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Topic: More Jerry Garcia Memorablia |
Steve Stallings
From:
Houston/Cypress, Texas
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Posted 29 Nov 2001 1:45 pm |
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I know many here don't consider Jerry to have been much of a steel guitarist, and that's ok. I have a different perspective because I viewed Jerry in a wider, overall view. Today while spending some time on my Martin Guitar Forum, someone jogged my memory regarding a watershed album of the seventies. This was "Blows Against The Empire" by Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship. While researching this, I stumbled across the following info showing that Jerry had played pedal steel on at least one cut. My memories of this album are somewhat...ahem, hazy...and I don't really recall the steel. Does anyone else remember this? How about the steel part?
Grateful Dead Time Capsule
Blows Against the Empire
Paul Kantner - Jefferson Starship
RCA
Released 11/70
Studio Recordings - 1 CD
Amazon.com - Reviews, samples, related items, ordering
Wally Heider's Studio, 4/70
Though Dead members contributed to many albums by San Francisco artists, this one is singled out as THE anthem of the early '70s. The first release from the all-star Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra, it features some of the best feedback sounds recorded, as all-out noise, and also within the more delicate context of a song.
Tracks:Click Title for Song Information
1 Mau Mau (Amerikon) 6:35 Covington / Kantner / Slick
2 The Baby Tree 1:43 Rosalie Sorrels
3 Let's Go Together 4:21 Paul Kantner
4 Child is Coming 6:19 Crosby / Kantner / Slick
5 Sunrise 1:53 Grace Slick
6 Hijack 8:16 Balin / Blackman / Kantner / Slick
7 Home :36 Kantner / Nash / Sawyer
8 Have You Seen the Stars Tonite 3:41 Crosby / Kantner
9 XM 1:24 Garcia / Hart / Kantner / Sawyer
10 Starship 7:04 Balin / Blackman / Kantner / Slick
Personnel:Click Name for Artist Discography
Paul Kantner - guitar, vocals, banjo, bass machine
Grace Slick - piano, vocals
Harvey Brooks - bass
Jack Casady - bass
Joey Covington - drums, congas
David Crosby - guitar, vocals
David Freiberg - vocals
Jerry Garcia - guitar on "XM" and "Starship", banjo on "Let's Go Together", pedal steel on "Have You Seen The Stars Tonite"
Mickey Hart - percussion on "XM", drums on "Have You Seen The Stars Tonite"
Peter Kaukonen - guitar
Bill Kreutzmann - drums on "Let's Go Together"
Graham Nash - congas, vocals
Phil Sawyer
Home | Copyright © 2001 Bryce W. Westover All Rights Reserved | Friends
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Steve Stallings
Bremond, Texas
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Steve Stallings
From:
Houston/Cypress, Texas
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Posted 29 Nov 2001 1:46 pm
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Memorabilia dang it!
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Steve Stallings
Bremond, Texas
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Alan Michael
From:
Winston-Salem North Carolina U.S.A.
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Posted 29 Nov 2001 2:31 pm
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Hey Steve, sounds like you must have been one of the original Merry Pranksters. I've got a stack of old Dead stuff I'll have to drag out and revisit.
Alan |
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Dave Zirbel
From:
Sebastopol, CA USA
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Posted 29 Nov 2001 3:07 pm
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| I remember that album, sort of. I can't exactly remember what the steel sounded like. It was probably like the stuff he did on that all-star David Crosby album. Nice tone, big chords and long sustaining notes, exagerated volume swells, heavy reverb. I figure if it was anything unusual or outstanding I would have remembered or still have the album. DZ |
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Steve Frost
From:
Scarborough,Maine
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Posted 29 Nov 2001 6:36 pm
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| Steve- I'll have to take a look, I must have that around here somewhere. But this is another case of preachin' to the choir... and SOME of the Forum just aint in the choir. Can't even hear it. I say, if you don't happen to like it, pass it by. No need to make overweaning generalizations. |
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David Cutter
From:
Duluth,GA
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Posted 29 Nov 2001 8:08 pm
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Steve
I have the album on vinyl and CD. I have played the album for one of my Dead Head friends so he could hear Jerry.--Unmistakable guitar work. I will give it another listen for the steel.
David Cutter
Duluth, GA
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Jim Peter
From:
Mendon,Mich USA
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Posted 30 Nov 2001 11:24 am
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| My band does "The Baby Tree" sometimes (great dobro song) and everybody loves it! What a great album, I spent many summer nights out on the roof listening to that one. |
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Glenn Suchan
From:
Austin, Texas
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Posted 30 Nov 2001 12:19 pm
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Steve,
The cut from "Blows Against the Empire" with Jerry's steel work is "Have You Seen the Stars Tonight?" It's very ethereal sounding. Similar to Jerry's steel pickin' on David Crosby's first solo album (the song "Laughing") and his own first solo album (the songs "To Lay Me Down" and The Wheel").
"Have You Seen the Stars Tonight?" is a David Crosby song about his love affair with sailing his yacht, The Mayan. A very serene song. You can almost hear the gentle slapping of waves as the sailing vessel rocks under a canopy of brilliant stars in the dead of night. Very spacy sounding if unconventional steel pickin'. Right on Jerry!
Incidently, most of the musicians who participated on albums such as Jefferson Starship's "Sunfighter" and "Blows Against the Empire" as well as David Crosby's first solo album "If I could Only Remember My Name" named themselves "The Planet Earth Rock 'n Roll Orchestra" and consisted of Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzman, and Micky Hart of the Grateful Dead; Paul Kantner and Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane; Jorma Kaukonan and Jack Cassidy of Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane; Michael Shreve of Santana; and David Crosby of Crosby, Stills, and Nash.
Keep on pickin'!
The Ol' Hippy Picker, Glenn 
[This message was edited by Glenn Suchan on 30 November 2001 at 01:03 PM.] |
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Jerry Hayes
From:
Virginia Beach, Va.
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Posted 30 Nov 2001 12:37 pm
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Hey Steve,
I agree with you that many out there don't consider Jerry to have been much of a steel guitarist. He was more than that! Jerry was a musician who made music with whatever instrument he happened to be playing at the time. In a way he is to steel guitar what Luther Perkins was to lead guitar. A whole bunch of guitar players out there used to make fun of Luther's playing by saying things like "It's simple, he's not a good player, and other such tripe as that". Jerry had a style such as Luther did. The stuff LP played with Johnny Cash was perfect for the songs. I think his guitar work contributed as much to the sound as Cash's vocals. In the same way JG is an icon. Can you imagine "Teach Your Children" with another solo or fills? I know I can't! What Jerry played was perfect for the song. I don't think Emmons, Green, Franklin, Garrish, or whoever it might be could have crafted anything more effective for that song or others which Jerry played on. He was simple, tasteful, and I for one loved his tone.
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Have a good 'un! JH U-12
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Michael ODriscoll
From:
Waunakee, Wisconsin USA
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Posted 2 Dec 2001 8:52 pm
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OK, considering the recent outburst of Garcia related posts, here's some more stuff... Garcia circa the PERRO sessions...
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::: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused. :::
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Steel tryin
From:
Macon, Ga.
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Posted 3 Dec 2001 7:32 am
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Garcia in PERSPECTIVE is quite simple.
From the time Jerry said WOW what's this
to the last time he sat down to a STEEL GUITAR was about 2 years total. Now, considering the first 2 years at the STEEL
for most members of this FORUM, Jerry seems
quite respectable. |
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Pete Burak
From:
Portland, OR USA
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Posted 3 Dec 2001 1:03 pm
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Here is an exerpt from an article that appeared in an old Ripple magazine. I don't know who the author was.
I edited the original to capture just the steel related stuff.
It seems that Jerry Garcia played the pedal steel guitar for only a few
years in his career as his pedal steel
recordings date between 1969 and 1974.
Before the New Riders
formed officially, Garcia used gigs by Dawson (NRPS's leader and
vocalist) as an excuse to practice pedal
steel.
Actually he appeared steadily at live shows by the New Riders from 4 May to 17
November 1971 until he was relieved by
Buddy Cage (dates are as accurate as I can get);
Their early sets consisted
of material off the New Riders long-awaited first album (it was released
only in September 1971) along with
several popular tunes such as "The Weight", "If You Hear Me When I'm
Leaving", "Lodi", Honky Tonk Women",
Workingman's Blues".
The warm, round and thick tone of his pedal steel perfectly fitted in with Dave Nelson's
thin- sounding Telecaster phrasing, and their tones seemed to blend
amazingly well.
It's interesting to notice that tapes of his last shows with the New Riders feature Garcia playing steel
in songs such as "Rainbow", "Hello
Mary Lou", "Willy & The Hand Jive" and "Lochinvar" which the band would
later record with Buddy Cage on the
"Powerglide" album.
I believe that Jerry Garcia
played the pedal steel in ways which
sounded as a natural extension and complement to the melody of any song,
by not distracting the listener's
attention from the singing part.
Maybe you will share my point after you
try this experiment by yourself: listen to
his beautiful playing on any of the tunes included in the discography at
the end of this article and see for how
long you can keep your attention focussed on the pedal steel guitar exclusively, before you shift onto the vocals;
this may sound strange at first (or even detrimental to Garcia's playing) but I really believe that this is one of the
peculiarities which made his style so great and unique.
In fact his playing does indeed reinforce the song's melody, whereas most pedal steel players usually tend to
'do-their-own-thing' while comping (something like clarinet players do in dixieland bands, soloing on top of the melody) which may as well be great, if you decide to listen JUST to the steelplayer in lieu of the song itself.
Instead Garcia was used to playing lines which would fit in with the vocal parts, always leading the ears of the listeners back
to the song's core.
Even Garcia's extensive use of the wah-wah pedal sets his playing apart from that of most other pedal steel players.
In those years Garcia was often using a wah-wah pedal in conjunction with his regular
electric guitar (just listen to his 1973
Keystone live albums with Merl Saunders) and he mastered the technique of smoothing out the attack of the note by releasing the pedal (deep tone) while picking the string, and then pressing the pedal (crispy tone)
afterwards.
When applied too the pedal steel, this technique helps to simulate the "bow" effect of the volume pedal, wile at the same time adding that tasty wah-wah sound (listen to
"Candy Man" on the "American Beauty"
album).
It should also be noted that sometimes Garcia combined the wah-wah pedal with the use of rotating Leslie speakers, thus obtaining a sound similar to that of a Hammond organ (Rusty Young of Poco does that
too).
If you happen to see the movie "Fillmore - Last Days", you will get a brief and rare glimpse of Garcia rehearsing pedal steel backstage along with the New Riders . . . just enough to trigger your musical appetite!
However this other wise great movie leaves you quite hungry; as a temporary relief, I strongly suggest to quickly put NRPS's first album on the closest record player available and play it.
Actually I do regard this album as the
best resume of the pedal steel according to Garcia: there you have bouncin' C & W tunes such as "Glendale Train", "Henry" and " I Don't Know You" in which you can enjoy Garcia's amazing right hand blocking technique (I still can't figure out how he does that, with one missing finger in
his right hand!!) And from there you can go on to listening to his peculiar Leslie-like phase-shifted sound on" All I Ever Wanted" and "Garden Of Eden", appreciating his tasty fills and turnarounds in slow ballads such as
"Portland Woman" and "Last Lonely Eagle".
And when you finally think you've heard it all, you'll be awe-struck and
baffled in wonder of the spacey sounds
and eerie atmosphere which Garcia's steel conveys in "Dirty Business".
Regardless if any obscure live recordings with the Dead (which I faithfully expect to surface someday), it is quite obvious that Garcia recorded some excellent steel with his main band.
His earliest effort that I know of is on
Aoxomoxoa; you can hear the pedal steel in "Doin' That Rag" if you listen carefully back in the mix during the second part of the song (the task of listening will be a lot easier for those of you who have access to a tape of Aoxomoxoa out-takes; there you will undeniably recognise he pedal steel
on "Doin' That Rag"; although Garcia's
lines sound naive and sometimes awkward when compared to his later works).
In 1970, the Grateful Dead recorded Workingman's Dead and American
Beauty, their acoustic gems.
Off the first one is "High Time", a slow country lament enhanced by expressive
steel guitar playing, sounding on this
track like a wounded animal crying in distant hills.
"Dire Wolf" is a simply beautiful song featuring extensive steel phrasing: listen to it with headphones on, in order to fully appreciate the steel guitar track being panned between channels of your stereo.
Another appearance of Jerry Garcia on pedal
steel is to be found on Bob Weir's "Ace" album in "Looks Like Rain"; a very clean, unprocessed sound was aptly chosen for a song where the pedal steel plays counterpoint to the strings, through many suspended 4th chord changes.
I purposely left three songs at the end of this quick dissertation, each for a specific reason which I believe deserves recognition.
"The Wheel" on Garcia's first solo album: the intro features what is possibly the most beautiful and spacey pedal steel guitar sound ever obtainable with human means. It does make sense to get a CD player just to listen to this song on the reissue.
"Teach Your Children" (on the CSNY Déjà vu, milestone album of American music) is easily the most famous song featuring Jerry's unique pedal steel licks. Apart from the beauty of this song from Graham Nash, the tune stands out for a tremendous impact it had on non-musicians who were first exposed to the pedal steel guitar, as well as on musicians who fell in love with this instrument.
Garcia's own words, quoted here below from a
1978 interview with Guitar Player Magazine:
"I haven't played the pedal steel guitar much for quite a while, though I played it quite steadily for about 4 years.
I really got into it, but it kind of became an either/or situation. I found it very hard to play half the night with a pedal steel and a bar in my left hand and then switch to straight overhand guitar.
The difference between a solid finger configuration and a moving arm, wrist and fingers was too great.
It was painful to the muscles.
I got to where I couldn't play either of them very well, and I realised it just wouldn't work.
I don't consider myself a pedal steel player . . . "
Jerry's Steel Discography:
Grateful Dead : Aoxomoxoa (Doin' That Rag) 1968
NRPS : Before Time Began (side 1 only) 1969
Grateful Dead : Workingman's Dead (High Time) 1970
Grateful Dead : American Beauty (Sugar Magnolia; Candy Man;
BrokedownPalace) 1970
CSNY : Déjà Vu (Teach Your Children) 1970
David Crosby : If Only I Could Remember My Name (Laughing) 1970
NRPS : First Album (all songs) 1970
Paul Kantner : ( Blows Against The Empire ( Have you Seen The Stars
Tonight) 1970
NRPS : Vintage NRPS ( all songs) 1970
Brewer & Shipley : Tarkio 1971
Chris & Lorin Rowan : Same 1971
Graham Nash : Songs For Beginners (Man In The Mirror; I Used To Be A
King) 1971
Jerry Garcia : First Album (Deal; Eep Hour; To Lay Me Down; The Wheel)
1972
Bob Weir : Ace (Looks Like Rain) 1972
Crosby & Nash : First Album (Southbound Train) 1972
Rowan Brothers : Same 1972
Link Wray : What You Want To 1973
Grateful Dead : Wake Of The Flood (Stella Blue; Weather Report Suite Pt.
1) 1973
Kantner, Slick & Frieberg : Baron Von Tolbooth & The Chrome Nun (Ballad
Of The Chrome Nun; Your Mind
Has Left your Body) 1973 |
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BobG
From:
Holmdel, NJ
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Posted 3 Dec 2001 2:53 pm
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Pete, Coming from a big Garcia fan all I can say is "well said". I thought you did a great job putting into words what most of Jerrys' fans here on the Forum feel.
Still, i've been around here too long to realistically believe you will be able to convert any of the hardline Jerry bashers around here.
Anyway , I'd just like you to know I really enjoyed reading your reply.
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Steve Stallings
From:
Houston/Cypress, Texas
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Posted 3 Dec 2001 3:53 pm
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Yes....I really enjoyed all the information.
I am fifty years old. Jerry and the other drug crazed yahoos of that era, were smack in the middle of my teens and young adult life. (Well....ok, so I still sneak "Truckin" on to the turntable from time to time ) I don't care that Jerry wasn't a fantastic steel player. His playing,singing,and writing impacted millions of people on a personal level. Jerry used steel guitar as a painter selects colors in a palette.
He wasn't a tremendously accomplished steel player...he'd have been the first to admit it.......but he made a real difference in what he did play.
My original post referenced a quite interesting work by Paul Kantner,Crosby,Jefferson Starship,Garcia, et al. I'm going to go find it on Cd and relisten to it.....enjoy!
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Steve Stallings
Bremond, Texas
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Pete Burak
From:
Portland, OR USA
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Pete Burak
From:
Portland, OR USA
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Danny Bates
From:
Fresno, CA. USA
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Posted 3 Dec 2001 4:23 pm
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| The only memorabilia that I own is the Toaster Hat that Rockette Morton (Mark Boston) from Captain Beefheart's band wore for about 5 years. |
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Harry Hess
From:
Blue Bell, PA., USA * R.I.P.
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Posted 3 Dec 2001 9:07 pm
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He was a VERY nice guy. He gave me free tickets to a Dead show in Boston. He also let me sit in with the band at a party gig and play his old SG when I was only eighteen. How many rock stars do you know who would be so kind to a young nobody punk?
Regards,
HH
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Dayton Osland
From:
Lake Havasu City, AZ
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Posted 6 Dec 2001 11:56 am
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I am no expert on Jerry, but I'd like to add my two cents.
The limited amount of tab I've seen on Jerry's steel playing show heavy use of the BC pedal combination. What I can hear on some of the above mentioned songs sounds like continued heavy use of BC. To me this makes sense, rock and blues guitarist favor minor pentatonic and dorian scole riffs. This orientation is completely different from most country oriented playing where AB and major scales dominate. In fact, I feel that his style fits with rock better than the traditional steel approach and is worth some further study (at least on my part).
Does anyone know how he got interested or learned to play?
Vassar Clements played fiddle with "Old and In the Way", where Jerry played some dynamite banjo. He tells a story about arriving in San Fransico after a long time on the road. Vassar saw a billboard sign and said to Jerry "Garcia, that looks like you up there". It was a billboard of the Grateful Dead. I guess Jerry had never mentioned being a rock star.
I spoke with Buddy Cage (another nice guy) a couple years ago and I asked him about replacing Garcia in New Riders of the Purple Sage. First of all, Jerry picked Buddy to play. When Buddy asked "Do I have to play the songs exactly like you?", Jerry just laughed and said "of course not". Jerry and Buddy had been doing some jamming Jerry knew who was boss. Buddy and Jerry did a lot of jamming on tour together - on the "Rock and Roll Train" accross Canada. Buddy also talked about trying to help Jerry live drug free and obviously took Jerry's death very personally even after several years.
Jerry brought his unique musical view, from a background of folk and rock, guitar and banjo to steel and turned out something unique.
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Dayton Osland
Shobud S10 |
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Bob Hoffnar
From:
Austin, Tx
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Posted 6 Dec 2001 12:24 pm
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Dayton,
The use of the BC pedals as opposed to using the AB pedals has nothing to do with what scales or modes a steel player plays. Either combination can generate whatever scales you want to play. Garcia added an important musical perspective to the steel player repertoire but was using the standard country approach at the time to play scales and chords. The style that Garcia was emulating was primarily whats know as the "Bakersfield Sound".
Its worth spending some time checking out Ralf Mooney if you want to get your head messed up trying to figure out pedal combinations.
Before any of you guys get your panties all wadded up I really love Garcia's playing and it had a big and positive influence on me.
On the Blows Against the Empire album the tune "Sunrise" with that killing bass feedback solo completely blew what was left of my teenage brain away at the time.
I have a pedalsteel solo piece I play these days that is a little like it.
Bob
[This message was edited by Bob Hoffnar on 06 December 2001 at 12:45 PM.] |
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Dave Zirbel
From:
Sebastopol, CA USA
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Posted 6 Dec 2001 12:56 pm
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Dayton, I read on Pete Grants website that he and Jerry were on their way to a concert and Together Again by Buck Owens came on the radio. They were so amazed by Tom Brumley's solo that the next day they went out and bought pedal steel guitars. Pete now has the ZB that Jerry played.
http://www.petegrant.com/Music.html
Pete Grant actually played the steel on "Doing That Rag" from the Aoxomoxoa album in 1968. He played a Wright Custum with cables. The discography says Jerry played but Pete told me that it was him. His name is on the album credits.
If it weren't for Jerry I probably wouldn't be playing steel today. He was a major influence on me. DZ[This message was edited by Dave Zirbel on 06 December 2001 at 01:05 PM.] [This message was edited by Dave Zirbel on 06 December 2001 at 02:05 PM.] |
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Joerg Hennig
From:
Bavaria, Germany
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Posted 6 Dec 2001 3:31 pm
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Dayton mentioned Jerry´s continued heavy use of BC pedals. To add to this, I´m quite sure he would use the C pedal on its own quite a lot, not unlike Mooney´s single E to F#. It´s all over the first New Riders album, just for example listen to the intro to "Whatcha Gonna Do." That´s one of Jerry´s "trademarks", in my opinion.
Here´s a quote from Guitar Player of April, 1971, that tells a lot about Jerry´s attitude towards the pedal steel.
quote:
GP: We all know that you´ve been playing the pedal steel guitar lately. What kind do you use?
Garcia: I have a ZB. They´re made in California. Mine started out as the standard double neck with ten strings on each neck, C6 and E9 tunings, and eight pedals and two levers. I´ve dismantled the C6 neck, because I´m just not into the C6 tuning. There is nothing in any of the kinds of music that I play that requires that sort of tonality. That tuning is very dense; the intervals are very close; there are a lot of seconds and that sort of thing. It´s great for playing jazz and pop stuff. You know, the sound that you associate with normal pedal steel players. The E9 tuning is that opener, more country sound. And that´s the one I dug. That´s the whole reason I wanted to get into the pedal steel. So now, I just use the E9 neck and the three pedals to raise the tone and two levers to lower it.
GP: How far do you think you´ve gotten with your left hand technique with the bar and your right hand technique at picking?
Garcia: I haven´t got it down. What I´m doing with the steel is I´m going after a sound I hear in my head that the steel has come the closest to. But I have no technique on the steel. I´ve got a little right hand technique from playing the banjo, and I´ve listened to records; but my intonation with the bar is still really screwed up. I have to do it by ear. The only steel player I´ve had a chance to learn some stuff from was Buddy Cage who is the steel player for the Great Speckled Bird, Ian and Sylvia´s band. He´s a Canadian kid and a good, good steel player. I´m really a novice at it, but I´m not really trying to become a steel player. I´m trying to duplicate something that´s in my head.
He told some other interesting things in that interview which show that he must have done some profound thinking about it and, as always, did it in his own way.
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Joerg Hennig
From:
Bavaria, Germany
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Posted 6 Dec 2001 3:56 pm
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Here´s some more.
quote:
GP: Which pedal steel players have influenced you in particular?
Garcia: A lot of guys whose names they never put on country and western albums. I don´t have any favorites, really. What happens is that in the course of listening to a record I´ll say, "Wow, that sounds really neat; I wish I could play that." And then I´ll try and learn it.
GP: Do you think that the pedal steel´s acceptance as an instrument has been hindered by it´s association with nasal female country and western singers?
Garcia: I think that everybody has to learn how to listen to that music. There are some really soulful singers in country music. It´s like a prejudice. People associate a certain thing - like the hillbilly twang or those violins, man - with the pedal steel and think they can´t listen to it. It´s just one of those things. I just hear it all as music. It´s all music. There´s good music, and there´s bum music.
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