Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?

Subject: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Sleepless Dad
Date: 04 Aug 03 - 10:39 PM

There was a short retrospective about Jimmy Cagney on TV last night. While they were showing a bunch of still photos there was a very clear shot of Cagney making a classic bar F chord on a Martin. I'm guessing it was a 000 from the shape of it. It was sunburst with the 45 style of Martin logo printed down the center of the head. Has anyone heard the Cagney was a guitar player ?

I guess that I'm always suprised to see a movie star holding an instrument that looks like they know what they're doing. Kurt Douglas and Audrie Hepburn also come to mind.

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: DonMeixner
Date: 04 Aug 03 - 10:49 PM

Grouch Marx was a fine guitarist. Dennis Quade is pretty good. Steve Martin is a world class banjo player and Sen. Robert Byrd does pretty OK on the fiddle. Talent abounds out there. But I must admit I get a little torqued when someone obviously fakes it when there are talented musician / actors about.

Don

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Cluin
Date: 04 Aug 03 - 11:05 PM

Alan Arkin

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Kaleea
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 01:07 AM

I recall reading an autobiography by an oldtime Hollywood actor--can't remember exactly which one--who told of a time when he & some of the boys (actors) from the studio, James Cagney included, the girls would be provided, were at so & so the big hollywood leading man's house, & James Stuart & can't remember who else seated playing the Piano, Jimmy Cagney brought his guitar, & assorted starlets (up & coming actress) & actors singing. I knew that Jimmy Stuart played piano from the Johnny Carson "Tonight Show" but had not known about Cagney. I suppose that since I play both piano & guitar, it stuck in my mind. Either that or I had never thought of Cagney as a guitarist--why? Could it be that I'd never seen him with a musical instrument 'cept for his feet & singing.
Other rarely know musicians include :
Phyllis Diller was a terrific classical pianist. Charro (yes, the coohchiecoohchie girl) was raised in a nunnery in Brazil & is a good guitarist--plays quite good "classical" style Spanish music! Cindi Lauper plays the Mountain Dulcimer. Funny how we seem to put entertainers into a category & are shocked when we find they have fine talents we knew nothing of.

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: musicmick
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 02:02 AM

Steve Martin plays decent three finger banjo. Much more impressive was Dudley Moore. He may well have been the best Jazz pianist I have ever heard.(He worked with John Dankworth and Cleo Laine). Jack Lemon was a professional pianist and Fred MacMurry put himself through college playing the saxophone. Groucho Marx played classical guitar and took lessons from Segovia.
Did Kirk Douglas really play the guitar in "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"? I loved that song he sang, "Whale of a Tale". Alan Arkin was in a folk group with Lee Hayes. Mickey Rooney was a dynamite drummer.
My favorite celebrity-musician sighting was on the old TONIGHT SHOW, when Maurie Wills, he played shorstop for the Dodgers, did a few fast numbers on tenor banjo. Hey, he was better than George Segal.

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: alanabit
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 02:54 AM

To my surprise, I stumbled across a recording of Robert Mitchum singing and playing jazz piano - and it wasn't bad at all. I don't know about Cagney though. I am sure if we keep this thread up for a day or two that someone will enlighten us.

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 03:00 AM

And David Kossoff of one man show chat fame was a brilliant Jazz pianist.

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 03:37 AM

Groucho took lessons from Segovia ? I would like to see further confirmation of that.

I remember clearly from Groucho's autobiography, he recounted how he invited Segovia round to his house and handed him his prized Gibson f-hole steel-strung to play. Segovia strummed a couple of chords and handed it back saying it hurt his fingertips.

Groucho sold the Gibson the following day, as I recollect, and bought a top of the range classical guitar.

Murray

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Margret RoadKnight
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 04:03 AM

Robin Williams plays good harp (saw him uncharacteristically restrained when sitting in with, of all people, Kinky Freidman at NY's Lone Star Cafe in the '80s).
Theodore Bikel was an Academy Award nominee.
Yul Brynner played guitar.

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Steve-o
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 02:40 PM

Martin Mull is a fine "jazz-style" guitarist. All the guys in the famous Carradine acting family are good guitarists (I believe David is currently out touring with his rock band). Of course, all the actors in "A Mighty Wind" did pretty serviceable jobs on their instruments, too. I would have loved to see and hear Cagney play guitar- especially if he also sang along!!

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: GUEST,pdq
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 03:09 PM

The Three Stooges made a nice little string band with Moe on guitar, Larry on fiddle and Curly on bass. Larry was considered a good musician.

Even stranger is the thought of cowboy/actor Gary Cooper playing Hawaiian slide guitar, which he did in the late 1920's.

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 03:25 PM

Good thread, Peter Sellers was a most proficient drummer.

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 03:39 PM

Al Gore is a beautiful singer. I heard him sing a bit of a Christmas carol on TV..mg

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 03:40 PM

Plus I keep hearing Teddy Kennedy is great for the old Irish-American songs..never heard him sing though. mg

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 04:21 PM

George Bush does a phenomenal version of "All Along the Watchtower", playing the Stratocaster with his teeth just like Jimi, and when you hear Janet Reno sing "Me and Bobbie McGee" you would swear Janice had been reincarnated.

Don't even get me started on Tony Blair's rendition of "Whole Lotta Love". ...

Murray

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Wesley S
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 05:09 PM

Getting back to reality Murray - I have seen Kurt Douglas in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea playing some kind of Hollywood style uke made out of a turtle. It was obvious that he was playing some kind of actual chords - I think they were uke chords but I don't play one so I'm just gussing.

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 05:21 PM

In all seriousness, Wesley, this thread is worth keeping alive so that such instances can be noted and recorded. I am racking my brains to try and think of some more examples, but I can't.

I do remember that in "From Here to Eternity" one of the soldiers in Frank's platoon was an excellent guitar picker . Sounded just like Merle Travis ....

Murray

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 05:37 PM

Did Sinatra do his own singing in FHTE? heh heh.

Johnny Carson was/is a decent drummer who idolized Buddy Rich (which is why Buddy as such a frequent guest).

Don't get me started on Bruce Willis...or Dan Ackroyd, John Goodman, etc.

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: musicmick
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 05:40 PM

Speaking of non-playing musicians, do you remember when Walter Brennan pretended to play back up harmonica for Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson in "Rio Bravo"?
Another decent classical guitarist was Hugh Downs.

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Wesley S
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 05:44 PM

Ah but the image of Audry Hepburn playing a guitar in a dark room ....

Beat me,whip me, make me write hot checks.

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Don Firth
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 05:48 PM

During the Seattle World's Fair in 1962 I had occasion to meet and talk with Hugh Downs' son (sixteen years old at the time). He told me that his father was a pretty good classic guitarist, and owned a Manual Velazques guitar (same kind that Richard Dyer-Bennet played). That's a very seriously good classic guitar.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 06:39 PM

Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the fiddle, and did so in an early movie, "Stay Hungry."

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: DonMeixner
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 06:55 PM

Murray,

You are kidding? Aren't you?

Don

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 07:10 PM

I'm kidding, Don.

Murray

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 07:25 PM

Alistair Cooke, former host of PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre", and American correspondent for the BBC, played blues/jazz piano and sang. I believe my local PBS station has played a recording of him singing and playing "Basin Street Blues".

Here's a quote:

Yes, I cannot imagine life without music. I just had a feel for it as a boy. We had a piano. My brother learned to play it and learned music - which I thought was magical. I immediately started to pick out stuff for myself.

I had a feel for harmony and at some point when I had made the recording, 'This Evening at the Piano,' - which I did about 40 years ago - I decided to take lessons. My teacher was rather famous and terribly attractive. I was hopeless.

To this day a musical notation is really a bunch of houseflies on telegraph poles. I have no idea what they mean.

I am deeply stupid about converting them into chords. However, I learnt entirely by ear and picked up classical music by composers such as pieces by Beethoven.

Then, of course, I got interested in jazz while I was in Cambridge.

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 08:55 PM

Hal Linden and Peter Graves both played clarinet and Fred MacMurray played sax, all in well-known Big Bands. Clint Eastwood tried to be professional jazz piano player at one time but wised-up. Burl Ives and Alan Arkin, on the other hand, were folkies and they really could act. One or both were nominated for the Oscar. And then there is Lou Gossett, Jr., etc....

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Deckman
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 09:05 PM

About 1959 I bought a little ten inch LP record titled "Folk Songs, Once Over Lightly." It was the first time I'd ever heard of Alan Arkin. Very Good. I still have it and play it occasionally! CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Margret RoadKnight
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 09:36 PM

Hoyt Axton straddled both fields mightily

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 05:20 AM

Chico Marx played the piano and harpo played the harp. What -- you knew that?

Bob Hope didn't play the concertina! Charles Chaplin played the piano and violin (and probably a few other things), and Ol' Stoneface (what's his name?) played the piano too.

Up until the 1960s many homes had a piano, and an awful lot of people had lessons. It's not surprising that many would-be entertainers could play, whether well or otherwise, and that some of themrealy did become stars.

Steve

PS Bill Clinton plays the saxophone and Tony Bair plays electric guitar. I suppose you all knew that too! Cherie Blair can't sing(and she'll be breaking the law if she tries it back home!)

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 05:23 AM

More glaringly obvious info:
The joanna is a good instrument for faking in a movie: if the actor can play, you'll see their whole body as they do so; otherwise, you won't see the hands on the keys and the face talking at the same time.

Steve

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 10:08 AM

Jimmy Durante played piano in the Memphis Five without leaving New Joisey!

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Dave Swan
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 11:24 AM

Peter Sellars played uke. Dub Taylor (character actor often confused with Strother Martin) would, as he put it, "tear off a little piece" on the xylophone.

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: greg stephens
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 11:33 AM

I have a tape of the poet Robert Graves doing a bit of folk singing.

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: curmudgeon
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 12:23 PM

Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf plays the autoharp. And if I recall correctly, Allan Arkin did some backup for Ed McCurdy on the "Dalliance" series.

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Bert
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 12:38 PM

I THINK Michael J Fox was playing the guitar in one of those Back to the future movies.

John Cassavetes had a whole TV series about a Jazz musician in "Johnny Staccato"

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: musicmick
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 05:23 PM

It was the first "Back To The Future". He was doing the whole Chuck Berry routine. It sure looked like he was playing. Maybe, I got fooled by the duck walk.

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Gene
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 09:47 PM

Audie Murphy was musically talented - and was quite successful as a songwriter.

Often teaming up with other talented artists and composers such as Guy Mitchell, Jimmy Bryant, Scott Turner, Coy Ziegler, or Terri Eddleman.

Dozens of Audie Murphy's songs were recorded and released by such great performers as Dean Martin, Eddy Arnold, Charley Pride, Jimmy Bryant, Porter Waggoner, Jerry Wallace, Roy Clark, Harry Nilsson and many, many others.

His two biggest hits were Shutters and Boards and When the Wind Blows in Chicago.

Eddy Arnold recorded When the Wind Blows in Chicago for his 1993 album Last of the Love Song Singers.

======================================

RE: Martin Mull in an previous post---

Martin Mull wrote a sequel to 'A BOY NAMED SUE'

Titled: 'A Girl Named Johnny Cash' - recorded by Jane Morgan.

'

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 07 Aug 03 - 04:14 PM

(Herself is logged on,I'm too lazy to change my cookie). Dudley Moore was an organ scholar at University and a musician first until brought into Comedy via the Footlights and then Beyond the Fringe. Continued to play Bach and jazz throughout his career.

RtS

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 08 Aug 03 - 03:44 AM

Peter Sellers played drums Spike Milligan played a mean trumpet and a generous guitar. They both played in bands during their War Service, and played together (with one or two others) after the war, before they became professional comics.

Dear old Roy Castle went the other way: he could play anything (literally!) and made his way into stage and film acting.

Steve

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Aug 03 - 04:02 AM

Woody Allen leads a jazz band on clarinet, Harry H.Corbett (Harold Steptoe)sang sea shanties on early 60's HMV folk LP's (anyone remember him in a club?). Ronnie Scott once said- "Marilyn Monroe came in the club the other night, she didn't play anything but then she didn't have to"

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 08 Aug 03 - 05:12 AM

And who can forget the late great Bob Arnold's (Tom Forest in The Archers) many recordings of tradiotonal songs?

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Peter T.
Date: 08 Aug 03 - 04:40 PM

Julia Roberts knits. yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Amos
Date: 08 Aug 03 - 05:04 PM

Steve Martin was an organ scholar, too, I believe....

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 08 Aug 03 - 05:37 PM

Martin Mull worked the southern California music club circuit in the early 70's with sort of a hybrid standup comedy/music act. His presence in that scene is mentioned in Peter Rowan's song "Lonesome L.A. Cowboy".

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Aug 03 - 06:29 PM

I think Jerry Van Dyke, brother of Dick Van Dyke, who is also a comic actor (he was the sidekick in the TV series "Coach"), plays guitar and sings and had a couple of hit novelty records back in the 60s.

Charlie Chaplin composed music to accompany his silent movies, and you can buy albums of his music – called by the slight misnomer "soundtrack albums".

Steve Allen played piano and composed lots of music.

Robert Duvall did his own singing in, and some songwriting for, "Tender Mercies."

Slightly off-topic: Dwight Yoakam is a decent actor and did a good job in "Sling Blade." (I see he has made several other movies, but I haven't seen them.) Willie Nelson was credible, though not very exciting, in "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Barbarosa." Paul Simon was quite good, I think, in "One Trick Pony." (Though the soundtrack album was a dud.) Courtney Love was excellent in "The People vs. Larry Flynt."

Neither here nor there: Harry Blackmun played a Supreme Court Justice in Amistad, and was suitably dignified. The wonder, of course, is that he did it at all.

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: CraigS
Date: 08 Aug 03 - 06:35 PM

Nobody's mentioned the Jordan F1 team band, with Eddie Jordan on drums and Damon Hill on guitar. Or those forgettable occasions when John MacEnroe got his Les Paul out for charitable purposes. Or Ron Atkinson, the soccer manager, doing his Sinatra impersonations (which would be quite good if there was an ounce of originality in them).Or those famous astronomers with composing and musical talents, William Herschel and Patrick Moore (plays a mean xylophone). Or those times that Dennis Healey played piano for the YTV Christmas pantomime (sorry, Tim, it had to come out). Or the best jazz guitarist that ever lived, Julian Bream. Or the famous Scottish fiddler, Charles Kennedy...

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: X
Date: 08 Aug 03 - 09:21 PM

Jerry Van Dyke played the tenor banjo and the gentleman who played the French POW on the TV show, "Hogans Heros," is 5-String picker. Sorry, I can't remember the actors name.

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: RangerSteve
Date: 09 Aug 03 - 06:27 AM

A friend of a friend gave Mia Farrow ukelele lessons for "Purple Rose of Cairo", so I guess she's really playing in that film.

Andrew Jackson played the banjo. I don't suppose we'll ever know if he was any good.

Al Capone and "Machine Gun" Kelly played in a jazz combo while they were at Alcatraz. Kelly played drums and Al played tenor banjo. The banjo was reportedly studded with diamonds.

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: X
Date: 09 Aug 03 - 01:14 PM

If we're talking historical figures, Gen. U.S. Grant played a Martin guitar.

Subject: RE: Jimmy Cagney - guitar player ?
From: GUEST,pdq
Date: 09 Aug 03 - 03:20 PM

Andy Griffith, on his weekly T.V. show and home-spun morality play Mayberry R.F.D., hosted the bluegrass band The Dillards many times. They were called The Darlings on the show. Griffith has pulled out a guitar or ukelele on many T.V. shows and movies over the years, and can really play. He has a college degree in music and has taught theory at (at least) the highschool level.