This Is a Piano

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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To-day's Jim Rodford's birthday, so I thought I'd finally write a post about something relevant and interesting I noticed.

A really long time ago (maybe six or seven years ago), I found some photos from one of the Odessey and Oracle sessions on Rod Argent's website (which has since been redesigned, so I don't think the pictures are there anymore, but I found them again on the Rex website).  One of the pictures is Chris White with a Fender Precision bass on which is painted (I'm assuming by White himself) "This is a piano" and "This way up":

A couple years later, I found some videos of Argent miming to "Hold Your Head Up" on television shows, and Jim Rodford was playing this same bass:

In the other television appearance, there isn't a good wide shot of Rodford himself.  Here's the whole band:

And some close-ups of the "This is a piano" bass:

So, apparently, sometime between that Odessey and Oracle session in 1967 and these television appearances in 1972, Chris White gave Jim Rodford the "This is a piano" bass.

I'd really love to know more about this bass.  Why was "This is a piano" painted on it in the first place, does Rodford still have it now, and what other songs were recorded with it?