A blast from the past on a Saturday morning.

This has absolutely nothing to do with Linux, Open Source or any other topic we usually cover here.  It's just something that I was talking about on G+ and wanted to share with my friends.

This is fun.  Hang out with me for a few minutes here.

I have mentioned before, I was in a rock band (what we called ourselves anyway) during high school and I played keyboards.  I had a small Vox Jaguar organ that was built from a Heathkit via radio shack.  I was pretty much just a chord player that added some dimension to our sound...never much for solos or the like.

But one guy who I admired for his keyboard skills was Booker T. Jones, better known as Booker T from Booker T and The MG's.  Among others, they had a hit in the late 60's...a song from the soundtrack of the movie, Hang 'Em High.

Hang 'Em High not only hit the top 10 charts, the style of play fairly well established the masterful use of The Leslie Horn speaker in rock and roll.  Booker T. showed everyone how to deploy the Leslie Horn for the most dramatic outcome possible.

My little band didn't do this song, but I practiced it and practiced it until I had it down, beat for beat.  It was just something I wanted to learn and I did.

So fast forward to 1979.  I was a young Staff Sergeant stationed in Bamberg Germany and I was on my first tour in Europe.  Hanging around the Rec Center on Saturday, I found myself listening to a bunch of guys on stage, practicing but mostly just jamming and getting to know each other's playing styles.  But their music wasn't what caught my attention.

It was the Hammond B3 organ sitting unused in the corner. It was hooked into a Kustom 150 amp with twin Leslie Horn speakers.  I couldn't help myself.  I introduced myself and was soon behind this magnificent cornerstone of rock and roll.  I had only dreamed of sitting behind a Hammond B3. but there I was.

To make a long story just a bit more tolerable, we ended up entering a talent contest and our entry was of course, the only song I could play proficiently and actually sound good.  We took first place in the local contest and placed second in the USAREUR finals.

It was my moment in the sun....A standing ovation.  We brought down the house and for just a few moments in time, I was a keyboard player in a real rock and roll band.

I was such a fraud....it was the only song I knew how to play, but no one ever knew...well, besides my old band buddy +Kirk Ellsworth .

Here's the real thing,  and the REAL way a Leslie horn should be used....slightly at first and building to a huge crescendo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80k4qakPrqA


If you would like to know what a Leslie Horn is and what it does, here is a good short clip of the Leslie in action.  It is usually cased in a speaker housing so you really never see the mechanics of it.

Leslie 122 during Santana - Everybody's Everything