In nearly every Partridge Family song, Laurie “plays” a synthesized harpsichord.
Any idea why?
At least two Beatles songs featured the harpsichord, and the memory wasn’t that distant. I guess the producers thought it was a fad on the comeback.
Maybe because it worked in The Addams Family, another show of that same timeframe?
The Addams Family ran 1964-66 and the Partridge Family ran 1970-74.
Picky, picky, picky. Well, erm, The Addams Family remained in our collective consciousness for many years?
Then there’s the possibility that synthesizers then could only play 3 instruments: horns, drumbeat, and harpsichord?
Okay, so basically I have no clue…
I do recall thinking the harpsichord was really cool around that era. I was a huge Dark Shadows fan and a song from the show, Quentin’s Theme was actually getting airplay. I believe it came out in '70. It featured a very old-fashioned sounding harpsichord.
I’ve still got the darn thing on a '45.
I was always baffled by the venues they played at. What were those places supposed to be? They weren’t bars, or theaters, or arenas. They looked like real big restaurants with no food. All the tables were round with red tablecloths and candles in those stained glass/mesh thingys. Always a well dressed man and woman at each table just sitting there totally grooving to the show.
Pretty much thanks to British Psychedelic music baroque instruments had been rediscovered at that time and Harpsichord (along with things like Piccolo trumpets) were being incorporated into things.
The guys who wrote and produced/wrote the songs and for The Partridge Family were Wes Farrell, Hugo Montenegro, and Shorty Rogers all of whom were professional songwriters/composers (do an IMDB on them) and so, they actually crafted a sound for TPF. Also remember that keyboards were not as versatile back then as they are now (hey you want multi-timbrle you only get a few different sounds).
It also gave Susan Dey something to do, after all Tracy already had the tambourine (and remember on The Archies, Betty played that (Blonde) and Veronica played Keyboards (Brunette) so it was decided by powers greater than ours).
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, we had these places called nightclubs, that looked like real big restaurants with no food. Except some of them served food, or had dance floors, or shows, or more than one of these things.
As this form of entertainment was not very interesting to anybody but pairs of well-dressed men and women, however, it has since been abandoned.
“Synthesizer” in 1970 basically meant big modular devices like the Moog or Buchla, which looked like telephone switchboards full of patch cords. Apparently the instrument played by Susan Dey on the show was a Farfisa VIP 345 organ. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily have any bearing on what instruments appeared on the actual recordings.
Holy, moly. Guess I was right, kinda. I just remember that with the Addams Family, everyone thought Lurch’s harpsichord was pretty groovy, and that there was a fair amount of it around for a few years around that time.
Boy, I sure remember how prevalent the harpsichord was in the 60’s. I may be wrong, but I think it started with the movie “Tom Jones.” Anyway, before the 60’s, harpsichords weren’t heard much because they were drowned out by the other insturments in live venues. Electronics gave them a chance at a comeback. It was an experiemental era, remember: before the 60’s, the piano was the main instument in popular music, not the guitar.