Ivan May

I am a huge fan of Eddie Jobson, and knew about him from his playing with Roxy Music. He also briefly played with Curved Air, his keyboard playing on their Air Cut album is very good. That album was recorded with a VC3 synthesiser.

RIP Kevin Geordie Walker of Killing Joke.

How about this for a weird guitar? That guitar that Elizabeth Montgomery is playing, by the way, is a Vox electric guitar.

Joe Beck isn't a very well known guitarist, but this 1975 album he did with David Sanborn showcases why he was one of fusion's most respected guitarists.

I would select a Marshall amp for some keyboard amps. Jon Lord used a Marshall amplifier for his overdriven Hammond B3 organ and RMI electric piano on many of the peak Deep Purple albums.

I've always liked the electric piano patch on those old Yamaha and Roland keyboards. Listen to the electric piano patch on the Yamaha GS1 and you'll know what I mean.

The entire album In The Right Place is really good, Dr John has always been an excellent pianist and singer. RIP Dr. John, we still love and miss you.

What, nobody's going to play any Thanksgiving songs here?

I’m not generally a fan of the Roland guitar synthesizer either. I mean, Roland makes some great synthesizers and effects, but to try and make your guitar sound like a synthesizer to me? I don’t know how I feel about that…

The Gibson Melody Maker is a budget version of the Les Paul, it was a more affordable version of the Les Paul or Les Paul Junior. I like the early ones with the single coil P90 pickup. Most of the solo albums Joan Jett and the Blackhearts did in the eighties was recorded with her vintage 1965 Melody Maker.

Rick Wakeman used dozens of effects on his keyboards, he used a wah pedal and a Leslie speaker (presumably for his Hammond B3 organ) and fed it all through Fender amps.

Yes, before Apple Music and Spotify entered the picture, there was something called the record and tape clubs. These record clubs were known as the RCA Music Service and the Columbia House Music club (the RCA Music Service later changed its name to the BMG Direct Marketing Club when BMG bought out RCA in 1987). It operated somewhat like a mail order service: you could look in a magazine at their advertising, pick out 12 tapes for just one cent, and then the records would come to your house. As CD sales dwindled in the mid 2000s, the company wound up out of fashion, but Vinyl Me, Please has a similar offer: pick out your favorite vinyl records and genres, and they’ll deliver it to your house. I have several CDs that are from either Columbia House or BMG Direct Marketing, and if I remember correctly, they were headquartered at the Columbia Records pressing plant in Terre Haute, Indiana. My dad and a few other of my family members were members of those record clubs. I actually have a cassette of Permanent Vacation by Aerosmith that is from Columbia House. I acquired it from my grandmother several years ago when I was helping her clean out her house and downsize before she moved. I also have a CD of Permanent Vacation that is from Columbia House. I hope this thread brings back some much needed memories.

So it's an ambient covers album? That seems really fun. I especially look forward to the Robert Fripp collaboration.

Rick Wakeman also helped play and develop the birotron, which was also a tape loop operated keyboard, which was his response to the Mellotron. It was used primarily on the album Rick Wakeman’s Criminal Record and the Yes album Tormato, but has since been discontinued.

When is a good time to listen to Heart? Never.

This performance of ELP performing on Beat Club with their song Knife Edge in 1970 is another great keyboard solo from Keith Emerson. Watch Keith experimenting with the Moog ribbon controller, it’s actually pretty funny!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQQdYokbp4E

I actually own a few Chieftains albums in my collection. I really like their Christmas album they did, I like their version of the Wexford Carol with Nanci Griffith on vocals and their version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman with the Chieftains drummer Kevin Conniff on vocals.

This is a little disheartening to hear that they’re not doing a Sweetwater gear fest this year. My friends Mitch Holder and Chet Catallo, who used to work for Gibson, used to go to the gearfests every year. Steve Howe was supposed to show up one year but pulled out at the last minute. 2025 will be here before you know it.

Hats-off. I always liked watching him play Chandler on Friends, but that wasn’t the only role he ever had. He was also great in Fools Rush In alongside Salma Hayek, and he played an older version of himself alongside Zac Enron in the film 17 Again. Matthew Perry had been trying to improve, trust me.

Ray Manzarek did play on the album Other Voices, on which Krieger and Manzarek sang lead vocals, and he also sang lead on a cover version of Willie Dixon’s You Need Meat, which was the B side of Love Her Madly. Manzarek and English musician Roy Davies also played with the Butts Band, which was a blues rock band formed in 1973 and which also featured Robby Krieger on lead guitar and John Densmore on drums. I believe a clavinet and Hammond organ were used on that album.