I am turning into Rick Fielding

Subject: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: The_one_and_only_Dai
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 04:54 AM

My newly-rediscovered bachelor status coupled with a long-standing desire to actually contribute something other than my mellifluous singing voice to the canon of folk music led me, yesterday, to impulsively purchase a mandolin. (i.e. yet another new instrument to add to my guitar, accordion, fiddle, and planned hurdy gurdy, none of which i can play properly but all of which i promise myself to at least become competent on before i die)

I've already had conference with a local 'expert' *cough* who's given me some useful pointers, and I've picked around and worked out some chords from first principles, that kind of thing.

I'd be grateful for the wisdom of the mudcat mando elders... any useful resources, hints, tips for me?

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 05:18 AM

Some useful links on this thread, Dai. And you can always ask me, I play the mandolin (almost well sometimes).

Steve

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 05:20 AM

(Yhat's "almost well, sometimes", not "almost, well sometimes")

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: paddymac
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 06:10 AM

"Turning into Rick Fielding" is it. Mando picker too. It could be worse, much worse. I mean, what if you suddenly had an urge to blow up a possum's butt, like at least one well known and generally beloved member of our family. Or, God forbid, you took a fancy to beating on a dead goat; not to mention banjo picking. Be thankful it's only a dose of mandoitis. At least that is not generally considered a social disease. Oh, well, have fun. Someday you'll wake up dead.

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 07:00 AM

If his legs are better than mine I'll turn into him too!!!!

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: mooman
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 07:39 AM

Also happy to help in any way I can! The links on the thread given by Steve Parkes are very useful for starters.

mooman (40 years on the mandolin not that you'd notice!)

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: The_one_and_only_Dai
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 07:44 AM

While my transformation takes place, I'd like to point out to the mudcat ladies that Steve Parkes is turning into Russell Crowe.

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: mooman
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 07:55 AM

Is he "Glad to be a Gladiator"

(Oh get Micca to sing it at Stony Stratford...!)

mooman

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Morticia
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 07:55 AM

This is a useful site < a href=http://www.mandolincafe.com/> blickie and if Steve is turning into Russell Crowe, I 'd like to turn into Kim Basinger...

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Morticia
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 07:56 AM

damn, or someone competent with HTML.....try again blickie

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: WyoWoman
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 08:38 AM

Well, I was saving myself for Russell Crowe when he gets over this foolishness about Whatzername. However, if Mr. Parkes is a close second, my door would not be hard to budge. ...

And I, too, am heading toward Mandoland, although I keep telling myself I ought to actually be able to play this guitar before I meander off into another instrument. But, encouraged by the pushers here at the 'Cat, I'm willing to make myself available for yet another musical addiction.

WW

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Peter T.
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 08:45 AM

In your dreams. yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 09:19 AM

Ladies, I suggest we all close our eyes and pretend; after all, all [Mud]cats are grey in the dark. I'll just get my authentic Roman Army Surplus leather kilt out of the wardrobe ...

Steve

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Naemanson
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 09:34 AM

Turning into Rick Fielding wouldn't be all bad. And if you are a bachelor then that would allow the single ladies to dream of catching (an ersatz) Rick without annoying Duckboots, not to mention Rick.

Of course, you'll have to have all his other good qualities in addition to adding instruments to your collection.

And you'll also have to put up with the friendly ribbing from Spaw and the rest of the gang that teases Rick.

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: The_one_and_only_Dai
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 09:37 AM

Steve, I hope you appreciate the favour I've just done you here ;-)

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Amos
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 09:38 AM

I am just wondering whether Rick knows about this. Don't you need permission from someone to turn into them? I mean it adds so many complications to his life, doesn't it?

"Good evening folks. I'm Rick Fielding, and I'd like to play you...."

"DON'T LISTEN TO HIM, PEOPLE!!!! I'M RICK FIELDING!!! AND I PLAY THE MANDOLIN!!!"

"Sorry about the interruption, friends...here's a little banjo number I learned from Pete...."

"NO! NO! I'M RICK FIELDING AND I HAVE A HURDY GURDY TUNE FOR YOU I LEARNED FROM AN ITALIAN STREET VENDOR'S MONKEY IN 1907...."

Segue into Dueling Banjos played on mandolin and hurdy gurdy....

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: The_one_and_only_Dai
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 09:51 AM

I should have actually said 'I am turning into a hollow facsimile of the astonishingly talented Rick Fielding' but there wasn't space. Please read it as such, of course.

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: 53
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 09:54 AM

at least you're turning into a great musician, i've never heard him, but i'd really like to, also another great player is just a picker, both are great guys. BOB

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: The_one_and_only_Dai
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 09:59 AM

Thanks Bob, I fear I'm actually only turning into a collector of instruments who is full of high hopes...

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Amos
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 10:03 AM

And Rick? Who is he turning into? LOL!!!

Dai, no apology needed -- I was just being funny, not upbraiding you!!

A

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: CarolC
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 10:21 AM

I know Rick Fielding, but who is Russell Crowe?

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 10:29 AM

Gratia tuo ago, Daius

Stephanus Parcus Corbius

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: The_one_and_only_Dai
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 10:32 AM

Sancto Pancras, Estebanus, et loco in transit. Caecilius est in atrio. Matella est mater, et Cerberus est in via. Puer nobis, multo cuncumbe est leonum scribendim.

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 11:07 AM

Dai, Dai, Dai!! Don't do it! Save yourself before it's too late!

Pretty soon you'll forget how to do ANY practical things at all. The faucets are leaking? You'll just stand there stupidly, muttering "What would Django do?" The furnace blows up? You immediately break into 'mining disaster' ballads, while herself tries to repair the damage. Income tax forms to fill out? You sing MacColl's 'Ballad of Accounting' and hope they'll just go away.

Worst of all, by default (having a shitload of instruments) you'll become an expert in an area where people HATE experts! (see "why are bridges glued down?") Knowing how to do a perfect set-up on a banjo or mandolin is nowhere near as valuable as knowing how NOT to get ripped off at your car repair emporium. For example, I can play (reasonably convincingly) on about 40 instruments...and I drive a Ford Escort...my local grease monkey drives a Corvette, and probably can't play two notes on a harmonica!

Really start worrying when you get that Hurdy Gurdy! You'll attract very interesting women, but forget the 'Brittney' type babes....they only go for Fender Strat type guys!

On the other hand....welcome to the 'Nurd Club'. I think Mudcat Jeri's about to join as well!

On a completely unrelated matter....We saw the cute movie "The Englishman Who went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain" the other night. Is it true that Welsh folks designate each person with a 'knickname', as in "Morgan the Goat" or John the bottle etc.? Do you have one? Can we call you "Dai the Gurdy"?

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Amos
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 11:14 AM

I think the last bit means that he knows lions who write about cucumbers. It seems to be a prayer about the pancreas, written by someone starting a railroad journey...hmm...with some Matell toys for his mother. I think I've got that right...

A

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: The_one_and_only_Dai
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 11:21 AM

I would be delighted, nay honoured, Rick...

The naming convention you describe stems from the fact that everybody in a Welsh village apparently has the same name, whether it be 'Dai' or 'Jones' or whatever. So a qualifier is necessary to differentiate between them. Hence in the film 'Zulu', the soldiers have names like 'Jones 358' and 'Williams 147'.

Cultural verisimilitude is added by alliteration or irony, puns are particularly good. Only I can't think of any good ones right now. But there's an apocryphal story about a place with 2 Jones', one being the undertaker and the other a travel agent. They were called 'Jones One Way' and 'Jones There and Back'

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: DougR
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 01:51 PM

Dai: have you checked the sites on the Internet related to medical cures. Surely there is something you can take ...:>)

DougR

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 04:07 PM

So you'd be "Doug Smoked Ham", right?

Actually my behaviour this year has been pretty troubling Dai. I've paid off my VISA, have only bought one instrument of over a thousand bucks (75 Gibson J-50) and have limited our restaurant largesse to one visit to the Chinese Buffet every three weeks. I'm not the wastrel I once was.......I'm turning into.....arghhhhh....a NORMAL person!

Rick

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: SINSULL
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 06:27 PM

No, Rick...you are not. More normal, maybe, but you have a ways to go. Keep it that way. SINS.

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: 53
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 07:29 PM

i'd rather see you buy more guitars, so you would have more stories to tell us, they are very interesting, and one day i might just be as brave as you, and step out and buy a few more guitars. i need to fill up more space in my front room. a martin for bluegrass might be nice, or a larivee, for casual playing or you never know what might come up. rick has set a fine example for all of us to follow, and we need to get on with our guitar buying, and save the world.

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Little Hawk
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 09:02 PM

Dai - There may still be time to control or even reverse the metamorphosis! I recommend getting up very early and taking a COLD shower first thing EVERY morning. NEVER stay up past 8:30 pm. Avoid the subject of music at all costs, unless it's rap or hiphop. Do NOT impulsively purchase expensive and exotic instruments! Talk about "guy" things...like football, chainsaws, babes, and automatic transmissions. Get your hands dirty repairing household machinery. Spit frequently. Watch plenty of violent action films and NEVER read anything...except the Toronto Sun. Avoid the company of intellectual types like the notorious Peter T. Mention to anyone who cares to listen that Bob Dylan can't sing, and never could play worth a damn either.

If all else fails, chain yourself to a wall during full moon periods...but don't give in to the Fielding Curse!

- LH

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Amos
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 11:20 PM

LOL, LH!!

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 11:59 PM

For what it's worth, I just listened to The Dylan show with Cynthia Gooding from 1962. Once again great music, fine pickin', fine singin' way out of tune and dead strings. The interview is VERY telling. Bobby sounds like he could be talking today. Cynthia seems very sixties. He spins her a lot of his stories about 'workin' as a carny', she believes and loves it. He credits Len Chandler as his source for stealing the chord pattern Am.C,D,F,E and then plays "Emmett Till". Just blows her away.

Rick

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Jan 02 - 04:08 PM

Wow! I sure envy you your catalog of early Dylan, Rick. He was a heck of a storyteller, wasn't he? I think he was doing his audiences a big favour, actually, igniting their imagination like that. He could've just told 'em he was a nice middle class kid from Hibbing...

"Now, me, I'm average, common too, I'm just like him and the same as you, I'm ev'rybody's brother and son, I ain't different from anyone...ain't no use talkin' to me...it'd be just the same as talkin' to you!"

I would love to hear that show. Funny how he was always so far ahead of the time he was standing in, while so keenly aware of the past...maybe there's a connection there.

- LH

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 03:49 AM

People on first-name terms with the undertaker called him "Dai the Death".

Out of curiosity, (is something lost in the translation, I wonder?) why do surnames take "the" while forenames don't, e.g. "Dai Station" but "Jones the Steam"?
Steve

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 12:17 PM

Or "Toad the Wet Sprocket"? Among really stupid band names, that may be the winner of them all.

- LH

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: GUEST,Desdemona
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 12:23 PM

I can't help wondering if this is anything like turning Japanese....?

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: GUEST,William Shatner
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 01:00 PM

Ah. Now I am beginning to put the pieces together, bit by hideous bit. Please refer to my previous post in "Why Did The Cat Come Back" thread for an explanation.

As I said, you people are going to pay for this. Bigtime.

William Shatner

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: GUEST,Desdemona
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 01:21 PM

Uh, Bill---are you STALKING me?!

Oh, my God, I've been dreaming about this since the '60s, when first I became entranced by your manly, heaving, harvest gold lycra-encased chest while sitting on my mother's lap in my fuzzy pink feet pajamas.

Take me, Bill----forget those scantily clad space aliens; I'll show you what a real earthling woman can do!!!!!

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Amos
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 01:31 PM

LOL!!! Damn!! The kind of commitment every earth man dreams of, and it ends up being offered to a fictional imagineer!!! Sheeshe, the universe is so unFAIR!!

LOL!!

A.

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: GUEST, L. Nimoy
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 02:28 PM

*sigh* Amos, I could never understand it myself.....

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 02:34 PM

Fascinating. What could the explanation be for this sort of illogical behaviour?

- LH

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: GUEST,Desdemona
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 02:42 PM

Maybe you guys should try lycra.....maybe in a nice shade of avocado, or rust! It certainly seemed to have the desired effect on all those alien space babes.

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: hesperis
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 04:04 PM

Ooooh, LH in stretchy lycra velvet! Mmmmm... *g*

Bob Dylan isn't an Aquarius, is he? If he isn't, there just HAS to be strong Aquarius influences in his chart. Plus some Pisces.

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Desdemona
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 04:20 PM

Don't ask how I know this (I am a virtual gold mine of useless & trivial information!), but I believe Bob Dylan was born on May 23rd, 1941. So.....a Gemini!

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: GUEST, L. Nimoy
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 04:52 PM

What POSSIBLE influence do the Stars & Planets have on someones personality? (other than which Planet you are born & raised on, of course)

Wholly illogical....

*G*

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 06:29 PM

Nimoy, you have no idea... Your logical mind is a mere tinker toy machine next to the supermind, which deals in direct perception of reality, rather than primitive logical deduction. This is the source from which spring both revelation and Absolute Knowledge of Reality, on any level whatsoever. Vulcans appear to be incapable of it, probably for reasons of cultural brainwashing rather than out of a lack of native ability. As far as that goes, most humans are more or less incapable of it too, most of the time. I recommend some advanced Yogic training from a self-realized master to break down the barriers.

Dylan is indeed a Gemini.

Stretchy lycra? I'll see what I can do...

- LH

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: hesperis
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 07:26 PM

It is definitely caused by cultural acclimitazation of the personality - Vulcans have great natural abilities of both a "mind" and a "beyond mind" type, as well as strong emotional abilities. (Yes, their emotions are very strong, but so is their emotional sensitivity.)

However, these abilities also come with a great responsibility to not use them for ill purposes, which an immature Vulcan could easily do if they let their strong emotional resonance get out of control. Hence the rigid cultural strictures.

Of course, ideally, a fully-developed Vulcan society would advocate that only for the young, and would help mature members of the species to go beyond the limitations that were previously imposed upon their impressionable minds. The current Vulcan society has so far found itself unable to break the pre-conditioning, however.

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: 53
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 10:09 PM

Am C D F E are the chords for the house of the rising sun. am i correct? BOB

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 Jan 02 - 11:22 PM

You must be joking, 53! What the hell do you think this thread is about anyway? :-) I play that song this way: Em G A C Em B7 (and so on...) It suits my voice better in that key.

Now get back on topic! (*Grin*)

- LH

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Julie B
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 08:24 AM

In order to help get back on topic, I was wondering if I'm the only person here with the 'claim to fame' of having met both Dai and Rick (...not to mention Steve Parkes!)? in person? Sadly, when I was introduced to Rick (at a Harvey Andrews concert in Toronto last April, by 'Black Walnut') I had only very recently started visiting the Mudcat and so didn't 'know' him. Will there be anyone who has met Rick attending the Stony Stratford Mudcat do here in Feb? If so, maybe they could better advise Dai on whether his metamorphosis is taking the right direction....
Julie B

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 11:44 AM

Hi Julie, I'd forgotten about that. So you're THAT Julie?

I'm afraid any metamorphisation(!) now has to include fiscal responsibility....and far fewer adventures!

Rick

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Amos
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 11:56 AM

Yeah -- if you have any dough saved up, turning into Rick is a losing proposition!! LOL! Makes a morpher think twice, I guess...

A

Subject: RE: I am turning into Rick Fielding
From: Julie B
Date: 23 Jan 02 - 04:02 AM

Hi Rick,
Yes, I'm that Julie! Sorry I wasn't yet fully initiated in the ways of the Mudcat when I met you. Still, it was lovely to fly thousands of miles for a Harvey Andrews concert (well, ok, maybe not just for that!) and feel among friends thanks to the 'cat.
Julie B