Good or bad, JG's technical skills aside, this tune must be responsible for launching a multitude of '70's wanna be steel players.
Whether or not the purists agree with the execution of said or think we're any good is not important.

Beyond that, the era was flooded with artists and producers on the fringes of other styles who liked the steel guitar and saw fit to mix it loud and up front.
I take my hat off to those people. Steel players world wide should be grateful for this exposure.
I may not have found the instrument until much later in life, if at all had it not been for that exposure.

I listened to lots of styles of music, but had not been actively seeking to become a bona fide musician until I heard some of this "rogue"? music.

This thread always brings out the best of the worst qualities of pedal steel players. Persnickity! OOOoooooo! he was not in PERFECT tune, OOOoooooo! he was not REALLY a pedal steel player, OOOOooooooo! if it had only been a REAL pedal player like Robert Rand--uhhhhh like Buddy Emmons--yea! Emmons, OOOOoooo, OOOoooo, OOOOoooo repeat 1000 times.

If it had not been Garcia, it would have been ALL wrong!!! He is the perfect choice, playing the perfect part on this song, because that is the way it was done.

A cosmic correlation is John Lennon playing lap steel on "12 Bar Blues". Shouldn't they have waited a few more years until Jerry Douglas was old enough to get a visa and come play it "correctly"????

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A more experienced player would have allowed for cab drop when he tuned it.

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yes a more experienced player may have; but Jerry was the player on the session.

So it's not pitch perfect. So it ain't technically flawless. It WAS appropriate to the tune and apparently what the producers wanted, and the buying public bought.

He's DEAD! Let the guy R.I.P.

Sure It's a crying shame the general public maybe can identify JG and hasn't a clue who BE or LG or JD are, but that's just the way things are. Life is not fair. Fame is fickle.

FLAME SUIT ON:
I've heard recordings on which Jimmy Day played "out of tune"; somehow that gets called "Country Soul"...

Personally, I love both men's playing, and appreciate them for what they were. HUMAN BEINGS!

John 8:7

[This message was edited by Dave Van Allen on 07 October 2005 at 11:46 AM.]

Sorry fellows I couldn't help myself.

Rick

[This message was edited by Rick Garrett on 08 October 2005 at 09:51 AM.]

You want pitchy pedal steel,give a listen to Fire on the Mountain by Marshall Tucker or Seeds and Stems by Cody.. Even I can hear that...

"This thread always brings out the best of the worst qualities of pedal steel players. Persnickity! OOOoooooo! he was not in PERFECT tune, OOOoooooo! he was not REALLY a pedal steel player, OOOOooooooo! if it had only been a REAL pedal player like Robert Rand--uhhhhh like Buddy Emmons--yea! Emmons, OOOOoooo, OOOoooo, OOOOoooo repeat 1000 times." ---Bill Hatcher

quote:

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. . . if you can't say something nice about someone, say nothing at all

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Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2003 Fessenden S/D-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S/D-12 6x6, 1984 Sho-Bud S/D-12 7x6, 1971 Dobro, Standel and Peavey Amps

And his music.

I'm Republican though, so I'm not exactly "mainstream" around here.....

Great thread.

In another thread on this same subject, I wrote about the responses I received on a guitar board for saying that Garcia was not the world's greatest steel player. Some of those responses were along the lines of "if this guy Lloyd Green is so great, how come I never heard of him?" or "Why didn't CSNY use him instead?"

The point is the man had a style and taste, not great technical ability.

I'll take a player always who has style and taste over some technician who is perfectly in tune, plays all the right notes - but has no heart in his playing.

I've seen, for example, some pretty good guitar players go to the Musician's Institute in Hollywood. They graduate as technically-superior, proficient payers who can play anything.

And sound like dog poop doing it, because there's just no soul or fire in it. More than one good player ruined by more concern for technical ability than being a musician.

I'm a new steel player. I'm a hack. But right now, all I want to do is play ONE really good note. Later I'll make it two. I'll never be the match for 99% of you technically, and I could not care less.

I just want to sound like me and have it mean something to whoever happens to care to listen.

That's what I think Garcia did for his *intended* audience.

Jim

"no chops, but great tone"

[This message was edited by Jim Sliff on 07 October 2005 at 07:50 PM.]

Gosh Barry - didn't know you spoke for the entire planet.