Santo & Johnny live 1959 YOUTUBE

Lap steels, resonators, multi-neck consoles and acoustic steel guitars

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George Keoki Lake
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Post by George Keoki Lake »

I would NEVER doubt Jody, (sacriligeous)....however I have the identical guitar. He is playing a CUSTOM on that clip. Sorry Jody, I bow down to you in reverance....please forgive...ok ?

I wonder where S and J are today ? Never hear anything about them.

I think that rhythm guitar might be an EPIPHONE ?
http://www3.telus.net/public/lake_r/

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The picture below shows him today with a STRINGMASTER.

<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by George Keoki Lake on 16 September 2006 at 10:34 PM.]</p></FONT>
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Steinar Gregertsen
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Post by Steinar Gregertsen »

<SMALL>I wonder where S and J are today ?</SMALL>
Johnny is still active -

Image

- according to this website.

Steinar

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Jim Ives
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Post by Jim Ives »

What a great thing, our compter. I just got back from a week's travelling with no acccess: I turned on my computer and watched an old Santo & Johnny recording I've never seen. Very cool.

Johnny looked a bit anxious, but Santo was definetly grooving. Good one to share with us.

Jim

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Garry Vanderlinde
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Post by Garry Vanderlinde »

Dig Santos' leg action...he's the "Elvis of Steel" -very Image<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Garry Vanderlinde on 16 September 2006 at 10:20 PM.]</p></FONT>
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Jody Carver
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Post by Jody Carver »

My Canadien buddy writes, and I quote him.

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I would NEVER doubt Jody, (sacriligeous)....however I have the identical guitar. He is playing a CUSTOM on that clip. Sorry Jody, I bow down to you in reverance....please forgive...ok ? You are thou forgiven my good friend, sometimes I am wrong at least you can spell (sacriligeous) and that's good enough for me. Image Thanks pal no problem.
Derrick Mau
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Post by Derrick Mau »

Jody, you may be right.
If you look on the original "Sleepwalk" LP cover I have here, it's a Stringmaster.

Image

In this YouTube performance, yes, it's a Custom.

What we all have to remember is: Serious steelers all have more than one steel guitar in their possession and any one of them at any time could have been used on-stage or in the recording studio.

This YouTube video confirms one long debated mystery though: Sleepwalk was played using just one tuning even though he had access to two other necks.
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Jody Carver
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Post by Jody Carver »

Derrick, you are right, it is a Custom. I spoke with Johnny earlier today he told me the very first steel guitar that Santo owned was a Double neck Gibson.
Øystein Røysi
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Post by Øystein Røysi »

I realize I'm a bit late,but I really want to say WOW! That's beautiful!

I hope you can forgive a newbie, but I'm wondering; would this song be possible to learn for someone who has just started playing steel? I haven't played enough yet to be able to determine how difficult a steel guitar part is, just from hearing it...

Thanks for sharing the song, and thanks to Michael for sharing the tuning!

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Bill Quinn
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Post by Bill Quinn »

Say is there a way to save these YouTube clips to your computer or can you only view them on YouTube??
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Kenneth Berrier
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Post by Kenneth Berrier »

If you're using Mozilla's Firefox browser you can download the 'videodownloader' extentsion which downloads them in the .flv format. You will also need to get the FLV player. Which I beleive they supply a link to. <font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Kenneth Berrier on 17 September 2006 at 03:12 PM.]</p></FONT>
Michael Scdoris
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Post by Michael Scdoris »

Oystein: The melody is really very simple to follow.There are versions on the forum for C6. The best version that I have seen is from Herb Steiner. You can get a CD, and tabs for E9, C6, and of course C#m.
The hard part is to recreate the sound that Santo produced. I am also quite new and play this song fifty time a day.
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Post by Jesse Pearson »

This song lays out easily in C#m7 and is very easy to play note for note on a 6 string. I tabbed it out by hand and put drum notation under the tab notes to help with the phrasing. As soon as my room mate gets back, I'll have her post it for me. <font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Jesse Pearson on 17 September 2006 at 07:35 PM.]</p></FONT>
Ron Whitfield
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Post by Ron Whitfield »

The person that posted the Sleepwalk video on youtube has many other interesting vids, including one of Rudy Wairata doing a march with some cool pics of him.
Øystein Røysi
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Post by Øystein Røysi »

Thanks guys for the encouragement!
I'll try retuning my National to C#m and see what I can manage... The song is so beautiful! And eventhough it's probably been played to death in the past, it's new to me...

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Roman Sonnleitner
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Post by Roman Sonnleitner »

Bill,
about saving YouTube-videos: go to www.youtubex.com
- it's all explained there.<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Roman Sonnleitner on 18 September 2006 at 02:14 AM.]</p></FONT>
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Bernard Beck
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Post by Bernard Beck »

My steelguitar teacher loved the video but he suggested that it might be a playback with the original record behind.
But that does not mean this document is not a precious treasure anyway.
What do you think of the idea
Bernard
Derrick Mau
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Post by Derrick Mau »


In the original vinyl recording, they are playing in the key of C#.

In this live performance, key of C, so they are not using the original recording as a playback.

However, it's looks like the TV studio had pre-recorded the song, then they had to lip sync, or steel sync the performance on stage.

Watch the strumming carefully on the guitar player. Doesn't seem to be in sync.
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Earnest Bovine
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Post by Earnest Bovine »

I think it is synchronized as well as anything can be on youtube. It looks like he is really playing it in C.
Mark Vinbury
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Post by Mark Vinbury »

This is clearly a sound overdub.
You can't hear most of the guitar strumming.
Granted they might have cut the guitar out but also a close look will show subtle differences in the steel sound and what is actually being played.

Edit:: I was convinced the sound was overdubbed on this now after a few more listens I'm not so sure.
One thing I noticed ---there is a "hiccup" in the track when the camera shows a closeup of the guitar during what I call the bridge.

I have a feeling these guys were not opposed to messing with the recording.
I've always suspected that the opening "signature" notes on the original Sleepwalk were played on a different guitar than the rest of the tune.
My understanding is artists back then were very quiet about their techniques. <font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Mark Vinbury on 22 September 2006 at 09:38 AM.]</p></FONT>
Jesse Pearson
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Post by Jesse Pearson »

It's hard to tell how accurate the old time visual/audio systems were in general for live sync ups?

I like what the bass player was doing, so I tabbed it out to compare to the chords on the studio version. Did anybody else notice that the bass is staying on the C note for the 6th measure? It should be A minor there? It doesn't sound bad because you can't really hear the guitar strumming in 6/8 on this recording until well into the song. I don't know if they reharmonized the intro or the bass player made a mistake live? If it was a studio made to sound live sync up, what is this saying about the 6th measure on the intro? If it was the studio, I think they would have fixed it, don't you? Personally, I think the bass player goofed on a live T.V. performance, but no biggy because the C note is the minor 3rd of A minor. Also, the guitar would have be more up front on a studio mix?


The original studio recording was probable sped up a half step for the mix down? I know a few songs that were hits that got sped up in pitch for the mix down.
<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Jesse Pearson on 21 September 2006 at 11:47 AM.]</p></FONT>
Herb Steiner
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Post by Herb Steiner »

Re the dichotomy between C and C# on the original version, I asked Johnny Farina about the recording being in C#, and he was clueless, saying they "recorded it in C on the C#minor tuning."

The original tape might have been speeded up when it was mastered.
<SMALL>Did anyone else notice that their bodies looked out of proportion, large heads, tiny bodies.</SMALL>
If I had a hit record, I'd have a big head myself. Image


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<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Herb Steiner on 21 September 2006 at 11:45 AM.]</p></FONT>
Jesse Pearson
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Post by Jesse Pearson »

Herb, we musta been posting at the same time. I agree with ya...
Bill McCloskey
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Post by Bill McCloskey »

It is interesting no one spoke of the intonation and tuning. To my ear, either the steel was out of tune, especially on the low notes, or his intonation was off. My guess is that the guitar was out of tune, since his intonation seems dead on the higher notes, but way off on the bass strings.
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Post by Jesse Pearson »

Bill, you must be cursed with perfect pitch! I have relative pitch and didn't have any problem with the instruments as far as transcribing. The bass was a stand up bass, those things are kinda hard when it comes to pitch?
Øystein Røysi
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Post by Øystein Røysi »

No, Bill's right. I remember that when he went G-A-B-C on the bass strings on the steel, he was quite a bit flat on all of them. And yes I am blessed/cursed with near perfect pitch... My guess is that the strings were out of tune, since he doesn't miss on any other notes.

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