Yet Another Cycling Forum
Off Topic => The Pub => Arts and Entertainment => Topic started by: Ruthie on 25 February, 2024, 10:45:44 am
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The most-played playlist on my ‘phone is called ‘Nice Bit o’ Harmonica’. It gets augmented every so often, when something takes my fancy, and every track is top quality.
It struck me this morning that Roxy Music made sublime use of the oboe, IMHO a stringed instrument - because it twangs those emotional strings and subtly layers the atmosphere of any piece of music of any genre.
So. Anyone else do this? And do I need an ‘Oh! Bow!’ Playlist now? What’s an unusual use of a non-guitar in a pop song?
(In case you’re interested:
Theme from Midnight Cowboy by John Barry
Cuckoo by Christof
Misguided Angel by Cowboy Junkies
Natural Beauty by Neil Young
Unnecessary Drama by Belle and Sebastian.
All suggestions welcome!)
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Flute for e.g. Canned Heat's “Going Up The Country” or divers early-ish Hawkwind tracks when Nik Turner wasn’t blasting away on the Adolph Sax-o-Phone.
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cf Jethro Tull.
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And, or so I've read, Peter Gabriel's “Solsbury Hill” although it sounds to me like a synth doing a rather poor impression of a flute.
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Music for a found harmonium.
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Ocarina on Wild Thing (Troggs).
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The guy playing on the Midnight Cowboy theme is Toots Thielemans, and if you're a fan of the harmonica, anything by him is worth a listen. He was also featured on Paul Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years" album: https://youtu.be/ILGsLlS7stw?si=v_qNQxT31skrxBXo
Another contender: Stevie Wonder's first ever hit as a 12-year-old featured some impressive harmonica playing: https://youtu.be/k3ubgVjp3CY?si=E-jI1d1QF4n8gmZZ
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Scarlet Rivera's violin on “Rolling Thunder Revue” era tracks by His Bobness.
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Mandolin in Losing my Religion, Battle for Evermore, Maggie May
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Scarlet Rivera's violin on “Rolling Thunder Revue” era tracks by His Bobness.
I was reminded of this recently as I listened to “Desire”
I’m quite partial to the occasional saxophone interlude. Gerry Rafferty and David Bowie tracks com3 to mind.
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There’s great use of cello on All Apologies by Nirvana.
https://youtu.be/Ba_08WWIWV8?si=C-0vdDLTPSDwmyaN
Completely agree re Roxy Music and the oboe, by the way.
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I still fondly remember Mike Vickers' flute playing on Manfred Mann's Without You from about 1964. It seemed so out of place at the time.
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In the early 1990s there was a BBC/RTE tv series called Bringing It All Back Home, about the influence of Irish music in America. One of my favourite tracks is Lakes Of Pontchartrain performed by the Hothouse Flowers. This has an impressive saxophone solo, the uillean piper must have stepped out for a drink!
Doesn't seem to be on Spotify but can be heard here (https://youtu.be/YjHwWWm79iA?si=oehxWbQCiIxRAksn) .
Solo starts after 3m21s for the impatient!
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We saw these two a year or so ago. Unusual use of a violin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqOPoAnUJkc
Garrick told me he could replace a violin string in 30secs (in response to a question about how much damage he did to his violin during a concert).
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A shout-out goes to the double bass*.
*Whenever someone comes into my house and sees my bass on its stand, or if I mention to
someone that I play a double bass, they always (100% of those occasions) ask me
if I play in a band. Not once has someone asked me if I play in an orchestra.
Either they don't know what an orchestra is, or they don't think I look posh enough to play in one.
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Accordion in "This is the Day" (The The)
Jimmy Lea of Slade used violin
Electric Light Orchestra also come to mind
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Jacques DuTronc's superb Il est cinq heures, Paris s'éveille was originally recorded without the flute but found to be a bit flat, whereupon they called in the classical flautist Roger Bourdin, who added an improvised solo in a single 10-minute recording session. He most often played Bach.
https://youtu.be/7whXkifG_ms?si=xrmPigGKM8puImwP
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A shout-out goes to the double bass*.
*Whenever someone comes into my house and sees my bass on its stand, or if I mention to
someone that I play a double bass, they always (100% of those occasions) ask me
if I play in a band. Not once has someone asked me if I play in an orchestra.
Either they don't know what an orchestra is, or they don't think I look posh enough to play in one.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Thierry Amar uses both a double bass and electric bass guitar.
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A shout-out goes to the double bass*.
*Whenever someone comes into my house and sees my bass on its stand, or if I mention to
someone that I play a double bass, they always (100% of those occasions) ask me
if I play in a band. Not once has someone asked me if I play in an orchestra.
Either they don't know what an orchestra is, or they don't think I look posh enough to play in one.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Thierry Amar uses both a double bass and electric bass guitar.
They also deserve an honourable mention for the bagpipes on East Hastings
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We saw these two a year or so ago. Unusual use of a violin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqOPoAnUJkc
Garrick told me he could replace a violin string in 30secs (in response to a question about how much damage he did to his violin during a concert).
I saw them too. Excellent. Part of their village halls tour.
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A shout-out goes to the double bass*.
*Whenever someone comes into my house and sees my bass on its stand, or if I mention to
someone that I play a double bass, they always (100% of those occasions) ask me
if I play in a band. Not once has someone asked me if I play in an orchestra.
Either they don't know what an orchestra is, or they don't think I look posh enough to play in one.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Thierry Amar uses both a double bass and electric bass guitar.
They also deserve an honourable mention for the bagpipes on East Hastings
And they’ve had a Several of violinists, Sophie Trudeau being the current one.
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Warren Ellis certainly doesn't fit the orchestra stereotypical look.
I'm just not sure he fits in "popular" music either
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Accordion in "This is the Day" (The The)
Great shout.
Jacques DuTronc's superb Il est cinq heures, Paris s'éveille was originally recorded without the flute but found to be a bit flat, whereupon they called in the classical flautist Roger Bourdin, who added an improvised solo in a single 10-minute recording session. He most often played Bach.
https://youtu.be/7whXkifG_ms?si=xrmPigGKM8puImwP
Also a great shout. One of my favourite songs. Can't imagine it without the flute.
They also deserve an honourable mention for the bagpipes on East Hastings
Bagpipes, you say?
It's a long way to the top... (https://youtu.be/g-qkY2yj4_A?si=c5_HKIiSNs3RbF8w)
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Roger Jackson, formerly of Robyn Hitchcock's 80's/90's band The Egyptians, is credited with playing the glass harmonica (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_harmonica) on at least one of their albums.
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The Verve made icon use of violin (and other stringed instruments) in Bitter Sweet Symphony.
Been listening to mongolian techno a bit. Much of it by a Dutch DJ, featuring Didgeridoo.
'Face the West', a Lewis group, use bagpipes and melodian in techno/dance music.
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A shout-out goes to the double bass*.
*Whenever someone comes into my house and sees my bass on its stand, or if I mention to
someone that I play a double bass, they always (100% of those occasions) ask me
if I play in a band. Not once has someone asked me if I play in an orchestra.
Either they don't know what an orchestra is, or they don't think I look posh enough to play in one.
My son's instrument, and he used to play with a couple of orchestras. Nowadays he's more into guitars.
---o0o---
Chap in The Dead South plays the cello, slung round his neck on a strap. Not just plunk-plunk but uses the bow as well.
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Harpsichords are under rated.
Sky obviously used one on Toccato - which is perhaps cheating in this topic, as Sky use a variety of classical instruments, Tuba Smarties being one of my favourites.
But also in Golden Brown by the Stranglers.
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Harpsichords are under rated.
Sky obviously used one on Toccato - which is perhaps cheating in this topic, as Sky use a variety of classical instruments, Tuba Smarties being one of my favourites.
But also in Golden Brown by the Stranglers.
“The sound of a harpsichord – two skeletons copulating on a tin roof in a thunderstorm. ”
― Sir Thomas Beecham
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So much new-to-me music 🎼 on this thread!! Fabulous stuff :smug:
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Re: harmonica and Toots Thielemans, I've been listening to a lot of Bill Evans these past few days, and this just came up in a mix: https://youtu.be/-xc72YKNrms?si=uUIR9LtjLNE4Q_7w
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cf Jethro Tull.
The thread title says "popular music" :P
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*Throws things at Pingu*
;)
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I had Minstrel in the Gallery playing when I was making dinner tonight :-*
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If we're being really pedantic, the implication of the thread title is that guitars and drums are not musical instruments...
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Surely more a reflection on the fact that since the 50s, the standard formula for popular music has been guitar, bass guitar, drums, plus keyboards from the mid 60s onwards, and what ruthie is asking for is examples of bands working outside that formula.
Roxy Music's use of oboe is a great example, eg on the magnificent Ladytron - still sounds way out there 50 years later:
https://youtu.be/XCzhAeukF1A?si=KZCp36UzoADsiNv6
Also note Brian Eno twiddling away on his crazy synths.
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Roxy Music's use of oboe is a great example, eg on the magnificent Ladytron
(https://rts.org.uk/sites/default/files/styles/9_column_landscape/public/comfort_-_im_alan_partridge_2.jpg?itok=KCDixT8l)
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Ah, you got me. ;D
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Returning to Jethro Tull for a moment , I have read that Ian Anderson played the sopranino sax on A Passion Play.
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We could have an entire sub-genre based on the use of the mellotron (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellotron). Or the Moog synthesizer (Keith Emerson, Stevie Wonder). Also, the theremin ('Good Vibrations').
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Returning to Jethro Tull for a moment , I have read that Ian Anderson played the sopranino sax on A Passion Play.
Not an instrument to be taken lightly.
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Surely more a reflection on the fact that since the 50s, the standard formula for popular music has been guitar, bass guitar, drums, plus keyboards from the mid 60s onwards, and what Ruthie is asking for is examples of bands working outside that formula.
Yes, I know. I was
being really pedantic
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The bloke in Royal Blood who uses a bass instead of a regular guitar as the lead instrument. Although dog knows why as it ends up sounding like, well, a guitar. It’s the opposite of the riff in “Seven Nation Army”.
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The Snow Goose by Camel features many orchestral instruments, notably oboe and bassoon. There's also a nice bit of French Horn.
Other tracks coming to mind:
All About Eve's cover of The Witch's Promise has a violin in place of flute.
Coz I Luv You by Slade - also violin solo
Parallels by Yes - proper church organ
Rehab by Amy Winhouse - bari
Inca Roads (for example) by Frank Zappa - tuned percussion (poss. marimba)
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Surely more a reflection on the fact that since the 50s, the standard formula for popular music has been guitar, bass guitar, drums, plus keyboards from the mid 60s onwards, and what ruthie is asking for is examples of bands working outside that formula.
Roxy Music's use of oboe is a great example, eg on the magnificent Ladytron - still sounds way out there 50 years later:
https://youtu.be/XCzhAeukF1A?si=KZCp36UzoADsiNv6
Also note Brian Eno twiddling away on his crazy synths.
There's a whole other topic in there: when and why did we fall out of love with the future? Or, I suppose (being pedantic!), with that cusp of the present that seemed like a promise of the future?
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Florian Fricke of Popol Vuh got rid of his synths after only two albums, so the answer is clearly “1972” :P
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I'm far from convinced the musicians shown in this video https://youtu.be/ldQpRMegYc0?si=5uxk2RN9u9871GQn are actually playing on the recording, but there's definitely more than guitar n drums.
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Since the page utterly refuses to load for me it’s hard to disagree :)
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I'm far from convinced the musicians shown in this video https://youtu.be/ldQpRMegYc0?si=5uxk2RN9u9871GQn are actually playing on the recording, but there's definitely more than guitar n drums.
Great song. They probably did play real instruments on it originally, before the producer got their hands on it…
(Out of idle curiosity, I looked up who was the producer on that record. Apparently it was Mike Howlett, who at one time was a member of Gong.)
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I'm far from convinced the musicians shown in this video https://youtu.be/ldQpRMegYc0?si=5uxk2RN9u9871GQn are actually playing on the recording, but there's definitely more than guitar n drums.
Great song. They probably did play real instruments on it originally, before the producer got their hands on it…
(Out of idle curiosity, I looked up who was the producer on that record. Apparently it was Mike Howlett, who at one time was a member of Gong.)
Yes, someone was playing real instruments on it, but not necessarily the ones in the video!
I'm not sure about "great song" but they're one of the few bands I liked as a teenager and still think are good now.
Since the page utterly refuses to load for me it’s hard to disagree :)
I think the internets are not getting down your wires because the voles have built a dam. No, hang on, it's beavers that build dams. Well, I dunno...
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I'm not sure about "great song" but they're one of the few bands I liked as a teenager and still think are good now.
I'm not sure I remember any of their other songs. Just vaguely remember them being part of that Liverpool scene of the early 80s. Very much of their time. Obviously didn't make as much of a lasting impact as some of their contemporaries.
The comment about the producer getting their hands on the record was prompted by thoughts of one of those contemporaries, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, who did originally record their stuff themselves but then it was all basically rerecorded by Trevor Horn. Think that kind of thing happened a lot around that time. Probably still does.
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I've just read Trevor Horn's book "Adventures in Modern Recording: From ABC to ZTT". I knew a fair amount of stuff in it, but it is quite an eye opening read on how records are put together and the role of the producer in the late 70s and 80s.
He said that one of his big regrets was not having any of the Frankie people playing on Relax - which was their song, not written by him - and goes on to talk about them basically learning how to play his version so they could do gigs.
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And of course you have folk-metal stalwarts the Hu who include the morin khuur and tovshuur.
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Big Pig break the standard mould by using big drums to make rock music.
5 out of 7 band members playing drums or percussion
https://youtu.be/vllIofWpnk4 (https://youtu.be/vllIofWpnk4)
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Nightwish feature the Uilleann pipes
Anna von Hausswolff had a whole album of solo organ music - All Thoughts Fly
I was lucky enough to see Faust perform - one piece involved tuning a couple of pieces of scaffolding pole with an angle grinder and then using them as percussion.
But I am not sure the last two qualify as 'popular' music??
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Bonn Scott plays bagpipes on "A Long Way to the Top if You Want to Rock and Roll"
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Einstürzende Neubauten used power tools and big bits of metal. Not exactly easy listening.
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I had Minstrel in the Gallery playing when I was making dinner tonight :-*
You and your baronial mansion...
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The mouth - whistling!
Bill Withers:
https://youtu.be/oNMtVGfatmU?si=CEUB6JkDBMGV7Mwc
(Inevitably) Bobby McFerrin:
https://youtu.be/d-diB65scQU?si=mmgPbdHpq8S-BC76
Edited to add Otis Redding:
https://youtu.be/wyPKRcBTsFQ?si=6fs9vUDwAZGGqAYJ
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The iconic "cowbell" on Concrete and Clay". Just about the best intro in Pop music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVmeqwsbAL8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVmeqwsbAL8)
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The B Dickinson: My opinion on this matter is on the record ba-dumm TISH!
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The iconic "cowbell" on Concrete and Clay". Just about the best intro in Pop music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVmeqwsbAL8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVmeqwsbAL8)
Can't have too much cowbell
https://youtu.be/NHTe2_b8uEA?si=3ICnQST8Ht_kT0IB
(Don't fear the reaper - wish I could find the proper clip)
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How have we missed this - on a cycling forum:
https://youtu.be/xt0V0_1MS0Q?si=PenGig9YPwRrtHwZ
Video NSFW
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Florian Fricke of Popol Vuh got rid of his synths after only two albums, so the answer is clearly “1972” :P
That actually sounds very reasonable. We probably were In Love With The Future for only half a century or so, from the dawn of commercial aviation, popular motoring, electrification, radio and telephony, as celebrated by the Futurist movement, through nuclear fission to the jetliner, space exploration, television and plastic wonderstuffs, as seen in Liechtenstein et al.
We now return you to the present day.
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Candelabra (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x14EbM99EQQ)
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The iconic "cowbell" on Concrete and Clay". Just about the best intro in Pop music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVmeqwsbAL8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVmeqwsbAL8)
Randy Edelman's version of that is firmly in the camp of 'great songs where the original just ain't as good as the cover'. See also, Russ Ballard's version of Since You Been Gone, Argent's version of God Gave Rock 'n' Roll To You...
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Is there a better use of recorder in popular song than Warren Zevon's Veracruz (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O2qJ0JXjug)? Macca's recorder-playing on The Fool on the Hill is dreadful.
For harpsichord, I'm torn between Walk Away Renée (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDfrW5cWqMU) and Lady Jane (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K6wUa7yjuo).
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Florian Fricke of Popol Vuh got rid of his synths after only two albums, so the answer is clearly “1972” :P
That actually sounds very reasonable. We probably were In Love With The Future for only half a century or so, from the dawn of commercial aviation, popular motoring, electrification, radio and telephony, as celebrated by the Futurist movement, through nuclear fission to the jetliner, space exploration, television and plastic wonderstuffs, as seen in Liechtenstein et al.
We now return you to the present day.
At some point people started trying to use synthesisers to sound like Real Instruments, which - while undeniably useful - always struck me as missing the point somewhat. There's a lot of perfectly good music from the 80s with that jarringly naff Casio keyboard sound lurking somewhere in the mix.
By the 90s, they'd worked out how to make synths that Lobachevsky the sound of actual instruments, and normality was restored. By which point Pissing Around With Synthesisers for their own sake was practically retrofuturism. Or at least prog.
Unless it's vocoders, which are now compulsory. >:(
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There was a lot of good music in the 80s, in very 80s style, using synths to sound just like synths. Yazoo, Human League, probably the best examples.
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Florian Fricke of Popol Vuh got rid of his synths after only two albums, so the answer is clearly “1972” :P
That actually sounds very reasonable. We probably were In Love With The Future for only half a century or so, from the dawn of commercial aviation, popular motoring, electrification, radio and telephony, as celebrated by the Futurist movement, through nuclear fission to the jetliner, space exploration, television and plastic wonderstuffs, as seen in Liechtenstein et al.
We now return you to the present day.
At some point people started trying to use synthesisers to sound like Real Instruments, which - while undeniably useful - always struck me as missing the point somewhat. There's a lot of perfectly good music from the 80s with that jarringly naff Casio keyboard sound lurking somewhere in the mix.
By the 90s, they'd worked out how to make synths that Lobachevsky the sound of actual instruments, and normality was restored. By which point Pissing Around With Synthesisers for their own sake was practically retrofuturism. Or at least prog.
Unless it's vocoders, which are now compulsory. >:(
The Fairlight CMI, which was a digital synth with a sampler, goes back as far as 1979. ;)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairlight_CMI#Sampling
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Unless it's vocoders, which are now compulsory. >:(
That’s Auto-Tune, that is. Cher started it, something for which she shall be damned for all eternity, and it’s become so omnipresent that even Tuarag guitar hero Mdou Moctar – dubbed “the African Jimi Hendrix” – used it throughout his debut album. Fortunately he’s since come to his senses.
Ex-Gong and Hawkwind keyboard wiz Tim Blake's “New Jerusalem” album dates from 1978 and has synths on it that sound very much like a 12-string acoustic guitar.
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That’s Auto-Tune, that is. Cher started it, something for which she shall be damned for all eternity
That’s not entirely fair. The use of Auto-Tune on Believe is for effect, not to mask an inability to hit the right notes.
And it is a great pop song.
It’s unfortunate that it has become ubiquitous and is used for the wrong reasons but that doesn’t make it an inherently bad thing any more than the use of any other kind of synthesiser.
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There was a lot of good music in the 80s, in very 80s style, using synths to sound just like synths. Yazoo, Human League, probably the best examples.
Oh, absolutely. No problem with that.
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That’s Auto-Tune, that is. Cher started it, something for which she shall be damned for all eternity
That’s not entirely fair. The use of Auto-Tune on Believe is for effect, not to mask an inability to hit the right notes.
And it is a great pop song.
It’s unfortunate that it has become ubiquitous and is used for the wrong reasons but that doesn’t make it an inherently bad thing any more than the use of any other kind of synthesiser.
Yes, Believe was novel and therefore fine. The problem was that a) that track was over-played within an inch of its life, thereby wearing the novelty thin, and then b) the vocoder effect or it's evil sibling auto-tune became a feature of seemingly every other popular record made since, thereby making me even more grumpy about it.
Still, on the plus side, the Mega-Global Fruit Corporation have at least ended the loudness war. Give it another decade or two for the vocoder fad to pass and it might be worth listening to the radio again. If I had a radio.
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The iconic "cowbell" on Concrete and Clay". Just about the best intro in Pop music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVmeqwsbAL8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVmeqwsbAL8)
Randy Edelman's version of that is firmly in the camp of 'great songs where the original just ain't as good as the cover'. See also, Russ Ballard's version of Since You Been Gone, Argent's version of God Gave Rock 'n' Roll To You...
Legs, tell me you are joking! Or do you think Randy Edelman's was the original? There is no comparison, it was written by two of Unit 4 + 2 and Randy's version is, frankly, wet! This is just my opinion, of course - but once again, almost the whole world agrees with me - even Randy's mother!
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I'd never heard of Randy Edelman, so I dutifully wandered off to YouTube.
Imagine a great family gathering. A small child is coaxed out in front the assembled great aunts etc. to do his much rehearsed act.
"Oh, bless him."
"Look at his little face."
"Voice of an angel."
etc ad nauseum
Several uncles are taking this chance to nip out for fag.
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The iconic "cowbell" on Concrete and Clay". Just about the best intro in Pop music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVmeqwsbAL8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVmeqwsbAL8)
Randy Edelman's version of that is firmly in the camp of 'great songs where the original just ain't as good as the cover'. See also, Russ Ballard's version of Since You Been Gone, Argent's version of God Gave Rock 'n' Roll To You...
Legs, tell me you are joking! Or do you think Randy Edelman's was the original? There is no comparison, it was written by two of Unit 4 + 2 and Randy's version is, frankly, wet! This is just my opinion, of course - but once again, almost the whole world agrees with me - even Randy's mother!
Oh, should have checked my facts - for some I had it in mind that Randy Edelman had written and originated it... Definitely agree with you, that the Unit 4 + 2 original is supreme.
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Several uncles are taking this chance to nip out for fag.
I got in trouble in a facebook group for readers and writers of a particular genre.
I grumbled that I'd tried reading a book, and abandoned because of consistent use of 'frig' (refrigerator).
It just jarred with me.
Leftpondians informed me that 'frig' is correct, and 'fridge' is some odd european coinage.
I did my checking, and they are correct, for the USA.
So I responded, admitting their correctness, but suggesting that writers (and editors) should be sensible of foreign word usage - then gave the example that an English writer should avoid using the word 'fag', since that could upset/jar with a leftpondian audience.
I nearly got banned, for offensive language.
(think I made my point there, but the wooshing sound was it passing over the mods heads)
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@ legs - relief all round!
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ELO's "Mr Blue Sky" famously uses a fire extinguisher for percussion at the end of each verse and half-verse.
Madness used the xylophone quite a bit. You can hear it in One Better Day.
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ELO's "Mr Blue Sky" famously uses a fire extinguisher for percussion at the end of each verse and half-verse.
That reminds me...
Back in 1990-whenever, I was browsing through the sleeve notes of Pulp's His 'n' Hers album and saw mention of a fire extinguisher in the credits. So I wrote in to the NME's Write Said Fred column, a kind of musical Notes & Queries curated by veteran writer Fred Dellar. Apparently, it is used on the final track of the album, David's Last Summer. I think I can pick it out but you wouldn't notice it if you didn't know it was there.
Anyway, I think this is strictly diverging from the topic - I would call this more sound effects than instruments (same with the bicycle bells in the Queen song).
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Anyway, I think this is strictly diverging from the topic - I would call this more sound effects than instruments (same with the bicycle bells in the Queen song).
And the old-skool alam clock and mighty yawn that kick off Be-Bop Deluxe's “Sleep That Burns”. And according to Robyn Hitchcock the percussion effects on one of the tracks on “Respect” was obtained by drummer Morris Windsor “shaking a bag of rats' feet”.
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If we are doing sound effects as well, Last Night A DJ Saved My Life by Indeep is a classic - the only song I know that includes the sound of a toilet flushing.
Also a telephone ringing. Which reminds me...
Telephone and rubber band by Penguin Cafe Orchestra (https://youtu.be/RWZ4pve5Mkc?si=ma6ASJVuk-FqEvcg)
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If we are doing sound effects as well, Last Night A DJ Saved My Life by Indeep is a classic - the only song I know that includes the sound of a toilet flushing.
There's a track on "Bootsy? Player of the Year" by Bootsy's Rubber Band with a flushing toilet sound. I'll look it up...
ETA: The track is Roto-Rooter and the flush happens right at the end.
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I think The Stranglers' “Down In The Sewer” has a flush too.
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I think The Stranglers' “Down In The Sewer” has a flush too.
Terry Scott's "My Brother" springs to mind - I'm sure there's a flushing sound right after he sings "Who locked Grandad in the loo?"
Mind you, it's been a loooooooong time since I've heard that ditty, so my memory may be playing tricks on me...
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Well, I never. Sounds like toilets in popular songs could be a thread in its own right.
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The only contribution, apart from vocals, that FGTH made to "Relax" was a recording of the band jumping into a swimming pool, which Trevor Horn turned into a sort of gushing-orgasm sound.
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Well, I never. Sounds like toilets in popular songs could be a thread in its own right.
Every day's a school day :thumbsup:
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Well, I never. Sounds like toilets in popular songs could be a thread in its own right.
Every day's a stool day :thumbsup:
FTFY
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Apropos of nothing, I just misread the topic as "Medical instruments in popular music".
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Vivian Stanshall: "On the forceps, it's Magdi Yacoub..."
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Apropos of nothing, I just misread the topic as "Medical instruments in popular music".
In my inherited collection of vinyl, I've got this...
(https://blog.wfmu.org/photos/uncategorized/2007/04/06/097.jpg)
https://blogfiles.wfmu.org/DP/2007/04/097_1_Marin_Marais_-_Tableau_Of_A_Lithotomy.mp3 (https://blogfiles.wfmu.org/DP/2007/04/097_1_Marin_Marais_-_Tableau_Of_A_Lithotomy.mp3)
The surgeon maketh his first incision.... the blood, it floweth...
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Hawkwind's “Valium 10” has what sounds like a dental drill.
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Back closer to the original topic: I must’ve heard Hendrix' “Little Wing” a thousand times but have only just noticed that there’s a glockenspiel – played by Jimi himself – in there as well.
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The NME's 35th best album of 1996 has a lot of glockenspiel.
Does that count as popular?
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Something DJ Random played this afternoon reminded me that in addition to the drums, my chum Cara Robinson – the Irish half of Hat Fitz & Cara – also plays the penny whistle and the washboard. Although not at the same time.
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Strangely that reminded me of another instrument, that did feature on a single that got to number 1 on 1970 and I probably haven't heard for over 40 years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOGOyeSVfqI
Clive Dunn, I Play The Spoons.
Sorry.
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I remember seeing former Fabulous Poodle Ronnie Golden playing the spoons when I was a Penniless Student Oaf and, following some heckling, challenging my mate Chris to try it if he was so clever. Which Chris duly did, with considerable aplomb.
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The Chameleons used one of those tubes you whirl above your head to get a note.
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Midnight Oil used a bullroarer in their cracking debut album, Diesel and Dust track, Bullroarer. They've also used a digeridoo on a few tracks. (see also, the levellers)
Also I've been at a page and plant gig where a hurdygurdy was pretty damned good on the intro to a couple of tracks
edit: oh, it was a fake bullroarer per wiki.
An Australian band Midnight Oil included a recording of an imitation bullroarer on their album Diesel and Dust (1987) at the beginning of the song "Bullroarer". In an interview, the band's drummer Rob Hirst stated "it's a sacred instrument... only initiated men are supposed to hear those sounds. So we didn't use a real bullroarer as that would have been cultural imperialism. Instead we used an imitation bullroarer that school kids in Australia use. It is a ruler with a piece of rope wrapped around it.
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Patty Gurdy* played – surprise surprise – the hurdy-gurdy with pirate metal bozos Alestorm.
* Not actually her real name
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Portishead are good for this game, with theremin and cimbalom on Dummy. Fiona Apple also uses cimbalom on Extraordinary Machine, as well as making lovely use of tubular bells which reminds me of a doorbell.
Speaking of theremin, Beach Boys' Good Vibrations is the obvious theremin use.
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John Otway
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Yes - Willie Barrett made probably the best use of him. Didn't catch on, though.