A Conversation for The Hammond/Leslie Feud: A Musical Fight with Organ Accompaniment

Peer Review: A87895769 - The Hammond/Leslie Feud: A Musical Fight with Organ Accompaniment

Post 1

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

Entry: The Hammond/Leslie Feud: A Musical Fight with Organ Accompaniment - A87895769
Author: Dmitri Gheorgheni - U1590784

I have just acquired a 40-year-old Lowrey organ with built-in Leslie. When all the organ fora I visited raved about 'the Leslie', I just had to learn the history of what is fast becoming my favourite instrument. smiley - smiley

Before you say anything, the headers are adapted lyrics from 'A Whiter Shade of Pale'. If Bluebottle can do it, so can I.

smiley - dragon


A87895769 - The Hammond/Leslie Feud: A Musical Fight with Organ Accompaniment

Post 2

Florida Sailor All is well with the world

I have always thought of the 'Doppler Effect' in terms of Radar, probably from my reading about Naval battles in WWII. 'Up Doppler' was given by the Radar man when two ships were approaching each other on opposite courses. You might want to consider a link to http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/waves/Lesson-3/The-Doppler-Effect

F smiley - dolphin S


A87895769 - The Hammond/Leslie Feud: A Musical Fight with Organ Accompaniment

Post 3

Chris Morris

One of the things I always liked about Leslies was that they looked like an old-fashioned piece of furniture, completely out of place surrounded by all those stacks of Marshall amps.

When I saw Chicago (the band) in 1972 Robert Lamm had two Leslies hooked up to his Hammond, I'm not sure how that worked but they were a VERY LOUD band.


A87895769 - The Hammond/Leslie Feud: A Musical Fight with Organ Accompaniment

Post 4

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

smiley - rofl I'll bet they were loud! Two Leslies sounds like almost too much of a good thing.

smiley - ok Thanks, FS. I'll try to find a briefer explanation of the Doppler Effect. I really hate to link to offsite pages that are too long and interesting. There's a serious danger that the reader will get lost over there...


A87895769 - The Hammond/Leslie Feud: A Musical Fight with Organ Accompaniment

Post 5

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

Ha! Always look in-house first. smiley - laugh We have a Guide Entry on the Doppler Effect, which will do nicely. smiley - smiley Thanks for reminding me that it might need explanation.


A87895769 - The Hammond/Leslie Feud: A Musical Fight with Organ Accompaniment

Post 6

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

I got nosy about what two Leslies would sound like: here's a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdmTkqN5BmI


A87895769 - The Hammond/Leslie Feud: A Musical Fight with Organ Accompaniment

Post 7

Chris Morris

As someone said in the comments: that must be what heaven looks like smiley - biggrinhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCeByM-EN4E - the man who showed everyone what that sound could do, the cat himself - Jimmy Smith


A87895769 - The Hammond/Leslie Feud: A Musical Fight with Organ Accompaniment

Post 8

minorvogonpoet

I'm an ignoramus as far as musc is concerned smiley - doh, so I didn't really appreciate this story.

But I shall ask a stupid question. What's a drawbar?


A87895769 - The Hammond/Leslie Feud: A Musical Fight with Organ Accompaniment

Post 9

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

Good question, MVP: this is a drawing of drawbars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammond_organ#/media/File:Hammond-drawbars-plain.svg

They're numbered sliders.

I shall add a gloss for those who haven't seen them.


A87895769 - The Hammond/Leslie Feud: A Musical Fight with Organ Accompaniment

Post 10

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

Oh, and Chris: I went back and added a video that gives a brief history of Hammond players - Jimmy Smith is in it. smiley - smiley So is Ethel Smith, no relation - she's a crazy lady from Pittsburgh who wore funny hats and could play the heck out of an organ.


A87895769 - The Hammond/Leslie Feud: A Musical Fight with Organ Accompaniment

Post 11

Chris Morris

smiley - cheers


A87895769 - The Hammond/Leslie Feud: A Musical Fight with Organ Accompaniment

Post 12

SashaQ - happysad

Excellent Entry - I'm a fan of electric music myself so this was very interesting to read about smiley - biggrin I've had a go at playing a Hammond, but my own instruments are Yamaha rather than Suzuki.

My only Query is about the first word - I like a Q at the start of an Entry, but wasn't sure if it was Quick Quiz, Quick Question or asking people to answer Quickly?

smiley - ok Q


A87895769 - The Hammond/Leslie Feud: A Musical Fight with Organ Accompaniment

Post 13

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

Well, let's make it a Quick Quiz.smiley - ok


A87895769 - The Hammond/Leslie Feud: A Musical Fight with Organ Accompaniment

Post 14

Recumbentman

This is fascinating. You might mention the other uses Leslies were famously put to, such as John Lennon singing through a Leslie on Tomorrow Never Knows, and George Harrison playing guitar through one on Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds.

Slight quibblet: "The variations in apparent loudness used the Doppler Effect to, er, great effect."

This is strictly speaking contradictory. The Doppler effect affects pitch. Loudness would also be affected by the rotation of the speaker horn, but that is not the Doppler effect, as I understand it.

Most fascinating of all perhaps is the marketing history of the device: it never needed to be advertised, people just sought it out.


A87895769 - The Hammond/Leslie Feud: A Musical Fight with Organ Accompaniment

Post 15

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

Hi, Recumbentman! Thanks for the help. You're right: I need to reword that Doppler Effect business. I am now looking at a source with a better explanation than mine. I'll let you know when I get a fix, and you can tell me if I'm there yet. smiley - smiley

I don't know much about Beatles music - I'll see what I can find, since we have so many Beatles fans.

I agree - I thought it was fascinating that Leslie never had to advertise. I mentioned that.

Back in a while, after reading...smiley - run


A87895769 - The Hammond/Leslie Feud: A Musical Fight with Organ Accompaniment

Post 16

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

Okay, I went to work, found some cool things, and changed two paragraphs. See what you think.

1. In the section on the Doppler Effect, I removed the incorrect 'loudness' reference. I also added a quote from the original patent application. Thanks for the impulse to go looking - I wouldn't have realised I could find it if I hadn't found the patent number in another reference.

2. I added a paragraph to the last section about the Sixteen Vestal Virgins, with links to the songs you mentioned and 'Born to Be Wild' for comparison. Check it and see if I made sense.

While looking, I found this great article you might like from a 1981 sound engineer magazine, called 'Unearthing the Mysteries of the Leslie Cabinet':

http://www.theatreorgans.com/hammond/faq/mystery/mystery.html

What I enjoyed most was the last paragraph, entitled 'Personal Madness':

'I am arranging and putting together this article using a Norelco Dictating Machine, which has a microphone at the end of a coil cord that also acts as a loudspeaker. You can push a button on the recorder and the sound will come out of the microphone end. By grabbing the microphone by its cord and swinging it in circles, this entire article can be played back to me with a very strange and mysterious Leslie-like effect. It's really okay. No... I'm really all right. It's just like a Leslie, you see...'

Thanks for helping me improve this. Leslie madness is at fever pitch over at the h2g2 Post...smiley - winkeye


A87895769 - The Hammond/Leslie Feud: A Musical Fight with Organ Accompaniment

Post 17

Recumbentman

Sounds like the hunting of the Snark smiley - erm


A87895769 - The Hammond/Leslie Feud: A Musical Fight with Organ Accompaniment

Post 18

Recumbentman

Your corrections look good to me. Most surprising is the sloppy wording of the patent application: "to cause the mouth, which receives the tone from the source, to move toward and away from the source" makes no sense to me. The mouth of the horn moves towards and away from the *listener*, not the source, which is a feed connected to the centre of rotation presumably.

He must have written his own patent application, I suppose. Just wasn't so accurate with the words as he was with the wiring.


A87895769 - The Hammond/Leslie Feud: A Musical Fight with Organ Accompaniment

Post 19

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

I, too, have known engineers with that problem. smiley - laugh


A87895769 - The Hammond/Leslie Feud: A Musical Fight with Organ Accompaniment

Post 20

Galaxy Babe - eclectic editor

smiley - rofl


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