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Looper's Delight
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>> Why is it that in rock music, there's an acute shortage of "keyboard >> heroes", in the same sense that say, Jeff Beck is a guitar hero? How >> many breathtaking solos can you recall that were generated by something >> with a piano-keyboard interface? > >Keith Emerson? >Hell, he even smashes the keyboard up at the end of the gig! > >Failing that, no. there's a limit to how cool you can look sitting down, >and no, upright controllers don't count. Yeah, but that coolness doesn't come through the radio speakers, and as I sit here mentally reviewing the last thirty years of pop music, I'm hard pressed to come up with more than a handful of keyboard solos. Even in ELP's hits, I'm not remembering the solos, except for "Lucky Man", which I don't like, and I've seen Keith disavow it many a time. There's no "Eruption", that I know of, in the keyboard world--a recorded moment which changed the way the instrument, and the role of the instrument would be viewed for the next decade. Even if you hated what followed Van Halen, you were in reaction to what was laid out in those three minutes. Why is that? I have my theories, but I'd like to hear from any keyboard players on the list. > >Fave kbd solo in a rock song? "Incommunicado", Marillion. Ironically, Mark Kelly is one of my favorite keyboard players (along with Tony Banks [Genesis] and Greg Hawkes [The Cars]), and when I listen back through the Marillion catalog, I'm surprised at how many keyboard solos there were. Still, I always got the impression that Steve Rothery (the guitarist, for those of you who aren't Marillion-aware) got the spotlight. Perhaps that's because I'm primarily a guitarist (although I play keyboards as needed, and played piano as a kid). And, Marillion wasn't that popular, certainly not in the States, and only as a large cult in Europe. I'm looking for *hits* with keyboard solos, not because I think that sales are the most important thing, but because they are a measure of what large numbers of people like. > >> Will say, Art of Noise records be referred back to in twenty years in >the >> same way that Cream records are? > >Only if there's any justice left. Don't bet on it. Influential as Art of Noise has been on people who own and/or operatate synthesizers, I think they may end up in the category of "Historical Significance Only". I mean, I think that the third Peter Gabriel album (with the melting face cover, includes "Games Without Frontiers" and "Biko") is ENORMOUSLY influential, enjoyable and worthy of praise, but I'm astounded at the number of people, even musicians with a stated interest in unusual, electronic pop music, who are unaware of or indifferent to it. If nothing else, this is the album that singlehandedly introduced the gated reverb drum sound to the world, but it doesn't really matter in the end. Civilians hear it and say "Nice...but I prefer 'So'." Try this on for size: "Pretty Hate Machine" is a thousand times more likely for the MFS treatment, and made much more of an impact on musicians and the public at large. Travis