Dub
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Post by Dub on Aug 21, 2023 15:09:23 GMT -5
mr h - I'm a little confused about your "romance? yuck" humor or something? Bob, Marshall was making a joke. Note the three emoji symbols winking and smiling. I’m confident that Marshall enjoys romance. He is probably thinking of our childhoods at the movies when we wanted more horseback chases and high noon shootouts and not so much kissing.
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Dub
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Post by Dub on Aug 20, 2023 14:37:57 GMT -5
Whatever pickup Doc was using did not do his guitar tone much justice.
Well then…
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Post by Dub on Aug 20, 2023 14:34:34 GMT -5
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Dub
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Post by Dub on Aug 20, 2023 9:02:34 GMT -5
… Come to think of it, the byplay between Merle and Judy Hayden looks and sounds real-time. Also note the shoutout to Dave Barbour and Peggy Lee at the end. It occurred to me that the name Dave Barbour may be unfamiliar to some of us here so I scrounged up a Soundie of Peggy with her then husband Dave. They may already have divorced by the time Travis and Hayden made that Too Much Sugar Soundie.
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Dub
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Post by Dub on Aug 19, 2023 14:53:44 GMT -5
I would have thought Rick was referring to "If you see me coming, better step aside..." as a macho verse. I’m not sure what Rick meant. What he said was “The first verse is pretty good, the second one starts to fall off, and then it’s just kind of macho BS, which is disappointing. Still, a classic song.” so I assumed he was referring to the third verse. But Travis’s Fat Gal is really over the top with a lyric like “… I could render my gal and sell the lard.”
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Dub
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Post by Dub on Aug 19, 2023 14:30:35 GMT -5
Somehow I’ve always thought of Cort guitars (GSOs) as fitting into Zorro imitator category. I thought they were $99.98 at Walmart or something. When did they start making actual guitars?
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Dub
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Post by Dub on Aug 19, 2023 11:44:43 GMT -5
Now if the nut width was 41mm instead of 45mm I might be interested.
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Dub
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Post by Dub on Aug 19, 2023 10:44:54 GMT -5
Well of course. You wouldn’t want people claiming ownership of songs they didn’t write themselves.
On edit: My remark was intended as humor. Many folk songs seem to have been copyrighted by people who didn’t write them.
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Dub
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Post by Dub on Aug 19, 2023 10:40:48 GMT -5
I do a version of 16 Tons at my acoustic jam. I also thought of it as a protest song, and the chorus definitely is — it was apparently almost verbatim from a family member or friend who was a miner, talking about what it was like. I loved the line about the company store. Talk about your unfair labor practices. The first verse is pretty good, the second one starts to fall off, and then it’s just kind of macho BS, which is disappointing. Still, a classic song. The “high-toned woman” lyric wasn’t intended as macho or sexist, it was just what passed for humor at the time. We don’t see it that way today but Merle didn’t mean to offend anyone with that lyric. Believe it or not, he didn’t mean to offend people with this one either.
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Dub
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Post by Dub on Aug 18, 2023 16:41:12 GMT -5
Ya think? Did you miss the winking emoji? Yes! As a matter of fact I did miss that emoji. Thank you for pointing that out. Where’s the embarrassed emoji when you need it?
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Dub
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Post by Dub on Aug 18, 2023 15:53:57 GMT -5
Love the bowl, love the chili idea, love the cheese, love the green sauce ... but whipped cream just seems wrong. I'm guessing that's sour cream, not whipped cream.
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Dub
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Post by Dub on Aug 18, 2023 15:46:16 GMT -5
Just what the heck is a “harmonically rich pick” ? "Welllll, if you don't know I ain't a-gonna tell you, from now on it's up to you fella words don't count at a time like this."
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Dub
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Peaches
Aug 18, 2023 14:21:10 GMT -5
via mobile
RickW likes this
Post by Dub on Aug 18, 2023 14:21:10 GMT -5
Yeah but what about Herb?
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Dub
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Post by Dub on Aug 18, 2023 13:05:22 GMT -5
Here's a later (1951) Soundie, … There are several done in that studio with that ensemble. The band is Eddie Kirk’s band and features Speedy West on steel guitar. Judy Hayden was married to Eddie Kirk and then married Merle. I don’t know which of them she was married to when this film was made.
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Dub
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Post by Dub on Aug 18, 2023 12:49:24 GMT -5
Happy Birthday, John. I’m sure Erin will be spoiling you rotten.
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Dub
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Post by Dub on Aug 18, 2023 12:15:30 GMT -5
Funny story; my youngest brother spent his career as a union organizer and officer including many years as president of the Iowa Postal Workers union. He loved Travis’s songs, Sixteen Tons and Dark as a Dungeon and evidently had the mistaken idea that Travis was some kind of labor poet. When he found there was a VHS tape of Travis’s performances over his long career, he was excited and ordered it right away. When it came, his bubble burst. It was all Western Swing and fancy guitar stuff, strictly commercial music, which is what Merle did throughout his career. It wasn’t my brother’s “peoples music” at all. I don’t think he ever watched the whole thing but, luckily, he passed it on to me and I wore it out. When it was reissued as a DVD, I bought it again. I still love watching it.
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Dub
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Post by Dub on Aug 18, 2023 12:01:42 GMT -5
This well known tune evolved over time, at least the recorded versions evolved. I don’t know how many verses Travis originally wrote. Like most people, I first heard it on the radio sung by Tennessee Ernie Ford. Merle Travis was one of the first popular stars to record under contract for the fledgling Capitol Records, the first West Coast record label of note in the U.S. in the mid 1940s, Capitol told Merle they wanted him to record an album of folk songs. Merle explained that he didn’t know any folk songs. “Well then, write some!” was their answer. So Merle wrote several “folk songs” under duress and Sixteen Tons is one of those. Merle said he never cared for the song until Tennessee Ernie Ford sold millions of copies and then he just loved the song. Here is the original recording. Merle changed they way he performed the song after Ford’s hit recording so it aligned more closely with what people were familiar with. Here is what must be the earliest video of Merle doing the song. It’s interesting to us as guitar players because we can see how Merle originally arranged and played it. I’m guessing Merle was embarrassed to be wearing the stupid miners costume. He would never have dressed that way voluntarily. I’m not sure when this video was made. It was probably one of the many soundies Merle made and his Martin guitar still has its original neck, not the Bigsby replacement so it must have been prior to 1948.
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Dub
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Post by Dub on Aug 17, 2023 18:54:33 GMT -5
Berry has an axe to grind against the course of modern ag in this country. And he has an axe to grind against those pointy-headed elites. But, pointy-headed elites have never shaped farm policy. Big city liberals have never shaped farm policy. Farm policy via the current Farm/AG program, whatever it is over any given period, has always been crafted in the halls of congress by farm state representatives. There is always some yipping from the inconsequential edges of Congress, but the compromise has been long standing. As long as the Farm Bill contains the Food Stamps program and few other things like WIC and milk for school kids, those pointy heads from those big cities are happy let the representatives, D and R, from farm states, in consultation with those that matter in Ag industry, do whatever they want with the Farm/Ag Bill. (and corn, wheat, cows, [hogs], and beans are what matter. If you are growing broccoli and spinach on a couple acres, good luck, you are on your own) If you are upset with American Agriculture for whatever reason, the pointy-headed liberals from those big cities and fancy east coast colleges have never had anything to do with it. Berry is barking, but it's the wrong tree. Fixed it for you.
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Dub
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Post by Dub on Aug 17, 2023 0:53:16 GMT -5
Happy Birthday, John. I know it’s late but we hope your birthday was nice anyway. We’re sure Dar made it special.
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Dub
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Post by Dub on Aug 15, 2023 15:40:03 GMT -5
Nice, I’ll check it out. I’ve never seen any of the films based on Banjo Peterson’s famous poem so this may be a nice introduction. Link to Banjo Peterson’s poem
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