Members rasputin1963 Posted March 8, 2008 Members Share Posted March 8, 2008 Those of you who know that great, great pop record from 1970 called "Bang A Gong (Get It On)" by T.Rex will know that the whole mix has a very unique sound. In fact, the production values are about 75% of the coolness of this record. It's almost as though they wanted to make a 1950's style, black R&B shuffle record, but give it a wholly new (for 1970) sonic treatment. Drag out your copy of it (the studio version, not any live version), why don'tcha, and give the production values a listen once again... What have they done to get this unique sound? Thanks, ras Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Alndln2 Posted March 8, 2008 Members Share Posted March 8, 2008 I think they went into the studio and recorded the song, nothing more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members d. gauss Posted March 8, 2008 Members Share Posted March 8, 2008 get it from the source: http://www.tonyvisconti.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted March 8, 2008 Members Share Posted March 8, 2008 Visconti's one of the greats. His work with Tyrannosaurus Rex before and after they went rock and became T Rex is great. (I love their witch-folk album Unicorn.) His work with Bowie is justifiably legendary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pickabar Posted March 8, 2008 Members Share Posted March 8, 2008 get it from the source: http://www.tonyvisconti.com/ thanks so much for that link. i'm a huge thin lizzy fan, but somehow never stumbled onto this site. Great read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EnemyofSilence Posted March 8, 2008 Members Share Posted March 8, 2008 Visconti's one of the greats.His work with Tyrannosaurus Rex before and after they went rock and became T Rex is great. (I love their witch-folk album Unicorn.) His work with Bowie is justifiably legendary. Including the Berlin trilogy - almost always incorrectly attributed to Eno for production. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Corona Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 get it from the source: http://www.tonyvisconti.com/ Fantastic THANKS A MILLION :phil: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff da Weasel Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 Visconti is on the short list of incredibly innovative music people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members coyote-1 Posted March 11, 2008 Members Share Posted March 11, 2008 Can't hit Visconti's site. But I'm fascinated at just how many instruments are on that recording, and at how it's so simple yet so textured. From memory I can say it has:2 guitarsbassdrumspercussionbrass, including bari saxstringspianochoir And while everything blends, somehow nothing gets lost in the mix. All for lyrics that would've made Zappa proud as a mere stupid set of mouth noises.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted March 13, 2008 Moderators Share Posted March 13, 2008 To me... the star of that recording is the octave up vocal in the chorus's. It's almost like a slide guitar but it's a voice for sure. Is it Marc or a woman? I don't know... it's cool though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted March 13, 2008 Moderators Share Posted March 13, 2008 Can't hit Visconti's site.But I'm fascinated at just how many instruments are on that recording, and at how it's so simple yet so textured. From memory I can say it has:2 guitarsbassdrumspercussionbrass, including bari saxstringspianochoirAnd while everything blends, somehow nothing gets lost in the mix. All for lyrics that would've made Zappa proud as a mere stupid set of mouth noises.... That's weird... I don't remember any of that. I remember: Ld VoxSmall Room ambient DrumsBass w'Flats and ampGuitar L (one playing old blues rhythm with 5th to 6th to 5th riff)Guitar C (one doing the upstroke open e and b part)Guitar R (one doing the decending G, F#, E riff every 2 bars) And that high voice It's been a while though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rasputin1963 Posted March 13, 2008 Author Members Share Posted March 13, 2008 I guess what struck me as novel was the way the record seems to have little low end. Or, to put it more exactly, all the frequencies high-to-low seem kind of crunched together dramatically into the midrange, with a kind of furry, subtle distortion applied to the whole thing, and very little reverb. The bari sax has no low freq range, it's just a midrangey squawk. With a very brisk slapback applied to just about everything, too. The record sounds dramatically different from the 1960's pop productions, British and American, which had preceded it. "Suffragette City" has a similar treatment. I don't know if this is a coke-y sound or a heroin-chic sound, or speed-y or acid sound, or what. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gtrbass Posted March 13, 2008 Members Share Posted March 13, 2008 The 'density' in Bang a gong comes from strategic use of a Mellotron. The 'clarity' comes from a very ingenious arrangement. That track practically mixes itself based on the choice of notes and the guitar tones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators BATCAT Posted March 13, 2008 Moderators Share Posted March 13, 2008 To me... the star of that recording is the octave up vocal in the chorus's. It's almost like a slide guitar but it's a voice for sure. Is it Marc or a woman? I don't know... it's cool though. I thought the guys from the Turtles did all the backing stuff on that album. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators BATCAT Posted March 13, 2008 Moderators Share Posted March 13, 2008 I guess what struck me as novel was the way the record seems to have little low end. Or, to put it more exactly, all the frequencies high-to-low seem kind of crunched together dramatically into the midrange, with a kind of furry, subtle distortion applied to the whole thing, and very little reverb. The bari sax has no low freq range, it's just a midrangey squawk. With a very brisk slapback applied to just about everything, too. The record sounds dramatically different from the 1960's pop productions, British and American, which had preceded it. "Suffragette City" has a similar treatment. I don't know if this is a coke-y sound or a heroin-chic sound, or speed-y or acid sound, or what. Lots of 70's Glam Rock stuff has this sound. But I agree, on those T Rex album it was elevated to an art form. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EnemyofSilence Posted March 13, 2008 Members Share Posted March 13, 2008 The 'density' in Bang a gong comes from strategic use of a Mellotron. The 'clarity' comes from a very ingenious arrangement. That track practically mixes itself based on the choice of notes and the guitar tones. I certainly agree on the ingenious arrangement, but strings, brass, etc., are all real. One of TV's great skills is string arrangement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gtrbass Posted March 14, 2008 Members Share Posted March 14, 2008 I certainly agree on the ingenious arrangement, but strings, brass, etc., are all real. One of TV's great skills is string arrangement. Of that I have no doubt, but I read somewhere that a mellotron was used on Bang a Gong. If you listen to it, you can hear it in the strings. I wonder if he layered it in there, because it has that cool 'grainy' mellotron quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kurdy Posted March 14, 2008 Members Share Posted March 14, 2008 I certainly agree on the ingenious arrangement, but strings, brass, etc., are all real. One of TV's great skills is string arrangement. Anyone read the book "Good Vibrations" by Mark Cunningham? It devotes several paragraphs to the making of "Get It On" and Tony Visconti talks about how he came up with the string arrangement. Basically, they orignally didn't have anything planned for strings, so it was done sort of last minute, on the spot. He didn't even write out a score; he just told the string players to play the three root notes of the chord changes throughout the chorus: G-A-E, G-A-E. Just goes to show sometimes the simplest idea is the most effective one. No mention of a mellotron, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members oldman2 Posted March 14, 2008 Members Share Posted March 14, 2008 More good memories long forgotten! Why doesn' the music biz go back to making good music like from my young/dumb daze ? It seems like a lot of the old stuff still out sells the new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ShakaCthulu Posted March 15, 2008 Members Share Posted March 15, 2008 To me... the star of that recording is the octave up vocal in the chorus's. It's almost like a slide guitar but it's a voice for sure. Is it Marc or a woman? I don't know... it's cool though. It's a couple of guys from The Turtles I believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted March 15, 2008 Share Posted March 15, 2008 Flo & Eddie. Visconti is brilliant. :phil: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SKEETERtunes Posted April 7, 2008 Members Share Posted April 7, 2008 I don't have to pull it out and listen to it. I bought the 45 in 1970 and was always impressed with the hugeness of the bass and guitar sound on it. I think part of that is rhat they must have found a way to keep the bass and low end part of the guitar signal from overdriving the VU meters , and from distorting each other. I am betting there is some tricky EQing that went on there. Very beefy guitar sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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