David Hentschel On Creating Elton's "Funeral For a Friend"

[@TheChaziv62]

I emailed David about 20 years ago and asked him about recording the intro to Funeral for a Friend. He was so nice. I really never expected him to reply but he did! To paraphrase what he told me...Recorded on the ARP 2500 1 note at a time, manually controlling the filter. I love to crank up the stereo and play that intro. One of my favorite synth pieces ever!

[@2beepboy232]

thanks for sharing how it was recorded! I was hoping the interview would go there....

[@ronnieciago]

GREAT interview ! I had the opportunity to Perform Drums with David Hentschel as well as record with him. He produced the Brand X "Manifest Destiny". I played multi percussion on that record. David has engineered & produced so many of my favorite records !

[@douglasstruthers8307]

Elton's "Funeral For A Friend / Love Lies Bleeding" are absolute classic rock songs. Live, the song is truly epic. Great interview with David Hentschel.

[@astrosjer822]

A classic classic rock opening track. Just stunning

[@PeterMayer]

I got it as a Christmas present 1973. From my brother. I was like, eh... At First... I couldn't get enough of it after that.

[@eileenryan2248]

GYBR is my favorite Elton album.

[@gregsaltis1661]

I remember back in the day when I saw David's name as the producer on Trick of the Tail I thought, Oh, the Funeral For A Friend guy. You really get some great interview subjects.

[@paddyotable]

My cousin bought the album when it came out and I got to hear it on his expensive Pioneer stereo. Quite an experience.

[@Ashfaq1999]

Great video. David also did a great job on the soundtrack to the film The Squeeze from 1977.

[@caryheuchert]

Great to hear David’s insights and recollections. I hope you can interview Davey Johnstone sometime in the future. He is such a virtuoso guitar and mandolin player, both with EJ and his previous band, Magna Carta.

[@RockHistoryMusic]

I have reached out to Davey but have not heard back. I will continue to try. I have not reached out to Nigel...now that's something I should do...John. Thanks BTW.

[@leighfoulkes7297]

The more I think about it the more I feel that this is the greatest Rock song of all time and it is one that will never get old for me.

[@chucko5006]

I have loved the whole album since it came out, but especially Funeral for a Friend. It is timeless and truly a work of art in my opinion. I have thought many times about having it played at my own funeral but I don’t think the church would play it as loud as I want. 😊

[@baward]

The multi-channel version of this is amazing! Surrounding the listener with those sweet Arp tones.

[@tinostabile3256]

Hi John, Great interview. Yep, my favorite Elton album and favorite opus. I always admired the synth intro and I am not surprised of the role he played. Thank you and stay safe Tino

[@Bacteriod]

I believe David was also credited for the "ewwwwwwe" in the chorous of "Misunderstanding" from Duke by Genesis.

[@Robert44444444]

Jesus… Elton's albums from this era were a HUGE part of my growing up. Instead of talking about using monophonic analog synths and which ones (ARP 2500, etc) to create that monstrous polyphonic classical organ-type arrangement with very ballsy brass tones… we get lame ass questions that don't really give a lot of insight into what musicians would want to know. There has not been a piece quite like what David did here at the beginning of Funeral For A Friend on any other pop record that I know of… and AGAIN the synths (not string machines… synths) of the day were all monophonic… so more insight to his process of performing and recording this "intro" would have been awesome… opportunity missed.

[@Heathaze813]

Agreed. I was hoping to hear how he created it.

[@analogsynthplayer]

due to the fact that they were mono synths there would've been a lot of multi track going on and it would've been wonderful to hear how he layered all of that and remember this came years before 10 cc did I'm not in love, which had multiple layering of vocals and synths

[@davidkyle2073]

As much as a I adore Elton’s music, it always bothered me that Elton never learned to play Hentschel’s synth intro to play in his solo piano concerts.

[@acarouselofantics]

I love that Elton John song. It is great to hear the story behind it.

[@PeterMayer]

Everybody over looks grey seal.

[@LeeLucas]

It's such a GREAT! double album and one of the best double albums ever made and "Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" just has to be my personal favourite track on the album. I love the chord progression in the piece and it ROCKS! better than anything Elton had ever done in his life before including "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting'". Your right it does very much step into prog rock as well and does perhaps fit that genre in relation to the rest of the tracks on the album though no doubt there has always been some excellent progression in Elton's songs. The album contains so many GREAT! songs and I was wondering if the movie connection had anything to do with "I've Seen That Movie Too".

[@alanhealy1885]

Check out David's work on Operation Daybreak and Educating Rita.

[@pluggy86]

Couldn't find a place for general comments, which is why I'm off topic. Are you considering doing anything about CSNY?

[@RockHistoryMusic]

David, great idea. I just talked to photographer Henry Diltz who talked about them a lot.

[@fandru5538]

As we all know, it happened with many records by great artists or bands, but I am still asking myself why this guy didn't get any official credit for his work. Obviously, he did a lot more than producing and playing some keyboards. Nevertheless the song is only credited to Elton and Bernie.

[@komergrowl7963]

He IS credited on all the albums he was on, as engineer. You would know this if you owned any of those records or cd's

[@komergrowl7963]

He was NOT the producer (the host mis-spoke when he said that in the intro). He was the ENGINEER

[@sspbrazil]

Half of this album is excellent, the other half is really weak. It should have been a single album.