Pedal steel solos that nobody knew were pedal steel

[Joe Shelby]

Steeler's Wheel (that band name in itself clued us in
to the "slide" sound in the song), 1969/1970?.
Gerry Rafferty was in that band.
The hard part was trying(at age 13) to tell if it was
slide guitar or pedal steel. Years later, I realized
there were pedal changes going on in the slide part,
I won't say absolutely, but I say pedal guitar.
BJ Cole, again?

Joe

[Joe Shelby]

The software is doing weird stuff, I don't understand...
Anyway this is the song I was referring to.

Joe

[Dan Tyack]

Joe, are you talking about "Stuck in the Middle". I just listened to that and it sounds like pedal steel to me (doesn't sound like BJ Cole, though). It kind of reminds me of that pedal steel in All I Want to Do (although a little more 'slidy').

[Dan Tyack]

Now that I opened this thread to non-hits

Here's a non-hit on which I played some unrecognizable pedal steel:

Out of Tune (some would say approporiately titled)

This next was a hit in the huge (not!) drone metal music scene:

Raiford

Here's some good old Chuck Berry style rock and roll(non-hit, but Joe Chiccarelli mixed it, so that's got to count for something ):

Austin

Of course, the main problem with doing this type of stuff is that nobody on the outside says 'gee who was that pedal steel player on that cut, I think I'll hire him for my next album'.

[Dan Tyack]

Here's a question for you Sneaky Pete experts out there. I know Pete played on several Little Feat records, but I don't really remember pedal steel on them. DOes anybody know what tracks Pete played on?

[Pete Finney]

Well, I'm not one of the Sneaky Pete experts by any means, but I do loves me some Little Feat. Pete played on these tracks for sure:

"I've Been the One" from the first album ("Little Feat"), and "Willin" and "Texas Rose Cafe" from the second album ("Sailin' Shoes").

There were several albums after that with no steel, I can't remember if he played on any of the later albums.

[Dan Tyack]

According to allmusic.com, he also played on Dixie Chicken. I'd like to know if it's one of these 'hidden' pedal steel parts that we're talking about in this thread.

[Bob Hoffnar]

Hey you Nashville guys give us the info on Sonny Garrish. He has not been mentioned yet. I know he played steel on hundreds of country hits sounding like a synth and all sorts of other things. I am under the impression that he kept the pedal steel alive in the studios in Nashville during a long anti steel period.

[P Gleespen]

A while back (2000 or so) there was a band called Train that had a pop hit called "Meet Virginia".

I was never able to confirm it, but according to Paul Franklin (somewhere back in the old bar chatter archives), the main riff through the verses is supposedly a pedal steel. If you listen close to it, you can hear that the thirds DO sound a lot like a steeler would temper 'em.

Anybody know for sure?

[robert kramer]

"Deep Feeling" by Chuck Berry B-side of "School Day"
(Steel Player: Chuck Berry)

"Sadie" by The Spinners: a pedal steel through phase shifter fills on the chorus's (Steel Player: Unknown)

Both songs availible on itunes.

[Marc Friedland]

Here's something I hope is sort of appropriate for this post.

http://www.marcfriedland.com/mp3s/Sharp ... 0Steel.mp3

It's of ZZ Top's Sharp Dressed Man that I did about 5 years ago for a demo with a group called “Medicine Man” I was asked to play an aggressive melodic lead on the steel, but sounding like an angry guitarist.
It was the 1st take, and the steel hadn’t even been “officially” tuned, but everyone loved it, and I think I did a good job of nailing the feel & attitude.

Marc

[Ricky Davis]

Instead of the orchestra doing background music in scary sceens in the Movie Firestorm....that was my steel guitar doing it in C minor.
ricky

[Al Marcus]

Roger Rettig-When you mentioned Alvino Rey, you picked a good one. I'll have to admit that he NEVER sounded like a "recgnizable" regular Pedal Steel Player.
In fact , he never even called it a steel guitar, but Alvino Rey and his "Singing Guitar"....al.:):)

[Franklin]

"My Sweet Lord" was definately recorded by Pete on his electric dobro through a Pignose amp. When Pete was honored with an award for all of his musical contributions in Nashville, I personally witnessed this.

During the ceremony they showed a video clip of George Harrison thanking Pete for his playing on that solo. I was in the steel guitar orchestra led by Harold Bradley which performed about fifty of Drakes contributions to number one hits from all genres. That solo was one of the fifty chosen by the inducting committee for us to perform.

Paul

[Brett Day]

Hey Paul, I loved your steel work on the "Walk Of Life" by Dire Straits. That's one song where I had no idea pedal steel was used.

Brett

[Bob Doran]

"Reece has a thread on major non-country groups which featured pedal steel playing"
Can someone direct me to this thread?
Thanks
Bob

[Joe Shelby]

Dan, that was Stuck in the Middle I was referring to a few posts back.
Liked Raiford a lot from your library. Atmospheric,
that would be the kind of stuff that could make me listen to a steel guitar album...
So, pull out some more things (not neccessarily like
Raiford) out of what I would imagine is a very large
collection of stuff you've done over the years, OK?
Inquiring ears want to hear...

Joe

[Ben Elder]

I think this is the reverse, but I've been trying for years to divine what's going on in the solo on Warren Zevon's "Heartache Spoken Here." Unless there's a special super-compressed sound you can beat out of a Fender psg, I think Mr. Dugmore gets to sit back while Waddy Wachtel takes it beginning to end, the last half with a very busy string bender...not necessarily his renown. But there's too much percussiveness in the last half of that break to make me fathom how a pedal steel could be making that sound.

[Chris LeDrew]

Paul, the "My Sweet Lord" solo sounds like it was doubled, and it's harmonized at one point. Could it be Pete and George, or was it Pete overdubbing himself? Either way, it's one of the most memorable runs of the decade.

[Donny Hinson]

Well, no one's mentioned "Afternoon Delight", by the Starland Vocal Band (formerly known as "Fat City"). Danny Pendleton did the steel honors on that one (suitably fuzzed, flanged, and phasered...so as not to offend the hippies of the period).

[Dick Wood]

How bout anything Jerry Garcia ever did.

[B J Cole]

Hi,

What a great thread, and not just because I'm getting loads of namechecks. Just to set the record straight. I did not play on Elton John's 'Rocket Man' or Gerry Rafferty's 'Stuck In The Middle' (although I did play on some Stealer's Wheel sessions that never got released). Thanks for the praise for my work on 'Right Down The Line' and Elton's 'Tiny Dancer' (My finest moment?) I did also play on Shania Twain's track 'I Ain't No Quitter' Which you attribute to Paul (I take that as a compliment). To see an exhaustive list of my session credits, go to http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=am ... dae~2~T40B. There's more there than I can even remember. Returning to the suject of the thread. I too was blown away by Jimmy Day's work on The Everly Brother's 'Lucille' and also by Curly Chalker's unbelievable back up work on the Merle Travis album 'Travis' from 1963.

BJ

[Chris LeDrew]

Hi BJ,

A question about "Right Down The Line": Is the pedal steel part the main intro, etc.? I just re-recorded this song, and did the intro and break on pedal steel. But it always sounded like straight guitar to me on the original, with other parts of the song sounding like pedal steel. I did it one octave down. Here is a link to my version:

www.myspace.com/chrisledrew

[Dan Tyack]

Paul,

Thanks for the comment on Pete's playing on My Sweet Lord. I think Pete doing the actual solo is entirely consistent with the recollections of George and Clapton taking multiple passes at it. Unfortunately I didn't find much if anything on the web attributing this to Pete, I wish it were more widely known.

[Dan Tyack]

Hi BJ,

A question about "Right Down The Line": Is the pedal steel part the main intro, etc.? I just re-recorded this song, and did the intro and break on pedal steel. But it always sounded like straight guitar to me on the original, with other parts of the song sounding like pedal steel. I did it one octave down. Here is a link to my version:

www.myspace.com/chrisledrew

Hey Chris,

Great version! I like that song, and you've preserved the flavor of the original.

In terms of the original, I might have listened to it more than B J , so I'll give my analysis:

IMHO the intro and solo are definitely pedal steel, although the only point in which B J plays something that could only be played on a pedal steel comes at the end of the solo (around 2:57). There's some guitar that comes in at the end of the intro (around 0:30). A guitar (with a tone very similar to B J's) does do some fills during the first verse.

One of the cool things about B J's playing on this cut is that it's really a very straight, clean pedal steel sound. But B J's phrasing and right hand technique makes it sound like a beautiful clean strat (kind of 'Mark Knopfler-ish in a way).