The Steel Guitar Forum

Does anyone know who played pedal steel on Bread's song, "Guitar Man." (I don't really remember a pedal steel on the track, but someone I work with asked me this question.) I would greatly appreciate the answer. Thanks in advance. Boo

I went over to cdnow and they are selling the original album. It doesn't list any other musicians then the band members. And i see no listing for steel. Although they seem to have played many other instruments.

I can recall some single note bends on the straight guitar (replete with a wah-wah), but no PSG in that song.

I have to agree. Bread was one of my favorite groups, and I have their greatest hits CD. I didn’t remember any steel on that cut, so I went back and listened to the cut again…I still don’t hear any steel. Donny is right, in that there is a lot of single note guitar work, with string bends and a wah-wah pedal. I would imagine it was done by David Gates who was the lead singer and a session guitar player in LA.

B. Bailey Brown

It's my belief that what is heard in "the hook" and intro is slide guitar~

Well, they certainly had me fooled. I thought it was a PSG since I first heard it. Not trying to start any arguments but, I am not yet convinced it was a "slide" The note grouping on the slides appear to change during the slides and I believe that it would be almost impopssible to duplicate the voicings on anything but a PSG. Just my thoughts...

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kd...and the beat goes on...

Kenny, go to cdnow.com and click their "guitar man" album. It lists all the instruments played. There is no steel mentioned. Perhaps it was two single note guitars overdubbed.

Gee, now you guys have me curious! I went back and listened carefully to the tune again. There are parts on the intro and through the first part of the song that do sound a little like a steel, but really more like a slide guitar. Kenny has a good point, in that during the latter part of the cut there are several “slide” effects, and the voicing of the notes and the feel sound very much like a steel. They really don’t sound like what you would expect from a standard guitar tuning. I guess the guitar could be re-tuned to get that, but what do I know…I’m no slide player!

I do know that it obviously is not easily recognizable as a steel, because it has none of the standard things we tend to do in country music, but then that song is NOT country. I also know that back in those days record companies were very bad about giving credit to session players. It could well have been some guitar player that played a “little” steel (just enough to get the effect they wanted), or some steel player that was brought in to do a few simple things on the cut, got his check, went home, and never got any credit.

I still tend to go with the “slide guitar” theory, but I honestly can’t tell. Either way, I am glad Boo asked the question. The tough ones are always a lot more interesting than the “easy” ones!

B. Bailey Brown

Jimmy Griffin was the main lead player for Bread. Best, Boomer