The Steel Guitar Forum

Pete Drake amazes me more and more as the years go by.
His ability to play a simple part that defines the song is astonishing. What he seems to do with ease is one of the most elusive and important skills any musician could try to have.

Check out the organ on "Tell Me that it isn't True" on Nashville Sky Line.



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Bob
intonation help

The "talking steel" stuff kind of weirds me out, but Pete's playing on classic albums such as George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" is fantastic. This album led me from my love of rock to my love of country. The songs just wouldn't have had that country soulfulness without Pete's playing.

I always thought greatness was about admiration and respect from your peers. Pete seemed to have all that and more. I'm not a PSG expert by any means, but some of the greatest licks I've ever heard are Pete's playing on Hank Jr's recordings of "Nobody's Child" and "Standing in the Shadows" innthe mid-60's. You don't hear anything like that today.

Pete Drake played on more hits than any other steel player. He was inovative and creative. He also knew how to get the most out of the other players on the session. That was in the days when the entire band would be in the studio together. Pete was also a great producer. Many steel players did not like Pete's playing during his heyday including myself. I found that the reason I did not like it then was because it was not the cool thing to do. Once I started thinking for myself I quickly grew to love it. I had the chance to watch Pete at work many times and even got to work with him a couple times. Pete was my friend and I miss him. There are several recordings by Pete and the best resource to find them is the Ernest Tubb record shop.

Johnny<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Johnny Cox on 13 August 2004 at 11:24 AM.]</p></FONT>

Smiley did that talking guitar piece in St Louis and brought the house down. I rather liked it....

JB

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Fulawka D-10 9&5
Fessenden D-10 8&8
"All in all, looking back, I'd have to say the best advice anyone ever gave me was 'Hands Up, Don't Move!"
www.johnbarnold.com/pedalsteel
www.buddycage.net

http://www.nrpsmusic.com/index.html

Pete's instrumental tracks 'Star Gazing', 'For Pete's Sake', 'Southern Sunday'. 'Pedal Jumpin' and 'Penguin Strut' appeared on two Starday steel guitar compilations released on London Records in the UK in the early 1960's. These albums also contained Starday tracks by many of the greats of the era including Jimmy Day, Walter Haynes, Buddy Emmons, Don Helms and Herb Remington. These albums, and the Pete Drake tracks especially, were the first Pedal Steel instrumentals I had ever heard, and they revolutionized my life. Shortly after this I got to hear Buddy's version of 'Rose City Chimes' and that completed my addiction to the Pedal Steel Guitar.
Pete's track 'Penguin Strut' particularly is innovative as he use heavy fuzz on a twelve bar groove. Pete was surely ahead of his time, God rest his soul.
Incidentally another fine Starday album from that era was Shot Jackson & Buddy Emmons' 'Singing Strings Of Steel Guitar and Dobro'. I lost my copy many years ago and I would be indebted to anyone who could suggest where I could get another one.

BJ Cole

London England

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Gentlemen thank you all again for sharing your thoughts.

I have now read the interview with PD at the link above and now further appreciate the man and his amazingly productive career and also his sense of humour.No doubt about it a visionary of the best kind, pragmatic.

Burr and Jussi thanks for the info about "My Bluest day" I will hunt it down.

Bob, I will pay attention to the organ on "Tell Me that it isn't True" when I hear it.

Your observation

"His ability to play a simple part that defines the song is astonishing. What he seems to do with ease is one of the most elusive and important skills any musician could try to have."

is right on the point and seems to me to be one of the skills that defines the masters. BTW, I regularly enjoy your CD that I bought from the Forum. Great cover art as well!

Gordon and Gary thank you both for your respective insights and opinions. Individualism, expresiveness and soul are other magic elements of the masters that I suppose we all strive for.

Johnny, thank you for sharing your thoughts about your friend, music and life. The ET record shop sounds like the place to head.

JB, your best advice tag never fails to bring a smile to my face.

BJ,thanks for your post,"revolutionized my life" is really at the heart of the matter, music and PSG really do have amazing powers. Strangely enough I may be able to source a copy of that old album, I remember a pal has it, I will see what I can do and get back to you.

Once again thank you all for responding. This post has been a great learning experience for me and my initial queries have been more than covered thanks to you all so I am going to butt out from here on and get back to the soup I am putting together. (winter in Australia)

I think PD's response to the last question in the Everyone's favorite interview by Douglas Green is fitting.

"Right now something is happening that I've wanted to happen for a long time: Music's coming together. It's not country music, it's not pop music, it's music. Somebody said there's only two kinds of music-good and bad. I like a little bit of it alL"

Peace out

JD

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Jimmy Douglas on 14 August 2004 at 01:33 AM.]</p></FONT>

Pete was a very good friend of mind and yes he did many albums. You can find them on line @ FIRST GENARATION RECORDS. Pete had a great way of playing on record and being in the right place at the right time. He also knew when not to play. A qoick note in one week in the country charts in the top 75 Pete was playing on 59. Thanks

I agree with Carl he was a GREAT "lick" PSG player but he was not my first choice steeler(as a solo-PSG.)
IMO it's not the steelguitar(player) what make's the HITrecord it has nothing to do that he(Pete) was playing on so many HIT recordings,he was on the right time/place or/and had other capacity's "how" to work with (ao the producer.(the same with PF)
((moste of the time there are ""13 in a dozen""who can play-it))

I did met a lot of GIANTS musicians(C&W-swing/JazzRock/POP/blues) who were/are(sometimes) "difficult" to work with or the producer asked them "impossible"things to do(or to "copy" something,,,,,,,)and some of the "strong" ego's walked there way out of the studio,,,Ha i love these guys
(BTW moste of the time they are happy'r now,
and are one of the few ones who are still WORLDTOP on there instrument.)

Henry

Finally, a tribute to one of the great psg players that was in the forefront of the pedalsteel revolution. Pete also did a lot of sessions that didn't "sound" like him. Thanks Jimmy for starting this thread,I also learned a few things about Pete.

Also heard that in his hayday Pete had several Sho-Buds setup in of the studios that he worked.

Bill