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Topic: Who played steel on "Top of the World"? |
Duane Reese
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Posted 20 May 2006 8:29 pm |
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| Who was the session player for "Top of the World" by the Carpenters? |
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Chris LeDrew
From:
Canada
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Posted 20 May 2006 10:41 pm
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| Red Rhodes. |
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Smiley Roberts
From:
Hendersonville,Tn. 37075
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Posted 20 May 2006 10:57 pm
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...& Buddy Emmons.
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~ ~
©¿© It don't mean a thang,
mm if it ain't got that twang.
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Gary Spaeth
From:
Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 23 May 2006 8:44 pm
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| red rhodes on the first half and buddy on the second half. |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 25 May 2006 3:50 pm
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| Red did the intro, but just about everything else (except a few harmonics, I think), is Buddy. |
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Chris LeDrew
From:
Canada
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Posted 25 May 2006 6:31 pm
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| What's next, Buddy played the top five strings and Red played the lower five? |
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Chip Fossa
From:
Monson, MA, USA (deceased)
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Posted 25 May 2006 8:32 pm
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I find this rather odd.
There really isn't much steel in the song. It's tasteful as hell, but why would they choose to actually use 2 steelers? We all know both Buddy and Red are capable of doing the entire song justice.
I don't know, just seems odd. |
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Chris LeDrew
From:
Canada
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Posted 26 May 2006 3:58 am
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The album was "A Song For You", and here are the listed musicians:
The Carpenters: Karen Carpenter (vocals, drums); Richard Carpenter (keyboards, background vocals). Additional personnel includes: Louie Shelton, Tony Peluso (guitar); Red Rhodes (steel guitar); Bob Messenger (tenor saxophone, flute, alto flute); Tim Weisberg (bass flute); Earl Dumler (oboe, English horn); Norm Herzberg (bassoon); Joe Osborn (bass); Hal Blaine (drums).
No sign of Buddy there.[This message was edited by Chris LeDrew on 26 May 2006 at 04:58 AM.] |
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Jon Light (deceased)
From:
Saugerties, NY
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Posted 26 May 2006 4:14 am
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Forum>Search
It is well documented. |
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Ray Minich
From:
Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra
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Posted 26 May 2006 6:37 am
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| Don't shoot the piano player(s)... |
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Buddy Emmons
From:
Hermitage, TN USA * R.I.P.
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Posted 26 May 2006 12:54 pm
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| When Richard rolled the song he told me he was going to keep Red's intro and ending and I was to play the fills. |
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Kenny Foy
From:
Lynnville, KY, USA
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Posted 26 May 2006 7:48 pm
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| And there you have it. Taa Daa |
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Chris LeDrew
From:
Canada
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Posted 27 May 2006 9:37 am
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I've been told.  |
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Chip Fossa
From:
Monson, MA, USA (deceased)
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Posted 28 May 2006 7:08 am
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Thanks Buddy,
That was the answer we were looking for. |
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Joe Alterio
From:
Irvington, Indiana
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Posted 28 May 2006 7:08 pm
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Buddy....might there be more to the story? Just curious as to why Red's fills (which I assumed he did record) were replaced. More curious would be what was Red's reaction?
As stated before, either of you could have done the song in it's entirety....as good as Red was, it is curious that something he played may not have been up to snuff...?
Joe |
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Buddy Emmons
From:
Hermitage, TN USA * R.I.P.
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Posted 30 May 2006 5:22 pm
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It’s hard to speculate as to what may have been behind Richard’s structuring of the arrangement; but judging from my experience with him I can only assume he wanted more signature licks and movement in the fills. Richard went as far as to sit at the piano and play notes for me to listen to that reflected the style he was looking for.
Replacing someone else’s track or being bumped off of a track is not a big deal to me. I’ve been replaced more than once and my solution was to simply pick up pieces of my life and move on.  Meanwhile, I suspect that Richard Carpenter was doing his job as a producer by starting with a pedal steel sound in his head and doing what it took to get it on tape.
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Joe Alterio
From:
Irvington, Indiana
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Posted 31 May 2006 4:02 am
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Interesting.....thanks, Buddy!
Joe |
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John Bechtel
From:
Nashville, Tennessee, R.I.P.
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Posted 31 May 2006 8:26 pm
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“Pick up pieces of my life and move on”. I wish I'd have said that!
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“Big John”
a.k.a. {Keoni Nui}
Current Equipment
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Duane Reese
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Posted 7 Jun 2006 9:03 pm
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| Quote: |
| ...simply pick up pieces of my life and move on. |
Heck I wish I could do that!
Thanks for all your responses guys - and thank you Buddy for giving us first-hand details on this.
Now to throw a twist into it: there are two versions of the song floating around out there - there's the original version off of the album "A Song for You", and there's also a very common "1991 remix" off of some other compilations, and they have different steel intros and fills all around as far as I can tell; the only thing that I could tell was from the same tracking was the very ending riff...
I would imagine that they probably put Red's and Buddy's takes on different tracks and saved them both back (well if they remixed it I guess they saved the multitrack tape without question) so I don't know if what you hear on the 1991 remix is what you didn't hear on the original from 1972. On the ending riff by the way, you hear two steels do the squeeze so that was probably both of them finishing it up - neat stuff!
Thanks again! |
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