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Topic: Platters |
Charles Davidson
From:
Phenix City Alabama, USA
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Posted 11 Jan 2008 8:36 pm |
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Just watched the old movie made in 1956,Rock around the clock,with Bill Haley,The best part was the few tunes The Platters did,great lyrics,beautiful melodies,and vocalist that sang on key,hard to find that today,DYKBC.
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Hard headed, opinionated old geezer. BAMA CHARLIE. GOD BLESS AMERICA. ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST. SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC ! |
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Kevin Hatton
From:
Buffalo, N.Y.
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Posted 11 Jan 2008 10:10 pm
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| Charles, I just watched it again also. Its Music 101 and a must watch every time it comes on. Weren't The Platters great? So very professional. What voices. |
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Charles Davidson
From:
Phenix City Alabama, USA
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Posted 11 Jan 2008 10:47 pm
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Yeah Kevin,makes me feel a little melancholy to hear these old Do-Wop groups of the fiftys,when I was a carefree teen having a ball in the fiftys,there is a site you can go to and hear all this great music,PLAYA COFI JUKEBOX FORUM,check it out.DYKBC.
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Hard headed, opinionated old geezer. BAMA CHARLIE. GOD BLESS AMERICA. ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST. SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC ! |
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Kevin Hatton
From:
Buffalo, N.Y.
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Posted 12 Jan 2008 12:54 am
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| Thats where I got alot of my harmony ear training from. Those doo-wop groups were sooo melodic. I think learning steel guitar came a little easier for me because of growing up listening to all those great harmony groups. When I look at that film it just confirms to me that American culture is going down the drain. I do not see that kind of talent around or being aired by the mass media. Its all rythm with the kids today. We are losing this country fast. |
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Charles Davidson
From:
Phenix City Alabama, USA
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Posted 12 Jan 2008 1:14 am
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I try not to put the kids today down,I'm an old geezer but if I think hard enough,I can almost remember being a kid to.Awhile back I was in a friend's music store,he has a message board,I saw two ad's there from young rock bands for SCREAMERS,not singers.A line in one of the Hag's songs says[back when a girl could cook,would]Remember way back when a singer could SING,and would.DYKBC.
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Hard headed, opinionated old geezer. BAMA CHARLIE. GOD BLESS AMERICA. ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST. SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC ! |
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Bill Hatcher
From:
Atlanta Ga. USA
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Posted 12 Jan 2008 9:14 am
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I worked a lot for Buck Ram who was the owner/producer of the original Platters. Some of the early hits were recorded in Paris. Did you know that in addition to several of the Platters hits that Buck wrote, he also wrote a poem when he was a kid called "I'll Be Home For Christmas".....later he put it to music, a huge standard it became.
Buck kept a version of the Platters working on up into the early 80s. He passed in 1991. He was your official old school manager type, big on hype and wheeling dealing.
Pop music was much more melodic back then wasn't it. |
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Charles Davidson
From:
Phenix City Alabama, USA
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Posted 12 Jan 2008 12:13 pm
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Bill,you nailed it,MELODIC is the key word.Not only in pop music but all venues,Most [not all] but most of the music in the 30's through the 50's had great lyrics,BEAUTIFUL melodies,things like Stardust,Moonlight in Vermont,etc,Country songs such as Crazy,The old Do-wop songs by the Platters and their peers,In the 70's disco craze with the Eagles,The Bee Gees,and all the soft rock artists,So much of this new music [the so-call country]is sang in almost a monotone,There must be some one out there that has the vocal talent such as Marty Robbins,Jim Reeves,Tony Bennett,Roy Orberson,etc,but where are they? DYKBC.
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Hard headed, opinionated old geezer. BAMA CHARLIE. GOD BLESS AMERICA. ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST. SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC ! |
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Les Anderson
From:
The Great White North
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Posted 12 Jan 2008 1:10 pm
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I used to love listening to The Platters and still do but wow, what a legal mess they ended up with. Whom ever it was who coined the phrase, "Money is the root of all evil" sure got the meaning right.
I still play the CDs of the Platters almost as much as ABBA. The melodies and harmony was everything to these peole. |
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Charles Davidson
From:
Phenix City Alabama, USA
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Posted 12 Jan 2008 1:25 pm
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Les, I think that is [the LOVE of money]There has been MANY in the music business that were really screwed over by record companys,agents,etc,Don't know if it's true or not,but read somewhere that Sammi Smith never got a cent for Help Me Make It Through The Night,I bet Chris did.DYKBC.
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Hard headed, opinionated old geezer. BAMA CHARLIE. GOD BLESS AMERICA. ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST. SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC ! |
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Mark MacKenzie
From:
Franklin, Tennessee, USA
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Posted 12 Jan 2008 1:34 pm
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I saw that movie too. Platters were great, Bill Hailey was great.
Did you all dig the steel player with Bill Hailey? And what were those tweed Fender amps?
How about Bill's L5 Gibson or the lead players black top Les Paul?
This movie was made in 1956. Wonder what those instruments were worth then and now?
Mark |
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Charles Davidson
From:
Phenix City Alabama, USA
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Posted 12 Jan 2008 1:54 pm
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Don't know who the steel player was,The guitar player was [not sure about the first name]Frank Belcher.DYKBC.
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Hard headed, opinionated old geezer. BAMA CHARLIE. GOD BLESS AMERICA. ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST. SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC ! |
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Mike Perlowin
From:
Los Angeles CA
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Posted 12 Jan 2008 4:59 pm
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Do you guys remember how the grownups back then all said that our music was degenerate trash? They even said it was a communist plot to demoralize American youth.
Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
_________________
Please visit my web site and Soundcloud page and listen to the music posted there.
http://www.mikeperlowin.com http://soundcloud.com/mike-perlowin |
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Mike Winter
From:
Portland, OR
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Posted 12 Jan 2008 5:23 pm
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Yeah Mike, it's all relative. Parents in each generation said the same thing about jazz, Rudy Vallee, Benny Goodman, Elvis, Beatles, etc.
Charles, so true about the Platters' harmonies. All those doo-wop groups had great harmonies. I remember one night a few years ago my wife came home from work, and I played "Only You" on the stereo and we danced on the coffee table. Can't think of a modern song I'd think about doing that to...
Harmony seems like a lost art today, doesn't it? |
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Charles Davidson
From:
Phenix City Alabama, USA
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Posted 12 Jan 2008 8:51 pm
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Mike and Mike,Even though I can't stand some of the whatever it is the kids are doing today,I do my best to give them a little slack,I make myself remember when I was a teen in the 50's,Listening to and playing that evil DEVIL music,You know,Elvis,Little Richard,Jerry Lee Lewis,wearing those peg pants,ducktails,going to those satanic movies like Rock around the clock,doing every thing to PO the old geezers of our generation,Every generation does the same thing,so when I see these kids jumping around on stage like crickets on a hot stove,screaming their lungs out,making no sense at all [to me]I just think of what they will be going through 20 plus years from now when THEY will have TEENAGERS,what go's round,comes round.DYKBC.
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Hard headed, opinionated old geezer. BAMA CHARLIE. GOD BLESS AMERICA. ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST. SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC ! |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 12 Jan 2008 11:01 pm
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My parents handed down their 45s to me when I was about 5-6 years old. This is how I got hooked on music. There was a lot of DooWop and Rhythm and Blues, and there were numerous Platters platters.
In the late 80s I worked with the Platters doing a few NY gigs, like Town Hall, and others. Even though it was well past its prime and not really even an original lineup (I don't think there were any, maybe a son of one), it was still a thrill. It didn't mean as much to me to back up a lot of other acts that came through town, like the Duprees or the Marvellettes, etc. The Platters' music was on another level.
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Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Edward Meisse
From:
Santa Rosa, California, USA
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Posted 12 Jan 2008 11:40 pm
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"It's the root of all evil, of strife and upheaval.
But I'm certain, honey, that life would be sunny with plenty of money and you."
The High School across town from where I grew up, Long Beach Polytechnic of Long Beach, California celebrates one of the original platters as an alumnus. I think it was the girl.
I heard a recording on the radio not long ago of an interview with the very first head of what is now the DEA. He was talking about why marijuana should be illegal. "It encourages young people to listen to satanic music such as jazz and swing."
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Amor vincit omnia |
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Billy Murdoch
From:
Glasgow, Scotland, U.K.
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Posted 13 Jan 2008 10:30 am
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Charles,
Please forgive me for correcting You.
Bill Haley's guitarist was Franny Beecher.I can still remember being totally artounded by His first solo on Rock around the Clock.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franny_Beecher
Best regards
Billy |
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Charles Davidson
From:
Phenix City Alabama, USA
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Posted 13 Jan 2008 11:51 am
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Billy,thanks for correcting me ,I was wrong,But kind of close for an old geezer,DYKBC.
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Hard headed, opinionated old geezer. BAMA CHARLIE. GOD BLESS AMERICA. ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST. SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC ! |
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Charles Davidson
From:
Phenix City Alabama, USA
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Posted 13 Jan 2008 12:11 pm
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A little thing happened to me back in the 60's The bass player in a band I knew got sick,They asked me to fill in for him a couple of weeks,I had NEVER played bass in my life,I was a fair guitar player,and thought how hard could this be[WRONG].Anyway I needed to work[you will try anything when you are broke]This was in Columbus Ga.,Anyway the first week the club booked the Drifters to do two shows a night for a week,They showed up with a very young guitar player and said they wanted to use the house bass player,The guitar player was about as bad on guitar as I was on bass,When we played the vocals were so GREAT,don't think anyone noticed how much the guitar player and I sucked,Anyway can say I played with the GREAT Drifters for a week,and after that gig,was the end of my bass playing career,DYKBC.
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Hard headed, opinionated old geezer. BAMA CHARLIE. GOD BLESS AMERICA. ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST. SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC ! |
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Skip Edwards
From:
LA,CA
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Posted 13 Jan 2008 5:51 pm
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I love those old Platters tunes.
And they translate so well...just think of tunes like "The Great Pretender" or "Twilight Time" done up as Ray Price-type shuffles, complete with steel and fiddle. |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 13 Jan 2008 9:06 pm
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Mark
I hate to nit-pick, but Bill Haley's guitar in the film was a Gibson Super 400. Another 1" wider across the lower bout than the L-5, and a touch more flamboyant in its decorative trim. The Super 400 has the split-diamond in the headstock, and the L-5 the more-restrained 'flower-pot' inlay.
I had a '58 Super 400 for many years, but always wished I'd opted for the more beautiful (in my opinion) L-5.
That film is a lot of fun!!!
RR |
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John Steele
From:
Renfrew, Ontario, Canada
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Mark MacKenzie
From:
Franklin, Tennessee, USA
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Posted 14 Jan 2008 12:21 am
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| Quote: |
| I hate to nit-pick, but Bill Haley's guitar in the film was a Gibson Super 400. |
Great catch, Roger!
How about the steel? This is the Steel Guitar Forum.
What was the steel? And what were those lovely tweed looking amps? |
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Mike Perlowin
From:
Los Angeles CA
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Posted 14 Jan 2008 12:27 am
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2 points about Take 6
1- They are not typical of today's pop and rock music.
2- They have clearly been influenced by the doo-wop groups of the 50s.
_________________
Please visit my web site and Soundcloud page and listen to the music posted there.
http://www.mikeperlowin.com http://soundcloud.com/mike-perlowin |
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Mark MacKenzie
From:
Franklin, Tennessee, USA
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Posted 14 Jan 2008 12:45 am
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Oh and I forgot....
What was the lovely looking guitar behind the Platters? It looked D'Angelico but there was never a close up. I think I saw a DeArmond pickup on it too. |
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