Shamanzarek

One from the days when an instrumental could be played on the radio and become a huge hit.

Bagpipes traditionally use African Blackwood and Cocobolo which are now restricted under CITES. Bagpipe makers now need a permit to ship out of the country of origin. There is a Gibson Bagpipe Company in Nashua, NH founded in Ohio in 1978. It has been a Scottish tradition for the last couple hundred years not to wear underwear under a kilt. In modern times it is common to wear boxers, briefs, or special kilt underwear.

I liked playing this song back in the early 80s. I used a Jupiter 6 which came pretty close to the main sound plus OB8 and Pro-One for additional sounds. Gotta find a band that wants to do this one again. Jonathan Cain used a Jupiter 8 and Prophet 5 for playing it live in the old days. In modern times he uses a Jupiter 80 and some other keyboard. Interesting Korg and Roland both did the same mis-spelling of "Separate" in their patch replications for this song. Journey live from 1983:

In 2000 a bandmate of mine got a gig as vocalist in a reformed version of The Animals. Members of the band were Hilton Valentine, John Steel, Dave Rowberry, and Jim Rodford. Since Hilton lived in Connecticut and the rest of the band lived in England we put together a rehearsal band with Hilton to break in the singer. The drummer was Chip Damiani who was a member of The Remains in the 60s. I used my Vox Continental for all the rehearsals. It was so great getting to play with one of my 60s heroes. Besides Hilton I got to meet Dave Rowberry and Jim Rodford. Surprisingly Dave had no interest in using the Vox organ although he played it on one show and sounded great. He preferred playing piano and only used organ sounds for a few songs. I provided a Kurzweil PC88 for him and he was happy with that. Dave's first hit recording with the band was "We Gotta Get Out of This Place". I found out he used a studio-owned Lowrey organ on some songs such as "Don't Bring Me Down", "See See Rider", "Shake" and maybe others. On stage he was sometimes seen with Hammond spinets or consoles and some songs on the Animalism album feature a Hammond. There are TV appearances and photos with Dave on a Vox Continental so he did use one on some occasions. Even though they never recorded with it Dave played a silver top Fender Rhodes on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1965. This may have been the first time a Rhodes was seen on national TV.

Remember Mad magazine's Mickey Rodent parody from 1955 with Darnold Duck and Pluted Pup? https://johnglenntaylor.blogspot.com/2009/01/mickey-rodent-mad-19.html

I started piano lessons in 1962 and after a few years started playing organ after which I rarely touched a piano. Then in the 70s/80s synths came along and I spent so much time making sounds rather than pursuing serious playing. I got back to the piano in the early 90s but if I could do it over again I would have never stopped playing piano.

The Mellotron Mark 2 is the most iconic model used by The Moody Blues, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones.

My favorite for left-hand bass. Came in a variety of colors especially in the early 60s. Gold or silver tops have the iconic look. The successor to the CS-80. Lacks poly aftertouch/wood keys, velocity, and ribbon but has split, memory, and mono aftertouch. Synth architecture is nearly identical to CS-80 at somewhat smaller size and weight.

Right now I'm listening to Pandora a lot. It plays mostly music I want to hear in many different genres. I listen to Sirius in the car but even with all the different channels there are a lot things I like that rarely, if ever, get played. I still have a turntable and CD player which don't get used much anymore.

In 1971 I bought two brand new Leslie 147s, pre-amp pedal, relay, and cables all for for well under $1000.

In England it has been a de facto practice to incorporate the name of the artist that is being tributed in the band name. That is why there was the Bootleg Beatles, Beatles for Sale, Counterfeit Stones, Boot Led Zeppelin, The Four Seasons Tribute Band, One Night of Queen, Killer Queen, The Manzarek Doors, The L.A. Doors, The Australian Doors Show, UK Beach Boys, etc. In America tribute bands often name themselves after a song, album, lyric, or other catch phrase associated with the artist and people have no problem figuring out what the band does. But in Britain they need to see the name of the artist somewhere in the band name. The Doors band I was with for many years, Riders on the Storm, did a tour of the UK in the 90s. The promoter said the band had to change its name so that Doors was in the name. The band leader refused so they billed the band as Riders on the Storm-The American Doors.

In 1984 I was in a band with Eugene Organ a guitar player from the British band Charlie. In the late 70s he and Julian were members of Charlie touring as opening act for Foreigner when they ran out of money in Providence, RI. The other band members made their way back to England but Eugene and Julian were stranded in the US but somehow made their way to Southern California. Julian did studio work, wrote books and eventually played under the stage second keyboards with Yes. Eugene played in our cover band, attended cosmetology school so he could get a real job while trying not to get deported. One night Julian came to one of our gigs in Brea, CA. He was accompanied by two very beautiful British women. Julian and I had a good discussion about synths. I had just seen the Matrix 12 at NAMM and asked what he thought about it. He said "Oh, it's so complicated." Not what expected to hear but I bought one anyway. Charlie was a great band and got a lot of airplay on the big Los Angeles rock stations. I think they might have become much bigger if they hadn't had problems with their record companies. They had one record company in the States and another in England. Neither would support them while on tour so the band had no choice but to break up when they ran out of money. Here are a few Charlie songs. Julian is clowning around with an MS-20 in the first. The other two songs were played a lot on the radio in SoCal. I was already a Charlie fan before I met Eugene and Julian.

Other music or musician events on this day in history include: 1914-Irving Berlin's Watch Your Step musical premiered. 1915-Sibelius' 5th Symphony premiered. 1925-Irving Berlin and George S. Kaufman's Cocoanuts starring the Marx Brothers opened in NYC. 1930-Cole Porter's musical The New Yorkers opened on Broadway. 1943-Jim Morrison born. 1949-Jules Styne and Leo Robin's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes premiered in NYC. 1956-Guy Mitchell's Singing the Blues hit #1. 1957-All-star CBS broadcast of The Sound of Jazz. 1967-Magical Mystery Tour EP released in the UK. 1976-The Eagles' Hotel California released. 1980-John Lennon Murdered. 1984-Ringo hosts SNL with musical Guest Herbie Hancock.

Somewhat relating to India. A bandmate of mine died in September. Within a day of his death there were at least three videos on YouTube of Indian news commentators as well as websites reporting his death with a very detailed history of his life. He was not known in India at all so it is a mystery how this came to be especially so quickly after his death. Anybody know anything about this?

I remember if you continued your membership after fulfilling the initial obligation you would get a free record album for every two you purchased at regular club price which never exceeded retail price. You could also get something like three free records for getting a friend to join the club. If a friend signed up through me he could choose from a much greater selection of records from the club magazine rather than the limited selection listed in the ads. I did find if you had the catalog numbers from the club magazine you could order almost anything that was available using the application in the ads.

I joined them all in the 60s, Columbia, RCA, and Capitol. I also got LPs from Records Unlimited which was a division of Columbia but wasn't really a club but more of a discount selling service. You had to be a member of all these because you could only get Columbia and Epic from Columbia, and you could only get RCA and Capitol from their respective clubs. They all carried a wide variety of other labels. Anything I couldn't get from a club I would buy at a store when they were on sale. Within a couple of years I had a about two hundred albums. I still have all those albums and it has grown to over 700 in the intervening years. I joined a couple of CD clubs in the 90s but now I don't buy records or CDs any more with all the content available on YouTube. For listening I use Pandora on the TV. I can get it to play deep cuts I really like which I never hear on Sirius.

I talked to a guy last week who damaged a few of the tuning coils in his G101 while trying to tune it with improper tools. Lucky for him he had a G201 parts organ that has the same coils. Many organs can be tuned with a screwdriver or better yet a non-metal TV/Radio Trimmer Alignment tool. The G101 requires a Allen hex driver or wrench. I tuned my G101 recently and found two of the coils needed a different size hex driver than the rest. I had a hex driver that came from an electronics tool set I got in the early 70s that happened to be the correct size for the Gibson coils except for the two odd ones mentioned. Manzarek took the RMI 300A on the 1968 European tour. It can be seen in photos on stage to the left side of the Gibson. It is also used as a prop in the "Hello I Love You" promo video which was filmed in Frankfurt, Germany. I can't identify the RMI being used on any studio recordings but it might be on a couple of bootleg live recordings. Ray was reportedly not a fan of the RMI which was purchased by equipment manager Vince Treanor on his own initiative without asking Ray if he wanted it. When this customs list came out a few years ago Robby was able to get the serial number of his Gibson SG Special which was stolen from The Doors Workshop in Hollywood, CA. This guitar was used on the first Doors album and Robby put out the word he wanted the guitar back. I don't think it has turned up yet despite Robby offering an enticing reward. Manzarek didn't join the Butts Band. In 1973 Elektra Records founder Jac Holzman sent Krieger, Densmore, and Manzarek to England to check out Howard Werth of Audience as a possible replacement vocalist. Ray's wife Dorothy was pregnant at the time so he returned home by himself to be with her. In 1973 I was playing on the Queen Mary in Long Beach and ran into Ray and Dorothy. A couple of weeks later I read in Rolling Stone that she had given birth. Robby and John stayed in England and formed the Butts Band which included Phil Chen on bass before he played with Jeff Beck on Blow By Blow. Chen was playing in Robby's band until his death in December 2021.

Came across this today. It includes schematics. https://wurlitzer7300.com

From early in their career The Association had a close working relationship with Clark Burroughs of The Hi-Lo's vocal Quartet. Burroughs did vocal arrangements on many of the band's recordings including the hits "Cherish", "Windy", "Never My Love", and "One Too Many Mornings". Burroughs as well as a female vocalist and others sang backgrounds on some recordings. While the band used session musicians on studio recordings they did demo recordings of their originals and came up with instrumental parts which were reproduced by the session players. Burroughs continued working with The Association until the Waterbeds in Trinidad album which was well after their hit-making years. Brian Wilson was also a big fan of The Hi-Lo's.

Summer 1993 I was living in a house in Lincoln Park, NJ that had a Hammond C-3 in it. It was across the street from former Young Rascal Eddie Brigati's family home. One day Eddie's brother David called me and said Mr. Shaffer is here, can we come over. I wasn't sure who he was talking about but a few minutes later Eddie, David, and Paul Shaffer were at the door. Paul was obviously a Young Rascals fan. He played a few Rascals songs while Eddie sang. Then they let me play a few Doors songs. After a while Eddie pulls out a bag of marijuana and I thought "Wow, I'm going to get to smoke one with Paul Shaffer". Paul had just become a father and declined to smoke so Eddie put the bag away.

Haven't seen any mention of the passing of Terry Kirkman who was a founding member of The Association known for their lush harmonies and great songs two of which, Cherish and Everything That Touches You, were written by Kirkman. The band played Monterey Pop in 1967 along with many other artists who became legendary. Jimmy Webb wrote MacArthur Park to order for The Association but they declined to record it. Terry sang lead on some of the bands hits as well as playing trumpet and recorder. https://www.legacy.com/news/celebrity-deaths/terry-kirkman-1939-2023-singer-and-songwriter-with-the-association/

There are lots of Liberace transcriptions on YT. Too much work for me as his arrangements are quite demanding. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=liberace+piano+transcription

Been listening to Focus albums since the 70s. Here is Thijs van Leer playing flute with Uriah Heep (Ian Anderson also sat in with them occasionally). Here he is playing Sylvia and Hocus Pocus with Transatlantic:

Christopher Cross wasn't the only guitarist to sub for Ritchie Blackmore in Deep Purple. In 1972 Blackmore came down with hepatitis before a show in Quebec. The band got Randy California of Spirit to do the Quebec show and then canceled the rest of the tour. I remember reading about this at the time probably in Rolling Stone. Though the quality isn't great that show was recorded.

Since the root is moving chromatically from C up to D I would consider this to be a C#-7 with an augmented or #5. If you look up this chord you should find an example with at least the same upper three notes.