SamuelBLupowitz

A third arm could help you to become an awesome drummer, but the cost of shirt replacement would surely undermine the glow. Couldn't that guy from Def Leppard use an extra? I'll see myself out.

For whatever reason, if we're talking pure aesthetics, the taller a stage piano is, the more of a turnoff it is to me. I like sleek and slim, a clean horizontal line across my platform stand. It's one of several reasons (most of which aren't aesthetic) I'm hoping to grab a CP88 rather than a used CP4.

I remember watching that episode on ABC Family (!) when I was probably 12 or 13 or something. I couldn't believe it. Man, that show had some high highs.

+1 to the Last Waltz version of Cripple Creek. If Levon doesn't move you, I don't know what can. Thanks for this thread. We all know why no one on the forum is talking about current events, but surely we all need something to help us process. This one always puts me in a good place. [video:youtube]

Glad you enjoyed it Yannis. Given how bad Pop music has become over the last 25 years and how tone-deaf it had made the millenials and GenZ, I'm grateful for the musical standard Gospel folks managed to maintain. Since there's already some spirited debate in this thread, I'm going to object to this line of thought and point out that the Millennials and Gen Z gave us Snarky Puppy, Turkuaz, Vulfpeck, Jacob Collier, and surely a host of other musically mind-blowing artists who don't immediately come to mind, despite the Boomers and Gen X establishing radio conglomerates that would never play them. The enemies of musicians and art are the same, not confined to a single generation, and are responsible for, rather than the result of, cultural deficiencies. :wink:

So cool! I'm always interested in how film and TV composers work, but it's especially enlightening for a stylized show like Twin Peaks. One of these days I'll fight through the swamp in the middle of the second season and actually get to the end...

This was the inspiration I needed today, thank youuuuu.

I grew up with Pixar's first burst into the cinematic canon. I was five or six years old when "Toy Story" hit theaters, when a fully-CGI film was something new and exciting rather than the go-to, cheaper way to make an animated kids' movie. I've kept up intermittently over the years -- I came to some of their mid-period favorites, like "Up" and "Finding Nemo," kind of late, because I had aged out of automatically seeing Disney movies -- but their films I've seen recently have just proven that they're still the best in the business when it comes to character, story, animation, and message. I loved both Inside Out and Coco, and this one was a total slam dunk for me. I loved the jazz element, obviously, but the synthesizer-driven "great beyond" music that scores the rest of the film, by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, is also gorgeous. I know this film was made prior to the pandemic, but my wife and I were caught off guard by how perfect it was for a time when the collective existential angst and despair has been so high. An instant favorite.

Now that's sweet! I'm gonna toss in a non-Christmas tune (though the spirit of it is holiday appropriate) -- I couldn't resist doing a quick mix of the song "A Promised Land" from my upcoming solo record, after my buddy finished the "choir" overdubs I wanted to round out the Hammond-and-vocal-only arrangement. The rest of the record, as you'll see at the end, will feature me on many of the instruments, which is something I've wanted to do for a long time, but didn't have the time or opportunity to until the pandemic hit. I've been focused on my bands for the last few years and I'm excited to put out some solo work for the first time since 2015. [video:youtube]

I think I might be getting the glockenspiel I asked for as a semi-afterthought a few weeks ago... it's funny, seems like an odd and specific piece of kit, as the Brits say, but I've been finding myself wanting one for overdubs often enough that I thought it would be fun to have the real thing anytime I want to get my Springsteen on in the studio. I got my wife the multi-guitar rack she's been wanting for awhile so we don't have a bunch of easy-to-knock-over guitar stands all over the place, and FedEx dropped off a GIANT box that said "HERCULES GUITAR STAND" by the front door, which you could read from our living room window (and outer space, probably). You can bet I ran out there to grab it and frantically wrap it...

In a world where Jimi Hendrix didn't die at 27...

I GOT A LOT OF PROBLEMS WITH YOU PEOPLE.

You're the only person I've ever heard give his adaptation the thumbs down Ehm...have you seen The Hobbit trilogy? Oh The Hobbit films are excruciating, no argument from me there. Goes to show you -- I didn't even think about them when CEB brought up Jackson adapting Tolkien! I never even bothered seeing the third one; I thought I'd give them another try after a recent viewing of the LotR triology and barely made it through the first film that time. I know we're drifting OT here, but the flim critic , if you're into that sort of thing. It's interesting to put together the pieces of why they turned out the way they did. But I grew up with Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, and my wife and I usually watch them at least once a year. She's run the gauntlet of watching all three extended editions in a single day, back before we met... I've never quite managed that feat. I have a nasty habit of falling asleep during the second half of The Two Towers, despite the excitement of Helm's Deep.

Hey, even John Lennon couldn't really sing the low notes in the verses. Part of the charm!

You're the only person I've ever heard give his adaptation the thumbs down, but I guess since my McCartney III thread also brought out someone calling The Beatles overrated, I'm two for two! :wink:

A great insight. It's true, by the time the rest of the culture had caught on to, for instance, Sgt. Pepper, and started putting out their big, colorful, psychedelic records... the Beatles had already moved on to their rootsy, gritty album with the all-white cover. Few other bands offer such a grand musical journey over such a short recording career.

I haven't been too focused on the news about this project, though I've been mildly interested. Saw the original Let It Be film once, and yeah, it's kind of a bummer. Now, though... this little montage has me excited and even moved. Among the great little moments: A close-up of Billy Preston's hands playing the end of the Get Back Rhodes solo. Enjoy. [video:youtube]

"Captain, my sensors indicate a subtle difference between a 12/8 triplet feel, and the rhythmic attribute that humans of the 20th century dubbed 'swing.'" "Excellent, Mr. Data. Make it so."

Thanks for the feedback, all. I'll give it a little oil and let it settle for awhile before I try again. It's been much colder here the last few days, but the studio stays pretty toasty with the heat on. I'm looking forward to when we can get some separate climate control for the room to help regulate all these instruments better, but that's gonna be an investment for another year...

Hey folks, been having an issue where my A100's tone generator makes a gnarly grinding sound once it starts spinning. It also seems to be taking longer than usual to get going after I flip the Start switch. This has happened to me once or twice in the past few months and it always goes away; usually I just have to try to start it up a second time. But this has been an issue every time I've tried for the last few hours, and the grinding is nasty enough that I don't want to just push through it -- I'm afraid of damaging something. I thought maybe a little more Hammond oil would help, but wanted to check here first. Can post an audio/video clip if that's helpful. Thanks!

Paul and Elvis Costello co-wrote many of the songs on the Flowers in the Dirt record, and there are some standouts from the era. "This One" and "My Brave Face" are also on the live "Tripping the Live Fantastic" collection from his 1989/90 world tour, and those are superior to the studio versions. Apparently the two of them didn't get along very well, though... Anyway, dig Hamish Stewart of Average White Band fame on guitar and background vocals! [video:youtube]

Wanted to chime in that I listened to the whole record, and really enjoyed it. There's nothing on it that I'd single out as a Timeless McCartney Classic (like "Maybe I'm Amazed" or even "Coming Up"), but it's a fun, beautiful, interesting exploration of sonic textures, melodies, and an artist controlling and layering his voice (figuratively and litereally) late in his life. Some of the lyrics achieve his frequent compelling, 60s-born impressionistic affect, and others are more in his, er, nursery rhyme vein. I'm thinking specifically of "Lavatory Lil" for the latter, but that one at least has a cool rock 'n' roll arrangement. Highlights for me are "Slidin'" and "Deep Deep Feeling." It makes me understand his whole "I didn't think I was making an album, I was just having fun" spiel a little better; Paul loves to downplay his intense creative commitment in the interest of seeming low-key and not a Lifelong Music Legend, but I think this record is similar to the first McCartney in its aesthetic of Playing Around in the Home Studio rather than Making a Bulletproof Collection of Songs. And god, that bass sound still hits me in just the right spot. Oh, and since this is a keyboard forum, after all, some Mellotron shows up here and there... pretty sure the one he owns is the one that used to live in Abbey Road, which he played on Strawberry Fields Forever among other well-known tracks.

Steve's really settling into the "friendly, elderly English chaplain" role nicely, isn't he? I do like to imagine that after the fade, as he finishes the Bach, he and an unseen band burst into "Glad."

I think he paid the price for that abomination. Around that time MJ got the idea to to buy up the Beatles publishing. MJ probably would have not got the idea if they never met. Ebony and Ivory was with Stevie Wonder ... you're understandably confusing his collaborations with virtuoso R&B artists with results far less than the sum of their parts! Semi-related, any time my wife or I hear something we think is factually suspect, we sing out "I don't beliiieeeve it!" just like Paul does at the end of "The Girl is Mine." I've long felt that it is a true testament to Thriller's monumental stature that it can remain one of the greatest albums of all time and still have a song that devastatingly bad on it.

Here, I'll toss in something lesser known that I really like. Aside from the aforementioned Anderson and Laboriel, this song (this whole record) has some really tasty, funky Hammond and Wurlitzer playing by Gabe Dixon, who opted out of joining the road band to focus on his Ben Folds-esque solo work... coming back around, he's been in the keyboard chair for Tedeschi Trucks Band since we lost Kofi Burbridge last year. There's some now-dated production aesthetic that takes me right back to the late 90s/early aughts, but there's a timelessness to the live band vibe -- the performances sound downright spontaneous at times, and that's one of the things that gives the Driving Rain record so much personality to me. Hard for me to believe it's nearly 20 years ago that I got it as a gift at the holidays! [video:youtube]