More 70's Cheesy than Cowbell

What could be more cheesy than 70;s cowbell, you ax???

What about when guitarists use a vocoder to sing over their fingering a la, "Do you feel like I do..?". My friends, stoned on paraquat as was their wont, used to swear, "Man, he's making that guitar talk…he's a fuckin' virtuoso!", like that would be physically possible.

What kills me on a lot of 70s music is the Hi Hat. It is way up front and competing with the vocals for the top spot in the mix. I don't know if this is because the LP eq is so different and they never remastered for CD or if that was the desired sound of the time -> Hi-hat with some music behind it.

By the way. The effect used on those Frampton songs is not a vocoder but a "talk box". All it is is a speaker connected to a tube that the user puts in their mouth so that their guitar signal is filtered by the mouth of the user. Not something to buy used.

My guess is that 70's production just basically had a lot to do with cocaine binges. Any Steely Dan or something like "Layla" says it all. Or any disco music for that matter.

Originally posted by Sir HC:
By the way. The effect used on those Frampton songs is not a vocoder but a "talk box". All it is is a speaker connected to a tube that the user puts in their mouth so that their guitar signal is filtered by the mouth of the user. Not something to buy used.

Thanks for clearing that up. Jeff Beck used it a lot too, and it's the effect that most-cheeses his otherwise great sound of that period.

Originally posted by Fountain Befouled:

Originally posted by Sir HC:
By the way. The effect used on those Frampton songs is not a vocoder but a "talk box". All it is is a speaker connected to a tube that the user puts in their mouth so that their guitar signal is filtered by the mouth of the user. Not something to buy used.

Thanks for clearing that up. Jeff Beck used it a lot too, and it's the effect that most-cheeses his otherwise great sound of that period.

I'd bet there's some shredders out there who can make it interesting again. But Rivers Cuomo ain't one of 'em–have you heard that new p.o.s. Weezer single?

Speaking of 70s cheese, check out this graphic:

<img src="http://www.vh1.com/partners/save_the_music/what_is_going_on/images/concert_sm.gif" alt=" - " />


They may think they were being retro-stylish and/or *ahem* "ironic" but some things just cannot be saved.

Hey now..talk boxes worked for alice in chains…

www.olywa.net/blame/talkbox.htm

www.blamepro.com/talkboxB.htm