(i.e. The Monkees?) Wasn't Nesmith the only real musician in that group?
Originally yes. He was already a good guitar player when they formed, and auditioning as an actor. I think he was doing session work, some of it for surf bands if I remember correctly. As it went along, the others learned to play their instruments and got pretty good at it. I think it was Davy Jones that was also a singer, but not necessarily a musician.
A lot of people don't know it, but the Monkees brought a couple of mega bands to the states, as their opening acts. Herman's Hermits, The Who both originally played the states on Monkees bills, and they also toured with Hendrix. They liked each other really well but ended the tour because both bands had sense enough to realize it just wasn't working.
Anyway Nesmith was quite a good guitar player. I've heard some other people did some pf the studio guitar, including Glen Campbell, but Nesmith did some of their best guitar work, like Pleasant Valley Sunday.
The Beatles began as a cover band doing their numbers.
Yep, but they later started doing their own writing, which almost nobody did, but they had to fight the record company to do it. They pioneered a lot of studio techniques still in use now, and some that nobody has ever even figured out since. One I've used onstage is the megaphone effect on Magical Mystery Tour. When you hear the beginning of that song, "All right step right up for the Magical Mystery tour, step right this way" McCartney put the microphone inside a paper cup to get that effect, with a hole cut in the bottom to stick the mic through. I did it onstage by forming a paper funnel and taping it so I could just slip the mic through when I needed it. (I Hear You Knocking by Dave Edmunds.) I'm not sure if anyone has ever figured out how they got a piano to sustain that long on the last note of "A Day in the Life". If you listen close you can barely hear McCartney's piano stool scoot back right at the very end. But they got a piano to hold the note that long somehow.
If you can find it, the book "The Lives of John Lennon" has a lot of good info on them.
McCartney's writing really took off around the time of Magical Mystery Tour. You can hear the diversity in a lot of paces, but especially if you compare "Rocky Raccoon" from the white album, with Live and Let Die, the James Bond movie theme. His writing spanned that much territory. Lady Madonna to Magneto and Titanium Man, Letting Go, Helen Wheels...just amazing.
As far as groups with that range of diversity and talent, I think a few did have some pretty diverse people, and a lot of talent. Tommy James and the Shondells had a couple of big hits, but Tommy James recorded Crimson and Clover by himself. Played everything, same as McCartney did several times. Ian Anderson did the same on several Jethro Tull songs. Edgar Winter started as a guitar player, ended up more well known as a sax and keyboard player, and he played part of the drums on Frankenstein. Jimmy Page was a classically trained violinist as a kid. That's where the idea of a violin bow on guitar came from, he already had one...Ian Anderson is known as flute player for Jethro Tull, but Ma0rtin Barre, their guitar player, was the one who originally played flute. Then there's Michael Olfield. Remember Tubular Bells, and the theme from The Exorcist? He payed everything on it except some of the drums, his wife helped on vocals I think it was. Tom Scholtz of Boston has an electrical engineering degree from MIT and was on the development team for the Polaroid SX 70. He also designed and built all his own effects. I think he also plays other instruments. Joe Walsh also plays a lot of the keyboards for the Eagles, and Kansas guitar player Kerry Livgren played more keyboards onstage than guitar and wrote most of their songs.
But the Beatles started all that, until they got started most people were either using session musicians, recording what the record companies told them to, or mostly playing one instrument in a band. Jimmy Page took some of their recording techniques and also experimented, some of his sound was from putting a mic behind the amp in addition to the one in front of it, and a room mic, and sometimes he would just plug a guitar into the mixing board. I've heard Stairway to Heaven was recorded that way, Strat straight into the board. I can't remember who it was, but one of the groups in those days recorded a lot of the vocals in a bathroom to get the echo effect before reverb and echo units were available.
The Beatles would try almost anything, and a lot of it worked. They were not the first to multi track, I think that was Buddy Holly. Most everything until then was all at one time. Originally it was done using two tape decks, by what was called the ping pong method. That's why some songs are not in the same key they were originally recorded in, one tape would play slightly faster than the other, as you put one track onto another it would gradually get higher or lower in pitch. McCartney on one song held his thumb on the tape as it ran to slow it down. They liked the track but it was too fast...
That kind of thing is why they were one of the most innovative and influential groups of all time. They influenced virtually everybody since then, even today. Many of them have cited them in interviews. Hendrix, Clapton, Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, you name it, they influenced them in some way. I got serious about guitar, and music in general, after watching their first Ed Sullivan show. 8 years old...I've never been the same...lol
I'm a member of the BOMB SQUAD.
If you see me running, better catch up!
http://billy-griffis-jr.artistwebsites.com/
If you see me running, better catch up!
http://billy-griffis-jr.artistwebsites.com/
