Tuesday, September 1, 2009

RIP Larry Knechtel

When I started this blog, I didn't think I'd be doing so many "In Memoriam" posts, but there you go, the future always remains unpredictable. Today we acknowledge the passing of Larry Knechtel, session musician extraordinaire, who contributed to so many songs in the sixties and seventies that it would be impractical to list even a portion of them. But that's what a session musician does, play sessions, hitting about three a day on average, if the work is there. Do that a few years and you've done thousands of recording sessions. Some of them may be big hits.

Another distinguishing characteristic of the best session musicians is versatility, the ability to be proficient on several instruments. For instance, you probably wouldn't guess that the same person who played the prominent bass part on this song also did the prominent piano part on this song (in fact the piano is almost the only instrument for the first two-thirds of the song). I certainly didn't know it. So take a moment to remember Larry Knechtel, who wasn't famous enough to have his death make headlines on August 20, but whose work you've probably been hearing all your life.

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