Zinfan I just bought her (Scarlet Rivera) LP last Saturday. Jethro Tull also used Violins in the studio (minstrel in the gallery is a good example), along with UK although most of their stuff would have been later. Didn't Fairport Convention employ strings too? Kansas still has some of my favorite rock and roll violin, viola, cello recordings ever. I don't really like the song Dust in the Wind, but I love the strings. |
Some pretty brain fry poop (violin isn't exactly a staple of generic rock) came out in the early 70's that might stretch alot of people's definition of rock to a breaking point. Haven't seen these listed yet: -PFM, "Per Un Amico" might be a good start, "Cook" is not recorded as well, but is a scorching a live record, the "Cook" versions of "Four Holes in The Ground" and "Alta Loma 9 til 5" are anthemic monsters (if you dig Lou Reed Rock and Roll Animal, the best ELP or Focus this stuff will kill you). -Arti + Mestieri, 1st two "Tilt" and Giro di Valser" still stand as a couple of the most advanced classically informed instumental rock records made. Fantastically skilled players, great ideas and very Italian. -Wolf, Darryl Way, the violinist from Curved Air made a quantum leap by splitting and forming this band. All three releases are excellent (and mostly instrumental). "Saturation Point" (their 2nd) is my favotite, any Ponty/Holdsworth/Mahavishnu/Zappa head should get a deluxe buzz off this one. Other supoib violin rock came from: -Strynx -Stomu Yamashta (the ones w/ his wife on Violin and Hugh Hopper on bass) -Edition Speciale -Zao, (the French 70's band) -Roxy Music (Viva) -East of Eden (1st two w/ Dave Arbus) -Esparanto (start w/ Danse Macabre) -Alquin, (Mountain Queen) -King Crimson ("Lark's Tongues", "Starless and Bible Black" and "Red" might seem like twisted nightmares, but they're damn good records). |
UK (one of my favorite bands from that time period) http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:4f77gjvr86in~T1 |
Duanegoosen I hope you weren't including Gentle Giant in "brain fry poop". OK, its a little pretentious, but some of my earliest audiophile aspirations began while listening to my "Peel the Paint" on my older, next door neighbor's stereo. I was hypnotized by the blue light of his Marantz receiver watching him apply another coat of linseed oil to a huge, er, water pipe, made from a cedar tree in his garage. |
Hey Cwlondon, Gentle Giant was definitely on the brainfry poop menu. Really dug that Playing that Fool record. It's not the greatest recording and it looks like the One Way Label did its usual piss poor job of putting an analog recording on those shiny little digital discs. Gotta' agree that some G.G. tunes seem a little pompous and embarrasing at times, but they came up w/ some pretty intricate and high quality stuff. What really did it for me was being at a concert where they opened for Yes (who were great). Gentle Giant clobbered them in the chops department, no mean feat since the Relayer tour was a real high point for Yes. Sorry about the opinionated tangent... umm, High Tide (Simon House), Embryo and early Michael Urbaniak also put out some good burnin' violin rock in the early 70's |
I listened to the Scarlet Rivera LP last night. She's the one who played on Dylans Desire LP and toured with the Rolling Thunder Review. She has a very distinctive sound, and the LP is obviously violin driven. The sound was very good. It's not just violin though, there is a solid bass and drum underpinning with a little vocal thrown in there occasionally. It also has guitar and some piano. It will have to be found used since I'm sure it has been out of print for 25 years. I just bought a copy for $1.00. |
FM. They were a trio out of Toronto that had a minor hit up here with Phasors on Stun from Black Noise. One LP they released was called Diecrct to Disc. Its when they had a vinyl master cutter and didnt use any tape. It was cut in one go or they tossed it and did the whole thing again. The sound was very clean and clear on it. The violinists name is Nash the Slash. Mr Slash(???) is an amzing violinist. Saw him live and rocked through his own stuff and the best cover of Smoke on the Water Ive heard. Im sure theres tuff is out of print but soem of it it did get to CD. Black Noise is the one to look for. |
