John Douglas "Rabbit" Bundrick (born November 21, 1948) is a prominent American-born 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 noted as the principal musician for the cult film The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and also composes and records solo albums.
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Biography
Bundrick was born in Texas and for many years toured and recorded with fellow Texan, vocalist Johnny Nash. Bundrick played on Nash's hit single and album "I Can See Clearly Now".
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 Small Faces and Faces. He was invited to play on the Who Are You album, but broke his arm falling out of a taxi at the studio door and was unable to participate in the recording. Bundrick toured with The Who in 1979-1981, 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 (he performed with them at Live Aid in 1985) and has played live with them for over 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 their 2006 album Endless Wire and the 2006 summer and fall portions of The Who Tour 2006-2007. John sat out the start of the second leg of the North American portion of the tour due to the illness of his wife Sue. According to Pete Townshend, Sue was "very close to the end, and [Rabbit] will be back with us when she's gone." Sue died on 9 April 2007, and her funeral was held on 19 April, in the West Country. Until his return, his keyboard tech, Brian Kehew, took over keyboard and piano duties for the tour.
Kossoff, Kirke, Tetsu and Rabbit
In 1971, Bundrick made the Kossoff, Kirke, Tetsu and Rabbit album with guitarist Paul Kossoff, drummer Simon Kirke, and bassist Tetsu Yamauchi. He wrote five tracks for the album.
Selective discography
- 1971 Kossoff, Kirke, Tetsu and Rabbit
- 1972 Johnny Nash - I Can See Clearly Now
- 1975 The Rocky Horror Picture Show
- 1977 Townshend & Lane - Rough Mix
- 1981 The Who - Face Dances
- 1988 Dream Jungle
- 2006 The Who - Endless Wire
Sources
- www.rabbitwho.com - John Rabbit Bundrick official website
- John "Rabbit" Bundrick gives students music lessons at Somerset school
- John "Rabbit" Bundrick biography
- Roger Waters discography: Amused to Death
- John "Rabbit" Bundrick profile on allmusic
- Bob Marley discography: Catch a Fire
- The Who History on thewho.net
- It's Hard liner notes on thewho.net
- The Who discography: Then and Now!
- The Who Concert Guide: see sections on 1979-2005
- The Who Location Guide
- The Who Discussion Forum
- Pete Townshend's Web Site
- ASCAP.com lists his songwriting credits
