Keyboard Sounds Made Famous by Specific Artists

[Polychrest]

Garth Hudson bending notes on his Lowrey Festival with the modded glide foot switch.

[KuruPrionz]

1 hour ago, Polychrest said:

Garth Hudson bending notes on his Lowrey Festival with the modded glide foot switch.

Garth is an underrated force of nature. 

[D. Gauss]

Mozart. The piano.

[Ivan May]

Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac was a pretty prominent user of the Hohner Pianet. On the track Hypnotized you can hear it most profoundly.

 

 

[SamuelBLupowitz]

On 5/6/2022 at 11:07 PM, Mark Zeger said:

I’d say the Mellotron flutes are linked most closely to Strawberry Fields Forever and Stairway To Heaven. 

 

Mellotron choir probably has the closest association with In The Court Of The Crimson King.

 

Mellotron strings & brass, a toss up?

Wakeman (Yes & Bowie)?

Banks?

Pinder?

John Paul Jones?

I'm actually surprised nobody else mentioned The Moody Blues as being the most associated with the Mellotron. I mean, *I* associate it with the Beatles and some of the others mentioned, but anytime I read up about the Mellotron they were the band that I seemed to see the most.

[Baldwin Funster]

44 minutes ago, SamuelBLupowitz said:

I'm actually surprised nobody else mentioned The Moody Blues as being the most associated with the Mellotron. I mean, *I* associate it with the Beatles and some of the others mentioned, but anytime I read up about the Mellotron they were the band that I seemed to see the most.

Especially since Moody Blues Mike Pinder worked at Mellotron and even contributed some ideas into the product.

[Konnector]

The Beatles certainly has some classic songs that featured the Mellotron, but the Beatles used "everything" in their later studio productions. I always thought the Moody Blues were the most likely candidate as far as the Mellotron is concerned as it was a big part of their sound.

[MathOfInsects]

It doesn't really matter who uses it the most, it just matters who uses it first or best-known. EVERYONE knows the sound of Strawberry Fields. By the time anyone even heard a Moody Blues song, it was already "The sound from the Beatles song." Even now, regardless of who else used that sound, if you use it on a session or song, people call it the "Strawberry Fields sound."

 

[Ivan May]

5 hours ago, SamuelBLupowitz said:

I'm actually surprised nobody else mentioned The Moody Blues as being the most associated with the Mellotron. I mean, *I* associate it with the Beatles and some of the others mentioned, but anytime I read up about the Mellotron they were the band that I seemed to see the most.

Oasis also used a Mellotron. On Wonderwall the string noises were a Mellotron played by Noel Gallagher.

[Tom Williams]

On 5/7/2022 at 2:17 PM, CyberGene said:

Pipe organ - Bach. 

 I call foul.  Pipe organ is not a single sound, any more than "synthesizer" is.

[Tom Williams]

As a keyboardist, with our somewhat esoteric echo chamber, it's sometimes hard to work out "famous."

 

Emerson's use of the Moog brass filter, from Jerusalem on.

The above analog brass sound revitalized by Europe's Final Countdown.

Also Emerson, the rising 5th interval at the beginning of Copeland's Hoedown.

Procol Harum's 6886 Hammond registration on Whiter Shade of Pale.

 

 

[Shamanzarek]

Mike Pinder told John Lennon about the Mellotron and all four Beatles bought one. Pinder and Moody Blues bandmate Ray Thomas played harmonicas on "The Fool on the Hill" and did backing vocals on "I Am the Walrus".

[SamuelBLupowitz]

18 hours ago, MathOfInsects said:

It doesn't really matter who uses it the most, it just matters who uses it first or best-known. EVERYONE knows the sound of Strawberry Fields. By the time anyone even heard a Moody Blues song, it was already "The sound from the Beatles song." Even now, regardless of who else used that sound, if you use it on a session or song, people call it the "Strawberry Fields sound."

 

That's interesting, I think I tend to assume Beatles as the best known because I'm such a rabid Beatles fan, and certainly I'd say that their music has stayed in popular view much more than the Moody Blues, so everyone I hang out with definitely associates Mellotron flutes with Strawberry Fields Forever. Again, my experience is more related to reading about the Mellotron and its influence on culture; when I was a young Beatles scholar the reference I regularly saw when the Mellotron was brought up was to the Moody Blues. So an interesting thing about this "keyboard sounds associated with a particular artist" -- it can change over time, and mean different things to different demographics.

But I'd agree that pretty much everyone hears a transistor organ and goes "The Doors." Maybe "House of the Rising Sun" as a close second ... but that's a song, not an artist...

[Stokely]

I have no idea if he was the first to use the sound, but as a teenager growing up I was completely taken by the solo sounds Dennis Deyoung used.  It would not be too far a stretch to say those pushed me into becoming a keyboard player.  I was in a "fake band" the summer of my 14th birthday, something my friend was doing for a film project, and we all decided "hey let's form a real band".  None of us could play at all,  and we were picking instruments, and I got assigned keyboards simply due to the fact that I'd had two years of lessons when I was 10 years old or so.   Anyway, that sound he was using on Grand Illusion in particular was my favorite (Oberheim SEM I think, among others) and that sealed it for me.  I was playing keyboards!   Funny how things work out, I could have easily have become a guitarist or drummer on that summer afternoon....

[Rod S]

Enya - Orinoco Flow - Roland D-50 "Pizzagogo" patch. There's other songs that used this patch, but it's always the 1st song I think of.  

 

The M-1 organ patch in house music comes to mind, but I can't think of a specific artist in the genre.  

[CyberGene]

12 hours ago, Tom Williams said:

 I call foul.  Pipe organ is not a single sound, any more than "synthesizer" is.

 

Actually outside of the small circle of people who are church/pipe organists and are aware of the differences between different registrations, for most other people (including musicians, even keyboardists) pipe organ means the "tutti" sound of an organ and they will associate it with the Toccata and Fugue in Dm 😉 For all these people it's just a "pipe organ".

[Ivan May]

 

 

Whlist Blood Sweat and Tears is more known for their horns, the organ solo on Blues Part 2 by Dick Halligan is just amazing. Very Emerson esque.