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Topic: What if Jerry Byrd & Joaquin had been drafted? |
Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 30 Mar 2004 8:48 am |
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| Both Jerry Byrd & Joaquin Murphey were exempted from military service during WWII due to lung ailments. Makes one wonder, if they had gone to war, could the history of steel guitar have been different? We'll never know. |
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Ron Whitfield
From:
Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA
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Posted 30 Mar 2004 10:42 am
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Considering the obvious, in a worst case senerio, if they'd been killed or wounded in service, or injured to the point on being unable to ever play(post early 40's), it would have altered the situation greatly. Speedy would have still been on the scene a bit later, but since he was highly influenced by them, who knows what other direction(s) he'd of been lead. And the same for Buddy Emmons, as JB was his main influence, with Joaquin close behind. The possible ramifications are staggering. On the flip side, who knows where we'd have been for decades had other potentially ground breaking players that did not get the chance for immortality, been allowed to. I've often wondered the same question you ask, and the bottom line is, thank God they got to do what they did, and that we've gotten to enjoy it.
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[This message was edited by Ron Whitfield on 30 March 2004 at 10:44 AM.] |
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chas smith R.I.P.
From:
Encino, CA, USA
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Posted 30 Mar 2004 11:06 am
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The Pantheon of steel players, from the world-according-to-chas, has Joaquin and Jerry sharing the top spot. The second tier is populated with all of the early innovators from whose individual styles most of the rest of us can trace our linneage to. That being said, it's hard to imagine how the timeline and subsequent events in any history would be different if any parts of it were not there.
For instance, if the Serb who shot the Arch Duke Ferdinand, that precipitated the start of WWI that set up the conditions that started WWII that set up the conditions that........ If he didn't do it, maybe the events of the 20th century might have been different or maybe they would have happened like they did any way.
If it hadn't been Jerry and Joaquin, it might have been Curly and Buddy or Ray Nolan or Vance Terry or, or, or.... Speedy once confided that he had tried to emulate Joaquin and couldn't so he had to find his own style. I'm sure that a lot of my heroes had similar experiences, again, as do the rest of us. |
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Mark van Allen
From:
Watkinsville, Ga. USA
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Posted 30 Mar 2004 3:55 pm
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| or if Nader had dropped out of the Florida race in 2000.... |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 30 Mar 2004 4:53 pm
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| I suppose it's ultimately pointless to conjecture. Still, a whole sub-genre of science fiction - not to metion relativity theory - is devoted to such 'what if' games. Anyone see the film 'Sliding Doors' which explored two alternate scenarios depending on whether Gwyneth Paltrow made it through the closing doors of a London underground train or not. What if Charlie Parker got depressed and hung himself after Jo Jones threw a cymbal at him early in his playing career? Would sax players all be talking about where they were when thet first heard Paul Desmond? [This message was edited by Andy Volk on 30 March 2004 at 04:54 PM.] |
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Mark van Allen
From:
Watkinsville, Ga. USA
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Posted 2 Apr 2004 11:46 am
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Joking aside, that whole line of conjecture is truly fascinating- would one small change in the fabric of history change the whole future, or would things revert eventually back to the "original" scenarios through some kind of cosmic inertia? The current state-of-the-art in quantum physics seems to support the "reality" of infinite parallel universes where all possibilities are explorered. Tough to get one's head around... I would like to visit the one where I took up picolo and my back doesn't hurt...
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Stop by the Steel Store at: www.markvanallen.com
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Dwayne Martineau
From:
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
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Posted 2 Apr 2004 3:37 pm
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...or perhaps the greatest would-be steel player in history *was* killed in WWII and never even got to pick his first note.
If only every potential steel player were exempt from military service, we'd have to start solving our international differences with guitar wars, instead of the killy kind.
Do you guys have any steelers running for president?
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Bob Watson
From:
Champaign, Illinois, U.S.
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Posted 3 Apr 2004 2:39 am
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| What about the possibility of either one of them going to war and making it back with all of the experiences that fighting a war give a person? It could have possibly had a profoundly positive effect on they're playing and made them perform even better than they did( everyday above ground is a great day! or, "its great to be alive" ) or a negative effect, making them play in a more melancholy and reflecting way. Its a wonderful life! |
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HowardR
From:
N.Y.C.-Fire Island-Asheville
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Posted 3 Apr 2004 6:54 am
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| Quote: |
| What if Jerry Byrd & Joaquin had been drafted? |
We would have won the war? |
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