Gershon Kingsley, Moog Synthesizer Pioneer (1922-2019)
December 16, 2019 4:12 PM Subscribe
The original author of "popcorn" and one of the very first electronica mainstream artists, 1966 with Jean-Jacques Perrey (which was ripped of by Smashmouth). He was 97.
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Buffalonians will know "Swan's Splashdown" as the Mighty Taco song.
As mentioned in the article, Disney-heads will know "Baroque Hoedown" as the Main Street Electrical Parade theme.
And don't forget the weirdly haunting WGBH logo.
posted by guywithnoear at 4:43 PM on December 16, 2019 [4 favorites]
Buffalonians will know "Swan's Splashdown" as the Mighty Taco song.
As mentioned in the article, Disney-heads will know "Baroque Hoedown" as the Main Street Electrical Parade theme.
And don't forget the weirdly haunting WGBH logo.
posted by guywithnoear at 4:43 PM on December 16, 2019 [4 favorites]
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Everyone talks about the admittedly great "Popcorn", but Kingsley's 1969 track "Hey Hey" is savage, a real banger even to first-time listeners today. (It was sampled by RJD2 for "The Horror").
posted by eschatfische at 4:57 PM on December 16, 2019 [8 favorites]
Everyone talks about the admittedly great "Popcorn", but Kingsley's 1969 track "Hey Hey" is savage, a real banger even to first-time listeners today. (It was sampled by RJD2 for "The Horror").
posted by eschatfische at 4:57 PM on December 16, 2019 [8 favorites]
Swedish Pöpcørn is best popcorn. (Song starts ~1m15s).
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posted by zaixfeep at 5:15 PM on December 16, 2019 [2 favorites]
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posted by zaixfeep at 5:15 PM on December 16, 2019 [2 favorites]
Perry & Kingsley is one of the reasons I grew up loving electronic music. I must have first heard "Popcorn" and "Baroque Hoedown" before I was 5 or 6.
I definitely remember hearing "Popcorn" at some school presentation when I was like 9 or 10 and just lighting up and going "Ok what is that gloriously full, deeply weird noise and where I can I get a lot more of that!?" which thankfully was fairly easy because synthpop and the 80s were hot, and we had Yello and Art of Noise and Vangelis and even Brian Eno. Or Sigue Sigue Sputnik and PWEI.
Ten years after that I'm listening to weird acid house and synthpop and starting to go to my first raves.
Fives more years and my hipster-ass friends and I are unironically re-exploring Perry & Kingsley and Wendy Carlos after already being in the thick of early techno, house and industrial dance music for years and years, and loving it.
And I've been there ever since. I'm still really drawn to the full, lush sounds of synths and electronic music and it just activates me so much more than anything else out there and works reliably every time.
RIP. (Rest In Patches!)
posted by loquacious at 5:26 PM on December 16, 2019 [6 favorites]
I definitely remember hearing "Popcorn" at some school presentation when I was like 9 or 10 and just lighting up and going "Ok what is that gloriously full, deeply weird noise and where I can I get a lot more of that!?" which thankfully was fairly easy because synthpop and the 80s were hot, and we had Yello and Art of Noise and Vangelis and even Brian Eno. Or Sigue Sigue Sputnik and PWEI.
Ten years after that I'm listening to weird acid house and synthpop and starting to go to my first raves.
Fives more years and my hipster-ass friends and I are unironically re-exploring Perry & Kingsley and Wendy Carlos after already being in the thick of early techno, house and industrial dance music for years and years, and loving it.
And I've been there ever since. I'm still really drawn to the full, lush sounds of synths and electronic music and it just activates me so much more than anything else out there and works reliably every time.
RIP. (Rest In Patches!)
posted by loquacious at 5:26 PM on December 16, 2019 [6 favorites]
♫
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:49 PM on December 16, 2019
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:49 PM on December 16, 2019
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posted by Slithy_Tove at 6:26 PM on December 16, 2019
posted by Slithy_Tove at 6:26 PM on December 16, 2019
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posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 6:54 PM on December 16, 2019
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 6:54 PM on December 16, 2019
13 versions, including the Hot Buttered one that I am most familiar with.
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posted by TedW at 7:00 PM on December 16, 2019 [2 favorites]
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posted by TedW at 7:00 PM on December 16, 2019 [2 favorites]
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i didn't know Popcorn was so iconic until much much later. here for my age cohort, it's indelibly associated with the TV Pendidikan (Education TV - there was free educational programming running in the day on one of the available public broadcast channels) and their standard background music in between shows and some of the credits, because we're millenials and totally missed out on this track being in the charts.
posted by cendawanita at 7:06 PM on December 16, 2019 [1 favorite]
i didn't know Popcorn was so iconic until much much later. here for my age cohort, it's indelibly associated with the TV Pendidikan (Education TV - there was free educational programming running in the day on one of the available public broadcast channels) and their standard background music in between shows and some of the credits, because we're millenials and totally missed out on this track being in the charts.
posted by cendawanita at 7:06 PM on December 16, 2019 [1 favorite]
... also the Popcorn album art is pretty fantastic, if you’re unaware.
posted by q*ben at 7:12 PM on December 16, 2019
posted by q*ben at 7:12 PM on December 16, 2019
He can once again jam with Jean-Jacques Perrey in the great hereafter.
posted by SansPoint at 7:15 PM on December 16, 2019
posted by SansPoint at 7:15 PM on December 16, 2019
That was not the "popcorn" I remember. That one is a lot more laid back. And it doesn't seem like most folks can quite figure out how to groove to it.
posted by Windopaene at 8:07 PM on December 16, 2019
posted by Windopaene at 8:07 PM on December 16, 2019
And as for synth techno, took a detour through Kraftwerk today, so, resonates...
posted by Windopaene at 8:09 PM on December 16, 2019
posted by Windopaene at 8:09 PM on December 16, 2019
For the longest time I thought Popcorn was a Jean-Michel Jarre track I somehow couldn't find, because of how Oxygene part 4 sounds like a slowed-down version.
posted by kurumi at 8:31 PM on December 16, 2019
posted by kurumi at 8:31 PM on December 16, 2019
Thanks to TedW's link above, I am now completely obsessed with this none-more-80s Balearic/Eurodance version
posted by prismatic7 at 8:48 PM on December 16, 2019
posted by prismatic7 at 8:48 PM on December 16, 2019
My favorite Popcorn is the Muse Version. I also loved the classic video game Pengo that used it in the soundtrack.
The original, though, was one of the things that first excited me about music in my childhood, and I've been an electronic musician for 30 years or so. So I owe Gershon a great deal.
posted by mmoncur at 8:50 PM on December 16, 2019 [2 favorites]
The original, though, was one of the things that first excited me about music in my childhood, and I've been an electronic musician for 30 years or so. So I owe Gershon a great deal.
posted by mmoncur at 8:50 PM on December 16, 2019 [2 favorites]
@kurumi, Jarre indeed made his own version , among many others (list)
posted by avi111 at 11:33 PM on December 16, 2019
posted by avi111 at 11:33 PM on December 16, 2019
Music to Moog By was the soundtrack of my nerdy analog synth-lovin' youth.
Rest in beats, Gershon.
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posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 3:19 PM on December 17, 2019
Rest in beats, Gershon.
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posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 3:19 PM on December 17, 2019
It feels like I still have that "popcorn" 45 rpm stashed away somewhere.
posted by acrasis at 4:04 PM on December 17, 2019
posted by acrasis at 4:04 PM on December 17, 2019
For me, popcorn will forever be the song played while we played around with a parachute in kindergarten PE class.
posted by umbú at 3:12 PM on December 18, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by umbú at 3:12 PM on December 18, 2019 [2 favorites]
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Gershon Kingsley at Discogs.
2011 Wayback Machine archive of Kingsleysound.com
posted by larrybob at 4:35 PM on December 16, 2019 [1 favorite]