prog rock & church organ

I know The Flower Kings have some songs with a church organ...can't think of any specifics right now.

iguana wrote: Catholic Flame wrote: Iron Butterfly's  In-a-Gadda-da-Vida yeah, check out the simpson's episode "bart sells his soul" if you can! this song will never be the same afterwards!!!!!!!!

In the garden of eden...

On Chris Squire's "Fish Out Of Water" (what I have just been playing!) a church organ is heard on "Hold Out Your Hand", played by Barry Rose, sub-organist of St Paul's though whether it is the St Paul's organ I don't know.

On "Going for the One" Rick played a pipe organ in a church in Vevey (I think), the story goes that the sound was piped (sic) down the Swiss telephone lines to the studio, so good was the quality. He also used this organ on "Criminal Record".

I don't have "Six Wives" to hand but the credits on it say in which church the pipe organ was recorded. I can't be sure, but I always assumed it was the same organ used on "Close to the Edge".

Pipe organs are not easily transportable, not only their size - or at least some of them - but changes in temperature and humidity affect their sound. They need to be "voiced" (i.e. tuned) for their acoustic surroundings, usually of course a church. I believe though Rick Wakeman used a purpose built Mander pipe organ on stage from time to time.

I don't play myself but have some interest as my Father was a church organist, and had a small pipe organ built in our house. As you can imagine, this was a talking point when visitors came. It was not a loud, thundering instrument but a subtle peice of work, with some delicate sounds. My Dad was a Fellow of one of the London music colleges (forgotten which) & was very much into getting the more delicate sounds out of the instrument. He died a couple of years back and my Mum donated the instrument to a London church, where it is used for the more delicate work, and choir practices. 
Although he never played "prog" he was into some of the more "prog-like" composers like Oliver Messian (may have mis-spelt that). His pet hate (and mine too as a choir boy) was when people asked for something totally unsuitable to be played on a pipe organ at their wedding ("Morning Has Broken" or "Three Times A Lady" spring to mind...) - usually he managed, tactfully, to dissuade them. Although he wasn't, some of his organ playing buddies were quite snobby about the instrument, which I thought was ridiculous, when you consider the pipe organ started out as a substitute for having an orchestra...sort of forerunner to the Mellotron/synth!!

Sorry, I digress!

Going For the one, Yes, Going for the one album.

My list of great church organs:

Jacula / Antonius Rex (lots of church organs)
Par Lindh Project (lots of church organs)
Yes - Close to the Edge, Parallels, Awaken
Rick Wakeman - Jane Seymour, Judas Iscariot, Lax'x
Gli Alluminogeni - Thrilling
Emerson, Lake & Palmer - The Three Fates, The Hymn (Infinite Space)
Refugee - Credo
Trace - Final Trace, King-Bird
Tritonus - Far in the Sky
Styx - Little Fugue in D Minor, Father O.S.A., Hallelujah Chorus, I'm Okay
Il Rovescio Della Medaglia - La Mia Musica, Cella 503, La Grande Fuga
Glass Hammer - Run Lisette, Long and Long Ago
Anglagard - Jordrok
Ambrosia - Drink of Water
Birth Control - Hoodoo Man
The Trip - Corale, Analisi, L'Utima Ora E Ode a J. Hendrix
Fireballet - Night on Bald Mountain
Albatross - Devil's Strumpet
Pell Mell - Toccata
The Old Man & The Sea - Prelude
Collegium Musicum - Piesne z Kolovratku, Eufonia
Gerard - Keep a Memory Green
Ars Nova - Android Domina

And that's all "church organ in prog" I know in fact.

skipping classics a bit, here's a moment of church organ recital I truly appreciate:

Rick Wakeman's Lincoln Cathedral

I think I said it in my review too, I gave the album to a friend of music, who plays the organ and has the music focus onto this point, and he pronounced over it as mature, nice, good structured. It's basically just the new age-like modern thematic (minimal) improvisations Rick usually does, but the organ atmopheres commences heavily and lifts up a notch...everything.

Ricochet wrote: skipping classics a bit, here's a moment of church organ recital I truly appreciate: Rick Wakeman's Lincoln Cathedral I think I said it in my review too, I gave the album to a friend of music, who plays the organ and has the music focus onto this point, and he pronounced over it as mature, nice, good structured. It's basically just the new age-like modern thematic (minimal) improvisations Rick usually does, but the organ atmopheres commences heavily and lifts up a notch...everything.

Also check out SBB keyboardist Jozef Skrzek's CDs Koncert Sweitokrzyski and Czas (organ + guest on Moog)!

john paul jones of led zeppelin actually played organ at the church service in his adolescense, before taking on the studio recording musician activity. this is proved by the brilliant intro to Your Time is Gonna Come from the first album. his father also was a jazz piano player and composer, and this among others made him the main progressive influence in the band, especially since 1970 when he came back to keyboards for live experiments that will grow in time as a strong progressive component of the band's music.

Don't think the Close to the Edge source has ever been proven. Six Wives (ugh!) had some tapes recorded at St Giles Cripplegate in London. Wakeman also definitely recorded in Vevey and, yes, piped (sic) it down the phone for Going for the One and other stuff. Par Lindh also definitely. The rest; most of it is studio trickery. Am unsure about Emerson, though - it sounds real enough, but...

I find it thrilling when prog keyboardists use the church organ for special effect (e.g. the opening of Yes' PARALLELLS or the sudden appearance of a church organ in Refugee's CREDO), but these caped crusaders get on my nerves as soon as they attempt more extended pieces. For example, Rick Wakeman's noodling during JUDAS ISCARIOT and AWAKEN (accompanied by Jon Anderson's harp) is terribly irritating. There's simply not enough going on! Anyone familiar with the organ works of J.S. Bach or Buxtehude will know exactly what I mean. (Bach is THRILLING, you see, he rocks.) And that choir ah-ah-ing along on JUDAS ISCARIOT is a classic example of pure kitsch.

Surely it's no coincidence that prog virtuosos of impeccable taste such as David Sinclair, Dave Stewart and Kerry Minnear never use the church organ at all?