Showing posts with label Clavinet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clavinet. Show all posts
Saturday, May 3, 2025
Saturday, April 26, 2025
Sunday, January 26, 2025
Electric Light Orchestra's Clavinet
A number of years ago, I found this picture dated August 1978 that shows Richard Tandy and his keyboard rig in Electric Light Orchestra, including a Clavinet D6 at the bottom:
As the watermark indicates, I got this from Getty Images, although when I went to look for it again in order to link to it, I found that it had disappeared from the website.
I'm pretty sure the other keyboards here are a Yamaha C7 grand piano (specifically listed in the liner notes for A New World Record), a Yamaha CS-80, and a Mellotron M-400. An-other picture from a different angle (also gone from the Getty Images website) shows a Wurlitzer EP200 and a Moog Polymoog, the edge of whose keys can be seen under the Clavinet here.
Twice recently, I listened to a box set titled The Classic Albums Collection, which contains the original eleven ELO albums plus some bonus tracks, to find what songs feature Clavinet. I'm assuming that every instance is the D6 model.
There's Clavinet in:
- "Showdown"
- "Laredo Tornado"
- "Waterfall"
- "Evil Woman"
- "Mission (A World Record)"
- "So Fine"
- "Last Train to London"
It may also be in "On the Run" and "Sorrow about to Fall" (although I suspect that "Sorrow about to Fall" features an-other keyboard trying to sound like the Clavinet).
I also re-watched the concert DVD Out of the Blue - Live at Wembley, a performance from 1978. The keyboard set up is much the same as that in the picture above, but Tandy plays Clavinet only in "Do Ya."
I notated the Clavinet part in the choruses of "Evil Woman" (although there's the standard disclaimer that I may have something wrong):
For years, I was under the mistaken impression that this part was played on guitar, although I also thought that the tone didn't quite sound like a guitar. I have to credit this Instagram post for setting me straight.
[For what it's worth: I also run a blog focused solely on Electric Light Orchestra.]
Sunday, October 8, 2023
Sunday, May 7, 2023
Neil Diamond's "You Got to Me"
Recently, I listened to Neil Diamond for the first time in something like seven years and was surprised to discover that there's Clavinet in "You Got to Me." I'm sure I heard it before but just didn't recognize it as Clavinet (for one thing, it's doubled with piano). I figured out the part and notated it. It's a recurring eight-measure phrase, although really it's just four measures repeated. Note that it's played an octave lower than written.
Sunday, March 26, 2023
Sunday, March 12, 2023
Sunday, February 12, 2023
Emerson, Lake, & Palmer's Clavinet L
A few years ago, I found a video of Emerson, Lake, & Palmer performing "Take a
Pebble" live on German television. Near the end of the performance, Emerson plays a Clavinet L:
The studio recording of "Take a Pebble" doesn't
feature Clavinet, however.
I don't have all of the ELP albums, but of the ones I do have, the only songs that include Clavinet are "Tank" on Emerson, Lake, and Palmer and various live recordings of "Nutrocker." Here's a video of "Nutrocker" performed live in Switzerland in 1970:
Sunday, February 5, 2023
Sunday, January 15, 2023
Sunday, January 1, 2023
Clavinet I
Some pictures from a 1967 brochure. Most are of the Clavinet I, but there's one of the Clavinet L at the end.
Sunday, December 25, 2022
Sunday, December 18, 2022
Sunday, December 11, 2022
Sunday, November 27, 2022
Sunday, November 20, 2022
Sunday, July 31, 2022
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