SCOTTS HIDDEN TREASURES #46 - All Keyboardy

[Scott]

The next few SHT lists will be focusing in on specific instruments.  You know, songs that showcase cool guitars, driving bass lines and thunderous drumming! We'll start with the keyboards this week...

No this is not a ballad edition.  Rather, its songs whose identity is closely associated with a keyboard riff.  Rock and Roll keyboards!  When I think of rock bands that are heavy keyboard bands, I think Styx first, followed by bands like Giuffria.  Both of which are not in this playlist!  Because were treasure hunting...

Here’s where my mind went when I was putting this together.  What came to yours?

Playlist Vitals....

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10 songs
Length: 53 minutes 47 seconds
Link: http://www.podsnack.com/playlists/11ad41b5e62de9db826c9068ba620438

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Title: Bat Out of Hell
Band: Meat Loaf
Album: Bat Out of Hell
Year: 1977
Time: 9:52
Jim Steinman hit platinum with his keyboards on this album.  No one song more recognizable than the title track.  A mini-epic unrivaled, the bombastic track hits you on all fronts.  With Meat Loaf on vocals, Steinman's compositions’ really came to life through the production of Todd Rundgren.  Now with a team like that how could the keyboards not be a centerpiece?  Great track.

Title: Grey Seal
Band: Elton John
Album: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Year: 1973
Time: 4:00
I simply had to put this song after Bat Out Of Hell.  Hear that opening riff?  Do you think maybe there’s a slight influence on Steinman’s playing?  Just sayin'....  Cool track from Johns most glitzy and prolific period.

 

Title: Roll With The Changes
Band: REO Speedwagon
Album: You Can Tune A Piano, But You Can't Tune Fish
Year: 1978
Time: 5:37
Answer this...  Do you play air guitar to this song or do you also play an air keyboard?  Be honest.  Now name another song you air keyboard to?  Had to think about it?  hahaha.  Great classic rock track too, it’s one of those tunes that make a career for a band.

Title: Portrait (He Knew)
Band: Kansas
Album: Point Of Know Return
Year: 1977
Time: 4:33
Their most successful album yields some cool hidden gems like this one.  The remix on the expanded disc is cool as well.  But Walsh's keyboards are always a highlight of a Kansas album.  Portrait also showcases a nice balance of their pop-sensibility and their progressive tendency.  That’s one of my favorite styles.

Title: Run Buddy Run
Band: Jerry Doucette
Album: The Deuce is Loose
Year: 1979
Time: 4:06
Hailed as an up and coming guitar hero.  The Deuce fit some keyboard work in his second album which came out like gangbusters and died a month so later when the Mushroom label failed to follow through with the promotion of the album.  I remember seeing posters and ads for this album and then *poof* nothing.  Weird, because it was so good!  Anyway, I liked what he did with this keyboard, I thought it was really cool and one of my favorite keyboard riffs to this day.

Title: Not As You Were
Band: Ambrosia
Album: Life Beyond L.A.
Year: 1978
Time: 3:53
Another example of late 70's pop-sensibility and progressive tendency.  Ambrosia enters their commercial period with this album, but left behind some real treasures like this one.

 

Title: Say You Love Me
Band: Fleetwood Mac
Album: Fleetwood Mac
Year: 1975
Time: 4:10
Christine McVie doesn’t get enough credit for this bands success, but she was just as important as Buckingham/Nicks.  Even though this is probably best suited for a soft rock playlist, the piano carries this tune into a really cool and great place, so it belongs in this list.

Title: Take Me To The Top
Band: Loverboy
Album: Get Lucky
Year: 1981
Time: 6:10
The first time I heard this song, it stopped me in my tracks.  At the time, I had never heard anything like before.  The keyboard arrangement is still very cool to crank up and jam to.  What’s a poor boy to do?

Title: Turn It On Again
Band: Genesis
Album: Duke
Year: 1980
Time: 3:49
Confession time...  I don’t like the album Duke.  I like this track and Misunderstanding and that’s about it. I liked it enough to make a trip to the record store and buy it in 1980. But this one is still a great show opener and sets a great tempo and mood. 

Title: Child of Vision
Band: Supertramp
Album: Breakfast In America
Year: 1979
Time: 7:31
One of the most well-crafted albums in rock history (IMHO).  There is not one bad track on this one.  I got the idea for this playlist some time ago when Jon mentioned that he would prefer this track over another Supertramp track I picked.  The keyboard work that closes the tracks last 3:50 seconds is some of the finest work you will ever hear.


Hope you enjoyed this...

[RJhog (Admin)]

Nice choices.  I'll be cruisin' through this tomorrow. 

 

Great choice with Meatloaf.  Possibly my favorite all-time song is For Crying Out Loud from that album.  It features incredible piano work as well as some very nice orchestral work.  You picked the right song because Bat rocks out much more than FCOL, it's just another great song on that album.  Now that I think of it, Heaven Can Wait has some beautiful piano playing too.

[Jon]

Child of Vision? I posted that song in an IMHO thingy which nobody still has figured out. Tee hee!

[Niels (Mod)]

I'll take the one on the left!!!

[RJhog (Admin)]

Nice playlist to start off the day.  Hey, I thought of somebody that, knowing some of the bands you really like, I'm really surprised you left off here.  Bob Seger.  I heard Ramblin' Gamblin' Man (or whatever the title actually is) yesterday on the way home.  As soon as I heard the keyboards it made me realize he wasn't on your list.

 

You picked my favorite Loverboy track.  To me that is their best song from their best album with the worst album cover. 

 

You also picked a great REO song.  Because of the great guitar playing, I sometimes forget how outstanding the keyboard work is in this song and a lot of others by REO. 

 

And you already know from my previous post how I feel about the Meatloaf pick. 

 

Very nice job Scott!

[Scott]

You know, I only own Night Moves and Against The Wind.  I have Stranger in Town on vinyl but never picked up the CD.  Weird, I know...

 

Thanks for the listen and great review!

[Niels (Mod)]

I'm gonna listen, as soon as I can, but to answer your question about "air-keyboard", I have to say "Mr. Crowley", that means Don Airey (That's Ozzy Osbourne, Rjhog !!)

[RJhog (Admin)]

Okay, I'm lost.

[Niels (Mod)]

Find a phone-booth and change.

[Scott]

Its the commentary on the REO tune...  go back and read it...

[RJhog (Admin)]

Ah!  I appreciate the clarification.

[RJhog (Admin)]

Here's one that makes me wanna play air guitar and keyboards, I heard it while out for lunch today:

[Niels (Mod)]

Where my mind went? Hmmm.....

1. AWESOME album. It took me a couple of years to really appriciate it. I bought the album VERY cheap in '79. Jim Steinman was a genius, well all three "giants" on this album were great, Steinman, Meat Loaf and Rungren. I remember, Steinman was supposed to have produced "Hysteria" or what it WOULD have been called. I remember seeing pictures of Leppard in the studio with Steinman in 1984, I think, but something went wrong, and it was scrapped. Too bad, I would have loved to hear that album. 

2. Another AWESOME album, and I agree, that you can hear some influence from this album, on BOOH, but I think it's more clear on "Funeral for a friend". Davey Johnstone, who plays guitar on GYBR, later played in Meat Loaf's backing band!!

3. Hmmm, I don't know much about REO, but the song is good. I remembered another song, where I ALLWAYS plays air-keyboards: "Can't let you go" by Rainbow.

I gotta finish this later.