From the sublime to the ridiculous

Dan Beller-McKenna · Post by **Dan Beller-McKenna** » 21 Aug 2019 9:36 am

Lloyd Green on the back neck (!!), and then..........dancers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtzHbHYzNHU

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 21 Aug 2019 5:11 pm

How can I ever unsee that?

Dan Beller-McKenna · Post by **Dan Beller-McKenna** » 21 Aug 2019 5:16 pm

Burn your umbrella?

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 22 Aug 2019 2:28 am

What happened to the steel after 35 seconds?

Larry Dering · Post by **Larry Dering** » 22 Aug 2019 6:37 am

I can remember watching the Jimmy Dean show and was unimpressed at the time. Far better Country artists had shows later that were much better. I believe these were produced by the New York City folks and their ideas of country.

Larry Carlson · Post by **Larry Carlson** » 22 Aug 2019 10:04 am

.
Well, that was weird.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 22 Aug 2019 11:47 am

That program was produced by Arthur and Kathryn Murray.

Erv

David Mitchell · Post by **David Mitchell** » 22 Aug 2019 3:45 pm

Kinda the way they do bands at steak houses. The band is just the jukebox in the corner not to interfere with their main attraction which is people talking while they are eating.

Ricky Davis · Post by **Ricky Davis** » 22 Aug 2019 7:01 pm

This just in from Lloyd Green:

David, not meaning to sound too smug and arrogant , but I can assure you I was paid more for that ABC Network appearance on the Jimmy Dean Show in 1966 than the entire band at any steak house would be paid in today’s or 1966 dollars(including a 1sr class round trip on American Airlines) and 5 days all expenses paid in NYC!
I don’t think that exactly qualified as a “Jukebox In The Corner” pejorative.
Cheers,
Lloyd Green

David Mitchell · Post by **David Mitchell** » 23 Aug 2019 12:37 am

Ricky Davis wrote:This just in from Lloyd Green:
David, not meaning to sound too smug and arrogant , but I can assure you I was paid more for that ABC Network appearance on the Jimmy Dean Show in 1966 than the entire band at any steak house would be paid in today’s or 1966 dollars(including a 1sr class round trip on American Airlines) and 5 days all expenses paid in NYC!
I don’t think that exactly qualified as a “Jukebox In The Corner” pejorative.
Cheers,
Lloyd Green

I wrote this on the forum last week. If I had to choose only one it would be Lloyd. I apologize if I offended anyone. That certainly wasn't my implication for that post but tell Lloyd thanks for all the details. Sounds like that was a great job for Lloyd. Awesome!
With love,
David

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 23 Aug 2019 3:46 am

It appears to me that any criticism of the clip in question was directed at the production itself and not remotely at Lloyd and his performance.

Any pro knows that TV work is literally money in the bank, the 'cheesiness' of the production notwithstanding.

David Mitchell · Post by **David Mitchell** » 23 Aug 2019 3:52 am

I agree Roger. Even though it paid good I think the best talent on that stage was Lloyd and he deserved better than that. It's the producers call no doubt but it seems to me they could have got the dancers to dance around Lloyd instead of pulling the camera off of him.
Oh well it doesn't matter anymore. Lloyd played awesome as always.

Ricky Davis · Post by **Ricky Davis** » 23 Aug 2019 6:55 am

This in from Lloyd:

was simply having a little fun with it. I didn’t mean to sound offended. I wasn’t, especially at David Mitchell a good man. Please convey my thoughts to him.

But after all, the year was 1966 and network tv did not know how to treat country music, most especially a steel guitar instrumentalist. I agree, it was real cheesy…and New York.

To that cast and production crew…I could have been from Mars. Jimmy Dean had heard “Green Strings” on WJRZ in Newark, N. J. and called me, asking if I would play his show. I believe it may have been my first network tv appearance.

And I did record with him a few times later in Nashville.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 23 Aug 2019 7:04 am

At least they didn't ask Lloyd to dance!

Erv

Bill Sinclair · Post by **Bill Sinclair** » 23 Aug 2019 7:12 am

I miss variety shows - the good ones and the cheesy ones. They all had their moments. Dan's thread title is perfect.

David Mitchell · Post by **David Mitchell** » 23 Aug 2019 7:26 am

Thanks Lloyd! I would have went to anything myself at Jimmy Dean's request. Another highly respected man in Country music. It's all good !

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 23 Aug 2019 7:47 am

Thanks, Lloyd, for the extra perspective on the experience.

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 23 Aug 2019 2:59 pm

I've tried to watch the Jimmy Dean show and can't take more than about 5 minutes of it.

Is it just me, or is the lighting turned way down? The stage always looks quite dark.

David Mitchell · Post by **David Mitchell** » 23 Aug 2019 5:58 pm

Thanks to you too Ricky. You da man! I enjoy your great steel picken' too.

Ricky Davis · Post by **Ricky Davis** » 24 Aug 2019 7:26 am

OH you're welcome David(and thank you). Lloyd is; as you can tell, very descriptive in his passion for history, and he knows that I will always help in posting his contributions.
Ricky

David Mitchell · Post by **David Mitchell** » 24 Aug 2019 11:23 am

Thank you Ricky and don't let Lloyd run off from the forum. I know he still works when he wants to and busy but anytime he has something to say he has a thousand ears listening. He is my favorite steel player. I've been trying to learn Variations on a Theme by listening to the recording but he does stuff I swear is not on my guitar anywhere. Lol! Lloyd is the master so we are never gonna sound like him anyhow. It's like trying to paint a copy of a masterpiece. I think Variations on a Theme and Venus Moon are truly pedal steel masterpieces but I sure hope Lloyd isn't finished. I still love and listen to those 1970's albums he did. Such a unique and cool sound never played on a steel before him. Lloyd is truly awesome!

Ricky Davis · Post by **Ricky Davis** » 24 Aug 2019 12:30 pm

David; Lloyd ain't going anywhere; he reads the forum all time. Also he assured me he wasn't trying to sound smug or bias to you in anyway and considers you a fine man.
Yes there are things none of us will ever figure out how he played as he uses different string combinations in different areas; still not used by ANYONE....and believe me right now; Lloyd is still coming up with and playing music on the E9 pedal steel that has NOT BEEN PLAYED/heard before.
His passion for music exploration and innovation continues on and life is so wonderful for the man right now....so "Play on Lloyd Green; we are listening in Every Way".
Ricky

David Mitchell · Post by **David Mitchell** » 24 Aug 2019 12:34 pm

Ricky and Lloyd that's good to hear and awesome! I never tire listening to Lloyd. He has so much feeling in just playing a single major chord. No one else sounds like that at all.

Jack Hanson · Post by **Jack Hanson** » 24 Aug 2019 12:57 pm

Bill Sinclair wrote:I miss variety shows - the good ones and the cheesy ones. They all had their moments. Dan's thread title is perfect.

I loathed it when I was a kid, but I get a kick out of watching Lawrence Welk with my 93 year-old dad today. The episodes he's missed over the years could probably be counted on one hand. Buddy Merrill is probably as responsible for Leo Fender's success in markets away from the West Coast as anyone who's paycheck was not signed by Don Randall. Neil Levang could play anything with strings, any style. (Neil had an "in" with Lawrence -- he was from North Dakota.)

It would be interesting to hear Lloyd's perspective on when he accompanied Charley Pride with Welk's Champagne Music Makers, back in the day.

David Mitchell · Post by **David Mitchell** » 24 Aug 2019 5:43 pm

Jack Hanson wrote:
Bill Sinclair wrote:
It would be interesting to hear Lloyd's perspective on when he accompanied Charley Pride with Welk's Champagne Music Makers, back in the day.
About "Just Between You and Me". My perspective. I bought this Sho-Bud Fingertip a couple of years ago for only one purpose. That was to record Just Between You and Me on it and then I put it back in the box. It did exactly what I wanted it to do and that was to sound like Lloyd's steel on that song. It sounded like a Fingertip. Interesting story about this guitar. A friend of mine that has a big music store calls me whenever he gets a steel in because he doesn't want them and makes a few bucks and passes it on to me along with sending steel guitar customers to me. He called and said he had an old, old Sho-bud that was broken. I asked what was broken and he didn't know he just said a metal plate. I drove over and looked at it and the changer end plate was broke half into. I guess someone had dropped it hard to do that. The back neck was missing most of the parts. He asked what I would give for it and I said I'll give you $400.00 for it because that was about what I had on me. He said give it to me. I took the end plate to an expert welder I knew in town and when he finished you couldn't tell anything ever happened unless you looked at it from the inside and you could see a thin welding bead. The pickup sounded weak so I put an E-66 in it and made an armrest from real leather. This was the first Charley Pride song I heard on the radio when it came out and although it was a few years later when I took up steel at age 18, I was already playing Spanish guitars at 9 but this Charley Pride recording is what turned me on to pedal steel guitar. Shot Jackson sold me my first pedal steel which was a Sho-Bud Maverick painted fire engine red. No knee levers but by age 19 I was playing 5 nights a week in a honky tonk and wound up tonking for 45 years in Texas. I made a small fortune between Dallas and Shreveport just stumbling around in Lloyd Green's footsteps. I'm out of business now. Leukemia and a bone marrow transplant when I turned 55 left me with half the energy I use to have. I haven't played a job out of the house in 12 years now. I just stay at home now making records by myself for no other purpose than for pure pleasure and relive what it might have been like to be Lloyd Green. He hung the moon and stars in my book at least for country music. Here is my feeble attempt at Just Between You and Me but that old Sho-Bud tone still knocks me out. It's almost as if the Fingertip was built so Lloyd could play Just Between You and me. Lloyd and I have quite a few mutual friends although I have never met Lloyd. I've worked either as a musician or engineer in the studio for Walter Haynes, Tommy Allsup, Ray Price and Johnny Bush and tons of locals. Walter Haynes was the steel and fiddle player in my band for the remaining 10 years of his life. We were two peas in a pod. Like a couple of teenagers. I laid him in the ground. Loved that guy. Lloyd's name came up often. I love picking the original guys brains but there is not many left. It's a miracle I'm still here. God is good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NlxhuJwnmo