Speedy West tab wanted

[Herb Steiner]

I'm looking for the tablature for this one by Speedy West. Anyone out there have a copy?

Space Man in Orbit

[Kenny Davis]

Good luck finding that one! Maybe Klaatu or his buddy Gort?

Speedy was from another planet!

“Klaatu barada nikto”

[Erv Niehaus]

Even if I had the tab, I couldn't play that one!
Erv

[Lee Baucum]

I'm looking for the tablature for this one by Speedy West.

The first step would be to develop a new form of tablature.



~Lee

[Erv Niehaus]

What do you suggest?
Erv

[Mike Neer]

While, I don't have time to tab it all out, I could definitely help out with that one.
I think Speedy used an E13 and lower the Bs to A#, making it an F#9 tuning. It's kind of similar to Flippin' The Lid, which I did years ago.
G# E C# B(A#) G# E C# B(A#)
I have the tune in Db.

That fast descending triplet line would look something like this:

[tab]
G#-----------------------------------------------------------------
E-------12------------------------------------------------------------
C#---12----12------12-----------------------------------------0-----
B--------------12*-----12*------12*------------------------------0*
G#--------------------------12------12-----12-----------------------
E --------------------------------------12-----12------12------------
C#-------------------------------------------------12-----12---------
B--------------------------------------------------------------------
*pedal down
[/tab]
To me it sounds like those last two notes in the first pass are open strings.
If there are any specific parts that you want to know about, just post the question here.

[Herb Steiner]

Mike
My request for tablature on this tune was strictly tongue in cheek! But if anyone could decipher Speedy's stuff correctly, you'd be my first reference.

The entire "Guitar Spectacular" album is among Speedy's best and most lyrical recordings, IMHO.

[Mike Neer]

The entire "Guitar Spectacular" album is among Speedy's best and most lyrical recordings, IMHO.

I completely agree. Probably the reason I play steel. I bought that LP at Matt Umanov's store in the 80s and listened to it endlessly.

[Doug Beaumier]

My request for tablature on this tune was strictly tongue in cheek!

Yeah, I did a double-take when I read your post and listened to the song. I wasn't quite sure if you were serious or not.

[J D Sauser]

Mike
My request for tablature on this tune was strictly tongue in cheek! But if anyone could decipher Speedy's stuff correctly, you'd be my first reference.

The entire "Guitar Spectacular" album is among Speedy's best and most lyrical recordings, IMHO.

I was still a kid somewhere in Switzerland trying to figure out Don Helms stuff behind Hank by "ear" on a D8 Console Grande I wasn't sure how to tune when our guitar player brought in two records and threw them in front my guitar saying "check this out!". One of the record sleeves had just Fender 8 string necks all over with a passport shot sized color picture of "some guy" with a big grin ('cause he knew his guitar had pedals and I wouldn't know, I guess)!
I was hooked faster than a kid on crack-cocaine.

I managed an "acceptable" "Speedin' West" on my A6th tuning (which I did not even know what it was... to me it was just A, C#, E, F#) but the rest just went past me too fast.
In later years, understanding more about music theory and tunings I found that many of the swing tunes could be replicated best on E9th (as, as Doug Beaumier well points out, Speedy's early main tuning was an E13th with and "inverted" P5 (the "Two Below"-pedal on C6th, he would hold down for E13th most of the time and would turn the tuning into a F#9th when released).


Yes, "Steel Guitar Spectacular" is an all around amazing legacy of Speedy's and Jimmy's art, and also a record with that clean, buzzy Capitol Records sound that could be heard on Gene Vincent's and Wanda Jackson's records of the days. Back then, record labels had "their" sound and that record is one that reflects it so well.

For TAB, I would suggest to go to a paper roll format and put it on two very fast spindles just to keep up.

Vance Terry did a pretty convincing "Speedy" at some time.

I asked Maurice Anderson once to show me some, and he just rolled his eyes, smacked the bar on the strings and said "see, I can't even make THAT sound like him!"



Speedy told me a story in early 2000 that reflect the buzz he had going for him:

They were playing a place where the stage that was too small, so they set Speedy up with his guitar and amp on the dance floor in front of the stage. As he took his solo surrounded by dancing couple, he overheard some girl yelling to her partner "lets move away from this, that THING's gonna BLOW UP!"

Still decades later, he seemed very proud of that reaction!

Probably the least copied stylist of steel guitar!... J-D.

[Herb Steiner]

Yes, "Steel Guitar Spectacular" is an all around amazing legacy of Speedy's and Jimmy's art,

Probably the least copied stylist of steel guitar!... J-D.

The guitarists on "Guitar Spectacular" are Billy Strange and Roy Lanham. Bryant and Capitol had parted ways by that time.

Here's the discography info:
https://www.discogs.com/release/4139598 ... pectacular

[Joachim Kettner]

Drummer Earl Palmer (Little Richard, Fats Domino and so on) played on this record too.