Steve Knight~Mountain Man

Rhythm N. Bliss · May 05, 2009, 08:34:47 PM

On another forum I started a discussion about Power Trios & surprisingly one of the oldtimers put MOUNTAIN on the list!
Steve Knight is such a good keyboard player that some people don't even notice his playing...even after 40 years of ROCKING with MOUNTAIN. Yes, they formed in 1969~ Let's all celebrate the great contributions of all 4 of this Fab Four this year, their 40th Anniversary!!!!

Here's the news that made me put this in the BASS section--Steve has been playing fretless electric bass since about the mid 70s & has recently taken up upright bass!!
Here's his recent contribution to Felix's site, a timeline of his life:

http://www.pappalardi.com/Steve.html

An interesting life indeed!

Freuds_Cat · May 05, 2009, 10:00:36 PM

I guess similar things happen with bands like GFR and Govt Mule where a keyboard player was introduced later in the timeline.

Rhythm N. Bliss · May 06, 2009, 01:07:43 AM

Listen to their first album. He's on it.

Nantucket Sleighride ain't the same without him.
He shines on the title track & throughout the album.
Later live recordings of Sleighride without him don't compare.

gweimer · May 06, 2009, 06:03:10 AM

Yeah, gotta agree. Knight wasn't as visible as the other three, but he added the textures that fleshed them out. It shows a lot on "Theme From An Imaginary Western"

Highlander · May 06, 2009, 05:51:00 PM

I guess the "Mountain" LP doesn't really count, as that was a West solo pre Mountain, but called "Mountain"... all very confusing... but Mr Knight certainly added to the sound on the next few... they were blaring out of the ipod today...!

Sidetrack slightly, Terr... biggest disapointment for me was the version of TFAIW that Bruce and West did on one of LW's solo sets some years back... I expected great things, but it all fall flat...

Bret... Craig Frost really made the diference with GFR, but how much of an influence was Todd Rundgren with them on the 2 he produced, much like his work with Meatloaf... keep meaning to check out Govt. Mule, especially with the Allman's link...

Dave W · May 06, 2009, 08:35:40 PM

Steve Knight wasn't on Leslie's solo album "Mountain" and IIRC he wasn't there when they first started touring as Mountain, but once the band was formalized, he was there. That's as close to being an original member as you can get.

Rhythm N. Bliss · May 06, 2009, 10:44:31 PM

Wikipedia gives a little more info on SK:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Knight_(musician)

Coool that he's out of politics & back to music now.

bobyoung · May 10, 2009, 10:06:13 PM

He also left before the band broke up, I saw them twice three piece in Worcester, MA sometime during the early 70's. I was a little disappointed he wasn't there but they were still good. How could you compete with a guitarist with a big big sound like Lesley West though? Knight was great on Nantucket Sleighride.