Sunday, October 11, 2020

Five Man Electrical Band's "Werewolf"

Like I mentioned here, I haven't found a source that verifies that the electric piano in Five Man Electrical Band's "Werewolf" is actually Hohner Pianet, but it certainly sounds like one to me.  The tremolo (labelled "vibrato" on the instrument itself) seems especially characteristic.

Last week, I figured out the Pianet part.  It plays just root notes in the bass register during the verses.  In the second and third verses ("But mama said, 'No, somethin' real strange 'bout my Billy...'" and "So papa said, 'I guess there's only one thing to do 'bout Billy...'"), the part is:


Note that the part is played an octave lower than my notation.

The other three verses are a bit different.  The fourth verse ("But he went down to the blacksmith, got him outta bed, and said, 'Get your fire hot...'") lacks Pianet entirely.  In the first verse ("Mama said, 'There's somethin' weird 'bout Billy...'") only measures three through eight are played, and in the fifth verse ("Then we heard a shot, and I said, 'Papa got 'im'..."), the first A note (and possibly also the third line) isn't played.