Although I shook hands with him once nearly four decades ago, I only really got to know Richard in the last 15 years of his incredible, eventful life. I went to all of his first three clubs — the two in Old Town, and the famous Quiet Knight on Belmont in Chicago — and they were always superior, affordable places to hear great music of all genres. Richard knew, hired, and helped most of the best musicians in blues, rock, jazz and folk music of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s and never got rich doing it, but he always paid and treated his performers decently and they became his friends. Richard’s wealth was in the number of people who will remember and speak well of him, and in the myriad anecdotes of his gruff but kindhearted nature. I hope someone writes a good biography of Richard Harding; his memory deserves no less. Rest in peace, Richard. Here’s the obit from the Chicago Sun-Times:
Owner of the former Quiet Knight club dies
By Dave Hoekstra
Chicago Sun-Times
May 16, 2012
Richard Harding danced to all kinds of music.
The effervescent owner of the Quiet Knight music room was the first to bring Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, the Talking Heads and Jimmy Buffett to Chicago. He loved Bob Marley as much as he loved Miles Davis, all of whom performed at his beloved Quiet Knight, 953 W. Belmont.
Mr. Harding died Saturday of cancer in a suburban hospice. He was 82.
The Quiet Knight ran between 1969-1979 on the second floor of an old brick building that was a short riff from the Belmont L stop.
Los Angeles had the Troubador. Chicago had the Quiet Knight.
Mr. Harding booked Herbie Hancock, John Denver and Arlo Guthrie, while local acts like the Siegel-Schwall blues band were mainstays. Linda Ronstadt (with Don Henley on drums and Glenn Frey on rhythm guitar) headlined the Quiet Knight for five nights in the summer of 1971.
She sang “Long, Long, Time.”
Mr. Harding had previously owned Poor Richard’s, 1363 N. Sedgwick, and the first Quiet Knight at 1311 N. Wells. Andy Warhol’s “Exploding Plastic Inevitable” played for a week in 1966 at Poor Richard’s with special guests The Velvet Underground (minus Lou Reed, who was in the hospital).
“Richard Harding is an era in the music world,” said Corky Siegel, who held a Tuesday night residency with the Siegel-Schwall Band between 1969-1974. “Richard was a happy guy. He worked at it. Maybe he had some depression, but he forced himself to be a happy guy — which is a lesson for all of us.”
Siegel’s first public solo date was in 1974 opening for Muddy Waters at the 400-seat Quiet Knight.
Chicago was the first big city out of the South in which Buffett worked.
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