<SMALL>In 1885, in Honolulu, Joseph Kekuku, an 11-year-old student at Kamehameha School for Boys began experimenting (as young boys will) with ways to make different musical sounds on his guitar. The story goes that while walking along the railroad tracks, he picked up a bolt and slid it across the strings, effecting the very first characteristic slur of steel guitar...</SMALL>
Fair enough, but then whilst my wife was researching an article for our magazine 'Aloha Dream', I spotted this :-
<SMALL>While Dillingham's dream of large-scale human settlement on the ‘Ewa Plain would have to wait until the last decades of the twentieth century, his plan for a railroad that served the area came together fairly quickly. After leasing Campbell's ‘Ewa and Kahuku land in order to start two sugar plantations Dillingham obtained a government charter for a railroad. It was granted by King David Kalakaua on September 11, 1888,</SMALL>
And I can't seem to find any information about construction starting before 1888 !!
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<SMALL>Steel players do it without fretting</SMALL>
<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by basilh on 21 April 2006 at 03:44 AM.]</p></FONT>
Baz, when I am in HI I always look up steel players in places where very few people get to; the pine field, east Molokai,southern tip of the big island, etc; Today these fellows that are still living are in mid 80s and 90s. The ones who have passed on I talked with as a kid just before Pearl Harbor. I don't remember any of them buying the bolt story. They do say that they heard he dropped his guitar on a railroad track and the steel slid against the strings to make the sound all of us love. So I guess you takes your pick and thank goodness whatever happened did! CC
C.C, no doubt it DID happen, it's just the chronology that I'm querying.
In the world of Pedal steel, the chronological development has been accurately documented by people like Carl Dixon, and the development of the E9th tuning etc. and members Like Buddy Emmons can put to rest any of the myths that came about regarding the 'Chromatic' Strings and their placement, BUT, in the world of Hawaiian Guitar there are a LOT of ambiguities, and unfortunately Joseph, Sol and the rest of the early masters are no longer here for their voices to be heard, so speculation has led to some rather strange urban myths, like for example the cowboys who came to Hawaii at the request of the King to teach the Hawaiians how to handle the wild cattle, There were only THREE and they probably DIDN'T play guitar to any great level of proficiency. So the whole 'Slack Key' origins theory is a kind of 'Dead Duck'.
I heard that Joseph Kekuku was sitting, guitar in lap and combing his hair. He dropped his comb on the guitar and heard that sound.
To me, that seems more convincing than just picking up a bolt on thr railroad tracks, <font face="monospace" size="3"><pre>or the rumor that Gerald Ross came to him in a dream</pre></font>.....
Interesting post. And a bit of a surprise that no one has questioned this aspect of the Kekuku story earlier.
I recognize your first quoted source as "Hawaiian Music and Musicians," Kanahele editor, University press of Hawaii. What is the second source you are quoting from? Also, not being familiar with the 'Ewa Plain, is this the railroad that Kekuku would have been walking along?
Don't forget the long tradition among many African cultures for using various sticks, bones, etc to produce notes on non-fretted instruments, leading to the Diddly-Bow and the use of knives & other implements to fret guitars in the USA... probably too far removed, but:
Any African-American sailors that enjoyed liberty in the islands ?
"Discoveries" are seldom single events, but evolutionary and plural. Joseph Kekuku was certainly a visionary and an inventor and promoter of steel guitar and Hawaii would have been the most befitting place to earth where the unique flowing and liquid sound of steel on string, such as is the Hawaiian style, would have developed. But glissando on string was known to classical Indian and other genres long before. Although no other form gets as pretty as Hawaiian music, in my view.
John Soper and Kay Das make good points. Culture is transmitted, ot just objects and inventions.
Don't forget the Portuguese, who were great seamen and explorers, who had extensive contact with India (Goa, Diu, Diman)and the Pacific (Macao, Timor). . . and were known to have played guitar.
A type of Indian veena played with a "slide", plus a Portuguese sailor who had been in India, now with a guitar in Hawaii . . . Makes more sense than the "guitar dropped on a railroad track" hypothesis.
(A result of my current study of Portuguese langauge is an interest in this relatively small nation's oversized role in the history of discovery.)
The Kekuku crown as the originator of the lap guitar style is a subject that has brought factions of the steel community almost to blows. To, me it's a big yawn. Gerald, Bob, Kay ... you're all correct in my book. Some kid playing a Diddly Bow with a bottle in 1855 could equally get the credit. In my world view, musical cross pollination is as old as time and there are likely multiple origins for the style and it's all essentially untraceable. Kekuku certainly was very savvy in his marketing skills.
If I even remotely thought the steel was invented by some red-neck country player, I would quit today, and go work on my old boat.
I'm just joking of course. Does it really matter who stumbled on the idea? It seems to work, no matter whose idea it was, even though Gerald has night mares about it!!
Any way, my old wood boat needs work yet.
Oh yes, I thought the date was around 1898, since there was a celebration for the 100th aniversary,around that date, wasn't there?<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Bill Creller on 21 April 2006 at 01:03 PM.]</p></FONT>
Hi Baz,
Here's some information by Robert C. Schmitt; a Hawaii state statistician. This is from his book called: FIRSTS IN HAWAII
"The earliest railroad installation in Hawaii appears to have been a track a couple hundred feet in length built in Honolulu in 1857 to remove material dredged from the harbor".
"The Oahu Rail and Land Company provided railroad service on Oahu from 1889 to 1947"
There is also another book written within the past 3 years about the rail system. Can't remember the title or the author.
Anyway, I don't buy the railroad track story about Kekuku. The falling comb sounds more credible, but it's diffult to say as things were never documented during that time. Even the famous "SHAKA" sign; lots of theories but no hard evidence.
With any mention of a "Bar' I would have expected some of the more libation inclined forumites to respond.
Where are you Archie Nicol ?<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by basilh on 21 April 2006 at 02:33 PM.]</p></FONT>
?
