The Steel Guitar Forum

Joe Goldmark wrote:On "Sugar Babe" by the Youngbloods, it doesn't sound like a Fender 1000. It's more like an Electraharp or one of those late 50s pedal steels. Also a slightly different E9 tuning. Unbelievably great sound that Banana gets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXJi3qh-Cvs

Joe

Lowell Levinger (via email) wrote:Hi
I literally just got back from Italy A half an hour ago after a month there and I can’t quite remember which album sugar babe is on.

If it is on elephant mountain then it’s definitely the ShoBud. But if it is on earth music it might be the Fender that I had before it was fortunately stolen and replaced with a ShoBud.

I didn’t realize how much of a nightmare the fender had been until I got the ShoBud.

It had cables instead of rods. And I had it tuned incorrectly since I just tried to figure it out by myself because it came with no strings and no tuning guide so I did it completely wrong.

The ShoBud came tuned correctly and even with a little booklet that was a tuning guide to different tunings. Naturally that took a bit of relearning.

I never came close to mastering the instrument and when I realized that it was becoming an obsession and that it would take over my life and possibly ruin my family I got rid of it.

I’ll check out the forum after I get some sleep and go through a huge stack of mail.
Stay safe and well.
Banana

Lowell Levinger
www.LowellLevinger.com

Lowell Levinger wrote:I never came close to mastering the instrument and when I realized that it was becoming an obsession and that it would take over my life

Yep, just about sums it up...

Lowell Levinger (via email) wrote:

...If it is on elephant mountain then it’s definitely the ShoBud. But if it is on earth music it might be the Fender that I had before it was fortunately stolen and replaced with a ShoBud.......

Earth Music, it is.

"Elephant Mountain" & "Good & Dusty" got a lot of ear play with me.
I had a bootleg LP that had a great version of Tim Hardin's song, "Misty Roses" on it.
Here is the Youngbloods doing it on record. That's Lowell on the keys:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAv3fQdVXlY

Banana on a song by Mad River
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0PD6EU-ktc
Fellow Youngblood Jerry Corbitt on lap is on the same record by Mad River.
I've seen Banana playing guitar with Mimi Farina a long time ago.
A friend was quite surprised when he saw him stting behind his Elephant Mountain piano... He was the keyboard player for Little Stephen about a year ago.