Moog Music Forum

I just have to mention the progressive rock group Kansas here.
Everybody is quick to give bands like Gentle Giant, ELP, Yes and UK credit (which is due), but Kansas is also a amazingly talented band.

Especially their first 5 albums, but also Somewhere to Elsewhere and Audio-Visions, are great. They use two keyboardists, which makes their arrangements really detailed and full. Lots of great hammond and piano work, and of course plenty of topnotch minimoog playing to go around.
My favorites albums are "Point of Know Return", "Kansas" and "Leftoverture", but all the of the above mentioned albums have at least several awsome tracks.

Lucky Man by ELP is pretty standard moog goodness, no?
Listen to Lucky Man (LP Version) by Emerson, Lake & Palmer : http://www.napster.com/player/tracks/13784646

oh, i see that you were trying to steer away from elp...let's see...
how about fiddler a dram by the byrds?? that's a pretty rare one, eh?

Listen to Fiddler A Dram (Moog Experiment) by The Byrds : http://www.napster.com/player/tracks/10068141

Pepe Deluxe's Super Sound and Beatitude albums have Model D's all over the place.

what about that george harrison album electronic sounds? I've listened, it's quite hard to stomach personally, but it gives a good idea of the moog.

pinkfloydian wrote:what about that george harrison album electronic sounds? I've listened, it's quite hard to stomach personally, but it gives a good idea of the moog.

well yes, if you want to hear what aimless noodling sounds like

Might as well seek out Beaver and Krause's "Nonesuch Guide to Electronic Music". Paul Beaver who is said to be doing all the playing on the George Harrison album apparently thought he was simply demo-ing George's Moog only to find his noodling got released as a George Harrison album.

Doesn't Rush's "Tom Sawyer" rate right up there?

Probably typical of these forums most of the familiar music is rock & prog-rock lead sounds.

In black music of the 70s & 80s Moogs were consistently used for bass as well as leads:

Bass:
-Early Madonna early 80s a Mini & Prophet, mid-80s a Super Jupiter
-Gap Band - Mini almost all cuts 80-85
-P-Funk Mini bass, Arp strings mid-late 70s then used Prophet bass in the early 80s
-Aretha Franklin Mini bass "Who's Zoomin Who"
-Fatback Mini then later a Memorymoog 80-85
-Wally Badarou Chief Inspector mid-80s..classic Mini bass
-The System early-mid 80s
-Kashif early-mid-80s Mini bass, Prophet leads/F/X
-Rene & Angela early-mid 80s


In mainstream music:
-Steve Winwood (Multimoog bass/leads)
-Gary Wright (Mini bass plus Arp Strings)
-Devo
-Lipps Inc. "Funkytown"

Herbie Hancock used an Odyssey for bass.

What about Dick Hyman? He did a couple of classic Moog tracks. Give it up, Turn it Loose, a cover of the James Brown funk classic and Minotaur.

Money Mark did some cool stuff about 8 or 9 years ago on the Mo Wax label with an album called Push the Button.

Giorgio Moroder used a Moog modular as the back bone for classics like I feel Love by Donna Summer.

For me personally it is the squelchy bass used all over funk and soul of the late 70's ealy 80's that really got me hooked on synths.

Fat Larry's Band - Zoom. most people have heard that ...

An album ... It has to be Journey to the centre - Rick Wakeman

The AWESOME synth solo in Magic Man by Heart is QUINTESSENTIAL Moog!

BJ

I will never understand it. The Electric Light Orchestra was BIG from about 1975 through 1980... yet, they went almost wholly unmentioned throughout the 70s revival of the 90s... and are increasingly not-mentioned in regard to things they should be. It amazes me!

Anyway... Richard Tandy, the keyboard player for E.L.O. used a Minimoog alll the time in the early E.L.O. albums... often multi-tracking for polyphony. I think he got sidetracked by the CS-80 when he got one, but still... the Minimoog was a mainstay of the Electric Light Orchestra from their second album in about 1973 through their greatest work, Out of the Blue in 1977.

ELO was rock lite; not any more memorable than any number of other groups that have faded away, except to ELO fanatics.

FYI in the 70s the keyboardists had a limited choice of a Moog, Arp or Oberheim mono or modular; it was usually easy to tell what they used.

Maybe I missed it earlier in this thread, but did anyone mention the German band Triumvirat? They were a 3-piece group similar to ELP, with keyboardist Jurgen Fritz leading the group. Their most notable recording is 'Spartacus', an extended-length opus featuring lots of Hammond B-3, Minimoog and other misc. keys. Orginally recorded in 1975, Spartacus was re-released on CD in 2004.

Spartacus is a fine example of B-3 and Minimoog playing, and a must-have if you're a fan of the ELP prog format (keys, bass, drums).

- Greg

I was in a bar that was playing a Barry White CD. That characteristic Minimoog "boink" bass was all over that CD.