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Topic: G.E. Smith playing steel on SNL |
George Redmon
From:
Muskegon & Detroit Michigan.
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Posted 22 Jun 2005 7:22 am |
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| i heard that guitarist GE Smith of SNL fame 1985-1995 played lap steel on Saturday Night Live..i sure couldn't find it, or any cd's he has out playing steel. Anyone have a sample mp3 of his lap playing? |
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Rick Aiello
From:
Berryville, VA USA
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Posted 22 Jun 2005 9:23 am
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It was always on those "fade to commercials" little spots ... after a skit.
I remember he played several steels ... a Ricky B6 was one that sticks in my mind.
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Aiello's House of Gauss
My wife and I don't think alike. She donates money to the homeless and I donate money to the topless! ... R. Dangerfield
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mike nolan
From:
Forest Hills, NY USA
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Posted 22 Jun 2005 10:25 am
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| I play in a band with GE.... I'll ask him. |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 22 Jun 2005 11:58 am
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| My favorite was when GE played the bakelite and Steve Turre played obligato bass lines on a conch shell fitted with a trombone mouthpiece. |
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George Redmon
From:
Muskegon & Detroit Michigan.
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Posted 22 Jun 2005 12:01 pm
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Great mike...that would be wonderful. I have admired him as a guitarist for a long time..
Just a great picker...but i never caught him playing steel at all...wish i would have...maybe i will catch him on a rerun on the E channel on DirecTV..... |
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mike nolan
From:
Forest Hills, NY USA
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Steve Pierce
From:
San Rafael, California, USA
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Posted 22 Jun 2005 4:34 pm
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For those of you with young children, you might already know that G.E. Smith plays some real nice lap on the Dan Zanes tune "Good-Bye Old Paint."
For those of you without young children, Dan Zanes has a bunch of childrens CDs with semi-famous people joining him. I honestly like listening to his stuff. It's not too sugary!
I'd love to post the song, but I don't know how. It's in my iTunes.
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Steve Pierce |
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David Ward
From:
White Rock, BC,Canada
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Posted 22 Jun 2005 6:02 pm
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I wish I had the Tele that he played quite often on SNL.
David |
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Jim Phelps
From:
Mexico City, Mexico
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Posted 22 Jun 2005 6:06 pm
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Yeah, you and all the rest of us.... he's had a room full of old Tele's so who knows which one he played on SNL (maybe all of them?) but his first electric was a '52 Tele and get this... he still has it! Wish I'd had that kind of foresight.
Mike, I played the 3 sample clips of Generic Blondes on Taylor Barton's website from your link, and I didn't hear any dobro or lapsteel in them. Are there any other clips we can find online that would have dobro or lap in them?
Found this online. Who'da thought....
During the course of a show it's interesting to see Smith play several vintage guitars--including his first electric guitar, a '52 Telecaster he bought as a boy--but the best part of the show comes when he breaks out his lap steel, a traditional guitar that looks and like a hybrid of a dulcimer, banjo, and the National Steel "bottleneck" acoustics the old bluesmen used to play; it sounds divine, like a tinny steel guitar with an extra register. At live gigs, Smith plays the Liggett tune "Tanya," which in microcosm is what he was aiming at with the SNL band--to bring back the sound of groups like Big Joe Liggett's. Every commercial break, every amazing guest artist, they all with G.E. went to the Crescent City R&B altar . . . and gave thanks. Smith takes particular joy in seeing groups like Uncle Tupelo offshoots Son Volt and Wilco bring the instrument into vogue.
"I've sort of become a missionary for the lap steel," Smith says. "I started playing it in 1973 after seeing David Lindley play with Jackson Browne. Lindley can play a lap steel like a piano. I saw that and . . . had to get a lap steel myself. It took me 15 years before I could play it in public, but I just think it's the coolest thing."
Found a sample with some lapsteel. This is "Standing By The Bedside Of A Neighbor" from G.E.'s Incense, Herbs & Oils CD, the samples and CD are at cduniverse.com.
Click here to play the sample. [This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 23 June 2005 at 05:54 PM.] |
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mike nolan
From:
Forest Hills, NY USA
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Posted 23 Jun 2005 11:46 am
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| None of the downloadable clips have dobro or lap on them..... gotta buy the CD. |
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Jim Phelps
From:
Mexico City, Mexico
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Posted 23 Jun 2005 1:59 pm
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Thanks for the info, Mike. Might do that although I'm wary of buying CD's in the mail from here, many times they never get here, things "disappear" in the mail around here but I'll think about that. I played all the samples at CDuniverse and like GE's style, course heard him on SNL for 10 years.
I'm one of those who never missed SNL and was green with envy of GE, his job and all his guitars! Tell him hello from Mexico for me. You guys ever get around Mexico City, you gotta email me, have a Corona and Tequila (Centenario of course) on us. [This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 23 June 2005 at 03:00 PM.] |
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Jay Fagerlie
From:
Lotus, California, USA
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Posted 23 Jun 2005 6:44 pm
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| I was always green about GE also....mostly 'cause of the great guitars he was always playing (not to mention the awesome amps)and to top it all off, he was married to Gilda! |
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mike nolan
From:
Forest Hills, NY USA
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Posted 23 Jun 2005 9:36 pm
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Jim,
Will take you up on that if we're ever down that way..... This Saturday however it is The Boxcar in exotic Southport Connecticut...and a club soda. |
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Paul Honeycutt
From:
Colorado, USA
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Posted 28 Jun 2005 4:40 pm
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I saw G.E. play lead with Bob Dylan in the late '80's. He used that '52 Tele a lot. It might have been the only guitar he used other then an acoustic. I never realized that he played lap or Dobro.
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