Re: Guitar good, DJ's bad, etc (was LOOPING PHILOSOPHY)

["T.W. Hartnett" <hartnett.t@apple.com>]

>> Why is it that in rock music, there's an acute shortage of "keyboard 
>> heroes", in the same sense that say, Jeff Beck is a guitar hero?  How 
>> many breathtaking solos can you recall that were generated by something 
>> with a piano-keyboard interface?
>
>Keith Emerson?
>Hell, he even smashes the keyboard up at the end of the gig!
>
>Failing that, no.  there's a limit to how cool you can look sitting down, 
>and no, upright controllers don't count.

Yeah, but that coolness doesn't come through the radio speakers, and as I 
sit here mentally reviewing the last thirty years of pop music, I'm hard 
pressed to come up with more than a handful of keyboard solos.  Even in 
ELP's hits, I'm not remembering the solos, except for "Lucky Man", which 
I don't like, and I've seen Keith disavow it many a time.  
There's no "Eruption", that I know of, in the keyboard world--a recorded 
moment which changed the way the instrument, and the role of the 
instrument would be viewed for the next decade.  Even if you hated what 
followed Van Halen, you were in reaction to what was laid out in those 
three minutes.
Why is that?  I have my theories, but I'd like to hear from any keyboard 
players on the list.
>
>Fave kbd solo in a rock song? "Incommunicado", Marillion.

Ironically, Mark Kelly is one of my favorite keyboard players (along with 
Tony Banks [Genesis] and Greg Hawkes [The Cars]), and when I listen back 
through the Marillion catalog, I'm surprised at how many keyboard solos 
there were.  Still, I always got the impression that Steve Rothery (the 
guitarist, for those of you who aren't Marillion-aware) got the 
spotlight.  Perhaps that's because I'm primarily a guitarist (although I 
play keyboards as needed, and played piano as a kid).  And, Marillion 
wasn't that popular, certainly not in the States, and only as a large 
cult in Europe.  I'm looking for *hits* with keyboard solos, not because 
I think that sales are the most important thing, but because they are a 
measure of what large numbers of people like. 

>
>> Will say, Art of Noise records be referred back to in twenty years in 
>the 
>> same way that Cream records are?  
>
>Only if there's any justice left.

Don't bet on it.  Influential as Art of Noise has been on people who own 
and/or operatate synthesizers, I think they may end up in the category of 
"Historical Significance Only".  I mean, I think that the third Peter 
Gabriel album (with the melting face cover, includes "Games Without 
Frontiers" and "Biko") is ENORMOUSLY influential, enjoyable and worthy of 
praise, but I'm astounded at the number of people, even musicians with a 
stated interest in unusual, electronic pop music, who are unaware of or 
indifferent to it.  If nothing else, this is the album that 
singlehandedly introduced the gated reverb drum sound to the world, but 
it doesn't really matter in the end.  Civilians hear it and say 
"Nice...but I prefer 'So'."

Try this on for size: "Pretty Hate Machine" is a thousand times more 
likely for the MFS treatment, and made much more of an impact on 
musicians and the public at large.

Travis