Excellent research, everyone! This is absolutely fascinating. It nevereven occurred to me that the sax in TTP was tron! That's because I'mneither an owner nor a musician, I guess. (Plus, I didn't see any Segerconcerts at the trime -- I just assumed he had a sax player.) Like mostlaypersons, I tend to forget the huge variety of sounds that have beenavailable on the tron/chamberlin family of instruments. I blame Genesisand Yes! LOL -- that choir-flute-strings tapeframe is ingrained in myaural memory, but I'm so unused to hearing the other sounds ∗andrecognizing them∗ that it would be useful if some of you could list (justone or two each) some non-traditional tron sounds found in the morefamiliar realm of songs that utilize the instrument. For instance, thefact that TTP includes tron sax as well as the strings really blows meaway (I may be easily amused, but still...). It would be great to findout that, say, the tubular bells in Tubular Bells were really tron! (Justkidding, but you know what I mean.) Or if Wakeman's MiniMoogs were reallytron samples, LOL. Again, just joshin' -- but I'm going to have to listento my Rime of the Ancient Sampler CD (yes, I got one) to hear some of theother sounds I'd forgotten.
Quite the lesson!
Bill
At 07:49 PM 3/4/2003 -0800, you wrote:
chris.dale@... wrote:
>
> It might be Robby Robbins you're referringto who played keys for
> him (Seger).
>
> It also might be a chamberlin and not amellotron as well.
>
> According to the person I purchased mychamberlin from, the
> chamberlin belonged to a fellow named TomNeme (receipts for repairs
> are abundant!) who had purchased it fromRobby Robbins (Seger's
> keyboard player).
>
> Although he was sure it was usedprofessionally, he didn't know what
> recordings it was used on, so the only wayto ascertain this is
> scrutiny of liner notes. I believe it'spossible since everyone
> involved was and is local to the area, butapart from said receipts
> there is no paperwork to back it up. Perhapssome phone calls would
> yield some info.
>
> Turn The Page does sound more like mellotronthan chamberlin to my
> ears though.
>
> Chris
>
>
>
> Thanks for confirming what I always figuredabout the Seger. Who
> played keyboards for him at the time? Idon't own any Seger, though
> this is such a great song, I wouldn't mindhaving a copy!
"Turn The Page" was written in 1973, first appearing on"Back In '72".
"Smokin' O.P.'s" came out in 1972. "Seven" cameout in 1974. Robin
Robbins is credited with Mellotron on the latter album, but"TTP" is not
in the track list, so there must be 'tron on one of the other "rockballad
with balls" found on it.
Knowing that I had the studio version of "TTP" aroundsomewhere, I went
digging through some MP3 roms looking for "Back In '72"(released in
1973), an album not in my wife's Bob Seger collection because it's never
been legally released on CD. Sure enough, "Turn The Page"is there, with
Robbins on keyboards. So, first mystery solved. Robbins isthe guy.
He's also the keys player on the "Live Bullet" album from 1976,playing
piano, organ, clavinet and...Mellotron. So even though Robbinsowned a
Chamberlin, all of his work with Seger credits him on Mellotron. This is
probably erroneous, since it's not likely he'd be playing someone else's
'tron if he had a chamby of his own. It's likely that only anafficionado
would know the difference, or even care enough to "get itright", so I can
see how he'd get credited with 'tron.
Before I went nosing through my wife's CDs in search of this piece of
'tron-trivia, I'd have sworn it was Craig Frost handling 'tron on"TTP",
but he didn't join Seger's band until Grand Funk disbanded in 1977. I bet
most people hearing "TTP" [either version], who know a littleabout
Seger's band, probably assume it's Craig Frost, simply because of him
being a high profile guy from a major US hard rock band. So creditwhere
it's due to Mr. Robbins, who did an excellent job both times.
"We have a Mellotron that simulates the sax very well, though...Iplay
piano, and the organ player plays a violin-kind-of Mellotron wall, and he
covers the sax pretty good." (Bob Seger commenting in an early 1975radio
interview). For an fairly extensive disection of this missing albumgo to
http://www.segerfile.com/72.html
That breakthrough live album seriously kicks arse from start to finish.
My wife (a Michigan gal) was in the audience on the first gig of the two
night stand from which "Live Bullet" was assembled. Segerin his
home-town, in front of a rockin' Detroit audience...magic! It's oneof
her favourites, and the only Seger album I ever bought for myself.
--
Cheers,
SDM -- a 21st century schizoid man
http://systemstheory.net internetmusic project
http://thecleanersystem.com softwarefor dry cleaners
NP:nothing
________________
William D. Gagliani
http://www.authorsden.com/williamdgagliani
http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/WilliamGagliani
Author of WOLF'S TRAP, a novel coming in 2003 from Yard DogPress!
And SHADOWPLAYS (available from http://www.ebooksonthe.net).