"Boris the Spider" is a song written by The Who's bassist, John Entwistle. It appears as the second track of their 1966 album, A Quick One. This song is claimed to be John's first composition.[1] The song was a live staple. This song, "My Wife" and "The Quiet One" were John's biggest songs to perform live (in fact, "The Quiet One" was written to replace this song and "My Wife", which John had become tired of singing).[2] Though this song was popular, it was never released as a single in the USA and the UK. In Japan, Boris the Spider was released as the b-side to "Whiskey Man" in 1967.
"Boris the Spider" was written after Entwistle had been out drinking with Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman. They were making up funny names for animals when Entwistle came up with "Boris the Spider". The song was written by John in 6 minutes and is considered a horror song.[3]
The chorus of "Boris the spider" was sung in basso profundo by John Entwistle (which possibly helped give birth to the "Death growl"), with a middle eight of "creepy crawly" sung in falsetto. These discordant passages and the black comedy of the theme made the song a stage favourite and it was the only song from that album which lasted throughout the Who's live career.[4]
According to Pete Townshend in his song-by-song review of Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy for Rolling Stone, it was Jimi Hendrix's favourite Who song.
[edit] Citation
- ^ http://www.thewho.com/index.php?module=discography&discography_item_id=61&discography_tag=albums
- ^ www.thewho.net. Face Dances Liner Notes. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
- ^ http://www.thewho.net/articles/townshen/crawdaddy_71.htm
- ^ Chris Charlesworth, Ed Hanel (2004), The Who: the complete guide to their music, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KtyN6UvsXRQC&pg=PA21
