Sounds of typewriters in music

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There's a song on Liars's They Threw Us All... that uses a typewriter as the percussion track for the first bit of the song. Not sure what track it is and I don't have the record with me to listen to it.

― - (smile), Monday, 1 August 2005 18:03 (eighteen years ago) link

@Grimly Fiendish: that clip would be greatly appreciated!
It's funny, I used to have a tape of Dazzle Ships and haven't heard it in ages, but can't recall that sound being a typewriter. I'll check it out soon. Hopefully I can track down Leroy Anderson's piece as well. That sounds great in theory, which also goes for Satie, My Robot Friend and especially the Staalplaat record (Rehberg!).

― Gerard (Gerard), Monday, 1 August 2005 19:25 (eighteen years ago) link

'The Typewriter', a novelty orchestral piece by Leroy Anderson.

Is that the one that has really fast violin playing during each phrase, punctuated by a loud and emphatic "DING!" at the end of each line? I seem to remember Max Miller or Spike Milligan or someone acting this out.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Monday, 1 August 2005 19:30 (eighteen years ago) link

that's the one, yes:
http://s59.yousendit.com/d.php?id=36IYXWNUCLC0G126RIM1ROCF4K

― willem (willem), Monday, 1 August 2005 20:28 (eighteen years ago) link

"Genetic Engineering" is the track off OMD's _Dazzle Ships_ with the prominent typewriter. "La Lettre D'explication" by Yann Tiersen also features typewriter, as does "Pas Si Simple" off his score to the film "Amelie".

― FelixHapper, Monday, 1 August 2005 20:30 (eighteen years ago) link

ok, OMD-loving funsters. you'll find clips of "genetic engineering" and "telegraph" here, from some long-lost eighties TV show. apologies for the quality/.wmv-ness/etc. i can't remember where i found them, but i imagine it was pat's world of OMD.

the typewriter action is in "genetic engineering" and is indeed the chucka-chucka-chucka sound i thought (although paul does, er, "play" a telegraph switch in "telegraph" too). for most of the song, martin (stage right, green shirt) plays a keyboard; right at the end (after the slightly embarrassing bit with the notepads), he turns to his left and plays a typewriter. there's a close-up in the last few seconds if you want to zoom there straight away.

i just spent five minutes hunting through some of my vinyl for "dazzle ships" so i can check the instrument list to see if it mentions a typewriter: i can't find it (seriously: it would take me the best part of an hour to search all the records) so if anyone else can check, that'd be appreciated. IIRC they listed *everything* they used on the record, so i'd have thought a typewriter would be on there if they'd used it.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Monday, 1 August 2005 20:59 (eighteen years ago) link

Thanks Willem, you rock! That Anderson piece makes me all ticklish and feeling giddy :-)
I'll hunt down the Tiersen songs soon, it looks promising.

Grimly, the typewriter is indeed listed on the instrumentlist on Dazzle Ships! I've found several sites who mention this in their review, in such similar words that it's probably out of a bio (Lotsofgifts.co.uk: "Any album that lists among the instruments used on it a Sanyo short wave radio,a typewriter and a Texas Instruments "Speak and Spell" machine has to be something different").
Unfortunately, I can't seem to save the video-files you linked to ("forbidden"), but found the album on slsk, which in itself made my home a happier place tonight, hearing after such a long time.

― Gerard (Gerard), Monday, 1 August 2005 21:18 (eighteen years ago) link

"forbidden?"

fuck. two minutes.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Monday, 1 August 2005 21:25 (eighteen years ago) link

right. fixed. [blushes.] apologies!

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Monday, 1 August 2005 21:27 (eighteen years ago) link

No apologies necessary, they're already rolling in :-)
I sense a great 'typewriter compilation' ahead...

― Gerard (Gerard), Monday, 1 August 2005 21:39 (eighteen years ago) link

looper, impossible things #2

― scott pl. (scott pl.), Monday, 1 August 2005 21:40 (eighteen years ago) link

Typing Music (Genesis XVI) is the opening track on Steve Reich's 'The Cave' and there's a short reprise later on .

― avery keen-gardner (avery keen-gardner), Monday, 1 August 2005 23:20 (eighteen years ago) link

Typewriters figure in several pieces by John Cage. For instance, while it's not a fixed element of the piece, in some performances of 0' 00", Cage typed letters to his friends on a greatly amplified typewriter. And a typewriter can be heard prominently in the Atelier Schola Cantorum recording of his Song Books.

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Monday, 1 August 2005 23:37 (eighteen years ago) link

One of the tracks on the Tom Zé compilation David Byrne put out on Luaka Bop in the late eighties (Brazil Classics no. 4) had a typewriter - it was an instrumental with a lot of other found sounds on it. I think the track was called 'Toc'.

― scriblerus (mike lynch), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 02:50 (eighteen years ago) link

I believe there's a Calexico song that uses the typewriter for percussion...can't remember which one, now.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 03:05 (eighteen years ago) link

You should get Moreno Veloso's "Music Typewriter"

― sibsi (sibsi), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 09:49 (eighteen years ago) link

Paul, are some of those performances of Cage's 0'00" recorded? I read about it once but never did hear it. The typewriter not being a fixed element in Cage's piece almost sounds like an advantage. The 'instrument' seems very appropriate for improvisation. The rhythm when writing a letter can mix wonderfully with music.

Sibsi, I most definately should, but it looks like a real hard one to find on the net, let alone a copy of the cd. I don't suppose you can help me out? :-)

― Gerard (Gerard), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 10:05 (eighteen years ago) link

The Monkees, P.O. Box 9847

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 10:06 (eighteen years ago) link

(Gerard, if you want the Stereo Total track mentioned above, just say so – is that gmail address real?)

― OleM (OleM), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 10:22 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah it's real, OleM, that'd be great!!

― Gerard (Gerard), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 12:21 (eighteen years ago) link

I remember seeing a documentary on Ennio Morricone in the mid-90s in which he demonstrated the use of a typewriter in one of his compositions (think it was a mid-60s number). Anyone any idea what that composition might have been? It was ruddy marvellous.

― harvey.w (harvey.w), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 13:20 (eighteen years ago) link

There's a really good Paperchase song on one of their earlier albums with a typewriter intro.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 13:26 (eighteen years ago) link

Janis Joplin, The Typewriter Tapes

― t. fiend (t. fiend), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 14:36 (eighteen years ago) link

Gerard, send me an email w/ your address and if I have time I can send you a copy.

― sibsi (sibsi), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 14:50 (eighteen years ago) link

Harvey, I believe that was improvisation after the interviewer asked Morricone to demonstrate his use of odd instruments. If it ended up on one of his gazillion albums, I do not know about it, but it could very well be true.

Sibsi: Done!

― Gerard (Gerard), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 16:23 (eighteen years ago) link

The Blue Nile's "O Lolita" b-side has quite an extensive typewriter break.

― blue, Tuesday, 2 August 2005 17:29 (eighteen years ago) link

Gerard, unfortunately I really don't what any recordings of 0' 00" are like (assuming they exist). The complete score of the piece is basically just a verbal instruction to perform an unspecified action, in an unselfconscious manner and allowing for any interruptions or unintentional sounds that may occur. Cage's 1965 amplified-typerwriter performance at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University has been discussed a lot and is the one I was thinking of. (The other sounds, also greatly amplified, that were heard at this performance: Cage drinking from a glass of water, squeaks from his chair.) As far as I know there's no recording documenting it.

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 17:42 (eighteen years ago) link

Dolly Parton -"9 to 5"

Really though I usually loathe the sound of typewriters in songs

― Uncledoj, Tuesday, 2 August 2005 18:39 (eighteen years ago) link

three years pass...

"Gonna Type A Letter" - Billy Fury

― CarlosDP, Monday, 10 November 2008 01:29 (fifteen years ago) link

Cornelius - Typerite Lesson

― WE ARE ALL GEETIKA (PappaWheelie V), Monday, 10 November 2008 02:09 (fifteen years ago) link

Brutum Fulmen has a lot of recordings which use typewriters as the sound source. Search the "Flesh of the Moon" album.

― ian, Monday, 10 November 2008 03:00 (fifteen years ago) link

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