Hey there folks!
Well, the plan was to have this one finished early so I could get ahead. And here we are, it's not early and I’m not ahead. Oh well.
This is the pop/easy listening end of the Moog craze of the late 60s, generally. Wendy Carlos’ Switched-On Bach from 1968 sparked a load of mostly novelty, cash-in records at first, but some artists went deeper than just covering the hits of the day. In fact, some of the artists who performed on these records were already old hands at the synth game who were just trying to cash in themselves…
Four songs in the show this week are by “Christopher Scott” a.k.a.
Jean-Jacques Perrey, a French electronic musician and composer. In 1969 he released an album called
Switched-On Bacharach, with ten Burt Bacharach covers. It must have been a success because he released a follow-up in 1970 called More Switched-On Bacharach with eleven more tunes. (Interestingly enough, he apparently gave his alter-ego a knighthood, because he’s credited as “Sir Christopher Scott” on the second album.) When Perrey recorded
library music for the
Editions Montparnasse 2000 label, he used the name “Pat Prilly”.
Dan Lacksmann released three albums of primarily covers as
The Discotheque Sound. He went on to greater success with the band Telex, even reaching the Eurovision finals (although they were aiming for last place).
Kenny Ascher, Alan Foust, and
Norman Dolph had two albums as
The Moog Machine, the first was Switched-On Rock and the second was a Christmas album. Ascher went on to co-write “
The Rainbow Connection” with Paul Williams, and Dolph wrote the novelty hit
“Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)”, which led to a lawsuit (and probably a very lucrative settlement) when
MacDonald's ripped it off. I don’t know what Foust got up to.
Brian Kehew and
Roger Joseph Manning Jr. briefly revived the “Moog covers album” concept starting in the late 90s as
The Moog Cookbook. Sporting masks and aliases (
Uli Nomi and
Meco Eno) the duo played the alt-rock hits of the day in a retro, analog-synth style.
Sy Mann was a pianist and arranger on the
Arthur Godfrey Show on CBS, but pretty much all of the albums he released under his own name were Christmas music played on the organ. “Switched-On Santa” is supposedly played on a Moog, but I suspect most of it is actually a
Wurlitzer organ with a lot of echo effects.
Aivi & Surasshu compose music for
Steven Universe, which is probably the best cartoon out right now.
Q.R. Ghazala is the inventor of a technique called “
circuit-bending” that he uses to create electronic musical instruments out of electronic toys. The sounds created are really great.
Gil Trythall is primarily a composer of contemporary electronic classical music, but like many others, he saw a possible money-making opportunity after Switched-On Bach and released
Switched-On Nashville in 1970. (It seems
Switched-On Country was taken.)
Gershon Kingsley was Jean-Jacques Perrey’s partner in the duo of
Perrey-Kingsley. Their big hit album was The In Sound from Way Out! It was released in 1966, before everything had to have “switched-on” or “Moog” in the title. “
Baroque Hoedown”, from that album, was later used as the theme for Disney’s Main Street Electrical Parade. On his own, he wrote the song “
Pop Corn” which was on his 1969 album
Music To Moog By. (See?)
Dick Hyman has a funny name, and also preceded Sy Mann as the pianist and arranger for Arthur Godfrey. He released many easy-listening classics, including multiple synth albums.
Whew. It’s taken me forever to write this up, I’m definitely going monthly next year. Talk to you all next week!
Enjoy!
-Rev. Dr. Dr. Phill
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town - Sy Mann (1970)
Evenflow - The Moog Cookbook (1996)
Buddy Holly - The Moog Cookbook (1996)
My Favorite Things - Sy Mann (1970)
Jordan, Jesse, GO! Ep. 468: Guitar Lick and a Moan with Nick Adams 2/20/2017 (Juggalo Soda)
The Look Of Love - Christopher Scott (1969)
Jordan, Jesse, GO! Ep. 468: Guitar Lick and a Moan with Nick Adams 2/20/2017 (t-shirt ad)
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This is a Trigon Incantor, but it did used to be a Touch & Tell. |
The One I Love - The Moog Cookbook (1996)
A medley, edited by me, Rev. Dr. Dr. Phill, featuring:
- the beginning of Visa To The Stars - Perrey-Kingsley (1966)
- the middle of Coconut - The Discotheque Sound (1972)
- the middle of The Legend Of Johnny Pot - Dick Hyman (1969)
- the ending of Visa To The Stars - Perrey-Kingsley (1966)
White Christmas - Sy Mann (1970)
Time Is Tight - Dick Hyman (1969)
What The World Needs Now Is Love - Christopher Scott (1969)
Basket Case - The Moog Cookbook (1996)
Walk On By - Christopher Scott (1969)
Cybernaut - Tonto's Expanding Head Band (1971)
Silent Night - Sy Mann (1970)