Recently, while watching a faded VHS copy of the '88 doc Imagine: John Lennon, I was caught off-guard to glimpse an RMI Electra-Piano 386x sitting left-screen. Once John finishes demoing the ever-maudlin 'Imagine' (my opinion, not Eric's) to his studio backing band, Yoko thinks there should be a higher piano part added, to which John suggests doubling it with the RMI. I was mighty pleased to play that theoretical mix back in my head. That is, until I checked out the RMI Wikipedia entry which, besides being a good overview, states that you can hear it faintly playing along in the left channel. Well, take me in and feed me breakfast.
Too bad John didn't use the RMI for the 'Imagine' demo, however. For those not familiar with the cry of the RMI, it's an out-of-tune, plink-plonky electric piano sound - VERY distinctive in a mix once you hear it. Kinda like the Wilhelm Scream of the music world. This thing is all over 70's Fela albums, Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, those oddball self-help Horace Silver projects, and LMP pillow-room funk favorites Faze-O.
I rescued ours from a midwest Salvation Army in late '96. Upon leaving the store with my back-breaking loot, a grizzled employee laughed at me 'that thing don't work, you know!' The joke was on the both of us, because it did fire up and sound once back in the studio, but I had one beast of a one-trick pony on my hands. My ears weren't really ready for its attitude at that time, so I sold it to friend Casey to help make room for a newly-acquired Rhodes. A few years later, I bought the bastard back after his wife decreed that it make a special guest appearance at their inaugrual yard sale, and it's probably been on many more LMP songs than I can recall. Nearly all of those still unreleased, in true LMP fashion. Sheesh, way to go AGAIN, Yoko. (??)