Though he has some guests and I do not know if it would qualify, SPLIT ENZ co-founder Tim Finn (you know, his younger brother Neil is as immensely talented and founded CROWDED HOUSE and they are always in each other's bands, as well as their duo albums) did what to me might be the most underrated male solo album of all time: SAY IT IS SO. He has recorded so much and has written so many classics, I have lost track, but this album is stunning from beginning to end, hardly anyone has heard int and I cannot strongly recommend it enough. Thanks once again for another one of your excellent, outstanding, archival videos on music. You continue to have one of the best TH-cam channels on the subject, ever!
Who Came First was one of the first albums I ever bought at the ripe old age of 12. Fifty years later it's still one of my favorites. Funny how music you were exposed to at an impressionable age stays with you for such A long time.
@9:00 - Emitt Rhodes' debut album is one of the greatest recordings of the R 'n' R era! Such a great songwriter. Yes, the reviewers at the time crucified McCartney for his own multi-instrumentalist debut album and compared it very unfavorably with Rhodes' debut.
Another album maybe not an exact fit but Cat Stevens plays a boat load of instruments on Izitso Guitars , Piano , Drums , Percussion , Bouzouki and Synths Kypros off that albums is all Cat
Izitso is solid album and early example of synthpop Im a huge cat stevens fan and this is my 3 favorite him after Tea for the Tillerman. and Teaser and the Fire at
The most glaring omission in your list is Prince. I'd pick Dirty Mind, which was originally recorded in his home studio, with him playing pretty much everything, as demos. After going into the studio and not being happy with the results, he decided to release the demos as the album. Genius!
Great idea Tom. I also was thinking of Todd Rundgren, with quite a few of his albums to choose from. I’d go with Hermit. I also remember the release of Tubular Bells back in the day. I still think it stands up, even today
Great subject and love your picks I heard multi instrumental 1 album jumps to mind Tubular Bells : Mike Oldfield I feel this album has fallen out of favor over the years but I still love it and listen The section with Viv Stanshelll announcing the instruments is incredible especially the bass line , that section is imspired by hhis own Bonzo Dogs Do lo Dah Bands song The Intros and The Outros Emit Rhodes also produced, mixed and recorded at home Because of union rules it was put out as being recorded in studio but in run off on the album it is inscribed Recorded at Home Ty Segal you are right ; Genius I have seen him several times and his shows are truly other worldly
John Mayall - The Blues Alone, 1967. Admittedly, on most tracks it features Keef Hartley on drums, but other than that I think it qualifies. It contains couple of really good songs. The Blues Aline probably suffered from John’s impressive productivity in this period and was overshadowed by his other albums from this period that feature stellar guitarists.
Another great topic and you nailed it! “Superwoman” is absolutely my favorite Stevie Wonder song, and ironically one of his worst charting singles of the seventies (peaked at 33 in a shorter version), a classic example of how unreliable singles charts can be.
Could add ”Hangmans Beautiful Daughter” or ”We Tam and the Big Huge” by the Incredible String Band, (although they are 2 multiinstrumentalists, sometimes augmented by their respective girlfriends). They use an incredible amount of unusual instruments, some of which they master, and some that they don’t. They are unusual in that they reach incredibly high without caring when they sometimes fail. This gives their albums a very inspired and ”in the moment” DIY feel.
Last few years, I've been following Maps, which is actually a guy, James Chapman. Kind of electronica. Favorite song is Both Sides from the album Colours, Reflect, Time, Loss.
JJ Cale is a great multi instrumentalist. He had lots of great session players on his albums but he did bass drums piano and guitar himself on occasion.
Elliott Smith played everything and often did in recording his albums. I think he played everything for recording Figure 8. There’s a clip out there of him playing Rachmaninov on piano. Maybe the most gifted multi-instrumentalist of his generation (excluding the jazz weirdo types from Berklee).
I ws so glad you started with Pete Townshend who was ironically the first artist I thought of. Far too many lame minded people think he was only lead guitarist of The Who, full stop. But by the early seventies, he was a multi-instrumentalist. I once read a long list of instruments he learnt to play, including drums. Maybe he should also have become their drummer after Keith Moon, as he played drums on a lot of his solo material, among a load of other instruments. But he claimed he was self-taught at all the instruments he played, and that he never had any formal training. That Who Came First album has been reissued on CD with a load of bonus tracks. But a few of all the tracks also appeared among the vast amount of bonus tracks on the Super Deluxe edition of Who's Next. But as for Stevie Wonder, other earlier Motown artists still on Motown continued to use The Funk Brothers, with The Detroit Symphony Orchestra supplying the strings, including Marvin Gaye, after he became an album artist. But Stevie no longer required their services, as he wanted to completely abandon the Motown sound altogether, and become a self-made album artist, playing all his instruments himself, only using Motown to release his products. He eventually formed his own backing band Wonderlove, but you wonder why, unless he needed them on stage. Maybe he needed the female backing vocalists at times. But you have to remember he did not sing the first two lines on his classic hit Sunshine Of My Life. They were sung by Jim Gilstrap. Stevie only sang the rest. I did not like all of his later stuff, but I liked some of it.
I also love screaming McCartney! Another multi instrument album is foo fighters first album Ghrol does all the instruments on that one and its a decent album. Pure and easy is also on whos next bonus tracks
Oh, what have I got? How about Otis Taylor? He doesn't play bass or drums, but he plays a buttload of stringed instruments, and he used to do it while riding a unicycle. And Sandy Bull -- he also played a buttload of stringed instruments (including the oud). He didn't play drums, but that's OK, he got Ornette Coleman's drummer, Billy Higgins, to do that. 😁 Somewhere around here, I have a CD collection of those one-man-band guys, the ones who have all their instruments on a stick and can play several of them at the same time. Some of them are very good, worth listening anytime.
I'm not certain these Indie albums are strictly "muti-instrumentalist" only, but have a listen to Steso Songs "Now It's Dark" (2010) or any of the albums by Bubblegum Lemonade (Laz McCluskey) on Matinee Records.
All these choices and no mention of PRINCE? From his debut album ("For You") to "1999," he was pretty much the ONLY performer when it came to instruments. (His debut album, incidentally, was pretty much recorded as a demo for the record label--a kind of audition record, if you will--and basically released as it was with almost no alterations.) Guitars, synths, drums, bass, piano. Prince was playing everything. And, even after he put together the Revolution, he still performed multiple instruments on basically everything he released.
@@josephwest124 I would have put him on the list, but mainly have The Revolution era albums, but yes he’s pretty much multi-instrumentalist defined. A once in a lifetime artist.
Steve Winwood is another one. Although I prefer his earlier works, Blind Faith, Traffic, in 1980 he released 'Arc of a Diver' in which Winwood plays all the instruments. It's not my favorite, but Winwood apparently could do it all.
8:08 Oh you got some ideas, man.🤔🌠😻 I do respect Howard Jones for doing it all and his upbeat humanitarian thing.ty never heard thnx ill check✓ out. Ohhh I checked him out! Killer. Manipulator. Thanx!
Well, I used to love your videos. But now that you’ve trashed and insulted a couple of my all time favorite albums, I’m going to have to reevaluate our relationship.
I love that McCartney album! Every Night is a perfect song. I was fortunate enough to see him preform it on his 2002 tour. Phenomenal!
Though he has some guests and I do not know if it would qualify, SPLIT ENZ co-founder Tim Finn (you know, his younger brother Neil is as immensely talented and founded CROWDED HOUSE and they are always in each other's bands, as well as their duo albums) did what to me might be the most underrated male solo album of all time: SAY IT IS SO. He has recorded so much and has written so many classics, I have lost track, but this album is stunning from beginning to end, hardly anyone has heard int and I cannot strongly recommend it enough. Thanks once again for another one of your excellent, outstanding, archival videos on music. You continue to have one of the best TH-cam channels on the subject, ever!
@@nicholassheffo5723 Thank you so much. I need to check out that Tim Finn album. 😉
Who Came First was one of the first albums I ever bought at the ripe old age of 12. Fifty years later it's still one of my favorites.
Funny how music you were exposed to at an impressionable age stays with you for such A long time.
@@martins.7060 Absolutely 😉
@9:00 - Emitt Rhodes' debut album is one of the greatest recordings of the R 'n' R era! Such a great songwriter. Yes, the reviewers at the time crucified McCartney for his own multi-instrumentalist debut album and compared it very unfavorably with Rhodes' debut.
Another album maybe not an exact fit but
Cat Stevens plays a boat load of instruments on Izitso
Guitars , Piano , Drums , Percussion , Bouzouki and Synths
Kypros off that albums is all Cat
@@jessem470 Never knew that. I’ve heard of that particular album, but never listened to it.
Izitso is solid album and early example of synthpop
Im a huge cat stevens fan and this is my 3 favorite him after Tea for the Tillerman. and Teaser and the Fire at
The most glaring omission in your list is Prince. I'd pick Dirty Mind, which was originally recorded in his home studio, with him playing pretty much everything, as demos. After going into the studio and not being happy with the results, he decided to release the demos as the album. Genius!
@@carlcrenshaw7845 I would have included Prince, but I only have the albums he did with The Revolution.
2005 McCartney “chaos and creation in the backyard”. One of his best albums. Plays everything
@@SFbank721 Never heard that one. I’ll add it to my list. 😉
Great idea Tom. I also was thinking of Todd Rundgren, with quite a few of his albums to choose from. I’d go with Hermit. I also remember the release of Tubular Bells back in the day. I still think it stands up, even today
Great subject and love your picks
I heard multi instrumental 1 album jumps to mind
Tubular Bells : Mike Oldfield
I feel this album has fallen out of favor over the years but I still love it and listen
The section with Viv Stanshelll announcing the instruments is incredible especially the bass line , that section is imspired by hhis own Bonzo Dogs Do lo Dah Bands song The Intros and The Outros
Emit Rhodes also produced, mixed and recorded at home
Because of union rules it was put out as being recorded in studio but in run off on the album it is inscribed Recorded at Home
Ty Segal you are right ; Genius
I have seen him several times and his shows are truly other worldly
@@jessem470 I’m planning on seeing him live in early 2025. He’s doing a series of solo acoustic shows in the west. Looking forward to it. 😉
Cape.....One Great artist......Steve Winwood..Arc of a Diver.....Does it for me...
John Mayall - The Blues Alone, 1967. Admittedly, on most tracks it features Keef Hartley on drums, but other than that I think it qualifies. It contains couple of really good songs. The Blues Aline probably suffered from John’s impressive productivity in this period and was overshadowed by his other albums from this period that feature stellar guitarists.
Another great topic and you nailed it!
“Superwoman” is absolutely my favorite Stevie Wonder song, and ironically one of his worst charting singles of the seventies (peaked at 33 in a shorter version), a classic example of how unreliable singles charts can be.
Could add ”Hangmans Beautiful Daughter” or ”We Tam and the Big Huge” by the Incredible String Band, (although they are 2 multiinstrumentalists, sometimes augmented by their respective girlfriends). They use an incredible amount of unusual instruments, some of which they master, and some that they don’t. They are unusual in that they reach incredibly high without caring when they sometimes fail. This gives their albums a very inspired and ”in the moment” DIY feel.
@@wilhelmhagberg4897 I need to pick up those albums at some point. I only have the double compilation album Relics.
@ I highly recommend them! They are one of few acts to create their own ”worlds” like Dylan, Beatles or Bowie! At their peak 67-68 IMO.
@@wilhelmhagberg4897 That sounds great. I’ve got those on my list. Thanks 😉
Last few years, I've been following Maps, which is actually a guy, James Chapman. Kind of electronica. Favorite song is Both Sides from the album Colours, Reflect, Time, Loss.
Todd Rundgren. "Runt. The Ballad of Todd Rundgren". The song "Boat on the Charles" is a favorite of mine.
I keep forgetting to thank you for putting me on to the Emmit Rhodes album I’ve been listening to it for about 6 months and I’m loving it 👍
@@Ian-xz8yq That’s great. Glad you’re enjoying it. 😉
Most of the R. Stevie Moore Albums, especially Phonography from 1976. He is a DIY Artist.
@12:50 - During the '70s I was in a band in which the lead guitarist absolutely worshipped Dave Davies as a guitarist.
@@GeraldM_inNC Wow, now that’s rare to hear that. Very cool. 😉
JJ Cale is a great multi instrumentalist. He had lots of great session players on his albums but he did bass drums piano and guitar himself on occasion.
@@russellkroeker2822 Love his album Naturally.
Elliott Smith played everything and often did in recording his albums. I think he played everything for recording Figure 8. There’s a clip out there of him playing Rachmaninov on piano. Maybe the most gifted multi-instrumentalist of his generation (excluding the jazz weirdo types from Berklee).
@@GoneButNotGone I never knew that about Elliott. That’s awesome. XO is such a perfect album.
Agreed about Rundgren’s Something/Anything. I might add Steve Winwood’s first two solo LPs, from 1977 and 1980’s Arc Of A Diver.
Rachel Flowers - Bigger On The Inside
Never heard that one. I’ll add it to my list.
Roy Wood- Boulders
I ws so glad you started with Pete Townshend who was ironically the first artist I thought of. Far too many lame minded people think he was only lead guitarist of The Who, full stop. But by the early seventies, he was a multi-instrumentalist. I once read a long list of instruments he learnt to play, including drums. Maybe he should also have become their drummer after Keith Moon, as he played drums on a lot of his solo material, among a load of other instruments. But he claimed he was self-taught at all the instruments he played, and that he never had any formal training. That Who Came First album has been reissued on CD with a load of bonus tracks. But a few of all the tracks also appeared among the vast amount of bonus tracks on the Super Deluxe edition of Who's Next.
But as for Stevie Wonder, other earlier Motown artists still on Motown continued to use The Funk Brothers, with The Detroit Symphony Orchestra supplying the strings, including Marvin Gaye, after he became an album artist. But Stevie no longer required their services, as he wanted to completely abandon the Motown sound altogether, and become a self-made album artist, playing all his instruments himself, only using Motown to release his products. He eventually formed his own backing band Wonderlove, but you wonder why, unless he needed them on stage. Maybe he needed the female backing vocalists at times. But you have to remember he did not sing the first two lines on his classic hit Sunshine Of My Life. They were sung by Jim Gilstrap. Stevie only sang the rest. I did not like all of his later stuff, but I liked some of it.
Neil Young's first selftitled soloalbum.
I also love screaming McCartney! Another multi instrument album is foo fighters first album Ghrol does all the instruments on that one and its a decent album. Pure and easy is also on whos next bonus tracks
Trower plays all the instruments including vocals on a couple recent albums.
@@jackruth2733 Interesting….love his guitar tone and style.
Todd also has Healing and A Capella. Steve Windwood- Arc of a Diver is another favorite. Emmit Rhodes is a fine listen . I love "one man band" albums.
Enjoy your 10 or 15 minutes very much.right up my alley way.
Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn for me.
Classical Gas 😊
What, Mason Williams played the orchestra?
Oh, what have I got? How about Otis Taylor? He doesn't play bass or drums, but he plays a buttload of stringed instruments, and he used to do it while riding a unicycle. And Sandy Bull -- he also played a buttload of stringed instruments (including the oud). He didn't play drums, but that's OK, he got Ornette Coleman's drummer, Billy Higgins, to do that. 😁 Somewhere around here, I have a CD collection of those one-man-band guys, the ones who have all their instruments on a stick and can play several of them at the same time. Some of them are very good, worth listening anytime.
Oh, and the late Quincy Jones was probably pretty good at this kind of thing -- at least, he talked like he was.
I'm not certain these Indie albums are strictly "muti-instrumentalist" only, but have a listen to Steso Songs "Now It's Dark" (2010) or any of the albums by Bubblegum Lemonade (Laz McCluskey) on Matinee Records.
@@GeraldM_inNC Will do 😉
Confession time. In my younger (and more stupid) days, I "liberated" Something/Anything? from the local library.
And what happened afterwards?🤔😁
@@Strohballen Absolutely nothing, other than my sister having it constantly on the turntable for a month.
Awesome video tom have a great weekend also I have a cold ❤😢
@@aminahmed2220 Have a great weekend as well and feel better.
Forgot to mention Shuggy Otis
Insspiration Information
I think shuggy plays everything but the horns
Beck - Mellow Gold
Elliott Smith - Either/Or
Dirty Projectors - The Glad Fact
@@blackearwax Interesting, never knew Elliott played all the instruments on Either/Or. Such a great album.
All these choices and no mention of PRINCE? From his debut album ("For You") to "1999," he was pretty much the ONLY performer when it came to instruments. (His debut album, incidentally, was pretty much recorded as a demo for the record label--a kind of audition record, if you will--and basically released as it was with almost no alterations.) Guitars, synths, drums, bass, piano. Prince was playing everything. And, even after he put together the Revolution, he still performed multiple instruments on basically everything he released.
@@josephwest124 I would have put him on the list, but mainly have The Revolution era albums, but yes he’s pretty much multi-instrumentalist defined. A once in a lifetime artist.
Erik Voeks ‘Sandbox’
@10:36 - There's no original material on Fogarty's 1973 solo multi-instrumentalist album.
@@GeraldM_inNC Correct 😉
Right. That was the Blue Ridge Rangers Album where Fogerty covers old country classics. His cover of Jambalaya by Hank Williams Sr. got some airplay.
@@kevlee57 Yes, it got FM airplay in NYC
Steve Winwood is another one. Although I prefer his earlier works, Blind Faith, Traffic, in 1980 he released 'Arc of a Diver' in which Winwood plays all the instruments. It's not my favorite, but Winwood apparently could do it all.
@@keithkarlinsky6632 Indeed he could.
8:08 Oh you got some ideas, man.🤔🌠😻 I do respect Howard Jones for doing it all and his upbeat humanitarian thing.ty never heard thnx ill check✓ out. Ohhh I checked him out! Killer. Manipulator. Thanx!
@@adamfindlay7091 You’re welcome. 😉
Dave Davies 👍😄; Emitt Rhodes 👍😄
Mike oldfield is the best.
I was thinking the same
On Prince
Well, I used to love your videos. But now that you’ve trashed and insulted a couple of my all time favorite albums, I’m going to have to reevaluate our relationship.
Roger McGuinn - Roger McGuinn. Guitar, banjo and Moog synthesizer.