| Author | Message | ||
     Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 157 Registered: 10-2006 |
Apropos of nothing in particular, and referring to an instrument hardly prominent in the Gobies' work, can posters suggest some songs that are highlighted by a bit of a killer piano solo somewhere along the line? I suppose because I was just listening to the beautiful keyboard work on VanM's "Steal my heart away" and then I remembered the Stealer's Wheel "Star", which I've not heard for ages...and then my mind went blank, as it so often does... | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1031 Registered: 10-2004 |
nearly everything by sergio mendes. pale fountains - abergele next time david sylvian - red guitar david bowie - aladdin sane | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1032 Registered: 10-2004 |
oh, and style council - shout to the top | ||
| Dr Girlfriend Member Username: Doctor_girlfriend Post Number: 28 Registered: 10-2007 |
Roxy Music - Re-make/Re-model, intro of Song for Europe Velvet Underground - Waiting for the Man (Cale pounding away over fade) and, I'm sorry, but... Elton John - Burn Down the Mission hate his songs, hate his persona, hate his popularity, but dude could find his way around an 88... | ||
| Ewan Talisker McEwan Member Username: Ewan_mcewan Post Number: 16 Registered: 02-2008 |
You have to admit though that those glasses were pretty damn cool! | ||
| Dr Girlfriend Member Username: Doctor_girlfriend Post Number: 29 Registered: 10-2007 |
and the platforms! I'm only 5-1, so I can relate! the seventies must of been a more fun decade than people give it credit for... | ||
| Ewan Talisker McEwan Member Username: Ewan_mcewan Post Number: 17 Registered: 02-2008 |
Right on Doc G. People really knew how to dress back then. That's something I like about Robert Forster - the bloke has style. No shapeless dungarees or flannel blouses for him, no piercings, beanies or winkelpickers. Now, if he'd only go back to wearing a dress. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1548 Registered: 03-2005 |
The Seventies . . . . In the US: I just got my driver's license and the highway speed limit was immediately cut to 55 mph to celebrate (that's about 91 for you folks in more modern territories). Try driving any real distance going that speed. Supposedly it saved lives as well as fuel. The likelihood of staying awake while propped in front of the steering wheel for all those extra hours going 55 was vanishingly small. I learned to stay awake by driving 80 (120) and constantly scanning the rear-view mirror and looking up each and every freeway onramp. Staying with cars for the moment, in the Seventies the US decreed that they come with these huge battering ram bumpers. You might have a nice svelt little coupe or roadster but there would be these industrial cow-catchers on the front and rear of it adding a full two feet in length to turn the whole thing into an object of derision. If you turned on your radio you got "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" or disco Beethoven's Fifth or"Bennie & the Jets" or you considered yourself lucky with the Doobie Brothers' "Listen to the Music." For four solid years, your chance of hearing Boston's "More Than a Feeling" when you switched on the radio at any random moment was exactly 9%. Suicide seldom strayed far from my thoughts. TV was better. If you turned that on you stood a good chance of one of those great Norman Lear shows, "All in the Family" being the permanent classic. If you were really lucky you also got one of the Jonathan Winters shows before he was canceled. If you had bad taste in television then you turned on "Happy Days" with Henry Winkler as "the Fonz." We did have our beloved Governor Moonbeam here in California. Much better than the Governator. But the subject of the thread is piano breaks, isn't it? The Zombies -- I'll Call You Mine Good call with "Aladdin Sane" Jeff. | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 251 Registered: 01-2007 |
Short but very sweet Olivers Army | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 792 Registered: 08-2004 |
Or the original Oliver's Army, Dancing Queen. Alladin Sane has some amazing piano on it particularly the title track, as mentioned & Time. How about Journey's Don't Stop Believing. Randy maybe I'm too young to recognise how bad '70's FM Rock was at the time, particularly in your neck of the woods. But I have a penchant for the power ballads of the time. Meatloaf - Bat Out Of Hell - so over the top in that lavish musical stylee. R.E.M. Electrolite & Nightswimming. I also like the rinky-dink piano on The Who's first couple of LP's. Which The Jam adopted for their Who & Motown covers. I've heard that playing style quite a lot recently, particularly Jack Penate, & other myspace kids. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1051 Registered: 01-2005 |
Layla must be mentioned. | ||
| Ewan Talisker McEwan Member Username: Ewan_mcewan Post Number: 21 Registered: 02-2008 |
Sweet Home Alabama - Leonard Skeonard | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1549 Registered: 03-2005 |
Jerry, that was Nicky Hopkins. Shel Talmy loved him and seemingly put him on everything he produced for a few years in the mid 60s, so he was on the early Shel Talmy-produced Who and also on the Kinks' records. He shows up on the Easybeats' Talmy-produced album too although they must have resisted his use because he's not on nearly as many songs and he's way down in the mix (for example, on "Pretty Girl.") Hopkins would just noodle along in the same busy mechanical Scott Joplinesque style all the time on whatever sort of song regardless, until the Rolling Stones got him to actually slightly modify his schtick for "She's a Rainbow"--though not too much! On the Kinks' "Session Man"--irony of the highest order--he slightly masked the uniformity of his playing by switching to a harpsichord. For a few years there, Hopkins' piano was such ubiquitous musical wallpaper on British productions that it makes absolute sense to me that people would start reviving it especially when they are trying to conjure up the sounds of that era. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 937 Registered: 09-2006 |
Ewan, I too would like to see a return of Mr. F's gender-fluid leanings...I think if he combined a skirt with that country parson look he does so well he could do an update of "American Gothic" for a CD cover without even needing a partner... I'm sure I'm biased as far as the 70s are concerned, as those were formative years (Age 8 to 18, though if we're talking about what most people think of as "the 70s" it would be from around '75 to the election of Reagan). It definitely had its horrid downsides, but that could be said of any era. It was a nice little bit of calm between the 60s tumult which brought it about, and the aforementioned Reagan years. And though there was plenty of crap music of the sort that Randy mentions there was also lots of stuff that holds up - some of it that I loved then, and some of which I came to love later. Punk/new wave/power pop emerged then. Disco too - which still has its haters, though personally I think the best of it is great fun, and it survived the backlash against it to be nearly as influential in its way as punk was in its. Though Bernie Taupin is one of the more annoyingly pretentious lyricists ever, Elton did have a handful of good songs. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 938 Registered: 09-2006 |
And how could I forget to mention that hiphop got started right in there too... | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 338 Registered: 05-2005 |
For your regular dose of Beatledom... Hey Bulldog Lady Madonna | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 143 Registered: 02-2007 |
Into My Arms- Nick Cave & BS The Piano Has Been Drinking - Tom Waits Southern Man - Neil Young has a good piano break in middle "jam section" | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 793 Registered: 08-2004 |
Randy, I had no idea of Nicky Hopkins influence. I'd always assumed it was Entwistle or Townshend tinklng away. I think that's proof he's more than just a 'session man'. She's A Rainbow has a lovely little refrain which takes the song to another level. It's a bit like Mike Bloomfield or Al Kooper's influence on Highway 61 Revisited. If they were pushy or cash orientated they'd surely have a good case for co-writing credits. Anyway, Nick Cave - Sunday's Slave Does Electric Piano count? Dylan's. Ballad Of A Thin Man & Gotta Serve Somebody. | ||
| Wilson Davey Member Username: Wilson Post Number: 170 Registered: 05-2005 |
All the way to memphis - Mott the hoople One of THE best rock & roll intro's... | ||
| Wilson Davey Member Username: Wilson Post Number: 171 Registered: 05-2005 |
It's alright - Supergrass Over familiar I know but try not grinning when you hear it... | ||
| fsh Member Username: Fsh Post Number: 142 Registered: 05-2005 |
Wilson Davey - now if that isn't a dirty olde prod name from the North of Ireland what is? I bet you 20 euro you're a Ulster prod. I like an good Ulster fry myself sometimes. I was in Croke park yesterday watching Ireland playing against Scotland in rugby. 'Foreign games'- namely rugby and soccer have only recently been allowed to access to Croke park stadium which is HQ to Irish Gaelic games - namely, Gaelic football (a bit like Australian football - there's the tenuous Go-betweens connection that I'm relying on to justify my ramblings). Anyhow, to get back to what I was really trying to say, sometimes it hard to stay on track ... you know yourself - hi Ann, yeah - see you at 4 tomorrow. Anyhow, what was I saying again. Oh yeah, ... and this is the really interesting bit ... Britain occupied all of Ireland up to 1922. I've cut and pasted the next bit off another site. It's not my opinion but you'll get the gist of it: "in the very grounds where the british army shot dead 14 Irish people, including one of the players[9] Don’t forget that Hill 16 [a section of Croke Park] was built out of the rubble of the 1916 destruction [sic - 1916 Rising]. It is sacred ground, because the GAA is much more than a sporting organisation. It is a way of life, and a cultural identifier[10] and to have the “enemy’s anthem” played there shows a serious lack of respect" ... ok, blah, blah, blah - it's something of a sensitive issue. Anyhow ... back to last Saturday evening. I was in a unsegregated crowd of Southern Irish (90% or so nominally Catholic), Scottish Presbyterians and Ulster Unionists [there is only one Irish rugby team to represent Northern Ireland and Rep of Ireland]. The Ulster Unionists and Southern Irish were shouting for the same team,and the Scotch from whom ancestrally the stock (no offence itended, I just couldn't think of another word) of the Ulster Plantation were drawn from, were shouting for the opposition. The two national anthems were accompanied by another song called 'Ireland's call' that's played as a nod of recognition to Ulster players who might find the words of the Irish national anthem (in the Irish language "come on boys let's kill the Brits" a little unsubtle for their particular palette. So, what's the point of this story you might reasonably ask? Well, the only action was on the pitch - that's the point and apart from a notification of a big screen for Mr Somebody or other to contact the nearest Garda [Irish police[wo]man], that was it!! Incroiable. There was a really funny moment when the TV camera from which footage and replays are also shown on a big screen in the ground cut to Bertie Adhern - the Taoiseach [Irish Prime Minister] who was in the crowd. This coincided with an Irish substition and the crowd was already applauding an Irish player leaving the field. At the moment Bertie is having a hard time answering a Tribunal's questions like why he didn't have a bank account when he was the Minister for Finance (response - "so what!? nobody's obliged to have a bank account"), why he kept a boatload of money in his office (response - "is it that time already, have to go") and why he was receiving whip-arounds (collections of money) from 'friends and acquantainces' when aforementioned boatload of money was in his office. Anyhow, nothing unusual there! I'd say we're not as bad as France, and the U.K. politicians aren't squeeky clean either but at least they usually resign when they're caught out. (If you're interested in reading more on this area - I'd recommend 'Democracy and education' by Naom Chomsky - a paper from about 12 or so years ago). Bertie's predecessor - the redoubtable Charles J Haughey (former Taoiseach, now RIP who had similar financial problems disclosed (by an earlier Tribunal of inquiry) to Bertie's current ones) described Bertie as 'the most cunning and devious of them all'. Charlie was a smart and perceptive guy!! Anyhow, to get back to the point I was trying to make. Even if it was fortuitous, maybe Bertie deserved a auld 'round' of applause (as opposed to a whip a 'round' eh, eh?) since he contributed in no small measure to the previously unimaginable event that is described above. It's Sunday, nobody's perfect except maybe the girl I met last night. Don't despair folks but hope ... and don't be afraid of politicans. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1552 Registered: 03-2005 |
Jerry, I agree about Hopkins' role on "She's a Rainbow." He and John Paul Jones, who did the strings, really made that song happen. | ||
| Elizabeth Robinson Member Username: Liz_the_new_listener Post Number: 130 Registered: 10-2006 |
I suppose the nice, nice give and take in the break of 'Apology Accepted' doesn't count. But what do you think of the one in 'That's Just the Way it Is' by Bruce Hornsby and the Range? 80's Reaganomics blues. And while I'm on the subject - it's fitting that 'Allentown' by Billy Joel has a guitar break, but I wonder what a piano one would have been like. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 2176 Registered: 05-2005 |
The Associates - Party Fears Two. | ||
| Wilson Davey Member Username: Wilson Post Number: 172 Registered: 05-2005 |
Er..thanks for the info FSH but I'm from Manchester. | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 381 Registered: 07-2006 |
the go-go's - head over heels elizabeth, the other one that instantly came to mine for me was apology accepted as well... | ||
| fsh Member Username: Fsh Post Number: 144 Registered: 05-2005 |
Wilson Davey wrote: "Er..thanks for the info FSH but I'm from Manchester." Well ... a bet's a bet. I guess I've just lost €20. Send me your address and I'll pop it the post to you. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 2189 Registered: 05-2005 |
I always loved The The's Uncertain Smile, the album version with Jools Holland's magnificent solo attheend. I could mime to that a s a kid, it was fun!! | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1042 Registered: 10-2004 |
ooooh, how could I forget Uncertain Smile? A classic, and you're right Spence, Jools' piano is stunning. | ||
| Ewan Talisker McEwan Member Username: Ewan_mcewan Post Number: 31 Registered: 02-2008 |
Thunderclap Newman - Something In the Air | ||
| Dr Girlfriend Member Username: Doctor_girlfriend Post Number: 35 Registered: 10-2007 |
when did Randy Newman leave Thunderclap Newman to go solo? | ||
| Wilson Davey Member Username: Wilson Post Number: 179 Registered: 05-2005 |
Very generous of you FSH... 125 Hyndford Street East Belfast | ||
| Ewan Talisker McEwan Member Username: Ewan_mcewan Post Number: 34 Registered: 02-2008 |
Espresso Love - Dire Straits | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1044 Registered: 10-2004 |
Aircrash Bureau - Gary Numan |