1. Samuel Lawrence Taylor was an American bass guitarist, best known for his work as a member of the blues rock band Canned Heat.
30 Facts About Larry Taylor
1. 2.
Larry Taylor was the younger brother of Mel Taylor, longtime drummer of The Ventures.
3.
Larry Taylor's mother was Jewish and his father was a "WASP" from Tennessee.
4.
Larry Taylor was the younger brother to Mel Larry Taylor, drummer for The Ventures.
5.
Larry Taylor's first exposure to music was through brother Mel, who was a bluegrass guitarist at the time as opposed to the surf rock drummer he was known for.
6.
Larry Taylor switched to bass guitar after seeing local California musician Wesley Reynolds at the Sea Witch club.
7.
Larry Taylor played bass guitar in The Gamblers, one of the first rock groups to play instrumental surf music.
8.
The Gamblers had a local hit in the Los Angeles area with "Moon Dawg" and Larry Taylor played on the recording.
9.
Larry Taylor knew Jerry Lee somehow and told me he was looking for a bass player.
10.
Larry Taylor hired me and I ended up going on the road with Jerry Lee Lewis.
11.
Larry Taylor played bass on the majority of the albums, produced by The Monkees including; The Monkees, More of the Monkees, The Monkees Present, Instant Replay, and Changes.
12.
Larry Taylor was asked to join Canned Heat in 1967 after receiving a phone call from member Henry Vestine to join on bass.
13.
Larry Taylor played with Canned Heat from 1967 to 1970, and appeared with them at various festivals including the Monterey International Pop Festival and Woodstock.
14.
The bands manager, Skip Larry Taylor, gave each member of the band a nickname connected to an animal.
15.
Larry Taylor served the longest tenure as a member of the Bluesbreakers in the 1970s.
16.
In 1972, Larry Taylor joined his brother Mel's band to play on the Ventures album Rock and Roll Forever.
17.
In 1974, Larry Taylor became part of The Hollywood Fats Band led by Mike "Hollywood Fats" Mann.
18.
Fats soon invited Larry Taylor to replace Smith, and the band started touring as "The Hollywood Fats band".
19.
When he left John Mayall in 1977, Larry Taylor started studying playing upright bass.
20.
Larry Taylor became a leading exponent and practitioner of the acoustic upright bass in the contemporary blues scene.
21.
Larry Taylor was quite prominently seen with his upright bass in the live blues film, Lightning in a Bottle.
22.
Larry Taylor started playing upright bass with Rod Piazza, eventually cutting ties with him when Honey Piazza started getting involved as he thought that "she couldn't play" and "she was horrible".
23.
Larry Taylor returned to Canned Heat again for five years in 1987.
24.
Larry Taylor briefly toured with them again from 1996 to 1997.
25.
Larry Taylor was featured in a concert DVD released in winter 2013, from the album Time Brings About A Change by Floyd Dixon.
26.
Larry Taylor played on numerous Tom Waits albums and was the bass player in his touring band.
27.
Larry Taylor appeared with Waits on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Tonight Show, Late Show with David Letterman and a show hosted by Jon Stewart.
28.
Larry Taylor played on ten of Waits' studio albums released between 1980 and 2011.
29.
Larry Taylor died at his home in Lake Balboa, Los Angeles on 19 August 2019 at the age of 77 after a 12-year long battle with cancer.
30.
Larry Taylor was survived by his wife Andrea and their three children.