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~Guest 2944
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Aug 22, 2003 4:17 pm
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 26, 2021 1:49 pm 
 

Who are some keyboard players, because the band had such a big name frontman never really received the credit they deserved? Or just never got the credit they deserved. Always in the back, out of the spotlight, but very important to the bands sound.

I put this here, so the thread can cover all genres.

Greg Hawkes - the Cars. The band had Ric Ocasek and depending on your perspective Benjamin Orr for the stars. Everyone knows who Rick was, but few know the name of the keyboard player. He was extremely innovative in his playing, especially on their earlier material. They keyboard is prominent in every song by the Cars, but the guy gets almost no credit.

Dave Rowberry - the Animals. Really hard to notice anyone else in the Animals. Eric Burdon was the big star in the band. Dave plays on some of their biggest hits, like We Gotta Get Out of this Place and Don't Bring Me Down. Great player and his playing stands out in the Animals. Very important to the bands sound, but another player most people don't even know his name.

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FirebathDan
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 26, 2021 2:33 pm 
 

There was a little known band out of New Jersey called Spiraling (long since broken up), who was keyboard-centric. The keyboardist was Tom Brislin (current member of Kansas, The Sea Within, and a solo artist, as well as a former touring keyboardist with Yes), and this band’s two albums are absolutely incredible alt/prog/pop.

2002’s Transmitter

2008’s Time Travel Made Easy

I’ll pimp this band out any chance I can get.
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LithoJazzoSphere
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 26, 2021 2:58 pm 
 

Flashy guys like Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman tend to be more well-known members of progressive rock bands, but some of the more understated guys who still have an enormous influence on the sound of their bands like Tony Banks of Genesis and Peter Bardens of Camel don't receive enough recognition.

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~Guest 2944
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 26, 2021 3:06 pm 
 

LithoJazzoSphere wrote:
Flashy guys like Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman tend to be more well-known members of progressive rock bands, but some of the more understated guys who still have an enormous influence on the sound of their bands like Tony Banks of Genesis and Peter Bardens of Camel don't receive enough recognition.
I would totally agree about Tony Banks. In later Genesis, there is Phil Collins, than the other guys. Most of the stuff I know by them, prominently features keyboards. Tony, is very talented, but ends up in the shadows (figuratively speaking).

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Terri23
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 27, 2021 2:34 am 
 

An argument can be made for Jon Lord. Some of his work in Deep Purple is mesmerizing. A key feature of Purple's best music was the dueling between Blackmore and Lord.

Ken Hensley of Uriah Heep is another seminal 70s musician. Admittedly he was probably equally well known as a guitarist.
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~Guest 361478
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 27, 2021 5:00 am 
 

Don Airey on the 80s hair-rock Whitesnake albums. Jon Lord is rightly credited in the first run of albums, but as far as I know Airey was never really recognised for the sound of the late 80s stuff - and he absolutely should be - synthy keyboardy majesty abounds.

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~Guest 280883
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 27, 2021 5:02 am 
 

Ray Manzarek, for sure. I'm not one of those guys who think Jim Morrisson is overrated. No, he was by far the most important member of the Doors and they were an excellent band. But Manzarek is obviously a key part of their sound. Really, those four guys were lucky to run into each other. They definitely brought out the best in each other, musically, that is.

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~Guest 2944
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 27, 2021 12:51 pm 
 

Wahn_nhaW wrote:
Ray Manzarek, for sure. I'm not one of those guys who think Jim Morrisson is overrated. No, he was by far the most important member of the Doors and they were an excellent band. But Manzarek is obviously a key part of their sound. Really, those four guys were lucky to run into each other. They definitely brought out the best in each other, musically, that is.
Ray definitely helped give the Doors their distinctive sound. All four members of that band really were just the right person to play those songs. Jim gets all of the credit for the Doors, because he was Jim Morrison. After his death they tried to carry on with Ray on vocals. The records were a total flop. I believe it shows you, for the Doors people want Jim. Everyone in that band was overshadowed by Jim. Ray was an extremely talented player, but when people talk about the Doors they just think of Jim.

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Sedition and Pockets
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 27, 2021 1:46 pm 
 

I would second Jon Lord.

tbh, I kind of think that Ihsahn's work as keyboardist really elevated the earlier Emperor records to a level that has largely never been matched. Not that Ihsahn has been shorted credit ofc, but I do think it is not always appreciated just how much his keyboard work brought to the compositions and their ensemble sound.
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OzzyApu
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 27, 2021 4:18 pm 
 

Pasi Hiltula

Kalmah is a great band that is able to utilize both keyboards and guitars well. Back in the day, though, they were not only good at it - they were exceptional. Pasi Hiltula I felt was an incredible keyboardist who was a background member in all ways except when hearing the music. The guy puts those first 3 Kalmah albums over into classic-tier. Kalmah never recaptured the magic he was able to make during that era. Not only that, but he was also in Eternal Tears of Sorrow on their best albums where he also MADE those albums. His melodies were insane! I feel he should really be the standout member on both of those albums (which already benefit from very good guitar leads and riffs).
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Zerberus
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PostPosted: Fri May 07, 2021 9:09 am 
 

Terri23 wrote:
An argument can be made for Jon Lord. Some of his work in Deep Purple is mesmerizing. A key feature of Purple's best music was the dueling between Blackmore and Lord.

Ken Hensley of Uriah Heep is another seminal 70s musician. Admittedly he was probably equally well known as a guitarist.


Man I miss the organ-wizardry of 70s rock. In most of the newer bands that emulate the sound you can hear pretty clearly that the keyboard/organ is not their main instrument.
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~Guest 280883
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PostPosted: Fri May 07, 2021 9:23 am 
 

Zerberus wrote:
Terri23 wrote:
An argument can be made for Jon Lord. Some of his work in Deep Purple is mesmerizing. A key feature of Purple's best music was the dueling between Blackmore and Lord.

Ken Hensley of Uriah Heep is another seminal 70s musician. Admittedly he was probably equally well known as a guitarist.


Man I miss the organ-wizardry of 70s rock. In most of the newer bands that emulate the sound you can hear pretty clearly that the keyboard/organ is not their main instrument.


Speaking of, can't believe I forgot to mention Vincent Crane of Atomic Rooster. Unlike all the other mentions in this thread, Crane was the absolute leader of his band.

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Niklas Sanger
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PostPosted: Tue May 11, 2021 2:10 pm 
 

Kevin Moore who was the original keyboardist for Dream Theater on the first couple albums. He wasn't as flashy as later keyboardists like Rudess but I think his writing and lyrics really kept the band more focused,
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Vizzom
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PostPosted: Fri May 21, 2021 2:09 pm 
 

I've always been a big fan of Jordan Rudess, Yukhi (From Galneryus), and Stratovarius/Yngwie Malmsteem's (former) keyboardist Jens Johannsen, as they all really do a great job of bringing in a lot of atmosphere and fast-playing technicality towards their music, and manage to hold solos on their own.

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DoomMetalAlchemist
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PostPosted: Fri May 21, 2021 11:26 pm 
 

Wahn_nhaW wrote:
Ray Manzarek, for sure. I'm not one of those guys who think Jim Morrisson is overrated. No, he was by far the most important member of the Doors and they were an excellent band. But Manzarek is obviously a key part of their sound. Really, those four guys were lucky to run into each other. They definitely brought out the best in each other, musically, that is.


Absolutely agree. Jim was a huge appeal for the band obviously, and they weren't the same without him, but they wouldn't have been the same without Ray either. Just about every band I listen to, the instrument I pay the most attention to other than vocals is the guitar(s) by far, but with The Doors, it's by far the keys.

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InnesI
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PostPosted: Sat May 22, 2021 5:59 am 
 

Niklas Sanger wrote:
Kevin Moore who was the original keyboardist for Dream Theater on the first couple albums. He wasn't as flashy as later keyboardists like Rudess but I think his writing and lyrics really kept the band more focused,


He's way underrated! I think he did more for Dream Theater than Rudess ever did. As you say Rudess is flashier but Moore was classier both with the sounds he used and with what he actually played.
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LithoJazzoSphere
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PostPosted: Sat May 22, 2021 8:49 am 
 

Honestly Jordan Rudess is DT's third best keyboard player. He has by far the most chops (though Derek and Kevin were certainly no slouches, and the former has continued improving his craft over the years), but not everything he does works aesthetically or compositionally. Sherinian in particular had the coolest palette of tones. Moore had the best sense of composition though.

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Human666
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Joined: Tue May 09, 2006 11:59 am
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PostPosted: Sat May 22, 2021 12:19 pm 
 

I think Jordan Rudess sort of destroyed Dream Theater.
95% technocrat, 5% soul.

Kevin Moore imo was the best one.
Images & Words is filled with some mesmerizing piano parts ("Wait For Sleep", "Surrounded"), a lot of beautiful pad movements and there are also some very complex and technical solos ("Take The Time" and "Learning To Live") that sounds amazing.
Everything he did in that album was flawless, he had a very melodic core to his playing and knew how to create a magical atmosphere when needed and when to shred, but when he did shred, he did it with grace.
I also tend to like his period more because the synths of that time (late 80's early 90's) had something quite unique, that the later more modern synths lacked imo.
All the roland synths from that era (D-50, JD800 etc..) has a very magical and nostalgic sound that is so recognizable to me, I always liked that "imperfect" sound.

Kansas is also a band that's worth mentioning.
Basically in their heyday they had 2 keyboards players (Steve Walsh which was also their frontman and co-songwriter, and Kery Livgren who also played guitar and was a songwriter).
Steve Walsh is mostly recognized for being their vocalist, but his keyboard parts was amazing as hell.
He has an instrumental piece called "The Spider" which is nothing sort of amazing, very Keith Emersonish, and there are a lot of dual keyboards parts in many of their songs from that time that are very complex yet uniquely melodic.

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LithoJazzoSphere
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PostPosted: Sat May 22, 2021 9:13 pm 
 

Human666 wrote:
I also tend to like his period more because the synths of that time (late 80's early 90's) had something quite unique, that the later more modern synths lacked imo.
All the roland synths from that era (D-50, JD800 etc..) has a very magical and nostalgic sound that is so recognizable to me, I always liked that "imperfect" sound.


His sounds have dated better than some of the 80s-era patches that sound cringey nowadays. The JD800 is especially a fascinating looking and sounding board, I almost bought a used one years ago, but they tend to have reliability issues. I prefer Derek's though because he had a perfect mixture of organic and synthetic. Overdriven Hammond organ, Rhodes and piano vs. his aggressive and/or spacey sounds (Korgs at the time, Nords later on with Planet X, his solo material and such). He perfectly carries on the Jon Lord tradition of a keyboard player that thinks like a guitarist in the best way possible.

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Human666
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Joined: Tue May 09, 2006 11:59 am
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PostPosted: Sun May 23, 2021 4:40 am 
 

Regarding the jd800, I don't know if you already know but there's actually an official Roland's vst of it which is quite superb:


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