From mskremote@yahoo.com Wed Sep 21 19:01:07 2011
Subject:Re: Slightly OT: Vintage KeyBlog - A question that might interest you, and my stab at an answer...
Hi Simon
I think the responses you will get will vary by country.
Cannot comment with authority on the 50's here in Australia but most of the gigs were for dances at Church, Commnunity Halls or Surf Clubs and in that era most would have had uprights in them for amateur drama etc, so if a band had a pianist they could use it (although the need to mic it may have meant they didn't bother). One of the few prominent artists on keyboard here (the Top 40 here was dominated at that time by artists from the US or UK) was Jerry Lee Lewis and I guess many classically trained musos probably eschewed rock n roll at that time so there would not have many pianists in bands, other than jazz bands, at that time.
By the late 60's the influence of the Animals, Doors and later Deep Purple combined with the availability of the 1st generation of electronic keyboards (Farfisa and Acetone here - I had a Fast 4) lead to an outbreak of bands with keyboards here. One such band, The Groop if I remember correctly, had a console Thomas organ at their peak (Brian Cadd was the keyboard player see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeI8-cHArG4 for an example). Hammonds were a rare item here (and still are) as most churches kept their pipe organs and not many new churches were being built (unlike the US).
Similarly to my knowledge Wurlys, Voxs, Fender Rhodes etc were not common here then or now.
Also in the UK wasn't skiffle the main type of music played by gigging musos in the 50's? And in the 50's and 60's didn't the major studios have resident orchestra's making it easy to fill out pop or rock songs with strings etc rather than use those newfangled electronic devices.
As our music was heavily influenced by UK and US releases I suspect the vast majority of folks here found their way to the blues (where there were many great piano players) via guitar based bands like Yardbirds (I'm a Man), John Mayall, Paul Butterfield, Johhny Winter etc. so it wasn't till the late 60's once the original blues artists that influenced them had been explored that the wider role of keys in contemporary gigging music, other than jazz, was recognised. I seem to recall that the first time I heard a B3 on record would have been on Booker T's Time is Tight. Vanilla Fudges You Keep Me Hangin or Procul's AWSOP may have pre-dated it but I didn't have a clue about Hammonds then - all I knew then was that my Fast 4 didn't sound like it!!
BTW the lack of reliability of the early electronic keyboards may also have discouraged their widespread use. My Farfisa had germanium transistors and when the ambient temp rose above 30 Celsius the octave splitting and doubling function failed leaving one octave of notes regardless of where on the keyboard they were played. The distributor via the retailer I purchased it from advised that there was no solution for that issue.
Cheers
Mark
________________________________
From: Simon Beck
To: px_wk_ctk_keyboards@yahoogroups.com; Wurlitzer_Elec_Piano@yahoogroups.com; rhodes@yahoogroups.com; ComboOrgan@yahoogroups.com; NordElectro@yahoogroups.com; ciep@yahoogroups.com; CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 8:18 AM
Subject: [CWSG] Re: Slightly OT: Vintage KeyBlog - A question that might interest you, and my stab at an answer...
Ever wonder where all the Hammonds, Wurlies and Novachords are in classic 1950s rock 'n' roll? Well, there aren't any - it's acoustic piano from end to end. Check the Vintage KeyBlog at www.vintagekeys.co.uk, and maybe throw me some answers...
Simon "Butterfingers" Beck
London, UK
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