The Funky Beatle

We’re celebrating the 5th Beatle, Billy Preston, and his ‘70’s synth classic ‘A Space Race’. Released in 1973 as a follow-up to the monster ‘Outta Space’, it topped the charts for a short time (#4 Hot 100, and #1 R&B Single). This was a powerful achievement for an all-instrumental funk jam.

The Sound

Billy used the ARP Pro Soloist for the track, which is in keeping with the comments he made in his back in February 1977, when he stated: “… I prefer pre-patched synthesizers, because they’re quicker and easier to use onstage.” He was an Arp endorser, and was featured in an ad for the Pro Soloist touting his use of it specifically for the song. The ad even tells us he used the Trumpet preset with the Wow function. The Pro Soloist was a single oscillator preset analog synth with some unique features like fixed bank filter resonators per preset, and a primitive but effective form of after touch for sound modulation. It’s not easy to recreate its sounds, but we can come close enough to enjoy covering the tune.