Best rock keyboardist?

[Keenan Bartlett]

I vote Rod Argent of The Zombies

 

His keyboards make The Zombies, both with his comping and his sick solos.

I like his playing because he's sophisticated and sloppy at the same time. He's got these great licks that you'd hear from jazz guys but he lays it over a real raw track and rushes just enough to give his solos this frantic feel.

I have yet to hear the combination of complexity and soul from another garage rock keyboardist but tell me what you think. I wanna hear about some more players I can check out.

 

Listen to his organ work on :

Just Out Of Reach (keyboard solo at 1:00)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7aebYXnArg&feature=related

and then his electric piano work on

She's Not There (solo 1:37)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5IRI4oHKNU&feature=related

 

 

 

 

[banana1]

I like Argent as well as Manzarek (Doors) and Mark Stein (Vanilla Fudge).

[Alex]

Obviously Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard.  But I'm also surprised to see that no one has mentioned Jeff "Monoman" Conolly from Lyres/DMZ.

[MikeL]

I don't know if he's the best, but I recently saw Ian Hunter, and he mostly played piano and acoustic guitar during his concert.  He can still bang out a mean intro to "All The Way From Memphis."

[Angus Martin Montgomery]

You saw Mr. Hunter,you lucky sod!How old is he now...70? That's outrageous and he certainly doesn't look it...Mott are in the top 5 of my all-time fave bands!

[Mole]

Anybody mention Jerry Roslie? Or Michael Brown [Left Banke]? Rod Argent HAS to be a contender, surely...I like his piano in 'Remember You', alongside the aforementioned 'Just Out Of Reach'. How 'bout John Cale's work with the Velvets - 'All Tomorrow's Parties' is beyond beautiful, whereas 'Sister Ray' is super-horrid [in a good way, of course!].

[The Amphibious Man]

Daryl Hooper from The Seeds

[Punk Guts]

speaking of zombies i just heard this track the other day and cant stop it its great btw im asking for a keyboard for christmas first song im gonna play is 96 tears by question mark and the Mysterians  heres the songs guys 

zombies of love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wCmtuGHseo

96 tears http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7uC5m-IRns&feature=related

[The Reply]

Guys like Rosalie and Conolly are good for their respective overall band sounds, but far from "great" players.

Standouts are Rod Argent, Brian Auger, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Manzarek and vastly underated if somewhat cheesy; Burton Cummings (listen to that live TV stuff Guess Who CD that came out awhile back). Tony Ashton and Graham Bond are pretty dang great too.

Not to mention the Nicky Hopkins of this world, etc. etc.

Soul players are a whole other bag - usually much "tastier" players with more of a groove as the music isn't usually (quite) as frantic. Booker T. and Preston are prime examples (though they could probably play rings around most rock players).

[Shake Revard]

esquerita!

[John Battles]

  I meant to , but I felt I'd have to mention DMZ (Whom I love) , as well as The Lyres (Whom I tried to love.). When Jeff is /was on , he was unstoppable. I saw him once , when he feigned interest , but , just did not care , and , another time where he had his moments , to be sure.
 
Alex said:

Obviously Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard.  But I'm also surprised to see that no one has mentioned Jeff "Monoman" Conolly from Lyres/DMZ.

[John Battles]

I AGREE , Larry Tamblyn, who already gets cool points for being Russ Tamblyn's Brother, did some great keyboard parts with The Standells - I'm partial to the Faux Gypsy /Italian  Guitar - Keyboard combination he and Tony Valentino cooked up on "Why Pick on Me".
 
dying slowly said:

the organ in the standells some times good guys dont wear white blows me away

[dying slowly]

its not complex but ilike it

dying slowly said:

the organ in the standells some times good guys dont wear white blows me away