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Topic: Rolling Stones with pedal steel |
Jeff Keyton
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 29 Aug 2019 6:30 pm |
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Last edited by Jeff Keyton on 30 Aug 2019 6:19 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Bob Bestor
From:
Ashland, OR
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Fred Treece
From:
California, USA
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Posted 29 Aug 2019 8:09 pm
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| Earnest Bovine wrote: |
| The Stones are better than they sound. |
I get this all the time 
What Paul Sutherland said, which has nothing to do with jealousy, is right on. Ron Wood was on a trajectory early in his career of becoming a great musician. Some of that stuff on Rod Stewart’s first few albums was amazing. Rock stardom took care of all that. Great career move, but a disaster for the chops. Who among us may have chosen differently? The Stones took him to the Crossroads and he made his choice. He didn’t have to become a great steel player, or even a passable one, to play on their albums. He was already in. |
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Peter Freiberger
From:
California, USA
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Fred Treece
From:
California, USA
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Posted 29 Aug 2019 9:32 pm
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Yeah Peter, that guy’s pretty good 
Great song. |
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Paul Sutherland
From:
Placerville, California
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Posted 29 Aug 2019 10:13 pm
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When the Stones have added sax to songs for recordings or concerts they have always used someone who can really play the sax. Why shouldn't the steel guitar get the same respect?
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It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 30 Aug 2019 4:37 am
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I'm not criticising anyone's playing here but it seems to me that the whole performance was a kind of send-up of the country genre. Jagger seems to be poking fun at it.
I have no problem with that, either. It's just that I doubt they'd be very interested in any critical analysis.
_________________
Roger Rettig - Emmons D10s, Quilter TT-12, B-bender Teles and old Martins.
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Jim Cohen
From:
Philadelphia, PA
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Bob Bestor
From:
Ashland, OR
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Posted 30 Aug 2019 7:59 am
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| Fred Treece wrote: |
| Earnest Bovine wrote: |
| The Stones are better than they sound. |
I get this all the time
What Paul Sutherland said, which has nothing to do with jealousy, is right on. Ron Wood was on a trajectory early in his career of becoming a great musician. Some of that stuff on Rod Stewart’s first few albums was amazing. Rock stardom took care of all that. Great career move, but a disaster for the chops. Who among us may have chosen differently? The Stones took him to the Crossroads and he made his choice. He didn’t have to become a great steel player, or even a passable one, to play on their albums. He was already in. |
Agreed. Ronnie's best work was with the Faces. Here's 43 minutes of pretty much perfect powerhouse blues rock guitar and more:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xHBjeiqzkQ&t=8s
_________________
Keep on truckin' |
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Jack Hanson
From:
San Luis Valley, USA
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Posted 30 Aug 2019 8:26 am
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| Doug Beaumier wrote: |
| I've always considered Far Away Eyes to be a parody of country music, especially Jagger's vocal |
I shall likely be torched for expressing this sentiment, but I have always considered all of Jagger's vocals a parody. Perhaps I'm merely jealous of a seemingly otherwise healthy septuagenarian who can still fit into the same pair of trousers he wore in junior high school. There's no doubt that the cat sure can dance and prance, though. A skill perhaps rivaled only by his ability to add commas to the balance in his bank account. |
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Jim Cohen
From:
Philadelphia, PA
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Posted 30 Aug 2019 8:50 am
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| Jack Hanson wrote: |
...I have always considered all of Jagger's vocals a parody... |
Well, the thing is that he has a native English accent, but sings through a feigned American southern twang (ending up with some weird hybrid). Now the funny thing is when American musicians sing his music, they start with a native American accent (twang or not, depending on geography) but feign the sound of an Englishman faking an American twang. And the circle goes round... lol
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www.JimCohen.com
www.RonstadtRevue.com
www.BeatsWalkin.com |
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Joachim Kettner
From:
Germany
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Posted 30 Aug 2019 8:58 am
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I saw Ron Wood playing bass in the Jeff Beck Goup when I was fourteen and of course it's off topic. His guitar playing did not develop much like for instance John Fogertys, who made a big leap forward on "Full Moon Swamp".
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Fender Kingman, Sierra Crown D-10, Evans Amplifier, Soup Cube. |
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Curt Trisko
From:
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
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Posted 30 Aug 2019 10:27 am
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I see this kind of steel playing as a absolute win. A song by a band this popular is more likely to get people to play covers of it... and if they want that steel, they have to call on us. And when they call on us, these parts are easy to learn and we can dazzle them by doing it cleaner and better than on the recordings.
I did just that about a year ago with a Led Zeppelin cover. Jimmy Page did the steel on the recording, and it was pitchy and rudimentary. We played it in a beautiful venue with a full audience:
https://youtu.be/SyORFbr_-To |
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Bart Bull
From:
New Orleans, USA/Paris FR/Berkeley USSR
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Posted 30 Aug 2019 5:39 pm
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I remember Dave Pearlman saying he ran across the Stones rehearsing somewhere, and he was going to offer to sit in on steel for free . . . if Ron Wood would just agree to quit it. Can't remember if Dave actually did so or not, but knowing that rascal . . . may well have.
(Me? I aspire to Ron's level of pitch-perfect pedal-pumping...eyeliner or not.)
_________________
Undoubtedly the finest pedal steel player in Paris' 18th Arrondissement
Disaster of Touch, Tone & Taste; Still mastering the manifold mysteries of the Sho-Bud Maverick
Supro, Oahu, pin-striped Rus-Ler SD-10, y tiger-stripe-painted Stella
Hohner Corona Dos en Fa, y Gabanelli en Sol |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 31 Aug 2019 11:22 am
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Personally, I've never "gotten" the Stones. Jager, Wyman, Keith, Ron Wood ... meh, they just don't light any of my synapses even though you can't grow up in America without knowing their top ten songs word for word. . I understand that there are a whole lotta folks who feel very differently.
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Steel Guitar Books! Website: www.volkmediabooks.com |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 31 Aug 2019 1:48 pm
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I recall being on tour with them in '63, I think (I can't remember now). The singer I was working for, Eden Kane, had a string of hits to his credit and we were top-of-the-bill (hence, we closed the show each night).
On the first tour date my colleague and guitarist, Ben Steed, suggested that we go to the wings and check out the Rolling Stones. At that point they'd had their first hit ('Come On') and had just released 'Not Fade Away' (they were a cover band back then  ). We didn't listen for very long. Their tuning was shameful and they certainly didn't seem well-presented to us. We repaired to the pub.
Long story short? 'Not Fade Away' made number-one while the tour was in progress and the resulting pandemonium forced a change - Eden Kane had to close the first half and the Stones went on to close the night. It must have been galling for EK - the day of the well-groomed solo singer was all but over - but we got to go home earlier.
We got on well with them but I could never take to their somewhat sloppy and raucous approach. The only record I vaguely liked was 'Honky Tonk Women' but I think there was a guest guitarist on that one who smoothed things out a bit!
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Roger Rettig - Emmons D10s, Quilter TT-12, B-bender Teles and old Martins.
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Jim Cohen
From:
Philadelphia, PA
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Jack Hanson
From:
San Luis Valley, USA
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Posted 31 Aug 2019 2:00 pm
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| When I was a kid I dug the sound of the short-scale hollow-body basses that Wyman used to play. 19th Nervous Breakdown for example. The British bands seemed to favor that hollow, woody sound those things excel at producing. Lost Woman by the Yardbirds and We Gotta Get Outa This Place by the Animals are two more chestnuts with a similar approach. Cool stuff. |
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Paul Sutherland
From:
Placerville, California
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Posted 31 Aug 2019 2:18 pm
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Jumpin Jack Flash has certainly stood the test of time, at least for me.
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It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. |
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Jim Cohen
From:
Philadelphia, PA
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 31 Aug 2019 7:14 pm
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Jack:
Back in my native Britain in the 1950s there were no good electric basses available. The UK/US trade embargo that forbade the import of American instruments wasn't lifted until 1960 at which point a few Fender Precisions and Gibson EB1s made their way to our our shores.
Prior to that we had to cope with European-built Hofners or Framus basses. Hofner made the small 'violin' bass (not many of those) and a larger slimline hollow body (the name of which I've forgotten; it wasn't dissimilar to a Hofner President cello guitar).
More common was the Framus Star Bass (a hollow-body); I believe that Bill Wyman played one of these.
Perhaps it was more a case of British players having to make do rather than favouring that type of instrument.
Solid-body guitars and basses were to be had (Rosetti was one such brand) but they were pretty dire.
Here's an early band I was in. Our bass player has a Framus Star Bass with its sunburst finish stripped off the top. (As you'll see, we did have a couple of Gibsons here so this must be 1960 - I'm on the right at 17 years old.
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Roger Rettig - Emmons D10s, Quilter TT-12, B-bender Teles and old Martins.
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 31 Aug 2019 7:46 pm
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Jim C: That hadn't occurred to me....
There was also the time at the Empire Pool, Wembley at the Annual New Musical Express Pollwinners' Concert in April, 1964.
Once again, we were out on tour but management deemed it necessary for us to do our afternoon matinee (at the Edmonton Granada), shoot around the North Circular Road to Wembley, perform Eden Kane's current big hit ("Boys Cry" had won 'best single by a Male Singer' or something), then dash back to Edmonton for the evening show.
This meant that the organisers had to squeeze us in a very precise time-slot at the Wembley gig. We drew the short-straw - we had to follow the Rolling Stones' spot and immediately precede the Beatles!
It also meant we were forced to use the Beatle's amps (nasty, tinny Voxes) as there was zero change-over time to spare. Having said that, the sound in those days in that cavernous 10,000-seater left much to be desired and I'm sure we were worrying over nothing. Setting up my beloved Fender Showman wouldn't have changed a thing!
I doubt that anything we played could have been heard over the bedlam of noise emanating from thousands of fans anticipating the Beatles' entrance. We passed them on the back-stage stairs and slunk away.
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Roger Rettig - Emmons D10s, Quilter TT-12, B-bender Teles and old Martins.
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Fred Treece
From:
California, USA
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Posted 31 Aug 2019 8:22 pm
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| Jim Cohen wrote: |
| Another great story, Roger. When's your book due out?) |
That makes two of us that I know of that have asked this question. Maybe we should just collect up all these stories he shares here and publish the thing ourselves. |
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Jim Cohen
From:
Philadelphia, PA
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Posted 31 Aug 2019 8:26 pm
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Roger, you do know how huge is the market for anything genuine (or even not) concerning the Beatles, don't you? You have a fascinating back-story to tell of the early days. I think you could probably make more $ with such a book than by playing music. Seriously...
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www.JimCohen.com
www.RonstadtRevue.com
www.BeatsWalkin.com |
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