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"American Band" keyboards?


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"Could"... but let's be honest, Pete Townsend is a crazy tech nerd who loved to screw around. Tod likely went in just wanting to get the job done and picked something.

 

Plus, routing an organ through an LFO is a LOT simpler than triggering an attack envelope (in this case), that would be nigh impossible unless his organ sent out VC triggers. The only thing I can think of is using a gate with a slow attack, which could have been very possible. But let's consider Occam's Razor: it's more likely that he chose an instrument that already had a slower attack, we already know he already had a MiniMoog at the studio.

Puck Funk! :)

 

Equipment: Laptop running lots of nerdy software, some keyboards, noise makersâ¦yada yada yadaâ¦maybe a cat?

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I wasn't a big fan of Grand Funk back in the day, don't really recall why, maybe thought they were cheesy rock or something. Haven't heard a GFR song in probably 30 years.

 

Just watched this. Damn was I wrong back then. This is amazingly awesome, they are very solid, very tight, their lead and background vocals are spot on, they put on a great show with very few frills, not even a drum riser. Farner does a move at 1:24 that's cool as shit.

In this live performance from 1974 it's played mostly on B3 with some left-hand Clavinet. Only other Keyboard on stage is a Mellotron which is not used here. Doesn't sound exactly like the original recording but is full sounding and gets the job done. My hat is off to your drummer if he can nail that intro.

[video:youtube]

Some music I've recorded and played over the years with a few different bands

Tommy Rude Soundcloud

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I could be totally off in my timetable as I don't know when these types of synths came out, but there were some paraphonic divide down synths designed to mimic certain instruments - like the Moog Opus 3 and Korg Trident, He is playing multiple notes and not always just 5ths, and it was probably too early for polyphonic, so paraphonic would be my guess. Doesn't sound far off from the "organ" section of my Opus 3.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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I wasn't a big fan of Grand Funk back in the day, don't really recall why, maybe thought they were cheesy rock or something. Haven't heard a GFR song in probably 30 years.

 

Just watched this. Damn was I wrong back then. This is amazingly awesome, they are very solid, very tight, their lead and background vocals are spot on, they put on a great show with very few frills, not even a drum riser. Farner does a move at 1:24 that's cool as shit.

In this live performance from 1974 it's played mostly on B3 with some left-hand Clavinet. Only other Keyboard on stage is a Mellotron which is not used here. Doesn't sound exactly like the original recording but is full sounding and gets the job done. My hat is off to your drummer if he can nail that intro.

[video:youtube]

 

A friend of mine from the record business half-jokingly called them the "band of the great unwashed". In their heyday they had zero critical acclaim, but teenage kids in the day loved them. They sold a ton of records (they kept Capitol Records afloat at a time when not much else was selling for them), sold out huge shows (Shea Stadium sellout in 1971), and started having quite a few hits on AM radio . And yes, Farner was a great singer and showman. AND, he was a pretty damn good Hammond player! Two B3's on stage for "Footstompin' Music"!

 

 

They were huge when I was a young teenager, and I loved them. I remember signing up for the Columbia Record Club in 1975, and one of the 12 albums (for $.01!) I chose was their second live album "Caught in the Act". Awesome band live, and by then they had Craig Frost in the band as their keyboard player. Both Brewer and Frost are or were in the Bob Seger's Silver Bullet Band after GF.

 

 

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I wasn't a big fan of Grand Funk back in the day, don't really recall why, maybe thought they were cheesy rock or something. ... Just watched this. Damn was I wrong back then. This is amazingly awesome, they are very solid, very tight, their lead and background vocals are spot on, they put on a great show with very few frills, not even a drum riser.

More cowbell!

 

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When Grand Funk first became known I noticed Farner was playing a Messenger guitar, There was a Messenger dealer in my hometown in Oregon. I went to the store and they told me the company had gone out of business and all they had left was a Messenger Bass. At the time I was in a band with a guy who was from Astoria, Oregon where Messengers were built. He told me he knew someone there who had a Messenger for sale. We drove to Astoria and for $125 I scored a red Messenger with the built-in Fuzz which was the same model Mark Farner used except his was the Midnight Sunburst color. I still have the guitar and now regret that I didn't buy that Messenger Bass. This is my actual guitar in the photo:

2487371675_272a424219_z.jpg

 

C3/122, M102A, Vox V301H, Farfisa Compact, Gibson G101, GEM P, RMI 300A, Piano Bass, Pianet , Prophet 5 rev. 2, Pro-One, Matrix 12, OB8, Korg MS20, Jupiter 6, Juno 60, PX-5S, Nord Stage 3 Compact
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I dunno...I mean granted I'm deaf in one ear, but I hear an organ not run through a leslie. I've always thought that was what it was.

Listening to the isolated keyboards, I still think that. I never hear the detail of the wurly before though, so that's pretty cool. I've always loved this song actually.

Stage: Korg Krome 88.

Home: Korg Kross 61, Yamaha reface CS, Korg SP250, Korg mono/poly Kawai ep 608, Korg m1, Yamaha KX-5

 

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