Early Waikiki Islanders practise sessions (1963)

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 17 May 2007 3:21 am

Prompted by another thread, here are some examples of our practise sessions in 1963, I was developing my tunings on the,(new for me), Fender 1000.

Can you figure the BASIC tunings used ?

1.Hula Blues
2.PLEASE tell me the name of this
3.Little Brown Gal
4.Moonlight Medley
5.Pagan Love Song
6.Steel Guitar Rag
7.Love is Blue
8.Nuages
9.The Hawaiian Wedding Song
10.Honolulu March
11.The Secrets of the Sea
12.12th street Rag
13.Moonlight Becomes You
14.East of the Sun
15.You are Always in my Heart
16.Malihini Mele
17.Ebb Tide
18.The Breeze and I
19.My Little Grass Shack
20.Sleepy Lagoon
21.You go to my Head
22.Things we said Today
23.Blue Hawaii
24.Sweet Leilani
25.The White Blossoms of Tahni
26.Silhouette Hula
27.Hula Blues

Hope you enjoy them and take them for what they are,very embryonic versions of tunes we later managed to get right !! mistakes, warts and all..
Baz

Harry Dietrich · Post by **Harry Dietrich** » 17 May 2007 12:08 pm

Baz

Is that you doing the singing?

If so....pretty good.

Harry

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 17 May 2007 4:20 pm

No Harry it's our vocalist Frank Kahili

More about all of us here :- http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/html/group_bio.htm

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 17 May 2007 5:02 pm

No, I can't figure out the tunings.

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 17 May 2007 6:50 pm

Beautiful playing, Baz. I really enjoyed your rendition of Ebb Tide - it's always been one of my favorite tunes.

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 18 May 2007 2:34 am

Great listening, Baz. I loved hearing The Thins We said Today on steel. Was that inspired by Desi Arnaz? ("Let me 'splain a 'thin or two, Lucy!" )

By the way, newer members, if you like these cuts, check out Baz's wonderful Live at the Castaways CDs for more swinging and tasteful steel work.

ps Kind of you not to comment on the two egregious typos on MY post! Typos ... the bane of my professional career.

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 18 May 2007 5:35 am

Just ONE "Typo".. you should see how many there are in the magazine before Pat puts on her editor's cap..
Of course it should be "THINGS" but I was trying to get all the links to work and ignored the spelling of the body text..
Admonished, ostracized and castigated.. but nonetheless happy !!

BTW The spell checker says that "nonetheless" IS a word !! surprise surprise..

BTW we also "Love Lucy"

Did you notice the messing around by me on the plectrum guitar on "Nuages"

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 18 May 2007 10:29 pm

Admonished, ostracized and castigated.

Would that be perchance a "Hankeyism" ?

Jeff Au Hoy · Post by **Jeff Au Hoy** » 19 May 2007 1:23 am

Admonished, ostracized and castigated

Isn't that part of the seldom-heard third verse of the Rogers and Hart tune that goes, "I'm wild again, beguiled again..."?

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 19 May 2007 3:56 am

Probably, but I'm just Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered as to what the song is !

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 19 May 2007 4:54 pm

There's some good material there.

I think you got the name of number 2 right. It's that famous Hawaiian folk song called "Please tell me the name of this." It goes...

"Please tell me the name of this,
It's much too good a number to miss.
I sit on the beach and sing it out loud,
It never fails to draw a crowd.
I pull out my guitar and we start to roll,
Till my tone bar falls into the hole.
I'd play some more if I knew how,
But they're about to throw me out of the luau...."

Jeff Au Hoy · Post by **Jeff Au Hoy** » 19 May 2007 6:31 pm

Number 2 is an old standard called "Pili Me 'Oe" i.e., together with you. Not sure who composed it.

Alan, what's the melody to that song? I'd love to learn and sing it.

George Keoki Lake · Post by **George Keoki Lake** » 19 May 2007 8:59 pm

Nice playing BAZ. BTW: "Malahini"...??? Should be
MALIHINI....no beeg thing brah.

http://www3.telus.net/public/lake_r/

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 19 May 2007 11:27 pm

Thanks George, typos are the bane of the cixelsyd !!
Being somewhat of a Kamaaina myself I've long ago forgotten how to spell Malihini..

Play this

George Keoki Lake · Post by **George Keoki Lake** » 20 May 2007 8:41 am

What the heck is a cixelsyd !! I've looked on all my steel guitars and can't find one of those. Am I missing something ? Is this why I'll never amount to anything on the steel ? Should I toss all my guitars in the nearest river ? Oh woe ! Goodbye cruel world !!

http://www3.telus.net/public/lake_r/

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 20 May 2007 9:33 am

Reverse it !!

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 20 May 2007 11:04 am

Jeff Au Hoy wrote:Number 2 is an old standard called "Pili Me 'Oe" i.e., together with you. Not sure who composed it.
Alan, what's the melody to that song? I'd love to learn and sing it.

Jeff: Does "Pili Me 'Oe" translate to "Please tell me the name of this" ?

The melody of the song ? You can make it up as you go along...

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 20 May 2007 11:16 pm

Both Ken Ufton and myself used to call it "Cowboy Hula" maybe that's a UK nickname for it !!

Derrick Mau · Post by **Derrick Mau** » 21 May 2007 3:37 pm

Baz,

My records show that song #2 (Pili Me 'Oe) was written by Charles E. King.

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 9 Apr 2008 8:44 am

Keoki said "What the heck is a cixelsyd !! I've looked on all my steel guitars and can't find one of those. "
Well George a cixelsyd is a Dyslexic trying to type his "noitcilffa"

Howard Tate · Post by **Howard Tate** » 9 Apr 2008 10:52 am

Bas, your playing always has such great tone, and is so clean, I love it.

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 9 Apr 2008 11:59 am

Muchas gracias Howard, or should that be Mahalo Nui ?
You've just "Made my Day"..

Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 10 Apr 2008 7:45 am

Your practice sessions sound MUCH better than mine. Thanks for sharing, Basil!

Nic Neufeld · Post by **Nic Neufeld** » 3 Jan 2018 7:24 am

basilh wrote: Did you notice the messing around by me on the plectrum guitar on "Nuages"

Thanks for these. Sound pretty good for recording them that long ago!

I was listening to them without looking at the titles and it ran across Nuages, and for a second I thought it the Jerry Byrd intro to Sand, so I can see why (as I've read on here) people wondered if he was influenced by Nuages... Nice fretting!

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 3 Jan 2018 10:24 am

Nic Neufeld wrote:I was listening to them without looking at the titles and it ran across Nuages, and for a second I thought it the Jerry Byrd intro to Sand, so I can see why (as I've read on here) people wondered if he was influenced by Nuages... Nice fretting!

The resemblance to Sand was what attracted me to the song as well. Both songs are in our Wine Country Swing repertoire.