Lyr/Chords Req: Ode to Mel Bay

Subject: The Mel Bay song
From: Gypsy
Date: 11 Jul 00 - 11:56 PM

Now that I can't find the dratted tape...has anyone out there heard the Mel Bay song, performed by David Grisman/Jerry Garcia? If so, pretty please share lyrics with me. It is a great song, and one that certainly alot of people can identify with. Thanks in advance for the help, all.

Subject: Lyr Add: ODE TO MEL BAY
From: Joe Offer
Date: 12 Jul 00 - 04:37 AM

Hi, Gypsy, I found This link for Dawgnet which claims to have Grisman/Garcia lyrics. No mention of a Mel Bay song, but maybe you'd find it if you looked around more than I did. I wonder if it could be the same as "Ode to Mel Bay." That song is on an album called The Day Finger Pickers Took Over the World (click) by Chet Atkins and Tommy Emmanuel. Heck, I may have to buy the album just for the fantastic cover!

Here's what I gleaned from the sound sample from the Atkins album:

Ode To Mel Bay
(Mark "Howie" Denny & Michael Granda)
(as recorded by Chet Atkins and Tommy Emmanuel

...Now we're happily strummin' along
And you oughta hear us play
And I guess we owe it all to you
Thanks a lot, Mel Bay

Mel Bay, Mel Bay, we just want to say
We wouldn't know what we're doing
If you hadn't shown the way
Mel Bay, Mel Bay, every time we play
We always think of you, and I hope you'll have a nice day.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Mel Bay song
From: Gypsy
Date: 12 Jul 00 - 11:33 AM

As always, Joe, you come through. On my way to work now, will check out the links you so kindly posted for me. The fragment of lyric you posted is indeed part of the song that i am looking for. Thank you so much!

Subject: Lyr Add: ODE TO MEL BAY (Denny, Granda)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 12:55 AM

Well, it looks like the Michael Granda's Website (click) has posted the entire song now.
-Joe Offer-

Ode To Mel Bay
(Mark "Howie" Denny & Michael Granda)

CHORUS: Mel Bay, Mel Bay, where are you today?
We surely would've never, ever learned how to play.

Mel Bay, Mel Bay, where in the world you been?
I've been tryin' so damn hard to play the mandolin.
You tell me that it's easy if I buy your book,
So I'm hikin' down to the music store to take myself a look. CHORUS

Well, I went down with my daddy. I went down to a bar.
Saw me a country singer. He was playin' a guitar.
I asked him how he learned to play and this is what he'd say:
Go buy yourself a guitar book by a guy named Mel Bay. CHORUS

(HARP SOLO)

Well, I bought your book, tried to learn how to play the fiddle.
I learned a song about the cat named hey-diddle-diddle.
And then I went to Hoover's and I bought me a ukulele.
I learned to play those Pearly Shells an' a Ukulele Lady. CHORUS

Take it, Mel Bay.

(GUITAR SOLO)

On the first page of your manual, you told me how to hold a pick.
You gotta hold it in this manner, firmly in your grip.
And now were happily strumming along in the key of A.
We're learnin' from the Bible accordin' to Mel Bay. CHORUS TWICE

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Mel Bay song
From: Kaleea
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 01:23 AM

Joe, I also learned the song from Chet/Tommy albumn. I was laughing alot listening to that very track on the CD at the office, & my employees wondered what I was laughing about. Although I never got to meet Mr. Atkins, I DID have to explain to Tommy the "correct" pronunciation of the albumn title--it's fAngerpickerz, ya'll! He laughed uproariously, & said Chet talked that way too!

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Mel Bay song
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 02:50 AM

Hi, Kaleea - could you compare the Chet/Tommy recording with the lyrics I've posted? It would be worthwhile to see if Chet & Tommy changed the lyrics at all.
Thanks.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ode To Mel Bay
From: GUEST,Raymond Wong
Date: 12 Mar 05 - 05:17 AM

Hi Joe, I found this thread while searching for the lyrics of Ode To Mel Bay - the version by Chet Akins/Tommy Emmanuel on the album The Day Finger Pickers Took Over the World. To answer your question, yes, the lyrics is somewhat different from the one you posted. The CD insert credited the new lyrics to Chet Akins. Does anyone have the lyrics? If not, I'll try to transcribe it myself and post it here. English being a second language for me, I just want to try the easy way first.
Thanks.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Mel Bay song
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 13 Mar 05 - 11:27 AM

Here's an excerpt from the Atkins/Emmanuel recording, taken from sound samples (the best I can do):

...Mel Bay, Mel Bay, ev'ry time we play,
We always think of you and we hope you'll have a nice day.

On page twenty-one, you showed us how to play a G.
On page twenty-two, you taught us how to play a D;
But lordy, oh lordy, we never learned to play an E....

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Mel Bay song
From: Gypsy
Date: 13 Mar 05 - 09:40 PM

Fabulous! love this tune, and is ever so true for so many of us!