Why the cigarette in the guitar?

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Apr 23 - 03:48 AM

Did anyone ever stick a cigarette in their ear?

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Apr 23 - 05:48 PM

Did Ron Geesin stick one on the end of his thing me jig?.
He used to have thing me jig which was a bit like a workmans road lamp and he used to whack it whilst reciting McGonagle.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 12 Apr 23 - 05:04 PM

Dave Burland used to do it with the remark 'Riddled with cancer this guitar'

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: meself
Date: 11 Apr 23 - 03:09 PM

I recall seeing a few times someone stick a cigarette between the A and E strings on the headstock. Never struck me as cool or uncool, just kind of a curiosity ....

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Apr 23 - 05:31 AM

I once saw a guy called Don Breeze put his gig money in to his guitar.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: GUEST,Orson Trap
Date: 07 Dec 21 - 12:22 PM

I once bought a Yamaha FG700 off a chap in Kearsley, nr Bolton. I was sure there was something inside the guitar when I shook it. I was right, there were lots of toenail clipping inside!!!! Anybody else found anything in a used instrument they had bought?

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 05 Dec 21 - 01:48 AM

This actually happened to me once with my Les Paul.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 04 Dec 21 - 11:18 PM

From: Hagman - PM
Date: 04 Dec 21 - 05:27 PM

"When I saw Pentangle play at the Melbourne Town Hall in the early 70ies, John Renbourn was so "relaxed" that he dropped his (lit) cigarette in the sound-hole of his guitar, and had to shake it out furiously. Sure woke him up!"

It's like they say: You get out of the guitar what you put into it!

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: GUEST,Keberoxu
Date: 04 Dec 21 - 06:26 PM

Oh, that's hilarious about John Renbourn!

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Dec 21 - 05:37 PM

I didn't wade through the posts but I'll vote for the fact that it was Josh White who started that trend when Clapton was in diapers.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: Hagman
Date: 04 Dec 21 - 05:27 PM

When I saw Pentangle play at the Melbourne Town Hall in the early 70ies, John Renbourn was so "relaxed" that he dropped his (lit) cigarette in the sound-hole of his guitar, and had to shake it out furiously. Sure woke him up!

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 03 Dec 21 - 08:04 PM

". . . Not a cough in a carload! Here, kid!"

A lifetime ago, as a small growing human,
I heard that at the end of Tom Smothers doing the spoken-dialogue part
of an intro to a funny song.

I had never witnessed the brand commercial for the cigarette which used that line to sell their product. No context for the quote in my mind.
I literally did not understand anything but "Here, kid!"
and the rest was a mystery for far too many decades.

When I did find out that it was "not a cough in a carload,"
cigarette commercials had for years been banned
in radio broadcasts and television broadcasts.
I was in fact looking up the Smothers Brothers act and the live performance recording in which Tom Smothers quoted the commercial.
And a comment from an older and more experienced audience member
supplied the quote, and I recognized it as the mystery phrase.

The skit, by the way, was the hugely politically incorrect "Hiawatha"
which was a lead in to the song about
Hiawatha's mittens, largely a lot of verbal foolishness in the song, like
"so to keep the cold there outside
he put the skin side inside outside ..."

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 13 Jun 20 - 05:30 PM

And not forgetting the long sideburns!!

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 13 Jun 20 - 05:29 PM

Clapton was wearing spats on the first occasion I saw him in the Bluesbreakers at Golders Green Refectory Ballroom, but not the next time at Klooks Kleek in West Hampstead!

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: Vincent Jones
Date: 13 Jun 20 - 05:20 PM

I'd assure people that, no, they really didn't look like a twat when they did that, or when they sang with a fag in their mouth.

Clapton may have been able to get away with it, or the Swarb with one in his gob whilst playing one of his matchless solos (see what I did there?), but, in my humble opinion, most other people just looked like tossers.

And working, as I do, in oncology, I expect that at least half of those that did it in my youth will now be dead or of concern to colleagues of mine.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: Mooh
Date: 13 Jun 20 - 07:50 AM

As a life long anti-smoker, I didn't like it back in the day and don't like it now. Just another stupid smoker's affectation.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: JHW
Date: 13 Jun 20 - 05:41 AM

Common sight impaled on a string end. Thankfully no smokers in Folk Clubs, some may say thankfully no Folk Clubs.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: The Sandman
Date: 13 Jun 20 - 04:06 AM

i walked in to a folk club in 1966, and lots of singers guitarists were doing it.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 13 Jun 20 - 01:35 AM

Definitely Eric Clapton when in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, whom I saw several times!

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: GUEST,William
Date: 13 Jun 20 - 12:34 AM

Wow, I can't believe I found something from 18 years ago with a random Google search. I was just recently watching Post Malone do a live stream tribute to Nirvana and saw he had a cigarette on his guitar and asked Google. I'm not disappointed. Thank you, OP TheShambles.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 30 Jan 18 - 06:31 AM

I found the practice put me off listening to the performance.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: GUEST,paperback
Date: 29 Jan 18 - 08:55 PM

John Constantine: You mind?

[reaches for cigarettes]

Satan: Oh, go - go right ahead; I've got stock.

John Constantine: [chuckles] Coffin nail.

Satan: Very fitting, John.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: GUEST,DTM
Date: 29 Jan 18 - 08:29 PM

Alas, my little 60's combo amp still bears the burn scars from abandoned cigarettes back in those RnR days. It was a revelation when someone discovered you could stick your ciggie on the end of the top E string. As I recall, it was more of a convenience than trying to being cool. Thank goodness I gave up the filthy habit of smoking years ago.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Jan 18 - 08:14 PM

It's just stupid!

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: GUEST,Spailpin
Date: 15 Oct 11 - 06:13 PM

Brings back memories of bygone days , west Kerry and a benson stuck on the headstock ... I still smile at that burnt out paramount banjo !

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 15 Oct 11 - 12:52 PM

I suspect this is a habit that caused serious problems before filter tips became the norm.

I remember putting a Players Medium Navy Cut (famous UK non filter ciggie) between the bottom pair on my BM Classical......Double twang...!

Only did it the once!

Don T.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Oct 11 - 11:35 PM

"Have you ever heard that a burning cigarette produces carbon monoxide, which when inhaled, hurts blood oxygen and then brain function?"

Yes. Now, what's your point?

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 14 Oct 11 - 11:11 PM

you cannae sing with it in your mouth

But if you lick your lip just right it'll hang there, off to one side.

In younger times I've been known to smoke the cig, sip a beer, and play the penny whistle simultaneously for short passages - but it don't work at all with a harmonica.

John

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 14 Oct 11 - 04:35 PM

A, but don't forget Nat King Cole! He always had a fag on when he was playing ... and look what happened to him.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: goatfell
Date: 14 Oct 11 - 03:34 PM

you cannae sing with it in your mouth

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 14 Oct 11 - 02:44 PM

I thought they only did it to annoy the person sitting on their right.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: GUEST,Beetle Bailey
Date: 14 Oct 11 - 02:11 PM

especially after Luck Strike green went off to war

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: Amos
Date: 14 Oct 11 - 12:25 PM

9 out of ten doctors smoked Camels, AND L&M had found the secret that unlocked the flavor and there wasn't a cough in a carload...

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: Amos
Date: 14 Oct 11 - 12:23 PM

Well, no, let us not be over hasty. In the 60's, when 9 out of ten doctors smoked Camels, smoking WAS cool. And Woody Guthrie was walking proof. As were many others of the archetypal folkies we saw hovering in the constellation. If you were a smoker, and had a cigarette going, what to do with it when youhad to pick up and play? Sticking it between two of the strings above the nut was the perfect answer, where it would be ready to your hand when your number ended.

A

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 14 Oct 11 - 11:23 AM

Have you ever heard that a burning cigarette produces carbon monoxide, which when inhaled, hurts blood oxygen and then brain function?

Because why the hell, really, would you put a burning cigarette near your guitar?

Similar case - two weeks ago somebody flicked a lit butt into some mulch here in River City and started a fire which did $200,000 damage to a nice home. Good thing nobody was burned or killed.

Let's all sing it together: Just GOTTA have that cigarette!"

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: GUEST,Gareth
Date: 14 Oct 11 - 08:42 AM

I was wondering if it may be a way of getting a little nicotine fix when you are gasping for a fag but cant really stop playing for long.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: The Shambles
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 02:01 AM

The breakdown of the perfect 'air guitar' was proof positive. Thanks.

Maybe we could have a similar one for the perfect FIE traditional singer?

The importance of the facial expression, in order to obtain the correct tone when 'whiddling above the 12 fret' on conventional electric or on 'air guitar', must be stresssed too.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: WyoWoman
Date: 01 Feb 02 - 11:51 PM

Well, duh, Guest. It was 30 years ago and I was young, dumb and had seen too many movies in which the anti-hero peered out at the world through the haze of his cigarette smoke. Now, if I know a man smokes--at least if he has a habit--I'm not inclined that direction. I still bum 'em from time to time when I drink a beer, but I'm not interested in the health ill-effects from cigarettes -- which really begin to stack up once we reach our late 40s and up ... Nor am I interested in helping make some corporation rich at the expense of my own health.

ww

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: GUEST,Bardford
Date: 01 Feb 02 - 11:47 PM

That you, Bob? Welcome back.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: 53
Date: 01 Feb 02 - 10:39 PM

cool.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: GUEST,Bardford
Date: 01 Feb 02 - 10:20 PM

The Shambles- Funny you should mention 'air guitar', I just found this link with an illustration which clearly indicates where the cigarette should go:

Philson Air Guitar

Cheers, Bardford

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Feb 02 - 04:40 PM

Why, O Woman, would you be stupid enough to think that smoking is cool?

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: vectis
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 04:54 PM

Oh and yes, I did keep my cigarette stuck between my E and A strings when I smoked. Everyone "cool" did the same and, being youg, I really wanted to be grown up and cool.
Don't we do some daft things when young???????

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: vectis
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 04:44 PM

What's the difference between a C&W singer and a folk singer?
Folk singers stick a finger in their ear C&W singers stick a finger up their nose.
C&W sounds very messy to me that's why I became a folk singer.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: The Shambles
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 09:52 AM

Is the the FIE is the same as playing 'air guitar', or rather playing the 'air mobile phone'?

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: AliUK
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 08:12 AM

I find if I stick my finger up my nose I can get that really good nasal quality that is prized amongst traditional singers, I think the FIE crowd got their extremities mixed up.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: Hrothgar
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 05:04 AM

Actually, last time I played a guitar, lots of people stuck fingers in their ears.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: The Shambles
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 04:57 AM

Interesting to contrast the addmissions of plain affectation and of even being attracted by it, on this thread, to the other one where a serious argument is put forward for the benefits of placing one's finger in one's ear.

It is a fact with no shame attached, that when young in particular, we are very impressionable and need also to impress.

Singers with guitars, seem here to have a sense of humour and an ability to laugh at themselves. A quality not appearently shared by some of our more serious FIE singers.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: AliUK
Date: 30 Jan 02 - 07:06 PM

I always thought that it was so the guitar players could see their fingers on the strings in the atmospheric ( i.e. bloody gloomy clubs) they played in. Now I know why they didnt use a candel rammed between the e-string and the guitar neck. Thanks guys.

Subject: RE: Why the cigarette in the guitar?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 30 Jan 02 - 05:55 PM

Local (Manchester) Folk/Jazz/Blues performer extaordinaire, Pete Ryder, does it - But he usualy smokes roll-ups so they go out before too long! Suits Petes style to the ground though - any more laid back and he'd be horizontal...;-)

Cheers

Dave the Gnome