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Topic: Making The Steel Guitar Popular |
Ray Montee
From:
Portland, Oregon (deceased)
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Posted 18 Aug 2003 2:48 pm |
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I just knew if I kept thinking about this, I'd come up with a great new concept for promoting the steel guitar. That's what everyone here on the Forum is interested in, right?
I graduated from Benson Polytechnic High School here in Portland....way back in the days when we had to trudge to school thro' miles of two and three foot snow drifts; blistering HOT SUN; gail force winds and the like. We were a hardy bunch then....in those heydays of country western and folk music popularity.
Each year at the TECH SHOW, the electric shop used to put on this spectacular visual display that delighted the audience for decades and is still remembered by many a family.
They'd put this student up on this metal kitchen type chair, situated atop a large metal plate. They'd slip a bunch of all metal banjer finger picks on his bodily extremities........dim the room lights and throw the switch. It was fabulous to see!
His hair would stand straight out, like he'd backed into Boeing wind tunnel....and sparks and streaks of lightening would rapidly shoot outwards from these extensions
and arc madly about the room.
It was an awesome show! It was visually exciting and a real attention getter. All you could see of the young man was his ghostly silouette iluminated from behind by the arching electrical currents and the loud buzzing and cracking of electricity as it jumped to and fro.
Something like this is what the steel guitar needs to make it famous again. The person best suited for the PR job would neet to have lots of really long hair, lots of body peircing metal hanging everywhere and should be able to play something melodic like
"Ghost Riders in the Sky" or "I Know Where the Wild Goose Goes"......
It should advance steel guitar beyond anything ever before dreamed of. |
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Randy Beavers
From:
Lebanon,TN 37090
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Posted 18 Aug 2003 2:52 pm
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| I'm going to get a haircut tomorrow! |
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c c johnson
From:
killeen,tx usa * R.I.P.
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Posted 18 Aug 2003 2:58 pm
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| You had it good Skip. I too had to walk to and from school in the snow and it was up hill BOTH ways. CC |
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Jim West
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Posted 18 Aug 2003 3:07 pm
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"....way back in the days when we had to trudge to school thro' miles of two and three foot snow drifts; blistering HOT SUN; gail force winds and the like."
Was that all on the same day? |
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Gary Walker
From:
Morro Bay, CA
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Posted 18 Aug 2003 7:35 pm
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| Or, have Pamela Anderson start playing a new MSA. |
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John Lacey
From:
Black Diamond, Alberta, Canada
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Posted 19 Aug 2003 6:50 am
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| I didn't know it snowed in Portland....much. |
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Wayne Cox
From:
Chatham, Louisiana, USA * R.I.P.
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Posted 19 Aug 2003 12:18 pm
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RAY, I think I starred in that show,once when I wasn't properly grounded. I was trying to sing while playing my steel. My nose touched the microphone and sparks flew everywhere,or so it seemed to me.
~~W.C.~~ |
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Gordon Black
From:
burns,oregon,usa
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Posted 19 Aug 2003 12:56 pm
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Ray, I knew there was something peculiar about you (other than the obvious..)  . I went to Benson Tech too! I recall alot more fog than snow back then, but that was the 60's, so who knows.
Yeah, the Tech shows were great. I remember seeing a similar display in the auditorium, put on by MBI's "Sermons in Science". Breath taking.
My old Vibrosonic used to put on an occasional light show, but that was before forumite Ken Fox did his magic on it.
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David L. Donald
From:
Koh Samui Island, Thailand
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Posted 19 Aug 2003 2:12 pm
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A Pedal Steel crossed with a VanderGraph Generator!!
Nicola Tesla would be so proud.  [This message was edited by David L. Donald on 19 August 2003 at 03:13 PM.] |
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Ray Montee
From:
Portland, Oregon (deceased)
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Posted 19 Aug 2003 4:58 pm
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Gordon, many thanks for supporting my comments somewhat. This spectacular event really did happen, an annual occurance, and virtually every person who witnessed the program was impressed. It was just a tho't on how to gain some FRONT PAGE coverage for our favorite instrument. I truly wasn't putting anyone on. If we're going to move ahead with the popularity of this instrument
then we're going to have to come up with some kind of GIMMICK that the media and the curious will latch on to. Another round of SGR ain't gonna cut it. If RR can do it, why not one of us. I guess no one liked the idea of tossing a new ShowBud or Emmmons LaGrand III out into the audience......can't understand it, the rock and rollers were doing it with some of their instruments and it was a REALLY BIG DEAL! That seems to be the problem with steel guitar players.....
some of us want CHANGE and the old timers who aren't boistrous about it tend to be looked down upon. Oh well.......... |
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