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Topic: Billy Williamson with Bill Haley |
David Matzenik
From:
Cairns, on the Coral Sea
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Posted 16 Jun 2019 10:31 pm |
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I always wondered about the steel guitar player with Bill Haley (the real King) and the Comets. Here they are in the Saddlemen, circa 1950, once billed as The Cowboy Jive Band. Williamson plays a tasty break at about 1:02 into "Rovin' Eyes."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_RoNY__7kQ
_________________
Don't go in the water after lunch. You'll get a cramp and drown. - Mother. |
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Joe Elk
From:
Ohio, USA
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Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
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Posted 17 Jun 2019 6:08 am
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I seriously doubt that is Williamson on "Rovin' Eyes". That's from about 1948 when Haley's band was "The Four Aces Of Western Swing", with Merle Fritz on steel. Williamson joined when Haley formed The Saddlemen several years later.
Here's a pic of Merle and another tune by him with Haley, under Haley's pseudonym "Johnny Clifton".
The guy at the mike is Marshall Lytle, the bass player in most of the well-known Haley band pictures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SECu-uEXU6o
Here's another by Haley with Merle Fritz; Behind The Eight Ball:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c1RoOdtDes
Last edited by Mitch Drumm on 17 Jun 2019 6:40 am; edited 3 times in total |
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Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
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Posted 17 Jun 2019 6:25 am
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Here's some Billy live video from 1958 in Belgium.
Watch around 1:07.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq3RxyOeoZE
Does he have the bar somehow attached to his hand, while clapping?
Not using a bar at all?
He goes from playing to clapping and back to playing without appearing to set the bar down or to pick it up anywhere. The pic quality is fair but not crisp.
Unfortunately, he doesn't take a ride. Franny Beecher gets in a few licks. |
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Tim Whitlock
From:
Colorado, USA
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Posted 17 Jun 2019 4:02 pm
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| Mitch Drumm wrote: |
Here's some Billy live video from 1958 in Belgium.
Watch around 1:07.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq3RxyOeoZE
Does he have the bar somehow attached to his hand, while clapping?
Not using a bar at all?
He goes from playing to clapping and back to playing without appearing to set the bar down or to pick it up anywhere. The pic quality is fair but not crisp.
Unfortunately, he doesn't take a ride. Franny Beecher gets in a few licks. |
It looks to me like he is faux clapping with the bar in his hand just for the visual effect. |
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David Matzenik
From:
Cairns, on the Coral Sea
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Posted 17 Jun 2019 11:57 pm
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I have only just revived my interest in Bill Haley, and like most people in the pre-internet days, I only heard his major hits. That also meant that we only saw Billy Williamson in a few clips doing rips and scrapes. I would have never expected Drowsy Waters, Billy does a nice job. Thanks for the link, Joe. There were a lot of residual musical tastes around in the 1950s, and a band was expected to be versatile. But I do remember, back then, the sense that those early Rock bands were having trouble coming up with new material.
Mitch, thanks for the correction. On Billy Williamsons solos, I was quoting John Swenson's biography of Haley, and you know what they say about assumptions. I am pretty sure these are Billy:
Rock This Joint, he comes in about 1,34. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-BztZfXzlo
Rocking Chair On the Moon, at about 1,18.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scR1qiAcKBo
On that hand-clap transition, I think you can do it, but you are not going to get a very convincing clap sound. The Comets were always going for visual animation on stage.
_________________
Don't go in the water after lunch. You'll get a cramp and drown. - Mother. |
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Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
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Posted 18 Jun 2019 2:58 am
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Here’s Williamson, inviting you down to see The Saddlemen for some “hillbilly and western†music, circa 1951/1952:
https://picosong.com/wAHCB
Here’s the all-time Comets clip, not for the faint of heart; from “Don’t Knock The Rockâ€; 1956:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdAvxDVv5Vc
Here’s a crystal clear color clip from late 1958 of Haley with Williamson in the Caterina Valente feature film “Here I Am, Here I Stayâ€. Unfortunately, only glimpses of Williamson. Looks like the “Fender†logo was removed?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3_wWHhhY30 |
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K Maul
From:
Hadley, NY/Hobe Sound, FL
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Posted 18 Jun 2019 4:14 am
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As far as I know he always played a Gibson. In the last shot you can see the logo.
_________________
Kevin Maul: Airline, Beard, Clinesmith, Decophonic, Evans, Excel, Fender, Fluger, Gibson, Hilton, Ibanez, Justice, K+K, Live Strings, MOYO, National, Oahu, Peterson, Quilter, Rickenbacher, Sho~Bud, Supro, TC, Ultimate, VHT, Williams, X-otic, Yamaha, ZKing. |
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