Why was Mooney so great and unique??

[GaryHoetker]

Ever listen to these Capitol recordings by Bobby Austin "One More Time Around" Bobby Durham "Let That Be A Lesson Heartache" Bonnie Owens "Would You Want Me Just As Much", and Merle "This Town's Not Big Enough" around 1966 ? It seems it is a different sound and style than when he recorded with Wynn and Buck?? Did he use a different steel?? I never tire hearing him play??

[Dave Harmonson]

On the early Buck and Wynn recordings Ralph played a Magnatone D8 that he rigged up pedals for. It was destroyed in a fire and by '66 he was playing a Fender pedal steel.

[Joe Naylor]

Lots of Moon stories - but to answer this question - "Because he Moon"

Ralph said it best in Dallas a few years ago at the Texas Show - I was pouring him Coke with ... and it was closer to the sun coming up than Dinner time if get the idea. Moon was holding court and there were several steel players (and other musicians)

Moon said, "If I would have known that they wanted me to sound as good and play the same stuff I played 30 years ago, ........ I WOULDN'T HAVE PLAYED UM SO GOOD ..... back then."

That was just one of hundreds that night - I will never forget it - earlier that evening in the same room there was a guy named Buddy - there were several world class steel players setting around listening to him first - he went to bed and Moon took over - GREAT MEMORIES

Joe Naylor
www.steelseat.com

[Mike Neer]

Moon was kind of the Yogi Berra of steel guitar--same kind of wisdom.

[Jerry Hayes]

Moon was once heard saying as he pointed to his left foot, "See that foot there, that made Buck Owens a star!".... A truly great and unique player who never sounded like anyone else except himself!.....JH in Va.

[chris ivey]

because he had a tonal sensitivity and a sense of humor.

[Fish]

because he had a tonal sensitivity and a sense of humor.

Exactly!

[Dave Mudgett]

I don't disagree with anything said here, but to me ...

Moon was like one of the great, flashy, chicken-pickin', but tasteful Tele players with one big difference - it was obviously not a Telecaster, but a pedal steel guitar. He somehow extracted a bunch of the best parts of both, arrived at something totally cool and unique, and the total effect was greater than the sum of the parts. Once I heard it, I was hooked for good. I'd say that finally realizing I couldn't quite cop that vibe on a Tele was a big part of what moved me to start playing pedal steel.

[Theresa Galbraith]

Mooney had his own style of playing.
Love it!

[Darrell Criswell]

Some magazine articles about Moon stated that he didn't even know what notes his strings were tuned to, that he played totally by ear.

I always wondered if that was just a myth that was perpetuated or it was true. I lot of people have told me there was no way.

Anyone have any additional info thoughts?

[Joe Naylor]

Another good one from Moon - when asked do you play by ear - his respose was - "What'd you say"

John Hench (our video and sound man at the Phoenix show) was on the road with Waylon and Moon - he reminded me - when you asked Mooney to show you a particular riff - he would start playin "Steel Guitar Rag" or something else completely and smile and say -- I didn't know what you ment. Never would show you a lick.

More part of the Moon experience - I wish I would have said that he was the Yogi of the steel guitar world - very true.

Joe Naylor
www.steelseat.com

[Clyde Mattocks]

It seems Moon's playing transcended technique, theory and all the elements we deem necessary to be a good musician. He went stright for the goose bumps. Even on a kickoff like Buck Owens/Rose Maddox' "Mental Cruelty", there is nothing special about the note choices or any particular degree of difficulty. But when you hear it, it just has that urgency that Moon delivered so well.

[Fred Jack]

Hey Clyde, When Moon plucked a string it had been plucked.I have posted before on here and others have jumped in and said some b.s. about what I was talking about, so I'll say this now, if I say something about the Moon I don't make it up. I either saw him or he told me. We talked to each other everyday for twenty years so we covered a lot of ground. As for him knowing his string names, no! he did not. Did he know the changes made with his pedals? No, he did not.But he did know their sound and what pedal change he wanted.He never cared about theory. Never talked about "cabinet drop".He didn't even recognize it.He used a tuner to tune his E and by ear from there. I miss him so much!

[Donny Hinson]

I think the success of his playing can be summed up in one word:

Simplicity

With Moon, there were no complex chords, no deep voicings, no intricate scales, no blindingly fast licks, and most of all...no worrying about playing like anyone else. Moon never worried about being able to play "all the famous Emmons' stuff" (which seemed to be the pre-occupation of just about everyone else). He just kept it simple, and played mostly basic, old-time licks "on the fine wires", never worrying about the bottom strings or fancy chords.

[chas smith]

When he was working for Wynn Stewart, Wynn asked him to come up with something that would make them sound different from everyone else. Moon came up with the "bouncing" style that became the Bakersfield sound.

When I asked him about it, and mentioned that the Bakersfield sound originated with him, he just shrugged it off and said, "I was just doing my job".

[Brett Day]

Moon's style of E9th playin' was unique in some way because he had a style all his own that amazed a lot of steel players. His playin' on "Rainy Day Woman" by Waylon is awesome! I loved a video on YouTube of a song Waylon did called "A Couple More Years" in 1983 at a concert in Sweden, where after Waylon sang the first verse, he turned to Mooney and said, "Listen to the Moon", then Mooney made his Sho-Bud cry in the steel solo.

Brett

[Dave Harmonson]

1961 with Wynn Stewart
http://youtu.be/16oMP_r5Q8M
1974 with Waylon
http://youtu.be/uy95G68pX-I
If you got some good licks might as well keep using them

[Dave Zirbel]

I like Ed Bierly's description of Ralph from a thread in the Fender Forum:

ralph is all about <rhythm> that comes from the confidence of joy

lots of funky stuff with 7ths all mixed in with musical elegance and economy of effort that rival mozart

Pretty much sums it up to me!

[Bob Poole]

Amen to what Clyde said...started listenin to Moon bout 40 years ago,goose bumps then,and now.

[Ellis Miller]

Moon's playing reminds me of something my Dad told me about rattlesnakes: "If you have ever heard a rattlesnake, you may hear something that sounds like a rattlesnake and that you think might be a rattlesnake. But if it really is a rattlesnake, you KNOW it is a rattlesnake." Lots of people tried to sound like Moon, but when you hear Moon, you KNOW it is Moon.

[Lane Gray]

In my opinion, and mine only, and I'll clarify I've only met one of the three, and Day only briefly, Mooney, Green and day were most likely goofballs living a half a bubble off plumb.
And the eccentricity of their personality shows through in their playing.

And if you got their licks down, you still won't sound like them, because the notes don't come from the same mental frame of reference.
Just like you gotta do more than put an "l" in front of your "v"s to sing like George Jones.

[Fred Jack]

WOW! Lane. I don't understand your statement that "Mooney, Day and Green" were a "half a bubble off". Man, those three especially, played from their heart. Have you listened to Steel and Strings? I venture to say that I have known a lot of steelers who were straight up plumb and they couldn't play like that on their best day.To me, Moon played a real happy,joyful style while Lloyd played a very good country style and Day, well, Day had his guts pouring out all over his steel when he played.One does not need to hear any more steel than these three played.They were/are excellent!

[Lane Gray]

I mean personality-wise. I mean the way they see the world.
And by half a bubble off plumb, I mean that they just look at things differently. March to a different drummer.
Their personality leads them to express themselves in not quite the same way you or I would.
In no way do I say or mean that they're inferior.
I guess some would say all three were each "quite a character." And their off-beat way of looking at things differently comes through in their playing.
Hell, in this thread I learned that Mooney doesn't know the rest of the notes he tunes to! I couldn't work like that, but he doesn't need to worry about it. If that kinda thinking ain't off-standard, I'll eat my hat and call it lunch.

[Lane Gray]

WOW! Lane. I don't understand your statement that "Mooney, Day and Green" were a "half a bubble off". Man, those three especially, played from their heart. Have you listened to Steel and Strings? I venture to say that I have known a lot of steelers who were straight up plumb and they couldn't play like that on their best day.

Rereading your post, I daresay you actually made my point. Their unique personalities accounts for their unique playing.
Perhaps you read demeaning overtones into my words that I didn't mean.
I do not mean to insult or belittle by calling them eccentric or odd. I just think if they were like you or me, they'd have PLAYED like you or me.

[Clyde Mattocks]

Just a thought and probably off the wall at that, but the Nashville players to a greater or lesser extent were walking in the path that Buddy Emmons cleared. Playing in the Nashville recording system imposed certain limits stylistically. Not to say that some of the greatest steel playing ever heard hasn't come out of that system. But how many times have you heard a fine steel part, but had to do research to find out who it was?
On the other hand, the West Coast system, particularly the Capitol stuff seemed to offer greater freedom. Moon was the man who came busting thru that door with a certainty of who he was musically.
To stretch this point even further, there are great actors, say Tom Hanks for example, who can morph into any role and be totally believable. Then there is Jack Nicholson, whose greatness is that he always plays himself. To try and sum up this analogy, I would call Moon the Jack Nicholson of steeldom.