Hammond moments

Great Hammond Moments

Recorded in MP3 format 8bit@11kHz if nothing else is specified.

Sam Brown: Stop! (Brown)
©1988 A&M Records.CD-EP #390 317-2.
Produced by Pete Brown (for Power Plant London) and Sam Brown.

Bought the CD-EP just for the Hammond solo. The song is also on Sam Brown's album from that year. I just can't remember the title right now. Nice growl and the vibrato dial is on C-3 all the time. Being an '88 production, the sound is pretty modern - one exception is the flimsy guitars in the song's verses. All in all quite a hit, as far as I remember. (90k)

Deep Purple: No No No (Paice/Lord/Glover/Gilian/Blackmore)
©1971 EMI/Harvest. From the Fireball album, special 25th anniversary edition 1996.
Produced by Deep Purple.

Here is a bit from a lesser known track, itself from a lesser known DP album. The Fireball album was released in between the two million sellers In Rock and Machine Head. On this track Jon Lord demonstrates his use of the Hammond Percussion and Vibrato. During that period of DP, Lord did not use a Leslie. He ran his C-3 through a stack of Marshalls. A classic sound indeed. (458k)

Pink Floyd: Money (Waters)
©1973, 1988 EMI. From Delicate Sound of Thunder - Pink Floyd Live '88.

Rick Wright is perhaps not famous for being a great solo artist. What he is famous for, is his over thirty years of keyboard playing in Pink Floyd. This sound clip gives a good picture (if one can say so..) of his playing technique. One keyword: Legato. (75k)

Pink Floyd: Eclipse (Waters)
©1973 EMI/Harvest. From Dark Side Of The Moon. Special edition on Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs, Ultra Disc UDCD 517.
Produced by Pink Floyd. Digital remaster by Krieg Wunderlich.

More Rick Wright. This is one of his very rare Hammond solos on the Pink Floyd studio albums. Again a nice legato style, or is it just 'put your left arm on the lower manual'? (31.5k)

The Doors: The Changeling (Morrison/Manzarek/Krieger/Densmore)
©1971 Electra/Asylum Records. From L.A. Woman.
Produced by Bruce Botnick and The Doors.

Ray Manzarek did not play much Hammond on the Doors' records and certainly never in concert. This little clip is from the opening track of the Doors' last studio album with Jim Morrison. The track was also the B-side on the first of two hit singles from this album: Love Her Madly. On The Changeling the Leslie is definitely single speed - or maybe one of the, then new, solid state Leslies. (65k)

The Doors: Hyacinth House (Morrison/Manzarek/Krieger/Densmore)
©1971 Electra/Asylum Records. From L.A. Woman.
Produced by Bruce Botnick and The Doors.

Another track from the famous L.A. Woman album. Although the album's concept was very much 'low budget', this track has some very nice overdubbed keyboards. The solo features Ray Manzarek playing two Hammonds. (64k)

Sheryl Crow: Hard To Make A Stand
(Crow/Bottrell/Wolfe/RSBryan).
©1996 A&M Records. From Sheryl Crow.
Produced by Sheryl Crow.

Sheryl Crow has become one of my favourites lately. She plays almost all the keyboard parts (and many of the bass parts) on her second album. The album BTW is great! Here is a short and slightly 'girlie' solo from Sheryl. According to Mr. Al Goff (see the Hammond Links page) she has a B-3 from Goff Professional. Yet I do not know if this is the one being played here. (Wav/108k)

Santana: Oye Como Va (Tito Puente)
©1970 CBS Records. From Abraxas.

This is a real classic. Gregg Rolie plays his a** off in this solo. Especially in the 5th bar, where he waits a split-second and then makes his poor B-3 scream in pain (or is it pleasure?). It sure gives me Goosebumps every time. And to those who like single speed Leslies: Forget it, if you wanna play like Gregg. The Abraxas album is itself a classic, most rate it as *the* Santana album. Both Carlos' guitar playing and Gregg's sometimes fantastic mixture of C-3 vibrato and 122 overdrive, fully justifies this. (141k)

Santana: Samba Pa Ti (Santana/Rolie)
©1970 CBS Records. From Abraxas.

More Santana, and Gregg Rolie in particular. Here is an example of his skills of accompanying Carlos' excellent guitar. More Goosebumps for me! (107k)

This is one of the few instrumentals that became a hit single in the early 70's. Listen to that Hammond growl! (126k)

Finally, a track from my home-country Denmark. This time from a lady who these days is more famous for her relationship with the Danish Prince Frederik than her musical career. The keyboard player's name on this track is Morten Bolvig, and I like his licks. Somehow I think the sound of his organ tone is a bit too thin to be a console. Actually the Danish/German L-100-variation P-100 springs to mind because it is quite common around here. A happy solo from a happy track. Oh - and BTW, the title means something like: 'to be used by you' and that is in a positive way! (86k)

Procol Harum: A Whiter Shade of Pale (Brooker/Reid)
© 1967. Released as single on May 12, 1967. Also on album 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' released Jan 1968.

One of the Hammond classics and the best selling Bach rip-off to date. Please excuse the crackle, but this is from an old vinyl record. Matthew Charles Fisher plays the organ. (66k)

Procol Harum: Seem To Have The Blues (Brooker/Reid)
© 1967. Recorded at Olympic Studios, London on October 20, 1967. Not released until 1976 on 'Rock Roots - Procol Harum', Cube Records (Decca) ROOTS 4.

This solo is from a rare track, most likely recorded during the sessions that formed Procol Harum's debut album. This time Robin Trower's guitar is more prominent. The song is not the average Procol Harum tune - quite straight-forward rock'n roll. (61k)

The Beatles: Blue Jay Way (Harrison).
© 1967. On Magical Mystery Tour double EP (UK) or LP (US).
Produced by George Martin.

Finally a Beatles track. This is the time for me to reveal myself as the true Beatles-nerd that I am :). Anyway, this is the intro of George's only track on the MMT records. The organ is heavily 'flanged'
(an effect that was invented by the Abbey Road Studio staff around 1966 as a way to mimic the, at that time very common, double tracking of vocals. The story goes that The Beatles' producer Sir George Martin, made up the word 'flanger' in his attempt to explain the workings of this new effect to the not so technically interested John Lennon. The official name for the effect was more solemn: A.D.T. for Artificial Double Tracking). (50k)

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