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09 Jul 12 - 08:52 PM (#3374211) Subject: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Big Al Whittle Of course Roy Rogers, the bluesman can. But I've just been watching Under Nevada Skies on the box, Roy Rogers(he of Trigger, Bullet and Dale Evans fame) was playing a first position G chord round about the fifth fret - which on the face of it - seems strange and inexplicable. |
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10 Jul 12 - 12:04 AM (#3374255) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,Stim Of course he could play guitar! He played and sang long before he was in the movies. He founded "The Sons of the Pioneers", in fact. If you look closely, chances are that there are no strings on Roy's guitar, or Elvis' guitar, or most other guitars in the movies. That's because the strings would reflect the stage lights. They didn't need strings, though, because the music was recorded before the movie was made and lip-synched. But you knew that... |
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10 Jul 12 - 01:21 AM (#3374275) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: JohnInKansas And despite years of breeding attempts, they were never able to create horses that could gallop backwards so that the stagecoach wheels could spin in the right direction. Although several patented devices came from the research on the photography of stagecoach wheels, none of the patented devices actually worked - much like a majority of more modern patents. John |
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10 Jul 12 - 01:47 AM (#3374277) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Big Al Whittle ah that's a relief....! |
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10 Jul 12 - 04:06 AM (#3374294) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: terrier JinK LOL good one :) |
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10 Jul 12 - 04:18 AM (#3374302) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,999 Fretless I understand. Stringless however . . . . |
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10 Jul 12 - 04:30 AM (#3374304) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Big Al Whittle Mind you - imagine the disappointment in store for all those kids who came home and tried to play like Roy from his finger positions in the movies. |
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10 Jul 12 - 04:45 AM (#3374308) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,999 Forsooth, Al. One chord doth not a robin make. |
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10 Jul 12 - 04:56 AM (#3374311) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Will Fly In the clips I've seen of Roy playing, the strings are very visible. Lip-synching maybe, but the strings were definitely there. There are even older clips of Jimmie Rodgers playing - all strung up and ready to go! |
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10 Jul 12 - 05:31 AM (#3374321) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST, Sminky I'm very proud to announce that my Great Aunt Lucy once entertained Roy Rogers to tea. She was matron of some nursing home. I have no further details about their encounter - which may be just as well ;] |
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10 Jul 12 - 05:41 AM (#3374325) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: MGM·Lion Re the retro-wagon·wheels as mentioned by JohnInKansas: presumably due to the wheels going round faster [or is it slower?; can't work it out] than the film runs over the spool at 16 [was it?] frames per second? As a child who frequented the Sat morning MickeyMouseClub kiddy programme at my local Finchley Road [London NW11] Regal around 1936-9, which was of course very Western oriented [Buck Jones, Ken Maynard, Hopalong Cassidy, Tom Mix, Randolph Scott, Tim Holt...], I was always puzzled as to why our milkman's cartwheels seemed to go round the 'wrong' way: I mean, I knew even then that the camera cannot lie! ~Michael~ |
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10 Jul 12 - 06:31 AM (#3374342) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: MGM·Lion ...and all mixed up in my mind with a song v popular at the time called The Wheel Of The Wagon Is Broken, about the end of the old West; later recorded by Patsy Montana, but I think it was Joe Loss's Band who played it in the mid-30s. Can't find any source for it online ~~ don't think it's traditional, but just could be I suppose. Anyone know of any writer/composer for this song? ~M~ |
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10 Jul 12 - 06:41 AM (#3374347) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: MGM·Lion Hooroo ~~ found it on another thread, from last year: THE WHEEL OF THE WAGON IS BROKEN H. Elton Box / Michael Carr / Desmond Cox |
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10 Jul 12 - 07:19 AM (#3374357) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: MGM·Lion From: Jim Dixon - PM Date: 28 Jan 03 - 10:19 PM "The Wheel of the Wagon Is Broken" was written by Michael Carr, Elton Box & Desmond Cox, in either 1925 or 1935, depending on which source you believe. AMG/All Music Guide lists recordings by Milton Brown, Jack Jackson, Patsy Montana and ***Roy Rogers***. I couldn't find any lyrics online. ***Which is where we came in! |
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10 Jul 12 - 08:18 AM (#3374368) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,Tunesmith What a daft question! Why Roy could play the guitar whilst riding Trigger, whilst sweet talking Dale Evans .. and whilst shooting at those ugly villians! |
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10 Jul 12 - 08:24 AM (#3374373) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: MGM·Lion And you always knew they were villains and he wasn't coz his hat was white and theirs were black and he had shaved this morning but they had forgotten... and he could play the guitar and they couldn't. |
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10 Jul 12 - 09:39 AM (#3374392) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,leeneia Here he is, doing "Don't Fence Me In" His fingers are moving the right way, and I believe he really knows how to play guitar. When I was a kid, he had a TV show. One day I overheard my mother saying, "I don't like that Roy Rogers show. Whenever some man does something he doesn't like, he hits him." That made me realize that despite the cowboy glamour, that it was essentially a boring obnoxious show. So I quit watching. Seeing the video makes me realize that he could sing better than I thought. Cute dimples, too. Those narrow eyes he had make me wonder if he had any Native American blood. Does anybody know? Idle curiosity. |
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10 Jul 12 - 09:41 AM (#3374393) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,leeneia forgot the link even worse than the cowboy kissing his horse |
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10 Jul 12 - 09:43 AM (#3374394) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,999 Why wheels seem to go opposite to their true rotation. |
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10 Jul 12 - 09:55 AM (#3374399) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,EBarnacle He was deinitely playing guitar in that cut. Trigger was a pretty good actor/dancer, too. |
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10 Jul 12 - 11:00 AM (#3374419) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: MGM·Lion You could see the fingering OK; but the actual presence of strings? Not sure. Anyhow; surely the wrong sort of instrument for a 'cowboy' image: F-hole, metal strung, danceband style plectrum guitar. A round-hole, flat-top, gut [in those pre-nylon days] strung instrument would surely have been more appropriate to the atmosphere aimed for? Bruce: thanks for link above about the wheel-rotation. Oh HOW I wish I had wit enough to understand a single solitary word of it! ~M~ |
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10 Jul 12 - 11:37 AM (#3374437) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,Tunesmith I bet any singer of country/cowboy songs in the years following Jimmy Rodgers' heyday would be able to play guitar - if only a little. |
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10 Jul 12 - 11:49 AM (#3374441) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,999 Michael, I felt the same when I read the article. The way I learned it from my grandfather made it very clear to me when I was ten years old. I said, "Grampy, why do the wheels look like they are going backwards?" He replied, "Would you have asked that question had they looked like they were going forward?" It's had to argue with that logic when you're ten. I still see it that way these fifty-four years later. |
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10 Jul 12 - 11:56 AM (#3374448) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,leeneia MtheGM: He's not an actual cowboy, he's a cowboy-shaped instrument. No real cowboy would have worn a flowered shirt, worn such tight clothes, worn his hat indoors or brought his horse into a building. Real cowboys didn't have guns, either. I think it's kinda sick that his horse was named Trigger and his dog Bullet. |
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10 Jul 12 - 12:13 PM (#3374458) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,Mike Rogers I heard he had a cat called Dead Injun. For the record I have two pictures of RR with guitars - one a Martin, other an anonymous archtop, with strings clearly visible and depressed in a chord shape. |
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10 Jul 12 - 12:13 PM (#3374459) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,999 Back in 2010, Trigger sold for $266,500. I didn't see Bullet in the auction items. Perhaps he'd been fired. Who knows. |
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10 Jul 12 - 12:39 PM (#3374480) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: MGM·Lion True, leeneia; but I was talking artistically: that guitar seemed to me to fight the image they were trying to project. ~M~ |
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10 Jul 12 - 12:49 PM (#3374488) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: pdq Tim Spencer and Leonard Sly (later to be Roy Rogers) had to play enough guitar to make the Sons of the Pioneers work as a live act. My computer doesn't do video well, but there seems to be some fun stuff at this sight. {Note: first Martin 0M-45 Deluxe ever made, 1930. Roy got it in a pawn shop for $30.} Roy seems to be finerpickin' |
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10 Jul 12 - 01:30 PM (#3374506) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: voyager Watching TCM last night - The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) - That's Trigger She's Riding! this amazing bit of trivia came to bear.... Trigger (then named Golden Cloud) was the horse ridden by Olivia de Havilland in the film. Roy Rogers admired the horse so much that he bought Trigger to use in his own films. This eventually made Trigger one of the most famous animals in show business. voyager |
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10 Jul 12 - 01:32 PM (#3374509) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Ebbie "I think it's kinda sick that his horse was named Trigger and his dog Bullet." It was a different era, Guest/leenia, of course, so it doesn't sound sick to me. I always heard that the horse was named that because he was 'quick on the trigger', i.e. fast in his responses. I suppose Bullet was named that as an offshoot of trigger. |
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10 Jul 12 - 02:04 PM (#3374528) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: catspaw49 He was named Bullet because he had to shoot out from beneath the falling horse shit. Spaw |
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10 Jul 12 - 02:04 PM (#3374529) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Don Firth Yup. Voyager beat me to it. I was just writing up the bit about Roy Rogers seeing the golden palomino in "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938), buying him from the studio, and renaming him "Trigger." There was a story going around that when Trigger died, Roy Rogers took him to a taxidermist and had him stuffed and mounted. The story goes that Roy was standing there one day, lost in thought, and looking at the immobile trigger. Then he turned and gave Dale a long, speculative look. She noticed his look, then said, "Don't even think about it!" Don Firth |
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10 Jul 12 - 02:11 PM (#3374534) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Big Al Whittle Good old Roy! I used t have this novel about him when I was a kid - the ghost of the Mystery Rancho. there was nasty villain called Bronc Alamar, Roy survived being lynched, and there was this fabulous picture of Roy on the front - wearing equisite pearl handled colts and, white stetson and magnificent cowboy suit. he never played the guitar in the story. |
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10 Jul 12 - 02:37 PM (#3374546) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Seamus Kennedy Roy was an excellent jazz-style player for rhythm. Then when the Farr brothers, Hugh and Karl, came into the Pioneer Trio which became the Sons of the Pioneers with their Reinhardt/Grapelli guitar/fiddle jazz stylings of movie western cowboy music, Roy's guitar was more in the background. But he could play. |
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10 Jul 12 - 02:52 PM (#3374557) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: open mike oh, and this is the "other" Roy Rogers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Rogers_%28guitarist%29 He often played with a harmonica player, Norton Buffalo (now deceased) here is a song of theirs which was recorded by the Grateful Dead http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u9api6tQEA Ain't No Bread in the Breadbox. |
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10 Jul 12 - 02:56 PM (#3374558) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Jack the Sailor Roy could play just like Seamus says and the horse could dance. Here's proof. I think stim was wrong about the strings and right about the lip syncing.. There is no way there could audio record that performance. |
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10 Jul 12 - 02:59 PM (#3374562) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Don Firth Interesting to note that Ken Curtis, who played Festus on "Gunsmoke" sang lead vocals with the Sons of the Pioneers from 1949 to 1953. I was watching "The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour" one evening in the late 1960s when both Ken Curtis and Milburn Stone, who played "Gunsmoke's" Doc, were guests on the show. They did some "Gunsmoke" take-off skits which were pretty funny, then somewhere in the last half of the show, Campbell, Curtis, Stone, one or two other fellows put together a quick pick-up group and did a medley of "Sons of the Pioneers" songs. Campbell said at the time that Curtis had been lead singer with the group for several years. A good bit. They sounded very much like the original group, especially with Curtis singing lead. Don Firth |
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10 Jul 12 - 03:10 PM (#3374569) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: pdq Tim Spencer wrote "Room Full of Roses" but it was Ken Curtis who sang the lead, probably the most recognized effort from the pre-Gunsmoke Curtis. |
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10 Jul 12 - 04:06 PM (#3374600) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,Hop -a-Long Cassidy Good guy was our Roy .About the meanest old shadow geetar player standing round Hollywood indem days.Sure was , aint no-wan likened to him ever since them days , no more , so there aint , Bless his weary soul, Trigger ,Bullet & Rin Tin Tin too , Lord Bless yawla them folks sadly now departed.Greetings from Tonto too ! l-o- Love , from Hop -A -Long |
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10 Jul 12 - 04:14 PM (#3374603) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,leeneia What's a shadow guitar? |
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10 Jul 12 - 04:30 PM (#3374608) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,Hop -a-Long Cassidy Posturing & shaping at playing , taint no more than that |
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10 Jul 12 - 05:39 PM (#3374632) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,DonMeixner The Pioneer Trio among other names, Bob Nolan, Tim Spencer, and Len Slye played together for a few years in southern California and were well regarded as a novelty vocal group with Guitar and Bass and three voices doing cowboy swing. But they were not special enough to be more than a local group along with several good local groups. Somewhere along the way they met the brilliant Hugh and Karl Farr. The brothers added fine fiddle and guitar virtuosity> This allowed Len Slye to play straight rhythm and sing and yodel. Up to this point, 1933, Len Slye was the guitarist. The pristine harmony of the three singers and he Farr brothers exceptional musicality gave the band the stuff they needed to become the exceptional group they were. Look at the movies made by Gene Autry where the Sons of The Pioneers are his back up band to see and hear how good they were. Those are real chords that Roy is playing in those songs. Roy (Len Slye) was a fine musician and singer. His yodeling is a standard few can meet. Don |
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10 Jul 12 - 08:27 PM (#3374698) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: JohnInKansas "And you always knew they were villains and he wasn't coz his hat was white and theirs were black and he had shaved this morning but they had forgotten..." Early in his Hollywood career, (or maybe one should say before he had a career there) Roy did appear in a bit part as a "member of the gang" of evil-doers. It was rather a shock to see, among the surly, weatherbeaten, scarred and swarthy faced unshaven, and mostly musclebound THUGS, toward the back of the bunch this "almost angelic" clean shaven, smooth skinned, smiling little baby-faced "cherub" - with no hat at all - (and he also had on a clean shirt). The movie was a sub-B grade western (give it an F flat--ulent) and I hadn't paid any attention to the title before I saw him in "the gang," and they didn't show any credits at the end, so I was never able to determine if they bothered to give it a "title." John |
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10 Jul 12 - 08:39 PM (#3374706) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Seamus Kennedy Couldn't have said it better, Don M. Happy trails, pardner. |
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10 Jul 12 - 11:04 PM (#3374756) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,Don Meixner Thanks Seamus, Happy Trails to you too. Roy shows up as a bad guy in an early John Wayne western. Typically when the Sons portray a gang of bad guys they are called the Whittaker Brothers. Don |
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10 Jul 12 - 11:11 PM (#3374760) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: pdq |
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11 Jul 12 - 12:17 AM (#3374767) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,999 Anyone figured out the chord he's playing in that shot? Keep in mind that the guitar he's posing with has a fret marker between the nut and the first fret, so the right-hand side where the guitar head is cropped starts at the first fret on that guitar. |
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11 Jul 12 - 12:26 AM (#3374768) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Seamus Kennedy Listen to the Sons of the Pioneers playing in the background of the Hollywood canteen clip. The Farr Brothers were the equal of Stephane and Django, or Eddy Lang and Joe Venuti IMHO, except they applied the jazz riffs to western music. |
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11 Jul 12 - 12:46 AM (#3374771) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Big Al Whittle 'The Farr Brothers were the equal of Stephane and Django, or Eddy Lang and Joe Venuti ' wow! that is good! |
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11 Jul 12 - 01:27 AM (#3374777) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Artful Codger And of course, cowboys took full-sized guitars with them on cattle drives, slung across their backs, and never broke a string or even went out of tune. (In real life, a guitar would have been kindling in a day, even if cookie, in an uncharacteristic act of largess and unreason, let a cowboy stow one in his jam-packed chuck wagon.) It's well documented, however, that 'tweren't unusual for a cowboy to ride his horse into a barroom with his hat on and Colts a-blazing. A trailhand had to have a bit of fun on his occasional visits to civilization. |
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11 Jul 12 - 03:23 AM (#3374796) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST I was watching a video about John Wayne's early career recently and was amazed to learn that he was one of the original singing cowboys in the movies. Trouble was he couldn't play guitar or sing, and he got so embarrased about it that they replaced him with the guy who's voice and guitar he mimed to.......Gene Autry. Cheers Bugsy |
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11 Jul 12 - 03:32 AM (#3374798) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,bugsy Whoops, Looks like I got the original singer wrong. It was Bill Bradbury. Cheers Bugsy (sans cookie) |
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11 Jul 12 - 12:24 PM (#3374934) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Seamus Kennedy Hey Big Al, check this out: Sons of the Pioneers |
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11 Jul 12 - 01:01 PM (#3374949) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,Don Meixner Big Al, give this one a twist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heENxf48RsU |
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11 Jul 12 - 01:22 PM (#3374951) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Seamus Kennedy Good one, Don! Bugsy, you may be referring to John Wayne as Singin' Sandy Sanders, the gunslingin', singin' buckaroo. According to Holly George-Warren in her magnificent Autry biography "Public Cowboy No. 1", Gene and the Duke (who were Republic Studios' leading money earners at the time) used to tease each other. Wayne: "Just think, Gene, if I hadn't quit singin', you wouldn't have happened." Autry: "Well, Duke, it wasn't my singin' that made me a star, it was my ACTING!" |
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11 Jul 12 - 01:53 PM (#3374964) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,DonMeixner I listen to Gene Autry on Pandora radio. Check out High Steppin' Mamma and you will hear just how good Gene was as a guitarist and singer. I think all those cowboy singers did their best stuff before they got discovered by Hollywood. Herb Jeffries is a voice you all should track down if you haven't yet. The first Black Cowboy actor and singer. As an actor Gene Autry was one hell of a fine real estate tycoon. Don |
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11 Jul 12 - 02:57 PM (#3374989) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: pdq Herb Jeffries is best known as a romantic singer from the days of WWII. His singing on "Flamingo" pushed the song to legendary status, selling millions. Calling him Black is a bit of a stretch. He is about 1/8 Ethiopian (its a long story) and has features like the average Portuguese, Greek or Italian, not Black. I say "is" because he still resides with his wife in California at about 99 years of age (give or take a few, it's a long story). His "The Bronze Buckaroo" persona dates clear back to 1937, rather early in the Cinema Cowboy Era. There is a CD of his singing from the late 1990s, perhaps on Rounder, not sure. |
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11 Jul 12 - 03:58 PM (#3375018) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: kendall Never cared for Autry's acting, but I preferred his singing to Leonard Slye's. |
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11 Jul 12 - 04:05 PM (#3375022) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Will Fly Anyone remember Tex Ritter - singer of the High Noon theme tune, "Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin'"? |
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11 Jul 12 - 04:15 PM (#3375024) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: pdq "Those narrow eyes he had make me wonder if he had any Native American blood. Does anybody know? Idle curiosity." ~ Leeneia Roy Rogers was part Choctaw, as is "Buck" White, father of Sharon and Cheryl White. |
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11 Jul 12 - 07:46 PM (#3375071) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Bugsy Tex Ritter (or Rex Titter, as we affectionately called him) was my all time favourite Cowboy actor. When I was about 5 years old I met an old Cowboy actor all dressed in black with white hair and beard, at an outdoor bandstand in Ramgate. His name was Luke and he gave me a "tanner". From then on he was another of my Idols. Does anyone remember him? Cheers Bugsy |
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11 Jul 12 - 10:32 PM (#3375125) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Seamus Kennedy Most of the early movie "cowboys" could sing and play guitar pretty well. OK, not John Wayne...Check out the work of Rex Allen, Monte Hale, Sunset Carson, Ken Curtis and others. Tex Ritter studied law and acted on Broadway before going into the oaters. Eddie Dean, Jimmy Wakely,oh crap, now you've started me... |
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12 Jul 12 - 02:52 AM (#3375163) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Big Al Whittle Its a strange sort of phenomenon, isn't it? Just as society gets more frantic and crazy - our artists go all pastoral on us. In England io the 1890's, we have Robert Louis Stevenson writing about pirates, Jacobites. Noyes writing The Highway man. This in an era when all our grandparents are herded into ugly lums and set to work in factories. I note that many of the singing cowboy films mentioned were made in the era of John Dillinger's wild ride, the height of the depression - when the banks arre foreclosing needlessly on businesses and individually everywhere. Dillinger himself, was fascinated by the Jesse James legend. Clint Eastwood's film Bronco Billy - tells of this feeling of alienation from modern society, and retreat into ancient myth - very well. IMHO. I suppose in some ways the modern folk music revival is another expression of rejecting corporations taking over our lives and making our environments - even the music we listen to. Its an area, we can take back ourselves - as an individual act of non compliance. |
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12 Jul 12 - 08:44 AM (#3375229) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST Not only could Roy (Len) play the guitar, he did a horse solo in that 'Don't Fence Me In' video. Trigger put 'Pudsey' off 'Britain's Lumbered With Cowell' into perspective. |
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12 Jul 12 - 09:02 AM (#3375240) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: kendall Then there was Lash LaRue, Tim Holt, his Father, Jack Holt, Sunset Carson (Terrible actor) Wild Bill Elliot. Heavies, Jack Palance, Roy Barcroft, Neville Brand and Jack Elam. |
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13 Jul 12 - 02:13 PM (#3375799) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Will Fly Well now, here's a rather interesting story about Roy Rogers and Trigger. Not for the faint-hearted... told to me by an old guitarist mate who was a close friend of the sax player (who saw it happen) who told it to him... Roy and Trigger were booked to play at a major London theatre, and the sax player had a mate - a violin player, a drinking man, who was booked by a well-known agency to play in Roy's backing band. The backing band were in the wings, hidden from the audience, playing for Roy. Also in the wings was Trigger, taking up a lot of space and getting in the way of the musicians. The finale was to be Roy whistling for Trigger, who would come on stage from the wings - Roy would jump on his back - and Trigger would do the famous rearing up on hind legs business. The violin player, slightly drunk, was sitting right next to Trigger and getting more and more fed up with this great beast next to him. So, he aimed his violin bow in such a way that the end kept tickling Trigger's balls - and kept tickling Trigger's balls... Came the finale. Roy whistled for Trigger. Trigger came on stage. Roy leaped on Trigger. Triggers reared up as usual - displaying an immense Trigger cock to the consternation and amusement of the audience, and the bewilderment of Roy. The band fell into hysterics, the violin player never worked for that agency again. |
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13 Jul 12 - 02:28 PM (#3375804) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Stringsinger Bob Nolan probably started the "Sons". He was an excellent songwriter, his tune "Way Out There" is a yodeling classic. The early actors in Hollywood for the most part were good musicians. Many were on the Broadway stage and some had legit singing backgrounds such as Vernon Dalhart. He and Carson Robison set the stage for the singing cowboys commercially before Gene and Roy. Gene got off of the ranch as soon as he could and never looked back. He worked as a telegrapher on the railroad before rising as a businessman. Carson Robison actually had cowboy experience but not Vernon Dalhart, who took his name from prominent Texas towns. |
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13 Jul 12 - 02:35 PM (#3375809) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: MikeL2 Hi Interesting thread. Like others here I was brought up on Saturday morning cinema usually featuring "cowboys". By chance I came across this today while searching for something completely different. Thought it might be appreciated by some here. http://oldfortyfives.com/thoseoldwesterns.htm cheers MikeL2 |
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13 Jul 12 - 04:38 PM (#3375866) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Iona "Bob Nolan probably started the "Sons". He was an excellent songwriter, his tune "Way Out There" is a yodeling classic." Sure, Bob sorta kinda started the Sons of the Pioneers. Len Slye (Roy Rogers) was the founder really and truly because he's the one that had hired Bob for a different band a few years earlier. Bob, Len and Tim Spencer (whom they'd dragged out of a secure job at Safeway) formed "The Pioneer Trio", soon adding Hugh Farr as a fiddler, then Hugh's younger brother Karl, an excellent guitarist. In 1937 Roy left the Pioneers to become "Roy Rogers". He suggested Bob O'Brady for his replacement--so the Pioneers brought O'Brady in as Len (Roy)'s replacement. But since Bob (or "Pat" as he began calling himself) was accustomed to singing comedy, his voice did not fit in with the Pioneer's harmony, so they brought in Lloyd Perryman as their tenor. That lineup of Bob, Tim, Lloyd, Pat, Karl and Hugh became the classic Sons of the Pioneers. They worked together until 1943 when Lloyd had to go fight in WWII. They then brought in Hugh Flatt (Ken Carson), a popular singer located in Chicago. Ken was with them until 1947, when Lloyd returned. *laughs* I didn't really mean to give a history of the Pioneers, but when I get on that subject, I can't stop! They sure were swell. I'm doing a research project on Ken Carson right now-- pity he wasn't more recognized, because he was very, very talented. He was on the Garry Moore Show from 1950-1957 or so--some people remember him from that. Long live the Silver Screen cowboy! Rex Allen, Tex Ritter, Charles Starrett, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, Lash LaRue, Hoot Gibson......all them chaps. A lot more people than we think still remember them. :) Even the young'uns! |
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14 Jul 12 - 09:16 AM (#3376090) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Seamus Kennedy Will Fly - I believe it was Joe Venuti the great jazz fiddler who did that. I'll try and track down the verification. Iona - Monte Hale and Ken Maynard were a couple of others, and Maynard had been an actual cowboy. |
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14 Jul 12 - 09:21 AM (#3376091) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Will Fly Hi Seamus - quite possible - these stories do the rounds and undergo the "folk process"! |
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14 Jul 12 - 10:20 AM (#3376112) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: MGM·Lion Vernon Dalhart, real name Marion Try Slaughter, mentioned above, took the name from two Texas towns between which he too had actually punched cattle in his youth. His father had, according to the wiki entry, actually been killed in a gunfight with his brother-in-law! He was a trained singer from Dallas Music Conservatory, and had sung in opera in NY ~~ Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly, Rackstraw in HMS Pinafore ~~ until he made what is still one of the best-selling ever of folk/country records on Edison Records, The Wreck Of The Old 97, which I have on a fine old vinyl compilation from the 60s on RCA called The Railroad in Folksong - which also has the Carter Family's FFV, btw: wonderful old disc!. ~M~ |
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14 Jul 12 - 11:39 AM (#3376138) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: GUEST,Stim Dahlhart's big hit was actually "The Prisoner Song", which he recorded as the "B" side to his cover of "Old 97'", but which ended up being the biggest selling record before 1955 that wasn't "White Christmas". Henry Whittier actually had the first hit of "Old 97", which, though less popular at the time, is much more remembered. Funny how that goes. |
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14 Jul 12 - 10:01 PM (#3376358) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Sandy Mc Lean A bit of drift: Henry Whitter wrote or co-wrote Wreck of The Old "Southern" 97 and recorded it a couple of years before Dahlhart covered it. Carson Robison played back up guitar to Dahlhart on The Prisoner Song and the Wreck Of The Old 97. Robison then composed The Wreck of The Number 9 which became another smash hit. All of this before The Sons Of The Pioneers but these songs were more country than western. |
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15 Jul 12 - 02:22 PM (#3376611) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Seamus Kennedy Will Fly - check here, down near the end. Joe Venuti and Trigger |
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15 Jul 12 - 02:43 PM (#3376624) Subject: RE: Could Roy Rogers play the guitar? From: Seamus Kennedy And here, down near the end. Trigger and Joe Venuti In a lot of these retellings, the venue seems to change, but the dramatis personae remains the same. Apocryphal or not, I don't know. |