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Rick Wakeman’s Yes harpsichord moments with James Gardner – 553

Produced by Ken Fuller, Wayne Hall and Jeffrey Crecelius

This week we decided to postpone the second part of our Buggles episode because we had the chance to interview James Gardner about Rick Wakeman’s use of the harpsichord. It was a wide-ranging and fascinating discussion and we learned a lot about both the instrument and some of the characters involved with creating the actual instruments Rick used on recordings with Yes.

James has an encyclopedic knowledge of the use of harpsichords in popular music and he mentions a large number of songs which have featured the instrument over the years. I’ve added YouTube videos of each song James refers to in the show notes for this episode. You might want to refer to those while you listen to the interview or come back to them at the end. I found they helped me a great deal.

  • What kind of harpsichord did Rick use?
  • Who made it?
  • Where else can we hear harpsichords in popular music?

Take a listen to the episode and then let us know what you think below!

Mark Lang’s setlist:

Our guest, James Gardner:

Radio NZ Thomas Goff – The Fall and Rise of Harpsichord 6

James’ article about the origin of the VCS3 synth

A James Gardner playlist (music mentioned in the episode)

Probably the first person to record on the harpsichord

Facebook has just changed how pages work which means that I’ve had to establish a new place for us to post and discuss Yes-related happenings. It’s a new group entitled, rather creatively, YMP Discussion Group. For the moment it’s open to anyone to join but I’ll be adding rules and joining requirements when I have time. One of the advantages of the new format is that all members of the group have the same ability to post content, so it’s a bit more egalitarian, or somesuch. Please do search for the group and join in.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/3216603008606331/


Not final artwork or title – just me messing about with one of my photos

If you haven’t already done so, please sign up at tormatobook.com to the email newsletter. I’ve already shared 3 updates on the progress of the forthcoming book, TOO CLOSE TO THE EDGE? (not the final title) complete with short extracts from some of the chapters. If you sign up now, for free, you can have access to the newsletters you’ve missed. It really helps to know people are looking forward to reading the culmination of my decades of Tormato obsession.



YMP Patrons:

Producers:

  • Ken Fuller
  • Jeffrey Crecelius and
  • Wayne Hall

Patrons:

Aaron Steelman

Dave Owen

Mark James Lang

Paul Tomei

Joost Maglev

David Heyden

Martin Kjellberg

Paul Wilson

Bob Martilotta

Lind

Michael O’Connor

William Hayes
Brian Sullivan

David Pannell

Miguel Falcão

Lobate Scarp

Chris Bandini

David Watkinson

Neal Kaforey

Rachel Hadaway

Craig Estenes

Dem

Paul Hailes

Mark ‘Zarkol’ Baggs

Doug Curran

Robert Nasir

Fergus Cubbage

Scott Colombo

Fred Barringer

Gary Betts
Geoff Bailie

Simon Barrow
Geoffrey Mason

Stephen Lambe

Guy R DeRome

Steve Dill

Henrik Antonsson

Steve Perry

Hogne Bø Pettersen

Steve Rode

Declan Logue
Steve Scott
Jamie McQuinn

Steven Roehr

Alan Begg
Terence Sadler

Michael Handerhan

Tim Stannard

Jim

Todd Dudley

John Cowan

Tony Handley

John Holden

Joseph Cottrell

John Parry

Keith Hoisington

John Thomson

Barry Gorsky


Robert and David

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Theme music

The music I use is the last movement of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. This has been used as introduction music at many Yes concerts. My theme music is not take from a live concert – I put it together from: archive.org

Categories
Episodes YMP Classic Feed

Episode 10 – ‘Tormato’

The tenth episode of the Yes Music Podcast featuring the ninth studio album, ‘Tormato’.

Vinyl purchased circa. 1989, CD circa. 2005 (click to enlarge)

  • An uneven album?
  • What’s going on with the album cover?
  • Does the choice of lyrical subject matter go too far?

Listen and see if you agree with me then let me know by leaving a comment or contacting me via the different routes on the right hand side!