Eric Clapton and Phil Collins - Behind the Mask

YouTube via MeanAuntie

OK, I'm stretching it with this one, but this is truly bizarre. YMO's Behind the Mask with Eric Clapton and others. For reference see these posts. Spot the synths.
"Prince's Trust circa '87 - Clapton, Collins, Midge Ure, various others... Behind the Mask"

Update via tim in the comments:
"Clapton's cover came about because of Greg Philliganes being his keyboardist at the time. He did a version on his 1984 album Pulse, with uncredited backing vocals and added lyrics by Michael Jackson. And I think Jackson had considered doing it on Thriller after Quincy Jones pointed out the original to him."

And some fascinating info from the AH list:
"I don't think anyone's spoken up about lyricist or how that song got to Clapton;-)

Okay. First off Yellow Magic Orchestra was meant to be a more or less one-off concept project in Japan (1978) it was meant to be as if Martin Denny's music was played by Kraftwerk. In other words taking the West's notion of inauthentic but cool "Oriental" music and give it the edge of modern technology (the impression Westerners had of Japan).

A&M Records liked what they heard, moderately remixed it to their tastes and YMO were ready to tour and promote the album. They did a lot of promotion in LA, then swung by NYC, London and Paris. The year was 1979. Back in Japan they were doing well though not chart topping. They eventually did gain real chart success in Japan. Their success was more moderate in the US though their use of video games and electronic beats was influential. They took 1982 off for Sakamoto to work on "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" and then reformed in 1983 with the understanding that they'd disband at the end of the year. They really did want to go their own ways but it was a great marketing tool to really make them iconic in Japan. They reformed 10 years later for a one-off album and concert.

They started to work together again on and off in the 2000s. They have a show next weekend in London. Definitely a one off thing. I guess they were asked nicely by Massive Attack to do a show. They aren't promoting anything new or doing more shows. I sort of wish I could go.

As for gear, it's ironic that they played maybe 90% American synths. Early on - lots of Moog Modular. Later on lots of Prophet. Always: Arp Odyssey. They do sound very different in 1983 versus 1978.

Okay now for the weird part of the Clapton story -- Michael Jackson took an interest in high tech music in the early 80s. He was trying to get Kraftwerk to work with him but nothing came of it. What did happen was YMO's song "Behind the Mask" originally only had "chorus" vocals so he wrote new lead lyrics and kept the chorus. I assume he wrote the song for himself to sing, but he had lots of (all original) material then so it was offered to Clapton. It did quite well in terms of Clapton's career. Sakamoto, who wrote the melody (Chris Mosdel did the chorus lyrics) liked the new lyrics and the then prestige of Michael Jackson' additions. There is a mid 80s EP of Sakamoto's solo band doing it. He was trying to do a more contemporary R&B sound back then (not intended to be ironic). YMO's label commissioned Human League to do a remix version in the early 90s, instead (apparently) they did a cover version.

nick
http://technopop.info"

YMO Prophet 5 rev3.3 Synthesizer Tributes by Superfunk Synths

YMO Behind the Mask Prophet 5 rev3.3 Synthesizer Tribute

Published on Oct 10, 2016 Superfunk Synths

"YMO Behind the Mask Prophet 5 rev3.3 Synthesizer Tribute

All parts palyed with a Prophet 5, Drum Dmx"

YMO Ryden with Prophet 5 rev3 3 Synthesizer Tribute

Published on Oct 9, 2016

"YMO Ryden with Prophet 5 rev3.3 Synthesizer Tribute

played on Sequential CIrcuits Prophet 5 and Oberheim DMX drum machine."

KORG volca Bass - Behind the Mask

Published on Mar 9, 2014 Masami Hashimoto·62 videos

"Use, KORG volca Bass.
volca Bass 1台だけで Behind the Mask を演れないものか試みる。"

And the original followed by one more cover:



Behind the Mask YMO cover

Uploaded on Jul 11, 2010 aniwarata·107 videos - previously posted here.

YMO Behind the mask cover AtomoSynth x Dante-droid

Published on Dec 21, 2015 atomolab

"Hello, it is a cover of YMO Behind the mask, using 3 AtomoSynth KOE synth voice modules and 4 AtomoSynth TOTEM percussion modules."

Update: Some additional info via this upload on YouTube:

"Published on Dec 21, 2015
Atomosynth Analog Synthesizer System.
Programmed by Dante Gonzales.
Music by: Ryuichi Sakamoto
Lyrics by: Chris Mosdell
El Paraíso del Silicio Lima -Perú 2015
Koe analog synthesizer x 3
Totem Analog Drum Synthesizer x 4
Electroharmonix Vocoder
Trigger/CV Interface: Arturia BeatStep Pro

Hi Hats and Polyphonic Chords: Roland JV-880
Phaser Strings: ARP Omni 2 + Pearl Phaser"

松武秀樹＆MMO on Stage1 @ Synth Festa Osaka 2013

Published on Nov 30, 2013 nicolai maruhama·94 videos

"We had a special stage on Synth Festa Osaka 2013.　（２３rd Nov. Dee Hall）
Our synth Master Hideki Matsutake joined this event and moog IIIc was operated.
Worth to see!

1. Behind the Mask / YMO
2. Technopolis / YMO

Applied JASRAC

nicolai maruhama

* The priest in the middle of the song Technopolis : Gotoh Showgen."

松武秀樹＆MMO on Stage2 @ Synth Festa Osaka 2013

Published on Dec 3, 2013 nicolai maruhama·95 videos

1.Tong Poo / YMO
2. Rydeen

---

Hideki Matsutake on Moog modular. Via Wikipedia:

"Hideki Matsutake (born August 12, 1951 in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese composer, arranger, and computer programmer. He is known for his pioneering work in electronic music and particularly music programming, as the assistant of Isao Tomita during the early 1970s and as the "fourth member" of the band Yellow Magic Orchestra during the late 1970s to early 1980s.[1]

Through his participation in the session recording of Ryuichi Sakamoto's 1978 album Thousand Knives, he joined the recordings of Yellow Magic Orchestra during 1978-1982 as their sound programmer, to become known as "the fourth member" of the group. In 1981, he formed a unit of his own under the name Logic System, which released its latest album in 2008. He also continued to take part in solo activities by YMO members such as Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi beyond the group's breakup in 1983. He was also a member of the video game music group Akihabara Electric Circus in 1988[2] and composed music for the 1996 video game Guardian Heroes.[3] Today, Matsutake is also Chairman of Japan Synthesizer Programmers Association (JSPA)..."

BEHIND THE MASK YMOコピー

Uploaded on Sep 11, 2009 YMO**

YMO - Behind The Mask (Live 1979)

"以前UPしましたが、再UPしました！"

YMO's BTM w/ Prophet '08

"My band did a cover of YMO's Behind The Mask and I used a Prophet-5 and Multitrak on the recording. This evening I replaced the six Prophet-5 tracks entirely with the Prophet-08. The only remaining synth track that is not a Prophet'08 is the background arpeggiated sequence.

http://redmartian.com/BTM-Prophet08.mp3

And if you're curious, here is the version with the Prophet-5 which was actually mixed by Tom Ellard:

http://redmartian.com/btm.m4a

I think the P'08 does a pretty good job. What I'm doing now, and for the next 2 weeks, is only play it. Then I'll turn on a Prophet-5 and see how I react. :)"

You can see YMO's version here.

Behind the Mask on Monomachine

YouTube via QuadraPolyphonic.

Click here for all posts mentioning YMO.

"Playing YMO's Behind the Mask with Monomachine and Electribe ER-1. Audio recorded by Logic using Presonus Fire Studio Tube interface."

【Machine & Performance】Behind the Mask's symbolic Synth Sound with novation mininova

video upload by nicolai maruhama

"This is the demo of mininova.

This time is about the synths sound of Behind the Mask.
I like the LIVE at THEATRE LE PALACE in 1979 of YMO.
It was sensational live for me was at 14 YO.
Akiko Yano's intro sound of OB SEM 8Voice, R. Sakamoto's polymoog and VP-330 sound, still everything have been shining.
At that time, SYNTHESIZER was so expensive but nowadays, even cheap one can sounds gorgeous!! But on the other hands, it's difficult to recreate the Analogue sound. So, I tried recreate the vintage sound with mininova because of this machine has a lot of special function on Oscillators and Filters.

Please Enjoy thanks!
nicolai maruhama"

YMO Live

YMO - Behind The Mask (Live 1979)
Re-Uploaded on Sep 11, 2009 YMO**

CLICK FOR MORE »

ROLAND SYSTEM-100M

Published on Apr 14, 2014 Caa Tur·3 videos

Some YMO's Behind the Mask in there. Anyone know were this was at?

"It is an analog modular synthesizer Roland was released in 1978.
It is sold individually VCO, VCF, VCA, etc. in the Synthesizer is said to Moduler Type
It is possible to configure System freely by combining the Module.
These are also called patch synthesizer.

It is also referred to as a small chest of drawers in Japan.


ローランドのシステム700より小さいモジュラーシンセです。
小タンスとも呼ばれています。"

Googlish: "It is a system less than 700 modular synth Roland.
It is also referred to as a small chest."

Roland SH-32 synthesizer/ YMO 東風 and technopolis / debussy and bach

Published on Feb 2, 2020 HAGIWO modular synthesizer channel

"My first time impression.

0:00 東風(tong poo)/yellow magic orchestra
0:25 Air on the G string BWV1068/ J.S.Bach
1:19 technopolis/yellow magic orchestra
2:08 Clair de Lune/Debussy
2:39 八重の桜/坂本龍一(ryuichi sakamoto)
3:13 黄土高原/坂本龍一(ryuichi sakamoto)
3:47 behind the mask / michael jackson or YMO or ric clapton

Analog model synthesizer."

YMO Covers on the KORG MS20 and Electribe EMX

BEHIND THE MASK play on KORG MS-20 & electribe emx

YouTube via atoooy — December 05, 2009 —

"Very small midi keybord is casio GZ-5 that connect korg radias for vocorder sound"

テクノポリス play on KORG MS-20 & electribe emx


"atoooy — September 19, 2009 — with vocoder sound "TO KI O !" by KORG RADIAS"

ライディーン play on KORG MS-20 & electribe emx [Rydeen]

"atoooy — September 08, 2009 —

KORG MS-20 is monophonic analog synthesizer released in 1978. electribe emx is music production workstation with analog modeling (MMT) synthesis engine. I should practice performing more."

You'll find more videos on atoooy's YouTube channel here.

BEHIND THE MASK ～ TECHNOPOLIS ～ RYDEEN (YMO copy)

YouTube via KM65536.

"2009/07/24. Prophet-5、VP-330、etc."

YMO posts

Behind the Mask YMO cover

YouTube via aniwarata | July 11, 2010 |

"REV2は結構音痴だがそれがいい！！w
ニコニコ
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11355687"

Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 on eBay