Lloyd Green on Charley Pride (Panther Hall and more)
Posted: 8 Sep 2009 9:45 am
I often find myself going back and re-reading the messages that Reggie Duncan relayed from Lloyd Green, especially with regard to his recording career with Charley Pride, and specifically with regard to his album, Live At Panther Hal (my all-time favourite steel-featuring album).
So for your enjoyment,
here's what Lloyd had to say:
"A few weeks ago I recorded a new gospel cd with Charley Pride at Jack "Cowboy" Clements studio. Inevitably the conversation drifted back to that hot July night in 1968 when we played the show and RCA recorded the "Live At Panther Hall" album.
Clement clarified my prior statements about the recording itself. RCA Records did indeed fly in a 4-track analog tape recording machine for the project, with Al Pachucki mixing and Tom Pick rewinding the tape. Imagine, two recording engineers to run on 4-track machine!
However.....while there were 4 tracks available Jack Clement said he used only 3; the band, including myself, were split on two tracks for stereo, Charley Pride on the third. The fourth track was kept unused for Charley to overdub any or all of his vocals later. Obviously he didn't, which adds to the charm of this "live" album.
But this fact makes all the more remarkable the steel sound and volume level, considering I was on a track with two or three other musicians. I had worked hundreds of sessions with Pachucki mixing so he knew my playing and nuances like a book. It is equally obvious he was monitoring the fader for my mike with a delicate hand since I had most of the instrumental and fill focus.
The amp was almost certainly a 1968 silver- faced Fender Twin since it was brand new and had been rented for the occasion from a Dallas music store. The two speakers were the orange seal JBL D-120F type. It was a glorious sounding amp. The steel I was playing at the time was a Sho-Bud Fingertip tuning type, the "lightening bolt" sunburst color.
The guitar player, Johnny Patterson, was the only non-Nashville recording musician on the album. I had Wally Cochran, RCA promotion manager, call the Dallas musicians union and get us an electric player. Johnny was superb, and did a fine job under such unique circumstances and one where he didn't get much playing room. But he sure made his moments count, especially on "Six Days On The Road".
This album has been issued twice in cd format. The first was on RCA, the second a few years later, on Koch Records.
To this day, of the countless records I've recorded, this remains my favorite of all time. And while everything on the album was spontaneous I wouldn't, even today, change a single note. It was a moment that forever changed the way I thought about playing the steel and my approach to recording.
Besides, it probably didn't hurt that I drank two Coors (my limit then and now) just as we started the show. Bob Knight my friend and a forumite got them for me.
And on the topic of the "humming" on "Six Days on The Road"...
The "Live At Panther Hall" album was recorded on a 4-track tape machine at Fort Worth,Texas on Saturday, June 15, 1968. The sound configuration is not as we were positioned on stage; I was seated stage right, then Jr. Huskey (bass), Chip Young (rhythm guitar), Jerry Carrigan (Drums) ? (electric guitar) and stage far left David Briggs (piano). I had one track, Charley Pride had one and the rest of the band was split among the other two. On "Six Days On The Road" Felton Jarvis, Elvis Presley's producer, who was with us representing RCA Records, simply walked to the left side of the stage where the piano mike sat and started humming off key, thinking it was cute. Needless to say there was some drinking going on that night.
When Jack Clement, the producer of Charley's records, started remixing later there
was no way to expel that "Noise" without eliminating the song, and decided to
leave it as it was. Obviously this is a flaw on an otherwise magical record.
Interestingly, there exists another 90 minutes of recorded music from that night which is falling apart somewhere in RCA's vaults, most of it as good as what eventually was released. I, and others who know of it's existence, have tried to get RCA and Jack Clements to edit the rest of the music and release it as a "Panther Hall 2". Nobody seems interested so it will probably never surface. I sure would like to hear the rest of what Charley sang and I played that night. I was really "in the zone"!
For the record, I played my double-neck, finger tip Sho-Bud through a Fender twin with
2 12" D-120F speakers. No effects, no gimmicks, just pure steel guitar. That keeps one honest and keenly aware of what you are doing.
He also made these comments on his recording career with Pride:
From the very first record Charley Pride recorded in Nashville, "The Snakes Crawl At Night", recorded in 1966 - which incidentally didn't chart in Billboard- until the final record I cut with him, "We Could", which went to #3 in Billboard in 1974, a period of 8 years, I can think of only one song that I didn't play on, at least hit songs, "Kiss An Angel Good Morning".
Gene O'Neal, who was Charley's road steel player did indeed play on this one. During those wonderful years, 1966-1974, the greatest C. Pride era, I played on 23 Billboard charted songs with Charley, including 12 #1 records. The only exception during that time was the one Gene played steel on.
Now, there may have been a "road" album or two that featured all of Charleys road band (for sale at his shows) which would have had Gene playing, but I am unaware of them, if so.
By the time I quit doing Charlie Pride's sessions his biggest and brightest years as a major artist were past. Like all artists he had but a limited number of years where he was a phenomena in country music then the focus shifted to others. It's the cruel nature of the business since he still today travels and performs. But it's not the same thing.
I hope you understand I'm merely giving you a statement of facts, not being critical of Gene O'Neal. He was a good friend of mine and a superb steel guitarist. Had he been on more of those early Charlie Pride records instead of me I'm certain they would have been good. After all, "Kiss An Angel Good Morning" was the career song for Charley Pride!
So for your enjoyment,
here's what Lloyd had to say:
"A few weeks ago I recorded a new gospel cd with Charley Pride at Jack "Cowboy" Clements studio. Inevitably the conversation drifted back to that hot July night in 1968 when we played the show and RCA recorded the "Live At Panther Hall" album.
Clement clarified my prior statements about the recording itself. RCA Records did indeed fly in a 4-track analog tape recording machine for the project, with Al Pachucki mixing and Tom Pick rewinding the tape. Imagine, two recording engineers to run on 4-track machine!
However.....while there were 4 tracks available Jack Clement said he used only 3; the band, including myself, were split on two tracks for stereo, Charley Pride on the third. The fourth track was kept unused for Charley to overdub any or all of his vocals later. Obviously he didn't, which adds to the charm of this "live" album.
But this fact makes all the more remarkable the steel sound and volume level, considering I was on a track with two or three other musicians. I had worked hundreds of sessions with Pachucki mixing so he knew my playing and nuances like a book. It is equally obvious he was monitoring the fader for my mike with a delicate hand since I had most of the instrumental and fill focus.
The amp was almost certainly a 1968 silver- faced Fender Twin since it was brand new and had been rented for the occasion from a Dallas music store. The two speakers were the orange seal JBL D-120F type. It was a glorious sounding amp. The steel I was playing at the time was a Sho-Bud Fingertip tuning type, the "lightening bolt" sunburst color.
The guitar player, Johnny Patterson, was the only non-Nashville recording musician on the album. I had Wally Cochran, RCA promotion manager, call the Dallas musicians union and get us an electric player. Johnny was superb, and did a fine job under such unique circumstances and one where he didn't get much playing room. But he sure made his moments count, especially on "Six Days On The Road".
This album has been issued twice in cd format. The first was on RCA, the second a few years later, on Koch Records.
To this day, of the countless records I've recorded, this remains my favorite of all time. And while everything on the album was spontaneous I wouldn't, even today, change a single note. It was a moment that forever changed the way I thought about playing the steel and my approach to recording.
Besides, it probably didn't hurt that I drank two Coors (my limit then and now) just as we started the show. Bob Knight my friend and a forumite got them for me.
And on the topic of the "humming" on "Six Days on The Road"...
The "Live At Panther Hall" album was recorded on a 4-track tape machine at Fort Worth,Texas on Saturday, June 15, 1968. The sound configuration is not as we were positioned on stage; I was seated stage right, then Jr. Huskey (bass), Chip Young (rhythm guitar), Jerry Carrigan (Drums) ? (electric guitar) and stage far left David Briggs (piano). I had one track, Charley Pride had one and the rest of the band was split among the other two. On "Six Days On The Road" Felton Jarvis, Elvis Presley's producer, who was with us representing RCA Records, simply walked to the left side of the stage where the piano mike sat and started humming off key, thinking it was cute. Needless to say there was some drinking going on that night.
When Jack Clement, the producer of Charley's records, started remixing later there
was no way to expel that "Noise" without eliminating the song, and decided to
leave it as it was. Obviously this is a flaw on an otherwise magical record.
Interestingly, there exists another 90 minutes of recorded music from that night which is falling apart somewhere in RCA's vaults, most of it as good as what eventually was released. I, and others who know of it's existence, have tried to get RCA and Jack Clements to edit the rest of the music and release it as a "Panther Hall 2". Nobody seems interested so it will probably never surface. I sure would like to hear the rest of what Charley sang and I played that night. I was really "in the zone"!
For the record, I played my double-neck, finger tip Sho-Bud through a Fender twin with
2 12" D-120F speakers. No effects, no gimmicks, just pure steel guitar. That keeps one honest and keenly aware of what you are doing.
He also made these comments on his recording career with Pride:
From the very first record Charley Pride recorded in Nashville, "The Snakes Crawl At Night", recorded in 1966 - which incidentally didn't chart in Billboard- until the final record I cut with him, "We Could", which went to #3 in Billboard in 1974, a period of 8 years, I can think of only one song that I didn't play on, at least hit songs, "Kiss An Angel Good Morning".
Gene O'Neal, who was Charley's road steel player did indeed play on this one. During those wonderful years, 1966-1974, the greatest C. Pride era, I played on 23 Billboard charted songs with Charley, including 12 #1 records. The only exception during that time was the one Gene played steel on.
Now, there may have been a "road" album or two that featured all of Charleys road band (for sale at his shows) which would have had Gene playing, but I am unaware of them, if so.
By the time I quit doing Charlie Pride's sessions his biggest and brightest years as a major artist were past. Like all artists he had but a limited number of years where he was a phenomena in country music then the focus shifted to others. It's the cruel nature of the business since he still today travels and performs. But it's not the same thing.
I hope you understand I'm merely giving you a statement of facts, not being critical of Gene O'Neal. He was a good friend of mine and a superb steel guitarist. Had he been on more of those early Charlie Pride records instead of me I'm certain they would have been good. After all, "Kiss An Angel Good Morning" was the career song for Charley Pride!
