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Topic: The Steel Guitar Rag Story with Leon McAuliffe |
Dennis Smith
From:
Covington, Georgia, USA
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Orville Johnson
From:
Seattle, Washington, USA
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Posted 19 Mar 2013 9:47 pm |
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It is interesting but I find it very hard to believe that Leon never heard Guitar Rag by Sylvester Weaver since it's pretty much exactly the same song. He even uses the same name, for Pete's sake!
And when the narrator says "but where would Leon have heard such an obscure blues record" he doesn't seem to notice that the Texas Playboys included quite a bit of bluesiness in their playing, suggesting that they may have heard blues records and there were plenty of blues musicians in Texas for them to hear, plus that record was a good seller for Okeh Records which was a popular label.
I know its all water long under the bridge and in the history of despicable acts in the music biz it's small potatoes but, dang it, Sylvester Weaver wrote that song in 1923! |
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Jeff Mead
From:
London, England
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Posted 20 Mar 2013 12:37 am
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| Orville Johnson wrote: |
| It is interesting but I find it very hard to believe that Leon never heard Guitar Rag by Sylvester Weaver since it's pretty much exactly the same song. He even uses the same name, for Pete's sake! |
I was also a bit surprised by the bit about the sax player. There was a member of Bob Wills' band who was uncomfortable soloing in the key of E!!!!!!! |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 20 Mar 2013 1:59 am
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| Sax players are more comfortable in Eb and Ab - their usual keys. Interestingly, many years ago, Jerry Douglas did a tour that including a number of players in other genres including jazz guitar great Tal Farlow. They all played solo sets then got together for a blues jam in the key of E. Farlow said he really had to scuffle to play in E 'cause he'd spent years playing in Eb to acomodate horn players. |
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Jan Viljoen
From:
Pretoria, South Africa
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Posted 20 Mar 2013 6:41 am Blues and Sax
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Saxophones are transposing instruments.
Depending if one plays a tenor or alto, the key is transposed for other instruments.
So, to play in Eb for a guitar player, the tenor player plays in F and the alto plays in C.
So, to play guitar in E, which should have been easy for Tal Farlow, the tenor had to play in F#.
As a complete foreigner I also listened to the old video and it is clear to me the song was already composed many years ago.
In South Africa we had the same problem with 'The lion sleeps tonight, which was used by Disney Pictures in the movie, The lion King.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion_Sleeps_Tonight
Steel on!
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Mark Roeder
From:
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 20 Mar 2013 9:45 am
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In Leons defense, I would keep in mind at what age he wrote Steel Guitar Rag, though it seems hard to determine, he may have been 16 or so. He may or may not have heard the original at that age. However he came to write it, his story is consistant everytime he tells it.
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