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Country Blues => Weenie Campbell Main Forum => Topic started by: Rivers on May 30, 2016, 07:06:46 PM
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[I split this out from the Robert Johnson lyrics thread due to my hijacking the thread but actually accidentally starting a fairly interesting discussion. Chezz started it with the comment about Robert Johnson using slide only at the very end of Stop Breaking Down, so I quoted Steve below - Rivers]
And what about keeping the slide on his pinky through the whole piece, both takes, just so he can do that one slide at the end?!
There's another recording out there that belongs in a very short thread entitled 'Songs where the guitarist keeps a slide on for the whole song and only uses it once, right at the end'. At present I can't remember who it was though. I'm thinking Furry Lewis. [later, Furry it was, but only used slide on the intro to Longing Blues, album Shake 'em on Down, Fantasy]
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Continuing Rivers' diversion: another one for that short list would be Peg Leg Howell's Skin Game Blues where he abandons the slide after the intro.
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There's another recording out there that belongs in a very short thread entitled 'Songs where the guitarist keeps a slide on for the whole song and only uses it once, right at the end'. At present I can't remember who it was though. I'm thinking Furry Lewis. [later, Furry it was, but only used slide on the intro to Longing Blues, album Shake 'em on Down, Fantasy]
Robert Wilkins doing Prodigal Son at the 1968 Memphis Country Blues Festival. No slide until the last few bars of a nine-minute epic.
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There's another recording out there that belongs in a very short thread entitled 'Songs where the guitarist keeps a slide on for the whole song and only uses it once, right at the end'. At present I can't remember who it was though. I'm thinking Furry Lewis. [later, Furry it was, but only used slide on the intro to Longing Blues, album Shake 'em on Down, Fantasy]
Robert Wilkins doing Prodigal Son at the 1968 Memphis Country Blues Festival. No slide until the last few bars of a nine-minute epic.
That's interesting, since I've been toying with the idea of playing the song with a slide!
Cheers
Pan
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There's another recording out there that belongs in a very short thread entitled 'Songs where the guitarist keeps a slide on for the whole song and only uses it once, right at the end'. At present I can't remember who it was though. I'm thinking Furry Lewis. [later, Furry it was, but only used slide on the intro to Longing Blues, album Shake 'em on Down, Fantasy]
Robert Wilkins doing Prodigal Son at the 1968 Memphis Country Blues Festival. No slide until the last few bars of a nine-minute epic.
Clarksdale Moan, too. That amazing slide solo at the end.
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I might try it. It would be a hard habit to break though, once I'm using a slide it never occurs to me to throw it away, or just use it in one part of a song for emphasis or whatever reason. I'm always pretty much in practise mode these days since I'm not playing much so innovation is confined to working on new pieces, or pieces of new pieces. But that's yet another topic!
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Guitar Shorty (John Henry Fortescue) was like that as well. The wicked looking slide was there, but that didn't mean it always got used!
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Way back in the 1960s, I saw the great British bluesman Steve Phillips play "Boogie Woogie Dance". He had come to the conclusion that Tampa Red had a short slide covering the section of his ring finger below the bottom joint (like an extended wedding ring), so he could also fret with all four fingers. This has more than likely since disproved, as I have seen other players with a normal slide on the little finger. It was an interesting theory he had developed though.