The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm looking for the guitar based sources Buddy Emmons might have used in "Buddy's Boogie" (1956).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuGfLwfzV8s

Twice in the song, I think he was imitating guitar licks:

2nd chorus: 0:17 - 0:20 before goes into Western Swing chords

4th chorus: 0:43-0:53

If this is correct, he must have heard guitar versions of boogie woogie before 1956. I am looking for pre-1956 guitar versions of "Guitar Boogie." There were probably a few R&B versions and they didn't necessarily have to be called "Guitar Boogie."

Thanks in advance for any info.

I see the progression of Pinetop Smith (and subsequent blues versions) > Tommy Dorsey > Arthur Smith. The "guitar licks" Emmons is playing do not appear on Arthur Smith's record.

Specifics? Time stamps in each? I don't exactly know what "licks" you're referring to.

Donny Hinson,thanks for responding. I hear the following as guitar licks:

2nd chorus: 0:17 - 0:20 before goes into Western Swing chords

4th chorus: 0:43-0:53

If I am hearing correctly and these are guitar based licks then I am looking for pre-1956 guitar versions of "Guitar Boogie." There were probably many R&B versions and they didn't necessarily have to be called "Guitar Boogie."

I will edit my original post be more organized. Thanks again for any help.

Arthur Smith’s “Guitar Boogie” was recorded in 1948.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qTBQSwqB3ac
The specific licks you refer to are not on that recording, but there is some pretty wild stuff on it, considering the era.

Buddy was a more-than-capable guitarist. It is entirely possible that he (or one of the many more-than-capable guitarists ever that he worked with) came up with those licks on guitar and just transferred them to steel.

I have over 800 mp3s with the word "boogie" in the title, far too many to post here.

Some of them might be relevant to your quest, I dunno.

Of course, over half are vocals.

Maybe you can point me in the right direction.

Here are the titles with "guitar boogie". Some pre-1955, most not.

I've heard, and played, that guitar lick so many times that I'm amazed that I'm not recalling the exact point where it came into general use. I'd say 50s rockabilly in general, but those kind of figures have really been around a lot longer than that.

In fact, that general approach to using repeated pedal points like this goes back a long way. Of course, not guitar but this was heavily used in the baroque era - Bach, Vivaldi, etc. It's used prominently in The Four Seasons - https://youtu.be/GRxofEmo3HA around 15:00 and 18:00

On guitar - it isn't exactly the same pedaled lick, but Arthur Smith's original Guitar Boogie Shuffle has a very similar open-string pedal point lick, but in triplets and at a fast tempo - https://youtu.be/8tNYyoelXTw?list=RD8tNYyoelXTw&t=80

I also think of the Johnny Burnette Rock and Roll Trio with Paul Burlison (and, at least on some sessions) Grady Martin on guitar. Those pedal point types of licks are implicit in playing any of those songs, and 50s rockabilly in general. One might hear that kind of stuff coming out of Cliff Gallup or Eddie Cochran. The most well known Johnny Burnette cuts -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkZhJJ8sPmw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BsC4fq8c9o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv1xvMjxqcQ

These type of repeated pedal points were and are stock and trade of jazz organ, going back at least to Jimmy Smith in the 50s. The old match folder trick.

Thanks to all! This is EXACTLY what I was looking for. Mitch Drumm, I will listen through to all your examples-exactly the titles I can use.

Dave Mudgett, I didn’t know the musical term for this device (“pedal point”). Thanks, and I’ll spare you my attempt to describe it. re: Arthur Smith “open-string pedal point.” (1945 version). Yes, that’s a source, too. Guitarists would have taken lick that and simplified it and, by Emmons time, every club guitar player that played “Guitar Boogie” would have been playing the lick.

re: “the old match folder trick” on B-3: I assume they wedged a match book between the keys to hold an organ key down without having to hold it with a finger. I didn’t know that. I’ve listened to lot of jazz organ and now I remember that sound. Emmons would have been listening to that, too when Jazz Organ was coming on the scene.

http://www.afana.org/jazzorgan.htm

Thanks, Fred Treece and Mitch Drumm, I didn’t dig deep enough to see there were two Arthur Smith versions of “Guitar Boogie” The Rambler Trio Featuring Arthur Smith 1945 (Super Disc) and Arthur Smith and His Cracker-Jacks 1950 (MGM). Thanks.

Thanks again, I will dig into all your info. Thanks for taking the time to reply and share your knowledge.

Listen to Earl Hooker:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5eaYZMpYOU

August 10, 1953 at Sun in Memphis...........but not issued until the late 1970s.

Earl Hooker, guitar; Pinetop Perkins, piano; Kenneth Banks, bass; Edward Lee Irvin, drums

Originally from 1949 by Paul Williams at a much slower tempo without guitar.

That's it. Licks every R&B, Country, R&R club guitarist would be playing in the 40's and 50's and I remember guitar players playing it, later, during my stretch in the clubs. The pedal point lick is right up front in the first verse and again down in the song. Earl Hooker was highly regarded in Chicago.

Geesh 1956. Wow, Buddy was born playing steel apparently. The pic shows an Emmons PSG but he was pedal-less at that point I assume.

For me, the definitive version of this theme was played by Jeff Beck in the Yardbirds.