John Bundrick

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John "Rabbit" Bundrick (born November 21, 1948) is a prominent rock keyboardist, pianist, and organist, having played on albums by The Who, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Roger Waters, Free, and Crawler, among several others. Bundrick is also noted as the principal musician for the cult film The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The Who

Bundrick first worked with Pete Townshend in 1977 when he performed on Rough Mix, Townshend's solo collaboration with Ronnie Lane, former bass player for The Small Faces and The Faces. Bundrick joined The Who in 1979, with another former member of the Faces, drummer Kenney Jones, and played on their album Face Dances. Though briefly alienated from the band during the recording of It's Hard (and the subsequent tour) in favour of keyboardist Tim Gorman, apparently due to disagreements with Townshend about Bundrick's drinking, Bundrick later rejoined the band and has played live with them for about 20 years (though he was notably absent from The Who's well-reviewed performance at The Concert for New York City, the keyboardist spot having been filled by occasional Who keyboardist Jon Carin). Bundrick played on the Who's 2004 recordings Real Good Looking Boy and Old Red Wine, and is playing on their 2006 album WHO2 and their 2006 summer tour.

Kossoff, Kirke, Tetsu and Rabbit

In 1971, Bundrick made this album with guitarist Paul Kossoff, drummer Simon Kirke, and bassist Tetsu Yamauchi. He wrote five tracks for the album. His comments on those tracks are below.

1. Blue Grass - June 6, 1971 - Stockholm, Sweden

This one is really just a play on words and invokes Memories of back home in Texas, where as a kid I used to have southern hillbilly jam sessions in the living room of our house. My Dad played the bass, and would invite his muso buddies over at least twice a week for a good old jam session, and of course they always let me join in on piano, crap as I was in those days. In the lyrics you will hear references to blue grass music, the bayou, playing and singing music, and hidden in there somewhere is a lesson on where Texas men and women's places were in those days. Man is boss, women cook and clean up, and shut up. Honest, that is the way life was back then in Texas. Funny thing is this is all based on the premise that the man is working, and the wife brings up the kids, but it still didn't make the Dad occasionally say to the Wife, "Shit woman, you don't do nothing. I work all day and come home and you ain't doin' shit. Tomorrow go and get a fucking job, woman!" It's true, really, honest. It's all in the lyrics.

2. Sammy's Allright - April 6, 1971 - Stockholm, Sweden

This song has a hidden meaning about my Brother, Sam. He was a fine country and western drummer, had a scholarship In music at college, and was a fully qualified Draughtsman. Then Vietnam and Korea came along, and he got Drafted. It was cool, we thought. He got married real quick before he left for Korea, so he'd have a wife to come home to when it was. Unfortunately though he didn't. She soon absconded off with another man while Sam was fighting for his country. When he did come Home, the War fucked him up, and he lost his scholarship, his Draughtsman's job, and was generally totally fucked from the War. He was a different man on his return. So this song is really dedicated to him and his misfortune. In the lyrics you will read "Hey, people Watch, Someone is Falling!" Well that's Sam. "Rolling around in his Own company." His wife was gone, his job, and his music chances. He was a total wreck, and as the lyric says, "Sam, you must slow down", That was my mind trying to communicate with him from Sweden back to Texas. He must have got the message, cause now he works in a high security prison in Palestine, Texas. He doesn't play drums anymore, and has re-married. Sam is a cool Brother. At the end of the song we all sing, "Sammy's allright, Sammy's allright". And he is now.

3. Fool's Life - September 21, 1971 - Stockholm, Sweden

This is a goodie, and one of my favorites. In the 60's I was a Huge Hippie fan, of the highest order. Hippiness was my business man. I could do the Hippy thing good. Lot's of Acid, wine, speed-balls, downers, joints, the lot. I was straight in there man. This song's lyrics are describing the effects of being on drugs, and the responsibility that you have to accept for the consequences of a bad trip, or whatever fuck up you get from them. It's full of imagery about looking at yourself through the eyes of other People, "You've seen yourself as many." Then it describes the onslaught of a major Acid trip coming on. "If you think you're climbing, just look down." major crash ahead. But you take responsibility. "It's a Fool's life, and a Fool's chance to take." It's full of confusion in the lyrics, stoned dribblings, and also a bit of Fear is in there too, "There's a man with a stick, about to drive the Life out of you." The whole trip is laid out on a colored musical bed of Jazzy type chords and grooves, so it's one of my favs. I still get a contact high when I read the lyrics, taking me all the way back to 1971, Sweden. Brilliant days.

4. Yellow House - October 28, 1970 - Houston, Texas

This is one of my all time favorite Ballads of mine, the other being Muddy Water. Johnny Nash did a great version of this track as well. The song is about a girl, named Johnny, who I stumbled across in Houston in 1967. She was beautiful, gorgeous, and the biggest and best pair of knockers on the Planet. Long beautiful brown hair, curves like an Hour-glass, and againÉthose knockers. Well, I fell in love the second I clapped eyes on her, and she in turn took to me too. So it was nightly visits to her house, which was Yellow, and time spent in her raised off the floor ceiling bed. What a pad.! She lived there all by herself, and even went to Houston University, like I did, occasionally, when I felt like showing up. To cut a long story short, this song is all about her. Why it is so sad is due to the fact that one night when I was making my rounds, I popped into her place without notice to her that I was on my way. I was already out and about, so this time I just thought I'd drop in, unannounced. Shame, shame, shame on me! When I got to her porch I could hear talking, and when I got to her door I could hear another guy's voice inside the house, and they weren't telling jokes either. It was all very passionate and mushy sounding, and my heart just fell to the floor. There I was, standing on this girl's porch, the one that I had fallen in love with, so I just sat down on her porch for an hour or so, feeling totally crushed. Then I went home and wrote Yellow House. I was a Sad Dude.

5. I'm On The Run - January 18, 1971 - Stockholm, Sweden

Here we go Cowboy time again. My roots are in Country and Western Music, and that explains why there's hints of it in a lot of my stuff. This song is definitely Cowboy meets English Hard-man Blues dude. I think that when Rebop Quakubah took me to see Free that year in Stockholm, at their gig in the town, that ever since I heard them, from then on my songwriting in Sweden took on a different outlook. I started writing more dirty and hard. Da-da-da-daaaaaa, Da-da-da-daaaaaa, as the musical intro goes. It's so Free to me. Then I just wrote a Cowboy story line on top of that hard English groove that Encapsulates I'm on the Run, and the whole song just took on a life of its own. Simon and Koss really interpreted it well, although Rodgers never really latched on to it. He had a stab at it, but he didn't really get the message. It would have been a monster track if only Paul had of sung it instead of me. Wow!É.. It's the common story of Bad guy comes into town, throwing his weight Around, and the Sheriff comes to Run him out-a-town.!! Lot's of fun, this track was. Dirty and mean.

Sources

The Who
Roger Daltrey \| Pete Townshend \| John Entwistle \| Keith Moon
Kenny Jones - John "Rabbit" Bundrick - Pino Palladino - Zak Starkey Simon Townshend - Jon Carin - Simon Phillips - Doug Sandom - Colin Dawson
Listings
Discography - Filmography
Other related people
Peter Meaden - Kit Lambert - Chris Stamp

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