The talking pedal steel of Pete Drake

November 12, 2011 5:30 AM

Years before Peter Frampton stuck a tube in his mouth and asked the world, through his guitar, "do you, YOU, feel like I do?" there was a fellow who wanted to make his pedal steel guitar talk. And talk it did. Welcome to the wondrously weird musical universe of Pete Drake: Welcome To My World, Blue Velvet, Am I That Easy To Forget, Only You, Roses Are Red... and here you can see Pete in action, with his whole crew of slightly scary looking players and singers, performing Forever. And, hey, just for good measure, let's check ol' Pete's sound without that crazy tube in his mouth, shall we? A snazzy little number called Panhandle Rag, or this (partial) driving waltz, The Spook. But wait! There's more! It's entirely likely that you've heard Pete already! You just didn't know it was he providing that gorgeous, slippery accompaniment for Bob Dylan on Lay Lady Lay. Thank you, Pete!
posted by flapjax at midnite (39 comments total)

Great stuff! The Spook and Oriental Twist are particularly cool!
posted by ericthegardener at 5:45 AM on November 12, 2011

The Spook and Oriental Twist are particularly cool!

Yeah, those tracks really stand out in terms of their visceral quality, especially compared to the bulk of Drake's other output, which is rather Muzak-y. I'm disappointed that the YouTube uploader chose to post only partial versions of those.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:52 AM on November 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Pete Drake gave Peter Frampton his first talk box during their mutual appearance on George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass".
posted by twoleftfeet at 5:57 AM on November 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

Gah, The Spook is like Take Five's bad-ass cousin from the wrong part of town, defiantly adding an extra beat and making out with Take Five's girlfriend whenever the hell it wants to while Take Five sits in a corner nervously drinking a Coke and adjusting its bow tie. So good.
posted by mintcake! at 6:14 AM on November 12, 2011 [11 favorites]

mintcake! Would favorite twice if able!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:15 AM on November 12, 2011

More steel guitar, pointers to Pete Drake's biography, etc. at Brad's Page of Steel.
posted by blob at 6:22 AM on November 12, 2011

"Lay Lady Lay" is a beautiful song, despite its glaring grammatical error. "Lie Lady Lie" is correct, but not so beautiful.
posted by twoleftfeet at 6:29 AM on November 12, 2011

The first time I remember hearing the steel guitar-talkbox combination was on radio doing station ID call out letters in the 60's. Was that before or after Pete's hit records?
posted by Enron Hubbard at 6:30 AM on November 12, 2011

Good stuff. That's an awful lot of vintage polyester AND awesome hair, too.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 6:31 AM on November 12, 2011

The first time I remember hearing the steel guitar-talkbox combination was on radio doing station ID call out letters in the 60's.

Wow, that's right, and I'd completely forgotten about those things, but now that you've reminded me, they all come flooding back into memory!

Was that before or after Pete's hit records?

Probably pretty much concurrent, I'd say. Now I'm wondering if Pete might've done some of those. I mean, he was a top Nashville session guy, and it's really very likely that he might have.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:43 AM on November 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

OK, I'm on the case now to do a proper FPP on station ID jingles. Look for it in a coupla days or so!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:49 AM on November 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the music history lesson! I need to listen to some pedal steel today.
posted by incandissonance at 7:01 AM on November 12, 2011

"Lay Lady Lay" is a beautiful song, despite its glaring grammatical error.

For once I'm going to reply to my own previous comment. The idea of grammatically incorrect song lyrics is intriguing, and probably deserves a post of its own, but I found this little-known site called "Ask Metafilter" which has already been there. Song lyrics are a viable way to remember nuances of grammar. I can remember the proper use of the subjunctive in English by remembering that "I wish I was in the land of cotton" is wrong, but "If I were a rich man, ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum" is correct (at least as far as the subjunctive is concerned. The "ya ha deedle deedle" part may not be grammatically correct).

But the deeper point about language usage in song lyrics is especially underscored when you sing through a tube to make your guitar interesting. What is language anyway? Does it matter if it's correct? What is music? What is the relationship between lyrics and music?

I expect all of you to write essays on this question and turn them in by Monday.
posted by twoleftfeet at 7:02 AM on November 12, 2011

Awesome Pete Drake post! Even among flapjax-approved music posts, this one hits my sweetest spot. Thank you!

One of the true gems of the web, by the way, is the amazing and now venerable "Brad's Page of Steel." It's sort of country/hawaiian focused, and there's no Pete Drake bio, but on the other hand there's a page for Debashish Bhattacharya, the genius of Hindustani slide guitar, and many others. Plus the finest online shrine to the amazing Bob Dunn.

Here's some kickass shit from Pdt. Bhattacharya to enliven your morning.
posted by spitbull at 7:05 AM on November 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

What is language anyway?

Improbable.

Does it matter if it's correct?

Depends on the zone. Check the map.

What is music?

Yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog's eye.

What is the relationship between lyrics and music?

A wop baba loo bop a lop bam boom.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:12 AM on November 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

There is of course the eternal dispute over whether it's Drake or Sonny Curtis playing the awesome steel work on Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man." Very few such questions remain unresolved. I'm on the Pete Drake side of the argument, so here it is. The beautiful delicate fill work in question begins at 0:47, plus the little punctuating thing that echoes the first line of the chorus is really one of the hooks of that song, where you only get one verse and two choruses before it's done. A perfect little gem that has been obscured by the stupid way in which pop songs get sucked into cultural debates, as this one has repeatedly. (Although humorously in the Simpsons' Lurleen Lumpkin's awesome "Stand By Your Manager" bit).
posted by spitbull at 7:15 AM on November 12, 2011

As Simon Frith once said (and I paraphrase slightly), "in popular music, words are the sign of the voice."

Forget grammar. Half the time we don't even know the actual words to songs we love.
posted by spitbull at 7:16 AM on November 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Some very early use of the talk-box idea, from Dumbo - Casey Jr. (specifically during the "all aboard!" segment, and "I think I can, I think I can.")
posted by ShutterBun at 7:23 AM on November 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

A wop baba loo bop a lop bam boom.

I don't mean to be pedantic, but I believe you meant "A-Wop-bop-a-loo-lop a-lop-bam-boo", as reported by this scholar. Admittedly, there is some dispute within the Tutti Frutti community, with another scholar preferring "Wop-bop-a-loo-mop alop-bom-bom" and yet another claiming that it is "Bop bop-a-lu whop bam boo".

Music scholarship is difficult, as I'm sure you must be aware.
posted by twoleftfeet at 7:27 AM on November 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

... the awesome steel work on Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man.

Spitbull, I was gonna link to it, but it seemed like there were enough links in the FPP already, and I had a sneaky suspicion someone would link to it in the comments. It happens to be one of my favorite Nashville country tunes of all time, and I never tire of hearing it. BUT... you've linked to Charlie Rich's "Behind Closed Doors" instead! Which, by the way, Wikipedia tells me Pete Drake plays on, but damned if I can hear pedal steel in there... maybe if I wasn't listening on blown laptop speakers (they sound like hell) I could discern some pedal steel-ery...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:43 AM on November 12, 2011

Ten points for "Tutti Frutti community", Feets.
 
posted by Herodios at 8:00 AM on November 12, 2011

Whoops! Yeah, there's steel in there on Behind Close Doors, but it's subtle. That is one of my all time favorite songs too, as R&B as it is country. The piano work is the hook in that one. But there's some tasty steel fills going on in the choruses, kind of drowned out by the strings.

Here's Stand By Your Man, again with feeling.
posted by spitbull at 8:09 AM on November 12, 2011

There's only one (solo) Pete Drake song on Spotify but the compilation album it's on is pretty cool.

Also, just bought this Pete Drake collection from Amazon.
posted by ericthegardener at 8:13 AM on November 12, 2011

Here's Stand By Your Man, again with feeling.

Yup, that's the clip! Four and a half million views and counting! So glad that hasn't been pulled from YT. I downloaded it quite some time back, assuming that it would be pulled, sooner or later. I built a little FPP around it back in 2007.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:17 AM on November 12, 2011

I'm not surprised that Drake did a cover of "Blue Velvet", because that clip of him and his crew doing "Forever" is positively Lynchian.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:57 AM on November 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Alvino Rey doing talking guitarification in 1944. And presumably his wife Luisa - apparently he played the guitar while she did the mouthing - but she (or whoever is doing the mouthing) is offstage. So that... well... errr...

... Take heed of the warning in the video's description:

Enjoy this and whatever you do, DO NOT TAKE ACID BEFORE VIEWING....we warned you...

posted by Flunkie at 9:16 AM on November 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

The Alvino Rey and Dumbo sounds were more like Sonovox type talkboxes, where small, powerful speakers were held against the throat, rather than a hose stuck in the player's mouth. I'm amazed at the intelligibility that the Sonovox type device can impart. Much better than the average hose talkbox, and even better than many modern vocoders. This Kay Kyser clip shows how the device was played.
posted by 2N2222 at 9:44 AM on November 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

At this juncture I feel it is my duty to link to "Breathless" by Todd Rundgren. Talk boxes ahoy.
posted by mintcake! at 9:45 AM on November 12, 2011

"Lay Lady Lay" is a beautiful song, despite its glaring grammatical error. "Lie Lady Lie" is correct, but not so beautiful.

Total derail, but here's why you're utterly wrong:

1. "Lay [your corporeal self] across my big brass bed": 100% cromulent.

2. Lay, in terms of ladies, means just one thing--or another thing that generally involves the first, sometimes incorporating a big brass bed. Any ambiguity is likely intentional. (I'm fairly confident Dylan's not asking the lady to pop out an egg.)

3. Lie, in contrast, has the second meaning of deceive, which some ladies may do from time to time. It is also used to invoke position: "Lie across my big brass bed" could suggest across from me, i.e. on the opposite side of the bed; cf. "My bonnie lies over the ocean." For these two reasons, Lie Lady Lie would be fraught with ambiguity, such that the lyric could be interpreted completely opposite to its intended meaning. That may well make for a far more interesting song, but it's not the one Dylan was aiming for.

4. The usage of lay in the song suggests an action: a transition from vertical to horizontal. To get the same sense of action from lie—as static a verb as one is likely to find—one would have to flesh it out to lie down or similar. Does not scan.

If there's anything grammatically erroneous with "Lay Lady Lay," it's the lack of commas.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:07 AM on November 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

Metafilter: Some dispute within the Tutti Frutti community.
posted by 445supermag at 11:58 AM on November 12, 2011

This is awesome. Great post as always, flapjax.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm counting 6 beats per measure in Spook, not 5. Am I nuts?
posted by ORthey at 1:14 PM on November 12, 2011

If there's anything grammatically erroneous with "Lay Lady Lay," it's the lack of commas.

Neither the lack of commas nor the use of "lay" rather than "lie" are ungrammatical. The idea that they are is merely a result of confusion about the plot of the song, which is actually in the voice of a mad scientist directing his assistant to lay the body of the minor noblewoman Lady Lay across the metallic bed, whereupon he can perform terrifying and unnatural electrical experiments in an insane attempt to grasp the power of a god.
posted by Flunkie at 2:49 PM on November 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm counting 6 beats per measure in Spook, not 5. Am I nuts?

But nobody said it was in 5! :)

Mintcake's hilarious comment upthread comparing it to Take Five indicated that it had added a beat from a theoretical (badass cousin) version that was originally in 5, making it 6 beats!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:39 PM on November 12, 2011

Take (3 * 2)
posted by speicus at 4:28 PM on November 12, 2011

This post should give a lot of credit to engineer (and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member) Bob Heil, the guy who made the box in question. The Heil Talk Box was the first high-powered talk box. Bob Heil is also the guy who built the Who's legendary quadraphonic PA system, who invented the modular mixing desk, and did a lot of other awesome stuff.
posted by w0mbat at 1:36 AM on November 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

This post should give a lot of credit to engineer (and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member) Bob Heil

Thanks to you, w0mbat, now it has! That's what comments are for! Gracias!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:02 AM on November 14, 2011

...the guy who made the box in question.

However, as regards this post, "the box in question" is not the one you hear being played by Pete Drake. You'll note that the Wiki article you linked to indicates that Heil invented his box in 1973. The recordings by Drake linked in this post are from the mid-60s, almost 10 years before Heil7s box.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:18 AM on November 14, 2011

Nice repost.........

http://www.metafilter.com/66428/Electrolarynx
posted by Gottfried Mind at 5:51 PM on November 15, 2011

Glad you enjoyed the post, Gottfried Mind, though it wasn't a repost! And thanks for pointing out the Electrolarynx FPP, which I had missed. That one Pete Drake clip it included was one which I'd missed, so thanks especially for that.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:54 PM on November 15, 2011