| Author |
Topic: Jerry Byrd talks Steel Guitar Rag |
Jack Byrd
From:
Kalamazoo, Michigan
|
Posted 19 Jul 2003 4:29 pm |
|
Aytche Burns on bass and his intro to my Steel Guitar Rag was correct as written. I know when he was in Renfro Valley when I was there and for a solo on a stage show he would play the song Nola and he played every note. He could play that Latin rhythm he would use the back of his hand on the bottom on the extended bridge on the fret board on the base where it ran on down about a foot and half maybe. He would be on the bottom of that and put his hand between and play Latin rhythms and still reach up and play the notes on the base at the same time. He was amazing. I never saw anybody do the stuff he did on a bass fiddle. Aytche was Jethro’s brother. I never got to play with both of them, like most brother acts they couldn’t get along.
Steel Guitar Rag was originally a dance tune, Western swing dance tune and I heard it of course and I thought Leon McCauliff wrote it. I heard the same story about Guitar Rag that was mentioned previously on the forum. It wasn’t Steel Guitar Rag just Guitar Rag and a guy played it on a bottle neck I think. So it could be Leon picked up on that and put it out and put his name on it, as I am sure the original wasn’t copyrighted-nobody copyrighted anything back then- they didn’t know how to do it anyway. When I first recorded SGR it was a big hit -the record was on every juke box in Texas. It was such a hit I put out a folio that Richenbacher published for me and I was going to include my arrangement of SGR in it. So I wrote to the publisher in NY (Sol Bourne) and how he got that song I don’t know – he had some Bob Wills songs and somehow someone go to him and had Bob turn them over to him so Bob put his name on SGR also. I know he didn’t write any of it. But being the leader of the band they cut him in on it, yeah. So I wrote to Sol Bourne and I told him, I am sure if you look in your books you’ll see my recoding listed and it’s one that made you quite a lot of money, so I explained I’d like to put the arrangement out for sale in answer to a lot of requests and we could do it two ways; I send you the arrangement and you print them and I’ll buy them from you for re-sale, as a music store would or I can print and sell it myself and send you statements of my sales every quarter.
Boy I got a letter back from him you would not believe – he called me everything but a white man. I’ll sue you’re a$$ of if you publish my blah blah blah, etc. I really got upset – I was working for Acuff-Rose at the time and they were one of the biggest music publishers in the world, they had all the country music sewed up. So I told Wes Rose you tell that guy up there I’m not trying to cheat him. I wrote him back and said – look if I was trying to cheat you I would have just gone ahead and put this thing out and you would have never known it probably stuck up there in NY like you are. I am a business man and I did the right thing. If you are not in the business to sell music I’ll tell what you can do with SGR. You can stick it up your a$$ because it will be a cold day in June before I’ll ever play it again and that ended me and SGR. Like I said in my recent book under the requests never played section when two guys requested I play SGR I told them you came to the wrong place to hear that.
Along this same line of music one of the things I did that got a of play and a lot comment was my recording of Limehouse Blues that Chet Atkins and I did – Chet was on a lot of my sessions along about then. We worked up a jazz riff in two part harmony on that tune and the song was played to death for some time. Nobody has ever mentioned that on the forum that I know of. That, Georgia Steel Guitar, SGR, Coconut Grove, Texas Playboy Rag, The Jitterbug Waltz, Panhandle Rag, Steelin’ The Chimes, Wang Wang Blues, and Gold Coat Blues are on my Steel Guitar Favorites tape that can be bought from Scotty’s Music for those who are interested in some new old stuff they can work on those things.
|
|
|
|
Ray Montee
From:
Portland, Oregon (deceased)
|
Posted 19 Jul 2003 5:10 pm
|
|
Thanks once again, Jack Byrd and brother Jerry for this enjoyable and enlightening quip from the past.
The Steel Guitar Rag item, I'd heard before in bits and pieces. So nice to have it all in one chunk.
JACK BYRD, your contributions are very much appreciated by virtually everyone here on the Forum. Please don't ever hold back on us.
When might we expect the next one? |
|
|
|
Ron Whitfield
From:
Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA
|
Posted 19 Jul 2003 5:18 pm
|
|
| I second that Ray! Thanx gentlemen for allowing us to hear more of the truth. |
|
|
|
Jim Vogan
From:
Ohio City, Ohio 45874
|
Posted 19 Jul 2003 5:28 pm
|
|
I've been listening to "Steel Guitar Favorites" all week. It's a great tape!
------------------
Jim Vogan
Carter D10, 8&5 with BCT
G.D. Walker Stereo Steel Combo
Bakelite Ric
Hilton volume pedal
|
|
|
|
Don Walters
From:
Saskatchewan Canada
|
Posted 19 Jul 2003 7:35 pm
|
|
The One Rose was playing on the turntable when I proposed to my wife on Christmas Day 1958.
|
|
|
|
George Keoki Lake
From:
Edmonton, AB., Canada
|
Posted 19 Jul 2003 9:52 pm
|
|
| Now we all know the real reason why Jerry refuses to play SGR. Thanks Jack, appreciated. |
|
|
|
Paul Graupp
From:
Macon Ga USA
|
Posted 20 Jul 2003 6:26 am
|
|
For JERRY and JACK !
 |
|
|
|
