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melodica

The melodica, also known as ‘blow-organ’ among other names, is a free-reed polyphonic (meaning you can play chords) woodwind instrument with a two or three octave piano keyboard on top, played by blowing air through a mouthpiece. Popularized by the German Hohner company in the late fifties, it is used widely throughout Asia as a music education tool.

Foto
prime example
Oasis - Champagne Supernova ((What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, October 1995)

the story
How fitting, that this seven minute anthem would be the last original song Oasis played live in concert. Noel Gallagher said “The song is a bit of an epic. It’s about when you’re young and you see people in groups and you think about what they did for you and they did nothing. As a kid, you always believed the Sex Pistols were going to conquer the world and kill everybody in the process. Bands like The Clash just petered out. Punk rock was supposed to be the revolution but what did it do? Fuck all. The Manchester thing was going to be the greatest movement on earth but it was fuck all. When we started we decided we weren’t going to do anything for anybody, we just thought we’d leave a bunch of great songs.”
Guitarist Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs can be seen playing the melodica in the video clip. He also added mellotron and piano to some of the tracks of (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, as did Noel Gallagher - so we actually don’t know precisely who played the melodica part on the studio take of Champagne Supernova.

other examples
In London in the sixties, producers who needed an instrument with a keyboard to beef up their pop records called Nicky Hopkins. He played piano, organ, harpsichord, mellotron, melodica and accordion on tracks by bands such as the Pretty Things, the Who, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. Hopkins first worked with the Kinks on their seminal album Face To Face, adding piano and a melodica solo to their number one hit Sunny Afternoon. From the same album, Session Man was partly inspired by Hopkins, according to songwriter Ray Davies.
It’s Raining Again was one of the last successful singles by British poprock band Supertramp before songwriter, guitarist, keyboard player and singer Roger Hogdson left the band. Written by Hogdson, the upbeat song features a melodica solo by Supertramp’s other co-founder, keyboard player and singer Rick Davies.

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