didn't you mean a free week?

Dan

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Dan Beller-McKenna
Big Red
Durham, NH

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Warning: I have a telecaster and I'm not afraid to use it.
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My web site

[This message was edited by Mike Perlowin on 13 July 2006 at 02:16 PM.]

Thats ANOTHER way in which Jerry Garcia was smarter than I am!!

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My Site | My SteelTab

This subject came up in a guitar forum, and I mentioned this, and got responses along the line of "If this guy Lloyd Green is so great, how come I never heard of him and why didn't CSNY use him instead?"

I won't even get into the names I was called for daring to suggest that Buddy Emmons is better.

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Warning: I have a telecaster and I'm not afraid to use it.
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My web site

[This message was edited by Mike Perlowin on 14 July 2006 at 12:12 PM.]

He gets a bum rap here too often just because he happened to enjoy the pedal steel guitar and knew a few licks on it and played it on his friends record that sold a zillion copies.

Was he a great steel player---the record sold a zillion copies.

Is he the greatest steel player----the record sold a zillion copies.

Should he be afforded the same respect that Emmons and Green and Franklin and the other players who played on hits that sold a zillion copies--the record he played on also sold a zillion copies.

After 30+ years of running away from the Dead, this year I've been focusing on them and particularly Jerry, whom I've enjoyed since the JGB finally came to the islands about a decade ago and gave us some great music.

What a stunning group the Dead were, at times. I've acquired shows that have them playing as well/enjoyable as anybody you can name. Of course, anyone that plays on the edge each time out is going to have ups and downs, but gawd, when it's happening...!

It seems tho, that his best steel playing was in the studio where he had the luxury of working out ideas to his satisfaction and getting takes he liked.
Counterpoint; I've been seeking out his live steel playing, and he did a lot with the NRPS. On the snapshot examples that are being offered weekly on www.wolfgangsvault.com he certainly was not a steeler that would have gotten the gig had he not been Jerry Garcia. Good ideas, but the execution is constantly flawed and actually hurts the music, which wasn't that good to start with. Then again, maybe he played to the level of the music.

That said, I'm a big JG/Dead fan now.

His guitar playing reminds me of
Clarence White, on Sweetheart of the Rodeo.
His steel playing only sounds like himself, to me...

He loved the steel,
let the nitwits believe what they want,
vis a vis being best in the world.
They likely haven't heard the better players.

He loved the steel,
and played what he could when he could.
And his playing made some good records better.
What more needs be said.

[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 20 July 2006 at 04:51 AM.]

[This message was edited by Jim Ives on 17 July 2006 at 02:04 PM.]

"My problem is with those who rank him as the world's greatest steel player, ranking him above Buddy, Lloyd, Paul Franklin and all the other greats.
This subject came up in a guitar forum..."

So this just hit me now-Mike, since you are a long time Forum member, is this the reason all these Garcia threads keep rising from the dead like Lazarus? Was this the original seed that was planted, because since I have been here, you have posted that info 2 or 3 times. That there is some underlying current around here that SOMEBODY thinks that Jerry was the best PSG player, but in fact it is no one here on the Forum with any reasonable amount of knowledge of the steel guitar and its players that would ever say something so absurd.

It may have been a few misguided Deadheads that felt this way...so why even bother to give them credit for having an opinion that matters?

Let's go for a sports analogy, since I really like to use them:

I have been a baseball fan most of my life, and once you get past the high dollars and steroids, it is still a beautiful game-but there are plenty of folks that just don't "get it" and they liken it to watching paint dry. I gave up on trying to convert them a long time ago-now I just blow them off. They've never delved into it below the obvious surface stuff, to be able to understand the nuances of the game.

It is the same sort of thing with misinfomed Deadheads that hold Jerry up as the steel king. And I'm a long time Deadhead myself!

Why bother to give that kind of ignorance on some other guitar forum the time of day when the purveyors of those thoughts are so obviously out to lunch!

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Mark

[This message was edited by Mark Eaton on 17 July 2006 at 05:47 PM.]

I still want to blame it on Perlowin though!

Another baseball analogy: Years ago, when they brought back the voting for naming the starting players in the all-star game, I knew it was a good idea for getting the people involved-but a bad idea as far as who deserved to be on the respective teams. Fans would go to the ballpark and stuff 20 ballots into the box with the names of their hometown favorites. Some guy hitting .245 with 10 home runs would beat out some up and comer young star from another team at the same position, who deserved it because he was hitting .325 with 20 home runs.

Any time the general public votes in these kinds of contests you have to take it with a grain of salt.

As far as Garcia winning in Guitar Player, it's like you say "Cousin" Jim-Buddy was retired after 5, and a lot of folks probably didn't know the names of any other steel players.

Doesn't diminish Garcia in my mind, I will always be a dyed-in-the-wool Jerry fan.

Of course the thing to remember Jim, is that the Guitar Player mag incident(s) happend a long time ago-there has been a whole new generation of younger Deadheads that probably got Perlowin's goat on that guitar forum-and most of them were probably in diapers or not even born when TYC was released.

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Mark

[This message was edited by Mark Eaton on 17 July 2006 at 05:46 PM.]

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Emmons D10PP 8/4 -75'
Emmons SD-12PP 3/4
Zum SD-12 5/5 - 91'
76'Session 400
86'Nashville 400
06'Nashville 112 x 2

[This message was edited by Jim Eaton on 17 July 2006 at 06:17 PM.]

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Mike
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Blue Moon Highway
(Country Music...and then some.)
www.bluemoonhighway.com

I read that Jerry quit playing pedal steel shortly after the release of his 1972 album GARCIA, which included the steel soaked tune "The Wheel". Does anyone know if this is true?

He played PSG on American Beauty (1970), but no other Dead albums, according to the discography sites I’ve read. Two other PSG players played on later Dead cuts.
Jerry played on the first NRPS album (1971), and of course on CSNY’s Teach Your Children (Déjà vu, 1970).

So Jerry didn’t play steel (or didn’t record anyway) from 1972 until his death in 1995? I wonder why?

This site has a MIDI file of the steel parts for Teach Your Children! No melody, just the pedal steel parts playing to a track.

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My Site | My SteelTab

[This message was edited by Doug Beaumier on 20 July 2006 at 12:37 AM.]

quote:

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"The only Robert Weir I know plays guitar for the Grateful Dead," the colonel replied.

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