what are you listening to v.2.0

race

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Misc Sunday tunes -


Deep Purple - "SHIELD" from their second album, 'Book of Taliesyn' (1968)

This was the Mk 1 or original lineup. I'm going to say this is one of Blackmore's best solos and he brings out the full tone of the Gibson 335. I like to call this his neo-classical period as he was doing some different things besides the usual pentatonic blues scale riffs. Excellent bass lines and percussion riffs ... special nod to the percussive Hammond pattern Jon Lord lays down!



Larry Carlton - "With Respect To Coltrane" from 'Playing / Singing album (1973)

Since we're talking Gibson 335, let's go into the way back machine to Larry Carlton in 1973. The first time I heard the solo in this I was floored. The opening verse starts off in a spare, reserved style, then he adds some delicate high register work before the main solo just explodes in startling fashion. The quadruple-tracked? heavy sustain solo was really out of character for a clean jazz / session guy like Carlton. After a tasty Joe Sample piano bit, the track plays out in the original spare style.




Poco - Nobody's Fool / El Tonto de Nadie, Regresa (1970)

Going back in time even farther to this rather lengthy Poco track. The fireworks start around the 16:25 mark with Rusty Young laying down a screaming solo on pedal-steel. When I first heard this back then I was completely flummoxed. If you listen to the parts leading up to this point I would have sworn they had a keyboard player but it's Rusty Young vamping about on his pedal steel with a Leslie (speaker) ... and maybe a wah-wah. Then, when he tears into the solo at the end, I wasn't sure at all what it was done on. At one point I thought those repeated high notes at the end were a trumpet player.

Remember, back then there was no internet to look this stuff up on and sometimes you're just catching a fragment of the track on FM radio. Amazing stuff for back then and now.




The Buggles - "I Am A Camera" from their second album 'Adventures in Modern Recording' (1981)

A favorite of mine. Trevor Horn showing his skills as a producer, arranger, bass player and singer. And Geoff Downes' gorgeous keyboard work. I think this is far superior to the version they did with Yes (Into the Lens track, Drama album) a year earlier. The ending fadeout synth strings are sublime. Reportedly Horn and Downes had access to a Fairlight synth, which were hideously expensive at the time.
 
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