Intuitive Music

It has been often said that the Beach Boys where responsible for introducing the famous Theremin (father of all the modern synthesizers) to the big audience with their legendary song “Good Vibrations”. This is not quite true. In May 1966, the Beach Boys released one of the most advanced and experimental works ever traced in pop music: “Pet Sounds”. A revolutionary album that combined different ways of music and used an array of musical instruments that crossed the boundaries of what used to be formal pop music and was a key influence for The Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and the forthcoming psychedelic, progressive and experimental artists. The single “Good Vibrations” was released in October 1966 and it has been considered the colophon of pop songs. For the song, Brian Wilson was looking forward using a Theremin, but he soon realized that the instrument, which is played with one hand in the air and need years of training, was too difficult to control onstage. This way, Wilson looked for an alternative and he kept in touch with musician Paul Tanner, who was at the time using an instrument based on the Theremin but it was easier to play: the Electro-Theremin.

The instrument is a mechanical controller of an audio oscillator. It was first invented by Bob Whitsell in 1958 and was used by Tanner to record his album “Music from Heavenly Bodies”. Soon later, Bob Whitsell and Tom Polk designed an improved version of the instrument that could be played in a straight, linear movement of the hand. With this new instrument Tanner recorded the numerous TV and movie soundtracks as well as the album “Music from Outer Space” and the Beach Boys songs. This was called the Polk Tannerin.

Apart from “Good vibrations”, The Beach Boys ended up using the Electro-Theremin in the songs “Just Wasn’t Made for These Times”, “Wild Honey” as well as an unreleased track called “Inspiration”. The new synthesis sound surprised the world of pop music and soon later it spread as fast as a virus. Some of the first artists to use synthesis sounds after the beach Boys were The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Nice.

For the live shows, the Beach Boys had to deal with the inconvenience of not having Paul Tanner to play the Polk Tannerin. As an alternative option, they ended up replacing it by a Moog Ribbon-Controller, a new device from that Robert Moog made custom for the band that would allow to play a synthesis tone all along a ribbon. The ribbon controller was later popular after Keith Emerson used it in his shows with pyrotechnics, and was later included in many modern synthesizers.

The Polk Tannerin was not used by any other pop musicians apart from the Beach Boys, but it could be heard in Television shows like “Lost in Space”, “My Favorite Martian” and “Dark Shadows”, as well as the movie “Straight Jacket”. It was sold in the late 60’s to a hospital to use for checking hearing.

The Beach Boys featuring Mike Love at the Moog Ribbon-Controller, 1967.