Billy Powell of Lynyrd Skynyrd laid down some pretty good rock piano. Check out the piano solo in I Know a Little.
Warren Zevon.
He’s no longer with us, but the music is.
Splendid Isolation, Life’ll Kill Ya, Lawyers Guns and Money–some great keyboards.
I second Nick Cave and The Dresden Dolls.
The Dresden Dolls are great in person, as they’ve got a bit of a burlesque feel to their first album, and it translates better in a live show than it does by just listening. You know, visual quirks and such.
- Kate Bush - Not a band, but my favorite piano-playing singer. Especially her first two or three albums.
- Traffic with Stevie Winwood.
- Most of Rick Wakeman’s work with Yes.
- Tony Banks during early Genesis, particularly the introduction to “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.”
Good suggestions so far.
One of the best albums for piano-based rock is Springsteen’s Born to Run (one of the best albums, period, IMHO).
Roy Bittan’s playing is pretty much the foundation of every track on that album.
YES!
Or, the arpegiated solo thing in “Anyway.” Or, the pounding chords in “Back in N.Y.C.” or “Chamber of 32 Doors.” I love that album.
Minor FYI for readers who are new to the Dresden Dolls: Their first album was a live album and can be safely avoided. Its one real benefit is that it has the non-radio-friendly line in “Coin-Operated Boy”. Their second album is a studio album, and is really quite good. I’m not real keen on their second studio album, though.
And yes, they do have a good live show.
Don’t forget The Who - remember Quadrophenia? Pete Townsend’s Empty Glass album? And any Rolling Stones album with Billy Preston on it. And yes, Dean Friedman too, but he’s more mellow.
The Cold War Kids are becoming an “it” band. To keep your hip quotient high, give them a shot.
Supertramp. 'nuff said.
The Fray seem to use piano alot in their music…
One more vote for the excellent Dresden Dolls, and of course the great Ben Folds.
Definitely Supertramp. From Now On is one of my favorite piano pieces, ever.
Tony just owned The Lamb. Gabriel and Hackett quit after that because Tony was blowing everybody else out of the water, musically.
No one is making better use of the piano in rock-and-roll right now than The Hold Steady. There’s none on their first album (The Hold Steady Almost Killed Me), but check out “Your Little Hoodrat Friend” or the breakdown in “Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night” on Separation Sunday or “Stuck Between Stations”, “First Night”, or “Chillout Tent” on their new one, Boys and Girls in America.
They tend to be pretty polarizing. Personally, I think they’re the best band in America at the moment.
My Ben Folds Pandora station has found tons of great artists. My favorite that was new to me is the record Acapulco Roughs by Colossal Yes. Very laid back.
You also might check out a fave local band of mine, Modern Skirts.
Quicksilver Messenger Service. The incomparable Nicky Hopkins - whose nickname, for some 60sish reason, was Edward - joined them in 1969 and stayed for three albums, Shady Grove, Just For Love, and What About Me?
The highlight of all piano-based rock is surely “Edward, the Mad Shirt Grinder” from the Shady Grove album.
This nine-minute masterpiece is by Hopkins, and features Hopkins, Hopkins, and more Hopkins.
It starts with a bouncy piano riff played at high speed. After a few minutes of first fast and then slow enjoyable music comes the epic.
Hopkins restarts the opening riff at a faster tempo. He overdubs a faster riff on a different keyboard. Then another, and another, faster still. Then he kicks into high gear. Keyboards on top of keyboards, all played faster than human hands should possible move. There’s nothing else remotely like it in rock.
Hyperbole? Maybe. But it’s a shared opinion.
Hopkins followed that with the beautiful instrumental “Spindrifter” and superb breaks on the FM classic "What About Me.
[old fart mode]Bands used to be capable of stunning instruments. Some, like the Allman Brothers, specialized in them. Quicksilver did more top notch instrumentals than most, including two long ones - “Gold and Silver” and “The Fool” - on their very first album. Who does that today?
The reason, of course, is that today’s bands can’t play their instruments and are incapable of creating melodies interesting enough to be featured by themselves.
I blame rock reviewers, who hated instrumentals, and punk rock, which perpetuated the idiotic notion that attitude counted more than talent.[/old fart mode]
Fats Domino.
Ray Charles.
Little Richard.
Stevie Wonder.
Billy Preston.
Herbie Hancock.
Bernie Worrell.
That’s the gist of the whole history of rock right there. Black piano. Rock music actually began with Fats Domino.
Stevie Wonder’s clavinet on “Superstition” is the funkiest sound ever recorded.