Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 15 Nov 2003 2:49 pm |
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This interview was only on the forum for a short time because it was originally intended to be in my book. As it turned out, the book stayed with non-pedal players and I wound up not using it. I am posting it now in memory of Speedy. There will never be another like him. Please note that I now consider this interview to be public domain. Enjoy!
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A LOST INTERVIEW WITH SPEEDY WEST
Excerpts from a March 1996 phone conversation with Canadian fan & record collector, Ray Stifler. Tape provided by forumite, Billy Jones (transfribed & edited by me).
RS
When did you start playin’ the steel?
SW
Well, I actually started when I was 9 years old … little old $12 Maybell guitar. I had to put a nut underneath the strings to raise ‘em up off the neck. And I played it around the house. Professionally, I started when I was like … 20 years old; when I really got into it.
RS
What was your first record and with whom?
SW
The first record I ever recorded was “Candy Kisses” with Eddie Kirk in 1948. George Morgan had a big, big hit on that and Capitol covered it with Eddie Kirk. Some of the guys had heard me play and recommended me to do that session. They wanted me to play like Little Roy Wiggins and I did the best I could. I learned pretty quick that it pays the same money no matter who you play like.
I’d play my own style if I could, you know.
RS
Is Billy Leibert still alive? [Billy played piano and accordion on many of Speedy & Jimmy Bryant’s Capitol instrumental singles]
SW
Yes, but Billy’s had a lot of problems …. Billy’s probably one of the best musicians I ever knew. We worked every day together down at the radio show for Cliffie Stone.
RS
Those 15 minute shows?
SW
Yeah, right. Two years ago I called him and said “Bill, I want to thank you.” He said, “What for?” I said, “I want to thank you for teachin’ me everything you did in music”. He said, “I never taught you a damn thing!” (laughs). He said “I didn’t teach you nothin’ - I don’t know a thing about steel guitar!” I said “You did, but you just didn’t know it. I was watching you and listening to every note you played. You taught me shading … and everything in that way that I got out of steel guitar.” He was such a phenomenal musician. accordion was his main instrument.
RS
He also played piano on some of those recordings at Capital. Also he filled in and did some stuff with Merle Haggard in the early 70’s.
SW
That’s right. Merle even called his name out on some of those records.
RS
One of the most interesting recordings I’ve got was on Decca records Zero Label and made when Loretta Lynn lived up in Blaine Washington. She said she liked your playing so well she had you on the steel but instead of Jimmy, I found out from Mrs. Lanham, Roy Lanham was the guitarist.
SW
Yes, Roy Lanham played guitar on it instead of Jimmy. Let’s see … Leibert was on it … Harold Hensley was on it. Me and Loretta – she just loved me to death and I loved her. She’s the same sweet little girl she was the day I met her. All her financial gain hasn’t turned her head one bit … the sweetest thing you ever seen.
RS
Where was it done?
SW
A little old studio down on Cuanga Boulevard, in Hollywood. This was a little old dinky thing about the size of her living room. So anyhow, we got down there to the little old studio they had and there were a bunch of musicians .. young kids … We got in there and I saw right off the bat, she’d already told me, how much desire she had to become a star and how they had borrowed money. I thought, “This girl may never get another chance if we don’t get it done right”. I called her and Mooney after we did a few takes of a song. I thought these guys just couldn’t cut it, you know, and get her a decent record. I took her and Mooney off to the side and explained it to ‘em. I said, “I’ll tell you what I’d do if I was you. Why don’t you release these boys – you’ll have to pay ‘em cause they come down here – and it’s gonna cost you money also for the studio – then why don’t you come out to my home tonight and we’ll go over your material. I’ll get on the phone and I’ll call the guys – all the musicians we used with Tennessee Ernie and people like that”. She said, “You mean, they would play on my records?” (laughs) I said “Sure, they’ll play on your record!”
And so that’s what we done. When they got up to my house that night – I had a great big beautiful swimmin’ pool – all lit up – I never thought nothin’ about it, it was lit up every night whether we was usin’ it or not – their mouths just gaped wide open and they told me later it was the first swimmin’ pool they ever saw in someone’s yard.
We went down the next day and cut some takes and I said “Loretta, can you hear a harmony? Can you sing harmony? She said, “I can sing harmony”. I said “I’m not a good singer, but I’m going to sing a melody and you sing a harmony to this.” And she just got it right off the bat in the studio so I said “What we’re gonna do is we’re gonna play your record back and I want you to sing harmony with yourself”. Where I’d got the idea was Patti Page who had done this with “Cross over the Bridge”. Remember that record? That’s where I stole the idea from.”(laughs).
So Loretta just cut it off immediately you know. They got a good record and it put her feet on the ground where she could take off. Not long after that they went coast to coast to all the radio stations they could find playin’ this for ‘em and finally ended up in Nashville. She told me – before we ever started recordin’ that day - she said “I’m gonna be on the Grand Ol’ Oprey in less than a year”. And I thought “Well, You ignorant little thing (laughs). I thought it but I didn’t tell her then. I tell her that story now when she calls me up. She laughs about it now, she thinks it’s funny as hell.
RS
I want to ask you about Bing Crosby’s “You All Come”. Who else was also on that session?
SW
The Cash County Boys. They had a big band there too for some of the numbers we done. “You All Come” is a country sound and it featured me more than anyone else. You know that part where I go “wwhhrrrrrpppp” up the strings? Let me tell you a funny story that you’ll appreciate. The first thing I done under Mitch Miller with Frankie Laine and Jo Stafford is one of Hank Williams tunes called “Settin’ the Woods on Fire”. If you ever hear that song, you’ll hear it in there. Now, I can’t read a note of music. So I wasn’t even payin’ any attention to the lyrics, it just felt right to do it there and I put that bouncin' bar thing in there and Ol’ Mitch, that was the first time he’d worked with steel guitar, see. So Mitch was runnin’ the session. He was out in the control room; I was out in the studio. In the song it goes (sings) “I got a hot rod Ford and a $2 bill …” So when they sang “hot rod Ford” I put that “wwhhrrrrrpppp” in there and he thought I was makin’ it sound like a hot rod and jumped up out of chair and started giving me the zero .. you know, “Fine!” … “Fine! … ”He liked to jump through the damn window. The next mornin’ he and Frankie Laine were listening to the session back and they called me at the house and Mitch said, “Speedy, when you get your check, it’ll be double money. What you done just fractured us and everything you do at Columbia from now on you’ll get paid double for”.
It was Paul Weston’s Orchestra they always used at Columbia. Paul Weston and Lee Gillette over at Capitol were very close friends. They went out to dinner all time, them and their wives. So I went back to Capitol - I was a Capitol Artist. I went back to Lee Gillette at Capitol and said, “Hey, you guys are sure cheapskates!” He said, “What do mean we’re cheapskates! You’re making more money than – I said “Well, yeah, but you’re not payin’ me like you ought to”. He said, “You’re getting’ paid every time we do a session”. I said, “Columbia thinks a lot more of me. They pay me double.” (laughs) He said “Aww, get off my back" ... he’s laughing. I said “If you don’t believe me call Paul Weston”. Well he did and so l started getting’ double scale for everything I done at Capital (laughs).
RS
What was your most memorable session or thing in the business?
SW
The thing that got me my record contract with Capitol was the song “I’ll never be free”, with Tennessee Ernie & Kay Starr. See, that was a smash, smash hit and Capitol called me in. I didn’t know what they wanted ‘cause I’d never dreamed of ever cuttin’ a record on my own. That never had begun to even enter my mind. They called me in and said "Speedy, we've got a big, smash monstrous hit on our hands and you’re getting’ more attention than Kay Starr and Tennessee Ernie are.” The switchboards lit up and we’re getting’ letters about you.
RS
I know Red Foley made a comment about you and Ernie and Kay brought you along to the Oprey.
SW
That was another great thing that happened. The union wasn’t gonna let me play ‘cause I didn’t belong to their union and Foley said he’s flown all the way from Hollywood and he’s featured on this hit song. They said “We don’t care, he can’t play”. And Foley said, “Then I won’t do the show tonight”. They said “Well … he can go ahead and do the show tonight but don’t you mention his name”. AS soon as they walked away, Foley said “Son, don’t you worry about a thing. When we get on the air, they can’t do nothin’ about it.” This was the first time I met Foley and we became great friends. We got on the air and he talked about me more’n he talked about Ernie and Kay! He was gonna show ‘em that they wasn’t gonna shove him around. That was a big highlight – that song got me my record contract. I’d been makin’ records for two years before but I never thought about havin’ my own contract.
RS
In that short a time from learning, to be do different than the others …there’s Jerry Byrd and all these guys in the 50’s and 60’s who were all unique in their own way. Where today, everyone sounds the same.
SW
Well, that’s because everyone went to that E9th Chromatic tuning. And you can put a dozen in a room in a circle and you stand in the middle and have ‘em play Danny Boy or something and you can close your eyes and you don’t have any idea who’s playin’. And every steel player in the world will tell you that I can play four bars and you know who in the hell it is! And how I done that, Joaquin Murphy – you ever hear of him?
RS
Oh, Man, yes!! I talked to him last year and he said he doesn’t want anything to do with the business.
SW
Joaquin’s a little off but he was a dear friend of mine. We became very close friends but he won’t talk to a lot of people. Anyhow, Joaquin was my idol and I still think he’s the greatest of them all.
SW
Bobby Koeffer – did you ever notice the way he holds the steel bar? He holds that steel bar completely different and plays with just a thumb pick. We’ve been good friends a long time. Hank Penny, I started to work for Hank in ’47, I guess it was. Then right after that, I went to work with Spade Cooley. Les “Carrot Top” Anderson had left Wills and joined Cooley’s band after Noel Boggs left Cooley. Anderson was playing steel and signin’ both. When I come on the band, Spade but Les on one end of the bandstand and me on the other. After 2 or 3 weeks, he took Les of the guitar and just had him sing. He’s a good singer; plays good steel too.
RS
Speaking of Les, what about Les Paul and Mary Ford?
SW
Les, I never did know well but I was around him quite a lot at these shows. I used to go demonstrate for Fender in Nashville, Los Angeles, all over. Jerry Byrd would be there for Rickenbacher, Les Paul’d be there for Gibson, Chet Atkins was playin’ Gretch, back then. That was where I really got acquainted with all those guys. And Les, was just a real nice guy and he plays with a lot of drive. He’s the one that come out with that sound – trick recording –speed to depth recording – and it was fantastic. Incidentally, I cut “Lover” with Jimmy on Capitol and we done it so fast that it sounds like a speeded up record and it’s not. The reason they didn’t release it was because Les wouldn’t let ‘em. You see, Les had a record out on that. He was the biggest Capitol artist there was and he said “No, you’re not gonna release it”. So that’s where I met Les. I didn’t blame him, He was the number one artist at Capitol at that time and him and Mary Ford were just puttin’ hit after hit out. He done all those in his home. He didn’t do ‘em at Capitol then he sold ‘em the masters.
RS
What kind of steel do you have now?
SW
Did you ever hear of Zane Beck? Zane was a great person and a great artist – steel guitar player – and builder. He started the ZB Company and then he sold that out and started Beck Musical. So that’s was what I was playin’ when I had my stroke. Its called BMI. I had the first Bigsby guitar with pedals that was ever built. Joaquin had the first Bigsby guitar, a triple-neck Bigsby.
RS
How many records are you on?
SW
I cut 6,000 recordings in 5 years and had a big write up in Billboard magazine. I broke an all-time record … worked with 177 different vocalists plus mine and Jimmy’s records.
RS
You guys have a history beyond the realm of time.
SW
I’ll tell you, it’s a big thrill for me, these young kids that wasn’t born when we made these, they hear ‘em on the radio and they can’t believe that we done that before they was born. Last month when the Stratosphere Boogie CD came out, 5 different magazines wrote articles and reviewed it and we got a five star rating from every one. I’ve got more attention now than at the peak of my career. These kids hear what we’ve done and it’s so different from what they’re used to hearin’ it’s just blowin’ their lids, you know.
I’ve probably got a 100 letters here I can’t answer. I used to answer every letter I got from all over the world. You see, Capitol was one of the biggest record makers there was. My and Jimmy’s records were played all over the world as theme songs and so on for disk jockey shows. I just can’t do it now because of the pain. There’s a lot of people that think we’re not human sometimes. This guy called me from Canada last week. He said he was so nervous and he was 47 year’s old. He said “SSSSS-Speedy, forgive me but I’m so nervous … it’s just like talkin’ to God!” (laughs)
RS
I remember in my younger days the … talkin’ to a Webb Pierce or whoever ... it seemed awesome. But they’re human just like anybody else.
SW
Like Merle Travis always said, “We’re just blood, flesh and bone”. I can remember when I’d go to movies when I was just a little boy and see Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. I finally made a lot of records with both of ‘em and you know, I never dreamed of maybe meetin’ ‘em even. I remember the first time Merle Travis asked me to visit. I wrote letters to everybody I knew tellin’ ‘em “I stayed all night with Merle Travis!” (laughs) Travis and I became close friends ‘till the day he died. So I know what it is ... why people feel that way ‘cause I felt that way about Travis … about Roy Rogers … people that I idolized.
RS
You never worked with Bob Wills?
SW
No and he usually never asked anyone to sit in with his band unless they was a former Playboy. I knew Bob real well and he often asked me to come to his Hotel after the show and sit and visit. They used to come to California and we’d have battle of the Bands. It was great fun. One night, down at Cain’s Ballroom, Bob bent down from the stage and said “Hey, Speed’s you got your guitar with you?” I said “Yeah” and he said, “You go get that damn thing! I wanna tell everybody I played with Speedy West one time before it’s too late”. So I went out there and got it, set it up, and within 5 minutes I sounded like I had been with Bob Wills for 40 years! Bob just rubbed off on ya!
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