Thank you so much for this! Amazing! I absolutely love Bread! My favorite song of the band is 'Guitar Man' and I once mentioned to my buddy, a long time guitar player, the guitar solo and he said "That guy is amazing!"
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Larry Knechtel, Bassist
- Thread starter Lonnie Knechtel
- Start date
Thank you so much for that, Lonnie! I love hearing these stories. Such a cool life you both lived.
Thanks for sharing all of those historical remembrances about your dad.
He certainly had his hands on a lot of interesting tracks over a long period of time...
He certainly had his hands on a lot of interesting tracks over a long period of time...
Believe it or not that's David Gates playing the funky lead guitar riff while James is singing lead.
That is awesome! Thank you for sharing. That is a heck of a life story.
That was a wonderful post! thanks for taking the time to write it.
What I got out of it was the story of someone who took advantage of every opportunity that crossed their path and was constantly pushing themselves to be better.
What I got out of it was the story of someone who took advantage of every opportunity that crossed their path and was constantly pushing themselves to be better.
IMMusicRulz
Commercial User
Larry Knechtel was an excellent bassist, and an excellent keyboard player too.
Mike Porcaro was very close friends with Larry Knechtel, and Mike once claimed that Larry was an influence on his bass playing.
Mike Porcaro was very close friends with Larry Knechtel, and Mike once claimed that Larry was an influence on his bass playing.
Hi Lonnie, that was a great story of your Dad's long and legendary career in the music business. I was not aware he played on so many iconic records from the 60's and 70's. Looking at his picture brought to mind a TV Christmas Special our family watched starring The Carpenters in about '74 or '75 possibly. The band was playing live as I remember it and it looked like your dad was wearing a fringed suede jacket and playing a natural finish Jazz bass. Perhaps your family saw it as well. It may be up on You-Tube somewhere. Peace and good wishes to you 'brotha 
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That was The Carpenter’s touring bassist Danny Woodhams. Larry Knechtel didn’t play bass with them.
- Steve
- Steve
Lonnie,
Many years ago my Dad told me that your dad played the organ on "whiter shade of pale".
Would you happen to know if he did?
David O.
Many years ago my Dad told me that your dad played the organ on "whiter shade of pale".
Would you happen to know if he did?
David O.
That would be a 'No'... unless Joe was referring to some cover of the tune by a different artist, which I wouldn't know. Matthew Fisher played Hammond organ on the Procul Harum song. He later successfully sued for a portion of the writer's credit on the song since the organ arrangement was a core feature of the song, though one could argue that J.S.Bach deserved some credit as well. It was an interesting precedent, Dad eyed it some because he'd made a similar contribution with his arrangement/performance of Bridge Over Troubled Water, but he didn't pursue it. Taking on Paul Simon would be a tough one.
The Everly Brothers covered it in 1967 which even though I'm a huge Everly fan was never really crazy about but it's got a prominent organ in it. I have a box set at home which I'm sure has all the recording credits on it but it's about 4000 miles away right now. Well I just found out that Don Randi played organ on Bowling Green which was the big song from the album, Dick Glasser was the producer.
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It's got to be the Johnny Rivers cover.
Joe, Hal and Larry. From the "Realizations" album. Makes sense now, as Dad didn't listen to music he wouldn't have known of Procol Harem.
Joe, Hal and Larry. From the "Realizations" album. Makes sense now, as Dad didn't listen to music he wouldn't have known of Procol Harem.
Lovely to find this thread from just a few years ago, Larry Knechtel’s bass playing rules and the stories here are precious.
Little known bass credit and absolute favorite of mine is Simon & Garfunkel’s “America”. It’s one of a couple tracks on Bookends that Larry apparently played keys AND overdubbed bass onto (Mrs Robinson being the other as far as is known). I don’t know how it’s known, but I saw it on a very detailed Paul Simon discography online. A real masterpiece of bass guitar playing / arrangement.
Little known bass credit and absolute favorite of mine is Simon & Garfunkel’s “America”. It’s one of a couple tracks on Bookends that Larry apparently played keys AND overdubbed bass onto (Mrs Robinson being the other as far as is known). I don’t know how it’s known, but I saw it on a very detailed Paul Simon discography online. A real masterpiece of bass guitar playing / arrangement.
