Here's a chance to help further the cause of "World Thereminization" and win a free book & CD in the process!
Mark Brend has donated an autographed copy of his recent book, "Strange Sounds: Offbeat Instruments and Sonic Experiments in Pop" (2005, Backbeat Books) for me to give away to one lucky ThereminWorld.com member.
To enter, just find one online news article, blog, or other website that incorrectly claims the Beach Boys used a theremin on Good Vibrations, and reply to this post with a link to the site. Links on ThereminWorld.com don't count, though I will thank you for helping us correct mistakes :)
If you want to take it a step further and contact the site's webmaster requesting a correction, you're more than welcome. Kudos for actually getting them to update their sites!
One entry per member, please. Each entry must be unique. In the event of duplicates, the first person to post the link will be counted and the others will need to find new links. I'll accept entries until Noon EST (GMT-05:00) Saturday, January 28th, at which time we'll draw the winning entry from all replies to this thread and announce the winner.
Have fun!
Link: Backbeat Books (including an MP3 sample from the book's CD)
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Showing 23 Comments
I can't believe it. Auntie Beeb, a source of much that is good and right in this world, got it wrong.
And on Radio 4 at that!
On a website with the word "Factual" prominently displayed!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/goodvibrations.shtml
Here's my favourite quote from the site: "...and Paul Tanner, theremin sessioneer on the legendary Beach Boys single."
So close...
Gordon
I am writing to ask you to correct the erroneous and misleading information displayed on the following website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk...
On it, the BBC claims that Paul Tanner was the 'theremin sessioneer' for the Beach Boys. This is however is untrue. None of the Beach Boys was able to play the theremin, and Tanner had realised that the instrument was so difficult to play that finding a different instrument that could imitate the theremin might prove lucrative to his career as a trombonist.
He invented the tannerin, a synthesiser which is played not in the air (the most important trait of the theremin), but rather by sliding a slider up and down a metal track. Ammending your article with a brief bracketed explanation would be very pleasing to me - I myself, as a fifteen year old thereminist really want to promote the instrument, and feel slightly shocked to see that the BBC is still a leading exponent of misinformation regarding the instrument.
Yours Sincerely,
Charlie Draper"
I got it for Christmas and it is REALLY good. It is fun to read a chapter and then go out and google all the people and music mentioned in each chapter. Good stuff.
Until the theremin community defines what Lev’s intentions really are or accepts the fact that the theremin is recognized as a “sound” not a specific design of an instrument, the argument of theremin validity will always be left to individual interpretation.
A Simple Blog
Theremin Validity (http://groups.google.com/group/alt.music.makers.theremin/browse_thread/thread/2dcd3caba0b75b69/387c2db3528ca2ee?hl=en#387c2db3528ca2ee)
Hope that link works. "When is it valid?" a thought that crosses my mind often.
Christopher
http://thomhous.wordpress.com/
2006/01/21/the-beach-boys-pet-sounds/
"Conventional keyboards and guitars were combined with exotic touches of orchestrated strings, bicycle bells, buzzing organs, harpsichords, flutes, theremin, Hawaiian-sounding string instruments, Coca-Cola cans, barking dogs, and more."
<a href="http://www.lahiguera.net/
musicalia/artistas/beach_boys/discoh/15/">
About Pet sounds again in spanish...</a>
"(...)el uso del theremin, luego nuevamente utilizado para el hit "Good Vibrations". "
I found this quote: "The original, “live” version of the song (produced at Western Studios in Los Angeles), was an R&B number that many of the session musicians thought was as good as the final record. Wilson wasn’t satisfied, however. He had a complex vision which included using cellos and a [b]theremin (an instrument whose eerie, wavering sound had been used primarily in soundtracks of horror movies)[/b]. Eventually this meant moving from studio to studio in Los Angeles. Wilson: “I wanted to experiment with combining studio sounds. Every studio has its own marked sound.” I also found this: "FOR THE RECORD: Believe it or not, the song is in mono! Where’d they find a [b]theremin[/b] player? From the UCLA music program. He was an avante-garde musician who had never heard of the Beach Boys. He kept asking Steve Douglas, the contractor for the session, if he was going to get paid"
http://www.escolar.n... and it says: El inquietante sonido del theremin se popularizó con las películas de serie B de los años 50. Después los Beach Boys lo adoptarían para el pop. "Sound of theremin became popular with "b" series films of 50´s, And later Beach boys adopt it for pop"
Another note: in fact all of us are agree about the first mistake in the film "Electronic odyssey" about the participation of Brian Wilson and Mr. Bob Moog to mention Beach Boys¡¡ sorry¡¡
Yes, I've always wondered by Brian Wilson claimed to have used a theremin in his interview in the film. Maybe his memory isn't as good as it used to be ;)
http://www.rhino.com...
http://amos.indiana.edu/library/scripts/theremin.html
Yael: What on earth is that noise?
Don: It's a theremin. You know the Beach Boys song "Good Vibrations"?
Y: Of course.
D: You know that weird, eerie sound that floats through the song? That's a theremin
" D: You know that weird, eerie sound that floats through the song? That's a theremin, or at least a synthesized version of one."
I was riding with a buddy of mine the other day. He said that he heard of a pupular song that had a theremin part in it. He made me guess what it was. After I successfully guessed that it was "Good Vibrations" by the Beachboys, on the very first try by the way, I had to explain to him that it was a Tannerin and explain the differences between the two.
There seems to be so much confusion about the instrument used in "Good Vibrations" that I really wish that somebody catch up with one of the past members of the Beachboys, wrestle them to the ground, get out their bible, get them under oath, ask them about this and settle this once and for all. :)
The theremin, known to pop fans primarily as the eerie curiosity heard in one of the episodes of "Good Vibrations," is actually of immense historical significance, for it was one of the first electronic instruments. Invented by Russian experimenter Lev Termen and named for him, it received wide publicity in the 1920s and went into production in the U.S. under the auspices of the RCA firm. The theremin's unique fascination comes partly from the fact that the player does not touch it; instead, its pitch changes according to how far the player's hand is held from an antenna and metal loop that protrude from the body of the instrument (both hands may be used). Thus the player appears to be coaxing sound from the instrument with upraised hands. It is amplified by means of a built-in speaker. Owing to its construction the theremin was capable of only a single line of music, with a glissando connecting individual notes. Skilled players, however, could create a variety of expressive effects. One contemporary theremin virtuoso is Termen's descendant Lydia Kavina. The instrument was heard on science-fiction film scores of the 1950s, and the relentlessly experiment-minded Brian Wilson had already employed it on the Pet Sounds album before hitting on the idea of including it in "Good Vibrations".
I know it's only one entry per person, but I had to mention this one - it perpetuates the Beach Boys myth AND can't spell theremin.
I have sent the following correction...
[i]Just to set the record straight, it's a theremin, not a theramin, and it wasn't a theremin it was an electrotheremin aka a tannerin.
I hope that makes things clearer.
:-)[/i]
Gordon
If we're all going to get horribly pedantic, then you really should put acute accents on both of the e's as well. So there.
Congratulations, ScottCDrake (http://www.thereminw...) - you're the winner of an autographed copy of "Strange Sounds"!
Send your shipping address at jason[at]thereminworld.com and I'll have it sent to you. Thanks to everyone who entered, and a big thanks to Mr. Brend for supplying us with the prize and for writing such a great book!
We'll try to more of these types of contests in the near future.
"Conventional keyboards and guitars were combined with exotic touches of orchestrated strings, bicycle bells, buzzing organs, harpsichords, flutes, theremin, Hawaiian-sounding string instruments, Coca-Cola cans, barking dogs, and more"
Personally, I'm a traditionalist. I like my theremins to have two antennies. Clearly, this is more of a ribbon controller.
Good Vibrations - Short Clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CelV7EbuV-A)
Good Vibrations - Complete (http://www.youtube.c...)
That instrument in the B-Boys U-tube Videos looks like a Persephone. What do you think?
Good Luck!
teslatheremin