Entertainment For Lively Minds
Stand Up that Keyboard Wizard
Posted by Steerpike on 19 September 2008 - 4:32pm.
With Rick Wright's sad passing I got to thinking how often it is that the keyboard player in many a great band is often the quietly underrated member, overshadowed by the guitar hero and the lead vocalist. There have been some notable exceptions - 'Sit down Mr Wakeman!" but it is sometimes only when they are not there do you notice how integral the man maintaining the Mellotron is to a band's sound. It was with Wright's sacking after all that Pink Floyd lost relevance.
Let's hear it for the Keyboard hero. I would like to kick off proceedings by contending that Tony Banks of Genesis was the cornerstone of the group who never seemed to share the acclaim of messrs Gabriel and Collins. Anyone else?
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It's all about the feeling (not the band, obviously)
Another one no longer with us, Mr Rob Collins of The Charlatans. And one who definitely is, Mr Clint Boon.
Tony, the new boy...
...in the Charlatans. Has done pretty well too, though the driving force is Mark Collins - hugely underrated guitarist.
Johnnie B Goode
Try listening to Chuck Berry without this man on keys.
The guy
who plays the Farfisa on '96 Tears'. He was good. ( And he only used two fingers ).
Ian McLagan in the Small Faces. ( And the Bigger Faces ).
Barry Andrews in the early, scratchy, twitchy incarnation of XTC.
The Clark-Gable-Gone-Wrong Ron Mael.
Brian Eno ( It was a keyboard wasn't it?? With all those knobs?? ).
The piano-bustin'-beer-bottle-openin' Alan Price.
Quite aside from Mr Eno as hero in his own right ...
...the very best bit of the entire first Roxy record comes at 2:10 into Virginia Plain. Eno even looked like a wizard (albeit one from a different, very camp planet).
Virginia Plain
Virginia Plain wasn't *on* the first Roxy Music album. It was, of course, added to the US release and the cd reissue.
Speaking of which, I'm off to the 'Classic albums that sound rotten' thread to nominate Roxy Music/Roxy Music
Andrews?
surely he really cut loose with the mighty Shriekback
can I get a witness?
96 tears...
stand up, "Little" Frankie Rodriguez. But as eny fule kno, it was a Vox Continental, and not a Farfisa.
The reason...
...Tony Banks never quite got the attention the other Genesis members got was that his solo career did next to nothing sales-wise. The other members at one time had solo careers that were as big if not bigger than the band themselves were; even Steve Hackett, whose solo work was not overtly commercial, did fairly well.
As for Roxy Music, I think Brian Eno is often paid the most respect out of the whole band. There are some who don't care for anything the band recorded after he left. Eddie Jobson was a strong (and technically, a better musician than the self-proclaimed 'non musician' Eno!) replacement, but certainly when they reconvened in 1979 without a strong keyboard presence and a revolving door of session players, something was arguably lost.
Into the punk/post-punk era, I liked the keyboard playing of Dave Greenfield in The Stranglers, Dave Formula in Magazine, and Richard Barbieri of Japan (now in Porcupine Tree).
Fair point ...
...I remember that I once owned 'A Curious Feeling' - Banks first album. It was quietly lovely actually but don't think I've ever seen it since the invention of the CD. Agree with you on the new wave suggestions. You could say that when the seventies turned into the eighties the keyboard became king and not necessarily in a good way. Remember Howard Jones?
Steve Hackett...
...packed out the Birmingham Odeon on both the Spectral Mornings and Defector tours
Baseball cap, shades, statue pose
Mr Chris Lowe - would like to see him in a staring contest with Ron Mael.
Not Forgetting The Keyboard Player
in the Gilbert O'Sullivan Band. Tremendous.
I give you Lyle Mays
The Keyboard player with The Pat Metheny Group. Always loved what he's done. Actually both of them are great when they are together.
Didn't they use this track in Fandango
I do have a soft spot for The Pat Metheny Group though.
Lyle Mays
There was quite a bit of Pat Metheny music in Fandango, so you're probably right. Lyle's first solo album is particularly good, almost as good as As Falls Wichita. You don't happen to know what the "38, 55... " numbers they say mean on As Falls do you? It's only been bugging me for 25 years or so!
John Evan
There is a lot to admire about the mighty Tull, and high amongst those peaks is the great piano playing of John Evan, slightly churlishly chucked out by Ian Anderson in the great cull. The piano intro to "Locomotive breath" remains one of the great rock intros.
Ah yes ...
... from a classic Tull line up - Barriemore Barlow, Jeffrey Hammond Hammond, Martin 'Lancelot' Barre, John Evan (or sometimes Evans) and David (later Dee) Palmer.
A Curious Feeling...
...it is on CD, apparently it's also due for a 5.1 remix (though why I don't know, it never sold that much in the first place). A very nice album though, I agree.
I also love Rod Argent's playing with The Zombies, especially on 'Odessey And Oracle', and that electric piano riff/solo in 'She's Not There' is a classic.
Bill and Gil
Evans??
Steve Nieve
Made The Attractions much more than a cut above the average backing band.
Ron Mael - Sparks
Another vote for him. Wrote most if not all their best songs.
Al Kooper Like A Rolling Stone
Garth Hudson from The band.
*Ahem* Mick Talbot from the Style Council
There's no excuse for the rest of his career...
but the piano work on this is sublime.
All down to uncle Rick
Wow, one of those 7Digital things
Hadn't seen one in ages.
The Rolling Stones have had a number of keyboard heroes...
...all unsung.
Ian Stewart, Jack Nitzsche, Nicky Hopkins, Billy Preston, Chuck Leavell.
can I just say one word?
Greenslade
no, not Wallace you wisenheimers!
Dream Theater
and their keyboard wizard Jordan Rudess is worth looking at.
Jordan Rudess...
...I hear a lot of people saying how great he is, and I dare say he is, but he's the keyboard equivalent of a shredder like Yngwie Malmsteen as far as I'm concerned, or at least he is within Dream Theater. I'd swap all that showing off for one memorable riff or pared down solo. He does some good atmospheric stuff on Bowie's 'Heathen' though.
Can I put my hand in the air for...
Professor Roy Bittan...
Just as much a cornerstone in the E Street Sound as the honking sax and Telecaster...
Big up the Bittan
Don't forget he supplied the keys on the mighty Meat's Bat Out of Hell (now there's an intro) and did a stint with Dire Straits in the studio (Romeo and Juliet springs to mind)
The Omnipresent
...Benmont Tench. When he isn't at his daytime job backing Tom Petty, he's the hired gun keyboardist for, oh, just about everyone in the world it seems. Plus -- bonus points -- Jim Jarmusch named a character after him in "Dead Man".
Mike Garson
I love his playing on Aladdin Sane.
Robert John Godfrey of The Enid plays a pretty tune.
David Sancious is great on The Wild The Innocent The E Street Shuffle.
The Enid ...
...now there's a name you don't hear much these days - as with Gentle Giant. Proper Prog that.
Donny
on 'Crazy Horses'?
I'll go now.
This far down and no mention of Ray Manzarek....
Central to the sound of The Doors.
Link to the irrational hatred thread
Gah! The Doors... Pretentious, badly played arse biscuits
Richard Tandy
...of ELO fame. A brilliant player and inventive with the actual synth sounds he made. A decent guitarist too (intro to Strange Magic). The handicap of being a member of ELO probably prevented the wider recognition of his skills.