in 1969. The group performed a song-and-dance repertoire based on 1950s hit songs that both revived and parodied the music and the New York City street culture of the 1 ...

instead of sending up the original tunes themselves", and noted the cover of

Johnny Cymbal Johnny Cymbal (born John Hendry Blair; February 3, 1945 – March 16, 1993) was an American songwriter, singer and record producer who had numerous hit records, including his signature song, "Mr. Bass Man". Overview During a 33-year career, Cym ...

's "Mr. Bass Man" as having "a self-consciously campy production built on cutesy vocals guaranteed to make listeners grind their teeth". The album was more positively received by John Rockwell of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. In a 1973 article about solo albums released by members of popular bands, Rockwell said that the album found Entwistle "working effectively in a straight-ahead fifties idiom that the Who themselves have long since abandoned."

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians * John Entwistle –

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

, keyboards * Alan Ross –

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

; lead vocals (2) * Jim Ryan –

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

Graham Deakin Graham Deakin (born circa 1950) is an English rock drummer, who was the main drummer for John Entwistle's touring band, Ox, from 1972 until 1977. Deakin had a short spell with The Flys following his departure from Ox. Deakin, who was born in ...

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

(5, 6, 8) *

Tony Ashton Edward Anthony Ashton (1 March 1946 – 28 May 2001) was an English rock pianist, keyboardist, singer, record composer, producer and artist. Early life Born in Blackburn, Lancashire, Ashton spent his formative years in the seaside town of Blac ...

– keyboards,

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

, piano * Bryan Williams –

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

electric organ An electric organ, also known as electronic organ, is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally designed to imitate their sound, or orchestral sounds, it has since develop ...

(6, 8) *

Howie Casey Howard William Casey (born 12 July 1937) is a British rhythm and blues and rock saxophonist. He came to prominence in the early 1960s as a member of Derry and the Seniors, the first rock and roll band from Liverpool to play clubs in Germany, a ...

–

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

(1, 3, 4) * Members of the Ladybirds: ** Gloria George –

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

** Maggie Stredder – backing vocals ** Marian Davies – backing vocals Technical * John Entwistle – producer * John Alcock – producer * Mike Weighell – engineer

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1973 albums John Entwistle albums Track Records albums Albums produced by John Entwistle