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Three of My Favorite B-3/C-3 Rock Organ Solos

nitekatt2008

By nitekatt2008
in The Keyboard Corner

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nitekatt2008

nitekatt2008

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There are 3 main rock organ solos that have always stood the test of time for their creative nature, ingenuity, technical skill of the players, drawbar settings, speaker output and the song itself that they played the solo on. I'm sure about leaving out other favorites, but these 3 rock organ solos are still my all-time favs, and they are timeless and never get old or tiring to play over and over.

 

Organ solo no. 1 is Deep Purple's organist Jon Lord's dynamic set of riffs on "Hush." His gritty tone he got, his choice of drawbar settings and that pounding, percussive chordal thing he does on his C-3 still sends chills down my spine every time I've heard it. It's possible he used a Marshall amp, not a Leslie for that solo, although there is some vibrato or tremolo effects. I tried to learn it note for note by slowing it down and transcribing it, but I still don't have it down smooth like he does it. I read an interview years back in Keyboard that featured pianist George Winston on the cover and he said he had to play that "Hush" solo daily because it had that special something that was so magical in the rock organ sound.

 

Organ solo no 2 is keyboardist for Yes, Rick Wakeman's incredible C-3 solo on "Roundabout." As the song goes through its cycle until we hear this dynamic buildup like a volcano ready to explode, Wakeman does the big glissando upper manual slide and goes into this percussive set of riffs at a fast speed and tempo, almost like hearing what Bach may have sounded like on acid. I have the exact transcription of Rick's solo and played it along with the record, but I still don't have it down. Still trying, maybe someday I'll catch on.

 

Rock organ solo No 3 is Sugarloaf's organist Jerry Corbetta's amazing, fast and innovative B-3 solo on their big hit "Green-Eyed Lady." He has a great drawbar setting with percussion, although I really don't have a clue of what his exact drawbar settings were set up for that solo. When I heard the solo first time on the record blasting at volume 10 on my car radio, I was so frustrated how great it was at the time, I felt like quitting the organ forever. But after playing it over and over and slowing it down to transcribe parts of it, it inspired me enough to stay with it and continue studying and playing my B-3 and other keyboards. I still can't play that solo note for note either, but maybe someday.

 

In all honesty, all these organ solos basically came out several decades ago, and the first time I heard them, I was so frustrated at the virtuosity of the players, I felt I didn't stand a chance to match what they did. But I also realized that hearing what other great rock organ players were coming up with in their monumental solos, pushed me ahead to keep playing, taking lessons/classes, transcribing and gigging.

 

I'm interested in what some other B-3 players here recommend as their all time favorite rock organ solos might be. But I would to just stick to rock for now. I have a post number 2 I'm working on, listing my 3 favorite jazz B-3/C-3 organ solos. I will post that when finished. Thanks

 

katt

 

 

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B3Nut

B3Nut

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Hush = cranked 122 and C-3 chorus, sounds like a red-cap organ that was fairly new (most likely was.) Corbetta's setting: 888, on normal fast third perc, C-3 chorus, lots of reverb. Easy to nail the tone, not so easy to nail the part feel-wise. Depending on the organ you might want to push the bars in to 777, depends on how aggressive a given box's percussion is.

 

All three of these are killer cuts. :)

---

Todd A. Phipps

"...no, I'm not a Hammondoholic...I can stop anytime..."

http://www.facebook.com/b3nut ** http://www.blueolives.com

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Tonysounds

Tonysounds

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While Lord was definitely known for his Hammond/Marshall sound (think MachineHead and In Rock), most of his organ work did involve the leslie. Hush definitely is through the leslie, with some C3 chorus. Its a great solo, but has always been marred for me by the quite obvious punch-in towards the end. (Not that Im against punch-ins, its just that its so obvious that Jons solo was over, and rather than edit the tape, they just punched in a few more bars, and the punch-in is dreadfully conspicuous.) You can pick almost any Purple song and go Killer Hammond solo, a real testament to Jons abilities and taste as a player. He and other in the band have said Jon is a very spontaneous player, and that you need to grab his parts on the first or second take, as they diminish quickly from there. Thats pretty incredible, when you listen to the solos on Highway Star or Space Truckin, or The Painter or pick a song! I really love some of the soloing he does on Archive Alive! (with Blackmore/Coverdale/Hughes), especially the unaccompanied stuff. Definitely one of the kings of Hammond, and probably the undisputed hard rock keyboardist of all time.

 

If I had to pick 3 of my favorite Hammond solos ever (which is difficult and is prone to change everytime I fire up my iPod), I might be tempted to go this way:

 

1) Toussaint LOverture/Savor (Santana, Tom Coster, Moonflower);

2) Oye Como Va (Santana, Greg Rolie, Abraxas);

3) Spirits Dancing in The Flesh (Santana, Chester Thompson, Sacred Fire).

 

Or maybe.Let the Children Play (Santana, Tom Coster, Moonflower), or Milagro (Santana, Chester Thompson, Milagro).

 

Yeah, I cant do this.

 

Hitting "Play" does NOT constitute live performance. -Me.
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AnotherScott

AnotherScott

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Hush = cranked 122 and C-3 chorus, sounds like a red-cap organ that was fairly new (most likely was.) Corbetta's setting: 888, on normal fast third perc, C-3 chorus, lots of reverb. Easy to nail the tone, not so easy to nail the part feel-wise. Depending on the organ you might want to push the bars in to 777, depends on how aggressive a given box's percussion is.

 

Oh no, now you've done it.

 

I guess you didn't see the thread "Databases for famous Hammond drawbar registrations?"

 

I hope you don't get in trouble for giving out drawbar registrations around here!

 

;-)

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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synthdogg

synthdogg

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Organ solo no 2 is keyboardist for Yes, Rick Wakeman's incredible C-3 solo on "Roundabout." As the song goes through its cycle until we hear this dynamic buildup like a volcano ready to explode, Wakeman does the big glissando upper manual slide and goes into this percussive set of riffs at a fast speed and tempo, almost like hearing what Bach may have sounded like on acid. I have the exact transcription of Rick's solo and played it along with the record, but I still don't have it down. Still trying, maybe someday I'll catch on.

 

 

 

Rick's Roundabout solo may not be the greatest organ solo of all time, but it's the one that made me want to play keyboard early on...so it'll always be my favorite. That recording is one of the more unique organ tones I've heard, really distorted but sounding nothing like Jon Lord's tone. I've never heard Rick get that same sound again.

 

There are lots of great organ solos out there, but that one will always hold a special place in my heart.

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AnotherScott

AnotherScott

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Organ solo no 2 is keyboardist for Yes, Rick Wakeman's incredible C-3 solo on "Roundabout." As the song goes through its cycle until we hear this dynamic buildup like a volcano ready to explode, Wakeman does the big glissando upper manual slide and goes into this percussive set of riffs at a fast speed and tempo, almost like hearing what Bach may have sounded like on acid. I have the exact transcription of Rick's solo and played it along with the record, but I still don't have it down. Still trying, maybe someday I'll catch on.

 

 

 

Rick's Roundabout solo may not be the greatest organ solo of all time, but it's the one that made me want to play keyboard early on...so it'll always be my favorite. That recording is one of the more unique organ tones I've heard, really distorted but sounding nothing like Jon Lord's tone. I've never heard Rick get that same sound again.

 

There are lots of great organ solos out there, but that one will always hold a special place in my heart.

 

 

While I like Wakeman and Yes, I have to say, I don't love that solo. Even though I"ve heard the song probably 100+ times, I still can't "sing" the entire lead in my head. It has moments, but as a whole, a lot of it just isn't memorable to me.

 

But I'll also give him credit, I think it's a really hard pattern to do a good solo over. It's only a 14 beat pattern instead of 16, so the big climactic places you would expect can never happen, there's no solid "one" to build to, because of the dropped 2 beats at the end of the pattern. Also, almost every beat is over a different chord, which adds harmonic challenges to improvising, and is perhaps another reason why so much of the solo seems nebulous and unanchored to me.

 

OTOH, I think the Steve Howe guitar counterpoints to the organ lead chunks are terrific. Very memorable. But those sections are in straight time and without all the constantly changing chords, so it was also a much easier foundation to work over.

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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Outkaster

Outkaster

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Independance Day

Racing in the Street

Oye Como Va

Shotgun

You've made me so very happy

 

Too many to mention.

"Danny, ci manchi a tutti. La E-Street Band non e' la stessa senza di te. Riposa in pace, fratello"

 

 

noblevibes.com

 

 

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Mididude

Mididude

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I love J.L.'s Hammond solo on 'Smoke On the Water' from 'Made In Japan'. I hear both Blues & Classical (or some strange chromatic shifts that completely change the chordal 'color' for about a half second toward the end...Proggy stuff) playing within the solo, with the over-the-top (I mean in a good sense) tube distortion tones coming out of his organ/amps combination... I discovered that album a lot later on in life than many (when I was in my twenties) but it hooked me on Rock Hammond organ. I've tried picking that solo out b4 & got most of it figured out except that strange kinda chromatic part. One could use that 'Amazing Slow Downer' software to scrutinize the note runs I guess.
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nitekatt2008

nitekatt2008

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Organ solo no 2 is keyboardist for Yes, Rick Wakeman's incredible C-3 solo on "Roundabout." As the song goes through its cycle until we hear this dynamic buildup like a volcano ready to explode, Wakeman does the big glissando upper manual slide and goes into this percussive set of riffs at a fast speed and tempo, almost like hearing what Bach may have sounded like on acid. I have the exact transcription of Rick's solo and played it along with the record, but I still don't have it down. Still trying, maybe someday I'll catch on.

 

 

 

Rick's Roundabout solo may not be the greatest organ solo of all time, but it's the one that made me want to play keyboard early on...so it'll always be my favorite. That recording is one of the more unique organ tones I've heard, really distorted but sounding nothing like Jon Lord's tone. I've never heard Rick get that same sound again.

 

There are lots of great organ solos out there, but that one will always hold a special place in my heart.

 

"Yes", and I got lucky to see Yes live in concert, I think at The Forum in LA, the date? But it was when they were playing tunes from their album Close To The Edge. I don't have the album, but I did get to hear them do "Roundabout" and we had seats close enough off the side to see Rick play the organ solo. What a night

 

katt

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nitekatt2008

nitekatt2008

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I love J.L.'s Hammond solo on 'Smoke On the Water' from 'Made In Japan'. I hear both Blues & Classical (or some strange chromatic shifts that completely change the chordal 'color' for about a half second toward the end...Proggy stuff) playing within the solo, with the over-the-top (I mean in a good sense) tube distortion tones coming out of his organ/amps combination... I discovered that album a lot later on in life than many (when I was in my twenties) but it hooked me on Rock Hammond organ. I've tried picking that solo out b4 & got most of it figured out except that strange kinda chromatic part. One could use that 'Amazing Slow Downer' software to scrutinize the note runs I guess.

 

I used Amazing Slow Downer all the time on my older MacBook, but when I got the new one with the Intel Core Duo 2.2 Ghz chip and Snow Leopard, it crashes even though I tried to update it. Now I just use QT Pro to slow, loop and change keys on stuff I'm working out. Not quite as efficient as ASD, but it works.

 

katt

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StartRun

StartRun

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...Emerson's solo on Karelia Suite when he was w/the Nice on "Five Bridges" album.

 

Emerson's work throughout "Country Pie" on the same album.

 

Brian Auger's take on "Freedom Jazz Dance" in a rock (not jazz) context.

 

I agree with most of the contributions thus far; but am perplexed with the preoccupation with Jon Lord and Rick Wakeman...

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Skinny

Skinny

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One of my favorites is somewhat obscure, it's Kyle Hollingsworth of String Cheese Incident. He does a Hammond solo on the song "Rollover" that is short but great.

 

Tonysounds, are you a SCI fan? I know you like jam bands...

Stuff and things.
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AnotherScott

AnotherScott

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It's hard to pick favorite Keith Emerson organ stuff, there's so much. I was glad to see Rod Argent listed here. Santana, yup. I'll also mention there's some great Hammond work on Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick. John Evan did some really nice stuff and you don't hear his name much.

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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acidolem

acidolem

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All the organ solos on Brian Auger's "Second Wind" LP

Larry Young's solo on Emergancy

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench; a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. ............ There's also a negative side"

 

 

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tarkus

tarkus

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Emerson's work throughout "Country Pie" on the same album.

good stuff! I like his stuff on "She Belongs to Me".

 

Been listening to a lot more Greg Rollie lately.

 

One of my favorites was Greg Allman's little solo during Hot 'lanta as well as Stormy Monday (both Fillmore).

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iLaw

iLaw

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I don't understand how Jon Lord played those ultra fast chords in the solo on "Hush". My hand doesn't move that fast! Maybe I just haven't tried it on a real Hammond action...

 

Probably two hands using both manuals?

 

Watch the video at 03:16. Left hand is at his side.

 

Larry.

 

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