The Beatles with a steel guitar?

David Kellogg · Post by **David Kellogg** » 19 Feb 2012 10:02 am

I was watching Sunday Morning on CBS this morning and they were doing a story on Peter Frampton. He had lost his beloved Les Paul guitar in a cargo plane accident in south america in 1973. He didn't think he could ever play another guitar. Well this week after 2 years of negotiating from the island of Curasol where the guitar turned up. It had apparently been rescued before the plane burned up and was sold to a music dealer in Curasol. Anyway there was a picture that was shown durning the show of Peter sitting beside a steel guitar and George Harrison and Ringo were behind it. I looked on the internet to find it and here it is. Thought some of you might like to see it.
http://petedrakemusic.com/media/3511/pe ... george.jpg

Kevin Hatton · Post by **Kevin Hatton** » 19 Feb 2012 11:33 am

This has been posted before. Pete Drake recorded for George Harrison, not the Beatles.

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 19 Feb 2012 12:15 pm

Franklin · Post by **Franklin** » 19 Feb 2012 12:25 pm

David,

Since Pete has tweaked your interest.....Besides playing on George's "All Things Shall Pass" sessions, Pete also recorded with and produced Ringo Starr. He most likely got the Paul McCartney call as a result of those connections along with his stellar playing on Dylan's "Nashville Skyline" sessions. Pete told me he was booked with someone important to him in Country music so he turned Paul's project down. I and most others would have cancelled everything to get such a chance in that camp....Anyway, the rest is history. Buddy and Lloyd recorded with Paul. Sally "G" was the dominant track from those sessions. As far as I know John never used a steel guitar. Also when Pete got the Neil Young call, he was unavailable and put Ben Keith (who worked for Pete's publishing company) and Neil together....Talk about a marriage between steel and 60's rock......

IMO Dylan and Pete kicked the doors wide open for the steel guitar in rock music...."Lay Lady Lay" was such a huge hit with steel dominating all the way through it....As a teenager all of my Motown sessions were a direct result of Dylan's hit. I still hear references to Drake's work on that song. Talk about longevity.

Check out the clips of Pete I put up in a thread in the "Steel On The Web" section....Its easy to hear why Pete Drake got so many great calls.

Paul

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 19 Feb 2012 12:30 pm

In that picture Harrison is playing the J200 that's in Dylan's hands on the cover of Nashville Skyline. This is how Harrison got wind of Pete Drake, who played on Dylan's '69 country record. Dylan had given that J200 to Harrison as a gift in 1970. That world was a small one back then.

I took this pic of Goldie at the Hall of Fame Museum last May. (Thanks again to Robert Kramer for setting me up with a pass to the museum.)

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 19 Feb 2012 1:51 pm

Thanks, Chris, for that nugget of information - I had no idea that Dylan gave George that Gibson! I wonder if it's still in his collection....

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 19 Feb 2012 2:02 pm

Roger, I have to apologize...it's the other way around. Harrison gave the J200 to Dylan. It was a long gigging weekend....my head's not on right yet.

So....Harrison must have given Dylan a different J200 because the above pic was taken after the Nashville Skyline album was out. I'm checking my references here now. Dylan and Harrison were writing a lot together in Woodstock in '69 and this is where Harrison gave it to Dylan.

And sorry for the digression everyone!

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 19 Feb 2012 2:10 pm

Ah! No matter - still interesting!

I can't now recall the guitar - of course I remember the LP sleeve picture but unless my memory's playing tricks it was a later J-200 (say late '60s) as it had the 'filled in' moustache bridge, as opposed to the 'open' fretwork one.

Nice gift, whoever got it!!!

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 19 Feb 2012 2:17 pm

Yes that guitar had the tune-a-matic saddle and pearloid bridge fill-ins. I had a '67 just like it. I do believe Jimmy Page's and Pete Townshend's were later J's as well.

Let it Be sessions:

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 19 Feb 2012 2:20 pm

I had a '63 that I bought new (to go with my Super 400; I was a Gibson guy back then!) and mine looked identical to the guitar in question.

I recall reading somewhere that Lennon had a sunburst J-200 that he left too near to the fire - the back, apparently, sustained some damage...

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 19 Feb 2012 2:24 pm

Wow Roger, that must have been a canon.

Yes there are pics of Lennon with a late 60s sunburst J200 as well.

I'm going to start a J200 thread in the Music section now so I don't get lynched for shagging this one up! I wonder does b0b or anyone have the technology to move our guitar posts over there?

scott murray · Post by **scott murray** » 19 Feb 2012 2:39 pm

Pete Drake is one of my heroes and earliest influences thanks to the Dylan stuff.

Franklin-
i was aware of Lloyd, but what Paul McCartney tunes feature Buddy?

and what Motown recordings did you play on? i'd love to hear that

it's too bad John never hired a steel man, but he did play lap steel on George's "For You Blue" from Let It Be...

Franklin · Post by **Franklin** » 19 Feb 2012 3:35 pm

scott murray wrote:Pete Drake is one of my heroes and earliest influences thanks to the Dylan stuff.

Franklin-
i was aware of Lloyd, but what Paul McCartney tunes feature Buddy?

and what Motown recordings did you play on? i'd love to hear that

As to song titles, you would have to ask Buddy....As I understand it, the sessions were split between Lloyd and Buddy.....I would love to hear what Buddy played as well...what a monster.

Motown did not have any white acts. They put all of their white acts on umbrella labels which is where most of what I worked on landed.....I recorded with Dennis Coffee one of the Motown boys....He produced and I played steel on a bubblegum hit "Its So Nice To Be With You" with a group called "Gallery"... I worked on a date for a band called "Magic" Stevie Wonder played keys on the same song. I recorded with Marvin Gaye's musical director, Mckinley Jackson on his solo project....This was especially a treat for me, because it was cut at Holland Dozier studios with Jameson, Wah Wah Watson and the whole crew just before Barry Gordy left them high and dry for LA. I recorded with the "Parliament Funkadellic" on a song called "Country Boy"....They released it and it got banned from radio because of profanity in the lyric, which made it a hit around school with all of my friends.....Kinda cool......We all owe a lot to Pete for breaking down the barriers. Nothing like playing on a big hit to get the ball rolling.

Paul

scott murray · Post by **scott murray** » 19 Feb 2012 3:45 pm

nice!

Little Ole Country Boy

So Nice To Be With You

never knew that was you on the Gallery tune. what a classic. thanks for the reply

David Kellogg · Post by **David Kellogg** » 19 Feb 2012 3:50 pm

It's amazing that everthing about pedal steels is connected here. Thanks so much Paul for the some of the history on this amazing instrument.

Kevin Hatton · Post by **Kevin Hatton** » 19 Feb 2012 4:12 pm

Paul, thanks for the post here. Very interesting historical info. I love your steel solo on "It's So Nice To Be With You". It livens the song up right in the middle then goes out. Just enough to kick the song up a notch. I remember playing that song in a traveling show band when it first came out. What a memory to have played with some of the Motown greats at a young age.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 20 Feb 2012 9:26 am

Another one of that aera from Wings, sounds a lot like Buddy Emmons:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLQ_naVcQKk

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 20 Feb 2012 9:35 am

Joachim Kettner wrote:Another one of that aera from Wings, sounds a lot like Buddy Emmons:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLQ_naVcQKk

Holy what a find. Thanks for the link, Joachim. That is most certainly Buddy Emmons.

Bo Borland · Post by **Bo Borland** » 20 Feb 2012 10:13 am

wow very cool thread.. Paul on a George Clinton track.. what year was that Paul? It is so definitely you, but not your usual tone.

As to the McCartney tracks.. one listen will tell you which were Buddy and which were Lloyd..

Sally G was the only one that hit the radio heavy back in the mid-late 70's

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 20 Feb 2012 10:16 am

Bo Borland wrote:
Sally G was the only one that hit the radio heavy back in the mid-late 70's

And it was Lloyd whom McCartney requested when he wanted steel again for tracks he and Linda were doing in France and the UK several years later. Not to take anything away from Buddy's involvement with McCartney, but Lloyd was McCartney's go-to steel man. He even asked Lloyd to join him on the Wings Over America tour.

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 20 Feb 2012 4:52 pm

During email correspondence with Lloyd Green earlier today, he recalled the following to me concerning his history with Paul McCartney beyond the Nashville recordings:

Incidentally, my trip to France had a different purpose than you posted. The year was 1980 and Paul McCartney called and asked me to fly to France to record with him and Ringo Starr. I did in July, 1980, and spent a week recording with the two of them and others at Berre-les-Alpes, a small French community on the French Mediterranean about 45 minutes outside Nice. Both McCartney and Ringo played on the songs which were part of the only album which would have included all of the former Beatles accept for the intervention of fate and Mark David Chapman.
The album had been completed except for the 3 songs John Lennon had agreed to produce for the album. This final segment was to be recorded in New York City in early January, 1981.
The obscure album was released in 1981 and is hardly known except to scholars and Beatle fanatics. The title is “Ringo Starr, Stop and Smell the Roses” with a cool shot of Ringo on the cover in black, with a sad look and holding a bouquet of red roses. It’s on an equally obscure label: Boardwalk Records.
McCartney, Ringo and George Harrison all are playing and producing on the album of various tracks with the putative Lennon tracks done instead by Harry Nilsson, Ron Wood and Stephen Stills.
We finished recording the tracks with me one day remaining before my departure back to the US. Linda McCartney had written a song and Paul asked if I would record it with her, him and Ringo on drums. We were unable to complete it before I had to leave, so Paul and I made arrangements for me to come to East Sussex and finish the tune while I was on a 30 day tour playing the British Isles later in the year.
I did this in November, 1980 at a studio about 5 kilometers from the McCartney’s estate there.
The song was released by Paul McCartney in a posthumous album of Linda’s songs after Linda’s demise.

Lloyd Green

Fascinating. How's that for Beatles with a steel guitar?

Steve Hinson · Post by **Steve Hinson** » 20 Feb 2012 5:08 pm

Mind Games...John Lennon...Sneeky Pete Kleinow...my son turned me on to this a couple of months ago.

Quentin Hickey · Post by **Quentin Hickey** » 20 Feb 2012 5:42 pm

Hey Jim. I see that John Lennon wanted the full experience of Petes talking guitar there in the picture you uploaded

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 20 Feb 2012 5:58 pm

The album that Pete produced for Ringo is called Beaucoups of Blues. Below is some text from this link:

http://visualguidanceltd.blogspot.com/2 ... starr.html

In 1970 Ringo worked with George on his "All Things Must Pass", during these sessions Peter Drake the steel-guitar player from Nashville was brought in. When Ringo sent his car to pick him up from the airport, Pete was amazed that Ringo had so many country music tapes in the car along with the rock'n'roll, and Ringo and Pete discussed making a country album. Ringo wanted to make the album in London but Pete persuaded Ringo to record the album in Nashville as he knew it could be made much quicker. Pete also arranged for a wide selection of C & W writers to compose songs especially for Ringo, to which end they came up with dozens, and Ringo chose 14 to record (plus a jam session).

It was recorded in late June of 1970 at Music City Recorders in Nashville, during the sessions produced by Pete Drake.
No single was taken from the album, although the title track was announced in the music press that it was to be released in 1970.
Recording took place in just two days, on 30th June and 1st July 1970 in Nashville at the Music City Recorders Studio. Scotty Moore (of Elvis fame) engineered the sessions.

Basically all Ringo had to do was learn the songs, turn up and sing. And when singing he sang along to pre-recorded backing vocals by the Jordanaires which helped to keep him in tune! Of course, Ringo has a natural voice for Country and Western and the resultant output is a good example of that particular genre.

Quentin Hickey · Post by **Quentin Hickey** » 20 Feb 2012 6:04 pm

Its too bad that the beatles didnt experiment with more steel in there music. It suits them quite alot.

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The Beatles with a steel guitar?

The Beatles with a steel guitar?

Thanks Paul