Thank you! He is not exactly a household name, yet his bass lines are very well-known. I suppose, like most musicians, that's the way he would have wanted it!
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John Klingberg
- Thread starter fearceol
- Start date
I was listening to some cuts from Moondance and it brought back memories from a long time ago when I met John in Boston....in or around 1967. He was playing with a band named "Third-World Raspberry". (There was a show/revue by that name and I believe they were the band for same.) Their "thing" was that their entire gig/show was played non-stop....no breaks between songs, no rests.
I was a writer for a local music mag --also a long time guitar player--and met John and his band mates a number of times. An old friend was managing them. One time I visited them in their apartment in Boston..... It was a real rat's nest in a very tough section of the city. John was a quiet, reserved young man of gentle demeanor. The cliche at the time...and probably still holds true: if you want a good interview with a band, talk to the bass player...the 'sanest' member of the group. I also recall that John was once a student at Berkeley.... Then a very small school in Boston' s Back Bay.
I did lose track of John and his band...(it was the 60’s!).... Then, one day, I was in an apartment...in another tough section of the city.... a few month's later and there was a band living on the floor above. I learned it was Van Morrison and his new band.... he had relocated to Boston after leaving his "Gloria" genre behind. I recall they kept going over the same few bars for what seemed a hundred times. I cannot recall the song, but I would bet that Morrison had met John in Boston .....and the rest, as the adage goes.......is history.
Hi Rachel...and others...
Just another cousin of yours...I see Tom (my cousin as well) weighed in earlier and you were surprised there were others on your dad's side...
John was always known as Uncle Jackie to us...not really sure why. Anyway, I last saw him and aunt Robin (sounds funny doesn't it?) and a brand new baby (that would be your brother?) in 1971 when he came out to Arizona to visit his parents and my mother. I was not yet 10. He had given me a Harmony starburst guitar that he had used which I had for many years. He had come out a few more times up until he passed but I was overseas at the time.
The correct spelling of the town he lived in growing up is McHenry, Ill....the last house being located in a neighborhood called Mineral Springs. I've looked it up recently on Google street view and it's still there...I doubt the owner knows the significance of their home!
As Tom mentioned, his dad was Arthur Klingberg and his mother Margaret Klingberg...maiden name Heggeman (may have the spelling wrong). As far as musical talent in the family, John was the only professional level musician there was that I'm aware of. Tom didn't let on but I've been told he played drums very well in school... I've played drums and bass in a local garage band but I'm really a hack at it. None of the talent flowed this way...
John's brothers/sisters were Tom (not Nephew Tom), Shirley and Carole...himself being the youngest. They have all passed on at this point. His age when he passed was always related to me as 34. I'm one of 2 sons and 1 daughter of Carole, so you have 4-5 living cousins. I've lost contact with my aunt and cousin in Illinois, so I'm uncertain how they are.
Oklahoma was interesting to me as I've always understood that he finished out his years in New Mexico. Not a lot of info flowed this way as there were years we didn't hear anything about him.
Good to see something come back on my web searches...every few years I type in his name to see if anyone remembers the guys that are behind the big names. It's been thin until recently... Thanks for posting as it fills in a lot of those missing years...
Hopefully between Tom and myself, you have enough information to trace out his (and your) roots if you're interested...
And others should be able to root out his early history if they wish to document it...
Nice to meet ya!
Roger
Just another cousin of yours...I see Tom (my cousin as well) weighed in earlier and you were surprised there were others on your dad's side...
John was always known as Uncle Jackie to us...not really sure why. Anyway, I last saw him and aunt Robin (sounds funny doesn't it?) and a brand new baby (that would be your brother?) in 1971 when he came out to Arizona to visit his parents and my mother. I was not yet 10. He had given me a Harmony starburst guitar that he had used which I had for many years. He had come out a few more times up until he passed but I was overseas at the time.
The correct spelling of the town he lived in growing up is McHenry, Ill....the last house being located in a neighborhood called Mineral Springs. I've looked it up recently on Google street view and it's still there...I doubt the owner knows the significance of their home!
As Tom mentioned, his dad was Arthur Klingberg and his mother Margaret Klingberg...maiden name Heggeman (may have the spelling wrong). As far as musical talent in the family, John was the only professional level musician there was that I'm aware of. Tom didn't let on but I've been told he played drums very well in school... I've played drums and bass in a local garage band but I'm really a hack at it. None of the talent flowed this way...
John's brothers/sisters were Tom (not Nephew Tom), Shirley and Carole...himself being the youngest. They have all passed on at this point. His age when he passed was always related to me as 34. I'm one of 2 sons and 1 daughter of Carole, so you have 4-5 living cousins. I've lost contact with my aunt and cousin in Illinois, so I'm uncertain how they are.
Oklahoma was interesting to me as I've always understood that he finished out his years in New Mexico. Not a lot of info flowed this way as there were years we didn't hear anything about him.
Good to see something come back on my web searches...every few years I type in his name to see if anyone remembers the guys that are behind the big names. It's been thin until recently... Thanks for posting as it fills in a lot of those missing years...
Hopefully between Tom and myself, you have enough information to trace out his (and your) roots if you're interested...
And others should be able to root out his early history if they wish to document it...
Nice to meet ya!
Roger
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1978 Ocean Breeze Park in Jensen Beach, FL I met my neighbor John Klingberg who informed me that he missed the recording session for Van Morrison Moondance and had to return and dub it in at a later date. I saw the 2009 posts last year but did not contribute to the ancient thread until I recently reconnected with my roommate that i lived with at the cottage. Thought someone might find this interesting. George
Just a burned-out bassist living the corporate life trying to get back in the game by re-learning many, many musical fundamentals a bassist must know instinctually (as a guitarist) to play well:
Peace.
- I have been listening to Moondance for 40 years. John Klingberg was a superbly gifted musician. He did not need to study theory to know how to play; he just did. I am not as gifted; I do need to know theory, and currently can't make the time for it. Mr. Klingberg was 1 in 100,000; perhaps 1 in 1,000,000...
- Check out an old Fender Precision with half-rounds and an AMPEG SB-12 Flip-Top Bass amplifier; knock down the treble settings, and you'll soon sound like an upright player; and a decent copy of Mr. Klingberg's sound on the Moondance album. Mr. Klingberg's pure genius.
Peace.
That is indeed as good a recipe and description of the faux upright sound we've all heard on bazillions of recordings. Since some random sets of flatwounds in the '60's were more like half rounds than the well polished flats of today..the half round is a good choice now if the more precise flatwound sound doesn't do ya". I love halfrounds on my fretless P. As far as the music theory goes, well the man played some jazz trumpet and had hung out with some pretty hip '60's Berklee students who went on to be quite well known, even now. So John had to be aware of and understand the overtone series, inversions, chord extensions, ect.
EdwardofHuncote
I Still Dream of Jeannie
- Aug 21, 2013
- 6,644
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- 16,407
- Disclosures
- I privately own and operate a local musical instument repair shop.
I stumbled upon this thread after learning "Into the Mystic" for an upcoming gig, but found the bass parts fascinating. Had no idea who played them, but just *had* to find out and listen more. Reading this whole thread was both sad and heart-warming. I'm going to get a copy of "Moondance" and study hard.
Apologies for taking so long to reply, Roger, and everyone else. I used to receive alerts whenever there were new posts to this thread but my spam filter must have been halting them for the last year - I wish I had seen this sooner!
It's great to have the family information, thank you. I knew there was one other cousin besides Thomas but glad to find out I have 4-5. My father was quite a bit younger than his siblings so I really did not think there were many relatives on his side, but thanks to Thomas' family tree, which he shared with me on Ancestry dot com, I've learned a bit more.
I will send your post to my mother, I'm sure she'll get a kick out it!
It's great to have the family information, thank you. I knew there was one other cousin besides Thomas but glad to find out I have 4-5. My father was quite a bit younger than his siblings so I really did not think there were many relatives on his side, but thanks to Thomas' family tree, which he shared with me on Ancestry dot com, I've learned a bit more.
I will send your post to my mother, I'm sure she'll get a kick out it!
Thanks so much for sharing all this - those who knew my father and those who were inspired by his music. It's very kind of you to take the time to post these comments. I will send them to my mom and my brother, I know they'll enjoy reading them. Also I will copy and paste them all and save them to my Google Drive so I will have them in a more permanent location.
Once again, sorry for the delayed response, my e-mail account apparently has been blocking my alerts to updates for the past year, but I've added talkbass.com to the approved senders list so I should see any future updates as they are posted.
Once again, sorry for the delayed response, my e-mail account apparently has been blocking my alerts to updates for the past year, but I've added talkbass.com to the approved senders list so I should see any future updates as they are posted.
Oh, just saw this one as well. Yes, I've heard about this time from my mom, that is where my father and Van Morrison first met. An author writing on Van Morrison sent me some early photos, from even before Third World Raspberry, he played trumpet for a singer called Dario, and another band called Randy and the Soul Survivors. It's funny to see these old photos, which I have attached. Everyone looks so clean-cut, a very difference music scene than just a few years later. (if I have previously posted this, sorry for re-posting, it's been 7 years since I first joined this thread!)
I know he had a collapsed lung, that may have made playing the trumpet difficult, this also made him ineligible for the draft. I don't know if he switched to bass for that reason, because he preferred it, or because that's where the work was, but at one time he was a trumpet player.
As far as they neighborhoods, sure, money was tight in those days when my parents were first married, they were still quite young. They lived in at least one squat in Boston, with other young people in similar circumstances. It was such a different time, people my age simply cannot imagine the boundary between the older generation's status quo and the younger generation's striving for all these things we now take for granted. Not just the big issues like the Vietnam War and Civil Rights and sexual liberation, but even minor things like wearing your hair long or jeans instead of a suit... no one would even notice such things today, but men were harassed and even arrested for simply having long hair.
Hard to believe that the world has changed so much in just a few generations!
I know he had a collapsed lung, that may have made playing the trumpet difficult, this also made him ineligible for the draft. I don't know if he switched to bass for that reason, because he preferred it, or because that's where the work was, but at one time he was a trumpet player.
As far as they neighborhoods, sure, money was tight in those days when my parents were first married, they were still quite young. They lived in at least one squat in Boston, with other young people in similar circumstances. It was such a different time, people my age simply cannot imagine the boundary between the older generation's status quo and the younger generation's striving for all these things we now take for granted. Not just the big issues like the Vietnam War and Civil Rights and sexual liberation, but even minor things like wearing your hair long or jeans instead of a suit... no one would even notice such things today, but men were harassed and even arrested for simply having long hair.
Hard to believe that the world has changed so much in just a few generations!
Attachments
I read the thread and thought the town in IL may be misspelled as my father is from McHenry, IL, and Woodstock, IL, which as a child, I thought was of Yasgur's fame. Haven't been to McHenry since about 1983, but still have some relatives in the area.
And may I say, as someone who just had the joy of playing Into The Mystic last month at a gig, and who did a few classes at Berklee, John's line hit the four T's brilliantly. Time, tone, timbre, taste; with it being especially tasteful and defining the elegance of simplicity for me. I hope I did it justice having gained an even greater respect for John's bass playing after reading through this thread.
Thank you for your bassist's perspective, not being a bassist or even a musician myself, it's interesting to learn how musicians approach it. It's justifiably one of the more popular songs on the album and the bass intro is familiar to many just from the first few bars. But I especially love the way the vocals and horns and everything comes together, yet still distinctive individually, it's a song with a lot of soul.
Out of curiousity I Googled it and quite a few famous musicians have covered it. Into the Mystic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I can't imagine Joe Cocker's version, I'll have to search for that one!
EdwardofHuncote
I Still Dream of Jeannie
- Aug 21, 2013
- 6,644
- 2
- 16,407
- Disclosures
- I privately own and operate a local musical instument repair shop.
Just dropping back in... I listened to the whole Moondance album several times through last night on a long drive home from a gig. Seems each time I listen to those bass parts, something else I hadn't noticed before pops out. It's quite humbling actually... in a good way.
I have been listening to the Moondance album a fair bit in the car of late. I believe that it is the most "bass forward" album that I have heard. The bass is very forward and prominent in the mix. On pretty much every song. Not many albums are recorded/played like that. Has anyone noticed this before.
I am a huge fan of Mr. Klingberg's playing on this album...a treasure.
I am a huge fan of Mr. Klingberg's playing on this album...a treasure.
The two albums that have been part of my regular diet for healthy bass nutrition for the last year are "Moondance" and "His Band and the Street Choir", both of which feature John Klingberg on bass. Can't get enough of this stuff!
He's also a big part of the reason why I play a Fender Jazz with flats.
I am sorry I missed your replies - I have an e-mail alert set up on this thread but my spam filter isn't cooperating.
It is a real pleasure to read your comments and especially the one about being a "bass forward" album. I happen to think the opening bass notes of Moondance are one of the most recognizable bass tracks in American music history - but of course, I do have an inherent bias
Thank you for posting here and letting me know the memory of my father's talent persists!
I played Moondance at a wedding this past weekend. It was the major theme of the wedding and the couple's first dance together. It was actually a full moon that night, not by coincidence I'm sure. I was thinking about this thread at the time, and inspired by John's original performance.
/rick
/rick
It is such a romantic album, in the general sense of relating to human relationships as well as the more 19th century sense of Romanticism as a cultural movement. My favorite is Into the Mystic but there are so many gems on that album. Van's lyrics are pretty amazing but what I love about the album is how the ensemble musicians work together so seamlessly. The so-called "Band and Street Choir."
I haven't noticed too many ensemble bands of late. Not since the early 80s, really. Maybe it takes a lot of practice to get a good sound with that many musicians.
I found this exerpt from Had Me a Real Good Time: The Faces Before During and After By Andy Neill
This is in reference to Ronnie Lane from the Faces.
