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Post by babyzoomer on Sept 22, 2017 3:25:46 GMT
A short (and no doubt inaccurate) history of JL's use of the timpani (or kettle drums)...
JL has included the sound of timpani since the late 70's; generally as a 'hook' during the chorus. Either as a descending "doom-doom" to indicate that 'that bit is over', or as an ascending "doom-doom" to indicate 'here comes the next bit...' (stop me if I'm being too technical ).
The first use of a timpani that I can find is on Discovery ('79); the songs 'Confusion' and 'Midnight Blue' leap to mind; and timpani can be seen in BB's kit in the Discovery videos, too.
Next the timpani makes an appearance on 'Don't Walk Away' from Xanadu ('80). Not particularly obvious but it's there.
For some reason JL didn't make much use of timpani on the Time album (although it does appear in 'Julie Don't Live Here Any More') from '81.
Again on Secret Messages and Balance of Power he restrains himself - the only song where timpani are obvious is 'Endless Lies' ('82-'86).
Next use for JL is on George Harrison's 'When We Were Fab' ('87).
And then we come to '88 and the most over-the-top use of timpani which occurs on Roy Orbison's 'You Got It'; after that I rather suspect that JL decided to give it a rest; I haven't found it again afterwards.
I haven't checked all of the Wilbury or Tom Petty stuff, but I'm fairly sure that timpani don't feature (hardly the right kind of music...).
The appearance of timpani in ELO songs ('79) coincides with BB getting rototoms...which I understand can be used to simulate the sound of timpani.
Anyone else have something to add?
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Post by ShardEnder on Sept 22, 2017 11:44:22 GMT
In addition to several of Jeff's other production trademarks, I'll be covering his use of tympani on several later ELO tracks in my upcoming book (though I can't really add much more than you've already done - I can only congratulate you on such thorough research). As for Bev getting rototoms, these would feature on so many songs from around the same period, with their distinctive sound perfectly accompanying the Oberheim DMX that heard across large portions of the Secret Messages material. Curiously, it seems as if a restrained approach was briefly adopted for Time, while Balance Of Power is even more sparse overall.
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Post by Chippa on Sept 29, 2017 0:58:31 GMT
"The Way Life's Meant to Be" has some pretty prominent tympany. Also, on the Wilbury track "Tweeter and the Monkey Man" it's very apparent in the chorus.
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Post by babyzoomer on Sept 29, 2017 1:22:55 GMT
"The Way Life's Meant to Be" has some pretty prominent tympany. Also, on the Wilbury track "Tweeter and the Monkey Man" it's very apparent in the chorus. I'm still in two minds about TWLMTB - I can't conclusively say that it contains timpani; it certainly sounds like it (and fulfils that same role) - but I just can't quite tell if I'm hearing a normal drum, overlaid with heavy bass guitar, with a fair bit of echo on top (and god-knows-what-else-processing that JL threw at it). There's no reason why it can't be timpani (since JL was obviously using one on 'Julie' during the Time sessions) - but I just felt that I couldn't be absolutely sure.
I would believe you about Tweeter since I didn't bother to check.
I also forgot to check "Armchair" - must do that....
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Post by Chippa on Sept 29, 2017 6:48:13 GMT
"Built To Last" from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "Into the Great Wide Open" has timpani/kettle drums throughout.
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Post by queenofthehours on Oct 18, 2017 18:48:11 GMT
I love the timpani. I wasn't properly aware of it until it was mentioned here but it's one of my favourite features of Jeff. More timpani = a better song.
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Post by ShardEnder on Oct 18, 2017 21:01:56 GMT
If those are tympani on The Way Life's Meant To Be, these must surely have been overdubbed at Musicland, since the basic track for this song was recorded at Polar Studios (where the tape made at the end of a day-long session was labelled under the original working title of Some Russian, supposedly due to the overall feel being a lot "colder" until castanets and acoustic guitar were added later, giving it more of a Spanish type sound). If you've ever compared The Way Life's Meant To Be with other material from the Time era musically, it's lacking the usual amount of keyboards - this is because Richard didn't join his bandmates for their brief visit to Stockholm!
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Post by babyzoomer on Oct 18, 2017 23:47:56 GMT
It occurs to me that I did not explain properly the unique sound possibilities of the timpani; so I’ll have a little go. Timpani are just big, big, big tuned drums; originally intended as a musical instrument in the orchestra which could fill an entire hall with a ‘doof doof’ sort of sound. The double bass can provide a similar sort of sound (for the purposes of classical music); but not all the way down as deep as a timpani. They are often used to provide a background rumble (by playing rapidly but softly) which the audience may not so much hear as feel; a great way to instil tension.
As JL has pointed out more than once, the usual drums associated with bands are actually very tinny and thin sounding (i.e. a very short sound); timpani give a much deeper and longer lasting “doom”. Like all drums, individual timpani have a specific tuned frequency (if you want to scare yourself sometime, google the complexities of drum tuning); so in order to have any kind of tune-making ability, more than one timpani is needed.
This is a problem, since timpani are so damn big; any more than about 3 are impractical to play using one operator. So they were modified to include a (foot operated) mechanism which altered the tension on the head (skin), then 2 notes could be played on one drum. Which made them much more practical, and a percussionist in any reasonable orchestra will usually stand behind 2-3 timpani – which gives them a 4 or 5 note range.
It was this tuning mechanism which gave rise to the timpani’s unique ability to ‘slide’ from one note to the other; a new sound which has proved very useful to many composers.
The rototom is another kind of (much smaller) drum which consists of simply a plain skin ‘head’ (i.e. generally no can underneath) with a unique tuning/tensioning mechanism, operated by rotating the entire drum head. Rototoms were invented to help the drummers in bands by providing a lightweight drum which could be easily tuned across a wide range. The bane of all live drummers (and musos in general) is the problem of getting your instrument tuned up on stage under the lights; and of keeping it in tune over the course of a concert.
Again as a side-effect of this, rototoms can reproduce that ‘sliding note’ sound simply by the drummer striking the drum with a stick in one hand while rotating the head with the other hand (sorry Rick Allen). Having said all this, JL has not generally used the ‘sliding note’ sound in his music; his use of timpani is generally limited to that ‘one- two’ ascending or descending combination. Hope you find this helpful.
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