What happens when you open a long closed box labeled "records 60's - 70's"? Hint......not much except listen to them spin. Well So far I have heard one side of Mc Donald and Giles and one side of Caravan's In The Land Of Grey And Pink. This conjured up memories of cruising the streets of Miami in the early 70's in my 1965 Pontiac Grand Prix.
I also played bits of Camel's Mirage and Moonmadness albums and Gentle Giant (with the weird face on the cover).
I have now played or at least skipped through every album I have by the bands I mentioned in my previous post, so either I missed it, or don't have it. Since I don't recall those lyrics, I am assuming that I am not going to come up with an answer either without resorting to Google or Youtube.
What's a "synth?" In the pre Moog era there were several instruments that would later be called synths, or synthesizers after Moog used the name.
Telstar was one of the first songs (early 60's) to feature a new lead sound that came from a keyboard instrument, although exactly what that instrument was is still subject of some debate. The consensus is that it was a Clavioline, a vacuum tube powered keyboard instrument using many of the techniques seen in analog synthesizers today.
Most organs used a bank of 12 oscillators and dividers to generate every note, and the keyboard selected the notes played. This instrument was polyphonic, multiple notes could be played at once, but the pitch was fixed, and could not be easily varied. The Hammond tone wheel organ was an odd mechanical exception, and some creative players could vary the pitch, by forcing the motor speed to change.
The French Clavioline and a few others used a single oscillator whose pitch was determined by a string of resistors or capacitors capable of playing only one note at a time, but the pitch could be varied by changing the oscillator current. This allowed vibrato, but made these instruments monophonic. The Clavioline also used a harmonically rich oscillator, and variable filters to control the timbre. The single oscillator and variable filtering are both features of early synthesizers.
A similar instrument called the UniVox (Latin for one voice) was produced in England.
Moog pioneered the use of voltage control for the oscillators, filters and amplifiers used in his synthesizers, and found a way to make multiple oscillators track each other, although early voltage controlled instruments had problems with drift and temperature stability.
The Theremin was another instrument often called, or mistaken for, a synthesizer. Here body capacitance was the control element, so that the Theremin could be played without touching it.
Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys was often thought of as an early synthesizer song. The Hewlett Packard sales rep told us in the early 70's that the "synth" used on the song was actually an HP audio oscillator rigged up with a cord and pulley system so that it could be played like a musical instrument. Sometime later this would be confirmed by a recording engineer.
There was also the Mellotron, which is often called a synth, but was actually the first music "sampler." It used strips of magnetic tape instead of digital storage, but the principles are the same. It played recordings (one for each key) of real instruments. The popular tape choices were "violin" "3 violins" "cello" "male choir" and "female choir."
Welcome back my friends.... was the name of an album and a tour by ELP.
As stated, I saw the Lucky Man / Pictures at an Exhibition tour, and the Welcome back tour. They were scheduled to play Miami with a 70 piece orchestra, but that tour hit bankruptcy in Tampa, one stop short of Miami. It took me months to get my refund from Ticketmaster.
Their first radio hit with a Moog lead line was Lucky Man which was not an instrumental.
As stated, I saw the Lucky Man / Pictures at an Exhibition tour, and the Welcome back tour. They were scheduled to play Miami with a 70 piece orchestra, but that tour hit bankruptcy in Tampa, one stop short of Miami. It took me months to get my refund from Ticketmaster.
Their first radio hit with a Moog lead line was Lucky Man which was not an instrumental.
I had forgotten that one, and I went to that concert too.
I had found a rather unique way to make that synthesizer sound heard at the end of the song using a two way radio and two RF signal generators. One of the RF generators must have analog frequency and deviation knobs.
Of course I worked in a two way radio factory at the time, and the "Frankenstein sound" could be heard all throughout the factory when it was popular.
Tubelab_com
Back to Kay Pirinha's post: You named the band in your guess but remember, no notable commercial success so Genesis and others that played large venues are out. Pantagruel in the second hint might have given it up to me. Who the hell would reference Pantagruel in a song
turk 182
We're getting really esoteric with your submission. I have a local/regional band in mind too but at least mine has good songs
Back to Kay Pirinha's post: You named the band in your guess but remember, no notable commercial success so Genesis and others that played large venues are out. Pantagruel in the second hint might have given it up to me. Who the hell would reference Pantagruel in a song
turk 182
We're getting really esoteric with your submission. I have a local/regional band in mind too but at least mine has good songs
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turk 182
Yes, Chilliwack. I remember hearing them played at a basement party as a teen and experiencing nausea from a guitar solo for the first time. Here is the song that caused it:
YouTube
It's not the song submitted but I guess my reaction to the band is Pavlovian
Kay Pirinha
May I spill the beans on your submission and submit one in turn?
Yes, Chilliwack. I remember hearing them played at a basement party as a teen and experiencing nausea from a guitar solo for the first time. Here is the song that caused it:
YouTube
It's not the song submitted but I guess my reaction to the band is Pavlovian
Kay Pirinha
May I spill the beans on your submission and submit one in turn?
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