all blogs go to heaven
August 16 - get the led out
The British rock group Led Zeppelin, remnants of the Yardbirds, reached great success throughout Europe and U.S. with their first three albums Led Zeppelin I, II, and III. It would be the release of the classic album, Led Zeppelin IV or Untitled IV, that would mark the “peak of Seventies Rock,” says Jimmy Page. In an attempt to play down the idea of names and titles, the album cover has no title, only a portrait of a hobo carrying sticks, while the inner sleeve portrays four ‘metaphysical’ symbols. Ironically, the no name album was the album that made Led Zeppelin a household name.
By the late sixties, Zeppelin had already made an impact on the music scene. They are credited for pioneering the heavy metal and hard rock music genres, but their release of Led Zeppelin IV in 1971, pushed the bands sound to new commercial heights. Led Zeppelin’s full impact on the music industry will never be accurately measured or explained definitively in words, but it’s unquestionable that their influence stretches across many decades and music genres; from classical to progressive heavy metal music. The album contains some of Zeppelins most notable songs; tracks “Black Dog,” “Going to California,” and the iconic ballad “Stairway to Heaven” to name a few. The album catapulted the band to arena rock status and opened doors for other hard-rock bands such as, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, and Aerosmith to experience commercial success. Today, large audiences still favor the album’s classic sound, and it is the fourth best-selling album of all time, selling more than 20 million copies worldwide. (Rolling Stones). “Led Zeppelin is “the greatest rock and roll band of all time,” says Tenacious D’s Jack Black. Their combination of power and beauty forever changed his life. (Serpick, Evan, 2012).
Although Zeppelin has never been limited to one style of playing, Led Zeppelin IV and the album’s heavy, hard rock rhythms, blues guitar, and folk lyrics have become the band’s signature sound. Jimmy Page himself produced the album and he played all the guitar parts. No easy task for musicians even by today’s standards. By this point in history, artists had started producing and playing on their own records, but during the 70’s, it was still considered a monumental feat for any band to have that much control over their art. The album is riddled with memorable blues-rock guitar riffs and solos, an important characteristic of Zeppelin’s signature sound. Another staple of the record’s sound is John Bonham’s rock steady drumming. John Paul Jones’ melodic bass/keyboard playing, layered with powerful drums and heavyweight guitar, served as a powerful backdrop for Robert Plant’s primal half-screaming vocal approach. The musical instruments were melded together in a way where no one instrument stood out more than the other, each member was an intrical piece of the band’s inventive musical puzzle. The album Led Zeppelin IV introduced mystique and passion into mainstream music and popular artists are still mimicking its classic rock ‘n’ roll sound to this day.
As an industry professional, I can’t help but notice that Led Zeppelin has received almost every prestigious music award there is. They’ve topped over 100 million record sales worldwide and have 5 albums in Rolling Stones Top 100 Best-sellers. The thing I respect the most about Led Zeppelin is how passionate and serious they are about their art. Led Zepplin is very picky about where they work is placed and how it it used; they're not whores to the industry and they continue to make professional decisions based solely off their creative ambitions. With each of their released albums, they continued to move forward, blowing the lid off any previous feats. After studying Led Zeppelin IV, I learned that my own personal musical idol, David Grohl, credits Zeppelin as a big musical influence on his own career. Foo Fighters are always working on their craft, they never stop growing and with each album you can hear their sound become more focused and mature. So indirectly, Led Zeppelin has inspired me to keep perfecting my own craft.
As a drummer and music listener, I’ve always been inspired by John Bonham’s complex drumming. John Bonham died in 1980, but that is also the year I was born. I’m not comparing myself to his legend, but his passion and power lives on through thousand of musicians like Dave Grohl and myself. “When the Levee Breaks” has always been one of my favorite Zeppelin songs, and I own every Led Zepplin Record.
September 23 - in the moog
Robert Moog was born May 23, 1934 in New York City, New York. As he teenager, Bob and his dad began building and selling Theremins, (an early electronic instrument). Even at a young age, Robert Moog loved electrical engineering. By age 19, Bob had received his bachelors in physics and electrical engineering and started his own business, the R.A. Moog Co.
The Moog Co. started off well, Moog managed to sell over a thousand Theremin kits for $50 dollars a piece, a lot of money in 1961, and began working his way towards a PhD in Engineering and Physics from Cornell University. As his understanding for electrical engineering grew, so did his ideas implementing electricity and circuitry into music. Let’s be clear, Moog was not a musician, just an “engineer and a toolmaker” as he puts it. But as the early 60’s drug on, musicians began to experiment with new sounds recording almost anything that made noise. Moog began to have ideas.
Synthesizers have been around since the turn of the 20th century, but not without problems. Early synthesizers had to be custom-built and were extremely heavy, not to mention, were the size of a small house. Overall, Theremin technology is very fragile and the instrument is very difficult to play. The need for more control over the early electronic instruments was becoming apparent to Moog. As transistor technology became a substitute to vacuum tube technology, Moog began to have ideas about a new Moog synthesizer. “More or less in my spare time I built two voltage-controlled oscillators and two voltage-controlled amplifiers, and some kind of controller that could turn the sounds on and off,” says Moog. (Moog. 2002) Composer Herb Deutsch approached Moog about helping him with a musical project he was doing. He needed Moog to build an instrument that would allow Deutsch to create his own sounds. Moog would meet the request, and the Moog synthesizer was born.
By the late 60’s, musicians began to flock from all over seeking the new electronic device; things began to move really fast. As newer tape-recording devices became available to studios, so did the need for more synthesized sound. The Doors used a Moog on “Strange Days” in 1967. In 1968, Simon and Garfunkel used the synthesizer in their recordings. Jimmy Hendrix, the Monkees, and even the Beatles used the Moog synthesizer in their historic records. What made the Moog so unique to other synthesizers was the use of Voltage-Controlled Music Modules. The series of voltage needed to create different pitch scales was standardized in a series of basic buttons. The Moog synthesizer also had an array of generators, modifiers, and controllers, each which could modify the other’s output and basic functionality, extremely high-tech for its day. The main output could then be interconnected with a series of knobs or a piano style keyboard, which served as an easy interface for learning musicians. The early Moog synthesizer still had some issues. They were large by any standard, and sometimes they were vulnerable to pitch problems. But musicians marveled over the sonic qualities and their reputation continued to grow.
Robert Moog’s innovated Moog sound became a staple of electronic music through the late 60, 70’s and early 80’s. Electronic artists like Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, producer Giorgio Moroder, and “electronic pioneer Bernie Krause,” used Moog’s synthesizer’s signature “Moog sound” to color their recordings.
As an industry professional, Robert Moog and his famous Moog synthesizer was only something I'd heard about. I knew basically of the miniMoog and the Moog keytar. I knew who Robert Moog was, but I never knew how innovative his device was to the music business. As I learn more about famous producers, engineers, and their accomplishments, I learn how important they are to defining my own craft. Pioneers like Moog have an influence on everyone in the business, whether they realize it or not. Robert Moog, like most famous artists, and he was an artist by my standards, was very dedicated to his craft. During my studies for this blog, I listened to sound bytes of musicians playing the Moog, and I was floored by the unique sound it possessed. Moog synthesizer is usually used as a complimentary piece rather than a substitute in a recording, but no matter how it was layered, I could usually still pick out the classic Moog tone.
We live during a great time in history, but today’s society is so spoiled. Much like Kraftwerk’s inventions, I can’t understand how Moog was able to create such fascinating and new technology. I have a hard time understanding the functionality of filters, envelopes, generators, and controllers on software instruments. Can you imagine being a pioneer of synthesis technology? I have learned to respect innovators like Robert Moog. It's exciting to imagine what new technologies are being cooked up in the minds of innovators today. I was however, disheartened to hear about his companies bankruptcy in 86,' but happy to hear that the Moog name, design, and reputation would carry on. With electronic dance more popular than ever, I only see the legend of Robert Moog growing bigger. Rest in Peace (May 23, 1934 - August 21, 2005).
© 2013 Chris Brim Music/SKP
