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Post by frozenhero on Jul 12, 2023 16:14:35 GMT
Not sure this has ever been attempted, but I'd like to make a list of all keyboard parts on Quo songs from the time that the band didn't have an official keyboard player. Aside from the guest stints of Jimmy Horovitz, John Mealing and obviously Andy, there are quite a few songs which feature keyboards of various sorts, often quite buried in the mix and probably mostly played by Rick. I was actually reminded of this subject when I was listening to some music on shuffle on my phone and "Broken Man" came on. I'm not sure I ever heard that song with headphones before, but the sounds of the synth were quite noticeable that way. I think it may be a Moog from the way it "squeaks" (think of the effects on Abbey Road or "Lucky Man"...). - Mean Girl (piano)
- Don't Waste My Time (piano)
- Unspoken Words (organ)
- A Year (synth?)
- Big Fat Mama (piano)
- All The Reasons (harpsichord?)
- Roadhouse Blues (Jimmy Horovitz - piano)
- A Reason for Living (piano)
- Blue-Eyed Lady (Andy Bown - piano)
- And It's Better Now (organ)
- Forty-Five Hundred Times (John Mealing - piano)
- Backwater (organ on quiet part; toy piano and organ or possibly mellotron during guitar solo)
- Break the Rules (Tom Parker - piano)
- Lonely Man (organ)
- Broken Man (synth)
- Where I Am (organ?)
- ...
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Post by MrWaistcoat on Jul 12, 2023 19:03:03 GMT
Good idea 👍
They must be very subtle in backwater
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allyp
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Post by allyp on Jul 12, 2023 20:39:30 GMT
Sounds like a hammond on Backwater on the guitar solo break bit.
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Post by frozenhero on Jul 12, 2023 21:22:11 GMT
Sounds like a hammond on Backwater on the guitar solo break bit. I had almost forgotten about that part but you're right. I'm not sure it's a hammond, it almost sounds like a Mellotron to me! It has that "artificial choir" quality to it. But the guy behind planetmellotron.com is a big Quo fan, so I think he would've noticed it? The part in Backwater I was mostly thinking about is right after the intro, in the quiet part... some spacey sounds going on from around 0:35 to 1:09 (right channel mostly). It sounds like the same thing as on Where I Am, kind of a warm pad.
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viza
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Post by viza on Jul 14, 2023 20:02:59 GMT
Sounds like a hammond on Backwater on the guitar solo break bit. I had almost forgotten about that part but you're right. I'm not sure it's a hammond, it almost sounds like a Mellotron to me! It has that "artificial choir" quality to it. But the guy behind planetmellotron.com is a big Quo fan, so I think he would've noticed it? The part in Backwater I was mostly thinking about is right after the intro, in the quiet part... some spacey sounds going on from around 0:35 to 1:09 (right channel mostly). It sounds like the same thing as on Where I Am, kind of a warm pad. I also think it's a mellotron but it's even a toys piano in the guitar solo if that counts.
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allyp
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Post by allyp on Jul 14, 2023 21:25:21 GMT
There is definitely keyboards on On the level but pretty low in the mix. No one on the sleeve-notes is credited with playing them so assume it was an oversight and it was Rick doing it all. From Blue for you onwards was all Andy obviously.
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viza
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Post by viza on Jul 14, 2023 22:15:17 GMT
A reason for living - piano And it's better now - organ Don't Waste My Time - piano Unspoken Words - organ Big Fat Mama - piano All the reason - some kind of harpsichord Lonley man - organ
I can even hear some piano on Caroline around 2:43
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viza
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Post by viza on Jul 14, 2023 22:22:35 GMT
There is definitely keyboards on On the level but pretty low in the mix. No one on the sleeve-notes is credited with playing them so assume it was an oversight and it was Rick doing it all. From Blue for you onwards was all Andy obviously. As I was listening through some songs now because of this thread I actually found no songs on OTL that I can say for sure there are keyboards on it. There is a lot of guitars with modular effects on the album that sometimes can sound as an organ or synth pad but (and I might be wrong) I think it's actually all guitars.
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viza
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Post by viza on Jul 14, 2023 22:25:16 GMT
There is definitely keyboards on On the level but pretty low in the mix. No one on the sleeve-notes is credited with playing them so assume it was an oversight and it was Rick doing it all. From Blue for you onwards was all Andy obviously. As I was listening through some songs now because of this thread I actually found no songs on OTL that I can say for sure there are keyboards on it. There is a lot of guitars with modular effects on the album that sometimes can sound as an organ or synth pad but (and I might be wrong) I think it's actually all guitars. Obviously synth on Broken Man! Missed that 😀
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Post by frozenhero on Jul 15, 2023 8:28:14 GMT
A reason for living - piano And it's better now - organ Don't Waste My Time - piano Unspoken Words - organ Big Fat Mama - piano All the reason - some kind of harpsichord Lonley man - organ I can even hear some piano on Caroline around 2:43 Thanks. I had a few of those in mind but didn't want to list them until I had got around to relistening to those songs attentively. I'm not hearing that on Caroline though.... You mean the LP version, yes?
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viza
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Post by viza on Jul 15, 2023 9:03:49 GMT
A reason for living - piano And it's better now - organ Don't Waste My Time - piano Unspoken Words - organ Big Fat Mama - piano All the reason - some kind of harpsichord Lonley man - organ I can even hear some piano on Caroline around 2:43 Thanks. I had a few of those in mind but didn't want to list them until I had got around to relistening to those songs attentively. I'm not hearing that on Caroline though.... You mean the LP version, yes? Yes, the Hello version. It's very subtle around 2:43 right after the instrumental part when they take it down a bit.
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Post by freewilly on Jul 15, 2023 11:58:50 GMT
Backwater 100% has an organ of some kind. Can hear it in the solo
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viza
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Post by viza on Jul 15, 2023 17:51:52 GMT
Backwater 100% has an organ of some kind. Can hear it in the solo It's an organ in the intro for sure. To me it sounds as something else during the solo, maybe a mellotron.
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stringybob
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Favourite Quo Album: Quo
Favourite other bands.: Many and varied
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Post by stringybob on Jul 17, 2023 9:22:34 GMT
Break The Rules (piano, Tom Parker)
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Post by freewilly on Jul 19, 2023 0:43:29 GMT
Yeah, Tom Parker is also listed as a keyboard player so there's 100% synths of some kind spread over the Quo album.
If it was only the BTR piano, he'd have just been listed as that
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