Fender Rhodes Piano on the Last Tour

[jim4371]

No idea if this has been brought up before, but here goes.

I was looking through some photos of New Orleans and I noticed that there was an extra organ, and I recognized the faint profile of the Fender Rhodes Piano.

Better shot:


You can see Ray reaching to play the Fender Rhodes Piano while keeping his left on the Piano Bass. Ironically, the curved profile of the FR Piano probably prevented the Piano Bass from being placed upon it.


dj_vera kept bugging me to listen to Dallas to see if I could hear it, so I did.
The results (quick check, feel free to add or argue):

Love Her Madly
Gibson until "seven horses seem to be on the mark, yeah" and FRP for the first part of the break, then when it changes it goes back to the Gibson for the remainder of the song.

Backdoor Man
No FRP.

Ship of Fools
Gibson intro, FRP instrumental break, then back to the Gibson.

The Changeling
No FRP.

L.A. Woman
Tricky.
Sounds like the very beginning of the intro is the FRP, then to the Gibson.
Back into the FRP in the middle of Robby's solo at the beginning of the instrumental break. Back to the Gibson after "drivin' through your subuuuuuuuuuurbs" and for the rest of the song.

When the Music's Over
No FRP.

[dj_vera]

Awesome

[MistyJm]

Jeezz how do you guys know all that stuff

Positively amazed

[MojoRisinRay]

I agree. Totally.

No question a Fender Rhodes 73 from the pics and the recording.

The silly thing about the curved top is that you couldn't put a Rhodes on top of a Rhodes...I've tried. And there is definately the need for the Rhodes bass even when playing the Rhodes piano...since it needs to be going through the bass amps. I had to build a custom split on my Fender Rhodes 73 to put the high end to the organ amp and low end to the Bass amp. Even then it doesn't sound exactly like a Rhodes bass, especially when it's sitting right next to one.

Now if we could only figure out what songs Ray played on the RMI 300A (set up next to the K101) at the Roundhouse and in Germany. I would assume 'Hello, I Love You' but I've never hear it. I've listened to the recordings...didn't hear it. But I've seen pictures of him playing it in Germany, and it was at the Roundhouse as well.

These are also the pics where Ray's acoustic 260 heads have the tape on them to lock in the sound settings for transport.

Thanks Vince for having all that tape laying around, very usefull stuff. Or was it all comped from Densmore's knuckle tape bag. Tape the amp knobs, tape the brilliance tab on the K101 to 'OFF' (cause that is a horrible suprise sound), tape the mics to the drum stands.

God, I love the details.

[vince]

We did not carry any Fender Rhodes piano on the road. We did not own one. We did have a Fender Rhodes Piano bass that sat on the left side of the Kalamazoo organ.

In the photos provided you will note that the bottom one shows the Kalamazoo witht he awing down bottom that used two knobs to screw into tabs on the back lega to provide stability for the organ. The Piano bass was behind Jom so you could not see it in that particular shot.

Ray did have an RMI and used on the racording of the third album. He hated it and offered it to me. Unfortunately I did not take it. I think it was finally given to his brother when the DOORS broke up.

Let me be clear that from the 1967 show in Baltimore until the last road show in New Orleans we used the Kalamazoo organ on the road. That, as well as other keyboard instruments were used in recordings.

[dj_vera]

Let me be clear that from the 1967 show in Baltimore until the last road show in New Orleans we used the Kalamazoo organ on the road. That, as well as other keyboard instruments were used in recordings.

Gibson Kalamazoo, in case somebody mistakes the Gibson and Kalamazoo as being different organs (like I did!).

Me and Chris even listened to the recording of Dallas 12/11/70 and there are portions of songs where it it obvious that Ray is playing something other than a Gibson. His theory is that since the Fender Rhodes Piano couldn't support the Fender Rhodes Bass on top of it, that the Fender Rhodes Piano was set to the right of the Gibson/Fender Rhodes Bass setup. In the last photo (the sepia toned one) it's pretty evident that Ray is extending his arms to play something else with his right hand and play the Fender Rhodes Bass with his left hand.

Again they were going for a new sound those two last performances with Jim, previewing songs from their upcoming L.A. Woman album. Although all of the songs still are mostly played with the Gibson, I can imagine Riders On The Storm being played mainly with the Fender Rhodes Piano. Unfortunately we do not have an audio recording of ROTS from either Dallas or New Orleans '70 to prove this.

I think if Jim had lived and they continued to tour, they would have eventually got a bass player to perform with them live. Ray has stated before that they wanted to use Jerry Scheff (the bass player on L.A. Woman) for touring.

I'm pretty sure anybody on here would be more than happy to provide you with either clips or the entire Dallas '70 recording so you can hear for yourself!

[jim4371]

We did not carry any Fender Rhodes piano on the road. We did not own one. We did have a Fender Rhodes Piano bass that sat on the left side of the Kalamazoo organ.

For those two shows it appears you did carry both the Gibson and the Fender Rhodes Piano.
Perhaps it was the same one that was rented for use on the L.A. Woman album?