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Pete Drake Birth Name: Franklin Drake Genre: Country Active: '60s, '70s, '80s Instrument: Guitar (Steel)
When rock artists, including Bob Dylan and members of the Beatles,
began to record in Nashville, Pete Drake [at left in photo with George
Harrison, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston and Peter Frampton, apparently on
the day Drake gave Peter Frampton his famous "talking guitar." !]
Pete Drake
October 8, 1932 - July 29, 1988
Pete Drake passed away of natural causes on July 29, 1988.
was the natural
choice as steel guitarist.
Although he had a Top 30 hit, “Talking
Steel,” in 1964, Drake recorded very little on his own. Instead, he used
the trademark mellow tone of his steel guitar to strengthen albums by
other artists.
In addition to working with country artists, including Marty Robbins, Bobby Bare, Johnny Cash, the Louvin Brothers, Dolly Parton, and Ernest Tubb, he pioneered the use of the steel guitar in rock, performing on recordings by Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley. He played on such seminal recordings as Lynn Anderson's "(I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden," Charlie Rich's "Behind Closed Doors," and Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man." Featured on Dylan's albums John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline, and Self Portrait, Drake also produced and assembled the band for Ringo Starr's country album, Beaucoups of Blues, and played on George Harrison's solo debut, All Things Must Pass.
The son of a Pentecostal minister, Drake began his career with a group, the Drake Brothers, that he shared with his brothers, one of whom, Jack, went on to play with Ernest Tubb's Texas Troubadors for nearly a quarter of a century. Drake's melodic steel guitar playing made him one of Atlanta's top young instrumentalists. He joined with future country music superstars Jerry Reed, Doug Kershaw, Roger Miller, and Joe South in a mid-'50s band. Although this group failed to record, it provided Drake with the impetus to move to Nashville in 1959. Drake's involvement with Elvis Presley, which began in May 1966 when he played on Presley's How Great Thou Art album, lasted for more than a year and included appearances on the soundtracks of Presley's films Double Trouble, Clambake, and Speedway.
Launching his own record label, First Generation, in the late '70s, Drake signed Ernest Tubb, who had left MCA after 35 years, and released an album, The Legend and the Legacy, in 1977. Comprised of reworkings of Tubb's greatest hits, the album included guest appearances by Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Paycheck, Charlie Daniels, Conway Twitty, Marty Robbins, Loretta Lynn, Vern Gosdin, George Jones, Merle Haggard, and Johnny Cash. Drake occasionally stepped into the spotlight, releasing solo albums of pop-gospel standards, Steel Away, and an eponymously titled album that included steel guitar interpretations of Dylan and Beatles tunes.
Pete Drake: Everyone's Favorite
Nashville pedal steel guitarist Pete Drake is truly a phenomenon. Not only has he been the man behind hundreds of country music hits, but through his recordings with Elvis Presley, George Harrison and Bob Dylan, is singlehandedly responsible for opening the entire pop and rock field to the sounds of the pedal steel.
Pete was born in Georgia forty years ago, but it wasn't until he was eighteen that he began playing steel guitar. Like so many before and since, Drake was inspired by the sounds of Jerry Byrd at the Grand Ole Opry. Pete then spotted a lap steel guitar in an Atlanta pawn shop, saved his money and bought it for the vast sum of $38.00.
What kind was it?
A Supro; a little, single-neck like you hold in your lap.
I tried to play like Jerry Byrd. I guess most of the steel players today started off the same way. He has really been fantastically influential. So I fooled around with that thing for six months or a year, and got a chance to do a couple of fill-in things on an Atlanta TV station when somebody'd be sick.
Did you have any formal training on steel?
I took one lesson, but I'd get records and sit around playing to them. That's how I really got started. This was around '49 or '50. Then when Bud Isaacs came out with a pedal guitar on "Slowly" by Webb Pierce,
that shocked everybody, wondering how he got that sound. I guess I was the first one around Atlanta to get a pedal guitar: I had one pedal on a four-neck steel. It really looked funny. I made it myself, and it was huge, really too big to carry on the road or anything. I was playing in clubs all around Atlanta, then right after that I formed my first band.
What kind of group was that?
I had some pretty big stars working with me back then: Jerry Reed, Joe South, Doug Kershaw was playing fiddle, Roger Miller was playing fiddle with me, and country singer Jack Greene was playing drums. And we got fired because we weren't any good! I was on television in Atlanta for three and a half years, but we kind of wore ourselves out, so I decided to move to Nashville.
Why Nashville?
Roger Miller had come on to Nashville, and I had a brother there, Jack, who played bass with Ernest Tubb for 24 years. Jack died last year. At first Jack didn't want me to come, because the steel guitar was kind of dead then, in 1959. Everybody was trying to go pop. They was putting strings and horns on Webb Pierce records, and nobody was using steel guitar. So I starved to death the first year and a half. Then I worked with Don Gibson a while, then Marty Robbins.
When did you begin getting record session work?
I guess what really got me in was the "Pete Drake style" on the C6th tuning. When I first came up here everybody thought it was square, so I quit playing like that and started playing like everybody else. Then one night on the Opry, just for kicks, I went back to my own style for one tune behind Carl and Pearl Butler. Roy Drusky was on Decca then, and he come up to me and said,
"Hey, you've come up with a new style. I'm recording tomorrow, and I want you with me."
So I cut this session with him, and the word kind of got out that I had this new style (actually, it was the same thing I'd been playing for years in Atlanta, but it was new in Nashville). That month I did 24 sessions, and it's been like that ever since. That was in the middle of 1960, and that first record was "I Don't Believe You Love Me Any More," a number one record. Then I recorded "Before This Day Ends" with George Hamilton, and it, too, became number one. I just couldn't do anything wrong there for a long time.
How did your "Talking Guitar" thing come about?
Well, everybody wanted this style of mine, but I sort of got tired of it.
I'd say, "Hey, let me try and come up with something new," and they'd say, "Naw, I want you to do what you did on So-and-so's record." Now, I'd been trying to make something for people who couldn't talk, who'd lost their voice. I had some neighbors who were deaf and dumb, and I thought it would be nice if they could talk. So I saw this old Kay Kayser movie, and Alvino Rey was playing the talking guitar.
I thought, "Man, if he can make a guitar talk, surely I can make people talk."
So I worked on it for about five years, and it was so simple that I went all around it, you know, like we usually do.
How did the talking guitar work?
You play the notes on the guitar and it goes through the amplifier. I have a driver system so that you disconnect the speakers and the sound goes through the driver into a plastic tube. You put the tube in the side of your mouth then form the words with your mouth as you play them. You don't actually say a word: The guitar is your vocal chords, and your mouth is the amplifier. It's amplified by a microphone.
When did you first use it on records?
With Roger Miller. He had a record called "Lock, Stock And Teardrops," on RCA Victor, but it didn't hit. Then I used it on Jim Reeves' "I've Enjoyed As Much Of This As I Can Stand." I really thought I'd used the gimmick up by the time Shelby Singleton and Jerry Kennedy of Mercury Records wanted to record me. I had already recorded for Starday [a Mercury label] some straight steel things like "For Pete's Sake," but I went ahead and cut a song called "Forever" on the talking thing. It came out, and for about two months didn't do a thing; then, all of a sudden, it cut loose and sold a million. So then I was known as the "Talking Steel Guitar Man," and did several albums for Smash, which is a subsidiary of Mercury.
Do you still use the Talking Guitar?
Now I'm back into producing a lot of records, and not using it much. I've been so busy recording everybody else, I haven't had time to record myself.
Tell us about your experiences getting into the pop field with the pedal steel.
You know, the steel wasn't accepted in pop music until I had cut with people like Elvis Presley and Joan Baez. But the kids, themselves, didn't accept it until I cut with Bob Dylan. After that I guess they figured steel was all right. I did the John Wesley Harding album, then Nashville Skyline and Self Portrait. Bob Dylan really helped me an awful lot. I mean, by having me play on those records he just opened the door for the pedal steel guitar, because then everybody wanted to use one. I was getting calls from all over the world. One day my secretary buzzed me and said, "George Harrison wants you on the phone." And I said, "Well, where's he from?" She said, "London." And I said,. "Well, what company's he with?" She said, "The Beatles." The name, you know, just didn't ring any bells-well, I'm just a hillbilly, you know (laughter). Anyway, I ended up going to London for a week where we did the album All Things Must Pass.
Is that how Ringo came into it?
Ringo Starr asked me to produce him, so I told him I would if he'd come to Nashville, so he did and cut a country album which was really fantastic. It was good for Nashville, and, you know, I really wanted Nashville to get credit for it. Those guys, Ringo and George Harrison, really dig country music. And they're fine people, too, just out of sight.
What kind of instrument do you play now?
Since I came to Nashville I have been playing Sho-Bud guitars and Standel amplifiers. I have some Sho-Bud amps, too. I've got four different guitars that I use with different artists. I try to change my sound around so it doesn't seem like the same musicians on each record. I was looking in the trades the other day, and found that I was on 59 of the top 75 records in "Billboard."
How about different tunings?
Yeah, I change a little. All my guitars have a little bit different pedals, enough to keep me confused. I, and just about everybody in Nashville, use basically the E9th with the chromatic strings and the C6th with a high G string. But everybody has their own pedal setups. I've got one pedal I call my Tammy Wynette pedal that I use with her; and I cut a hit with Johnny Rodriguez recently, "Pass Me By," so I got me a Johnny Rodriguez pedal, too (laughter). If something hits big I try to save that for that particular artist.
Is your equipment modified?
My amps are just stock. As for my steels, I get Shot Jackson [of Sho-Bud in Nashville] to fix them up for me. If I want to raise or lower a string, I'll go to him and say, "Can you do this?," and he'll say, "No," then go ahead and do it. We did my Tammy Wynette pedal that way: I showed him how we could make it work with open strings, so he fixed it, and it was the most beautiful sound I every heard. So the next day we cut "I Don't Wanna Play House" with Tammy, and it became a number one record.
You mentioned Jerry Byrd as a great inspiration, Whom else do you enjoy?
Well, there's so many of them now, Lordy. I look at it kind of differently: There's the recording musician and the everyday picker. They're really not the same. A guy that's really great on a show may not be any good at all on a session, or vice versa. For recording, I think Lloyd Green, Weldon Myrick, Bill West and Ben ICieth are fantastic. They know how to come up with that little extra lick that you need to make a song. Hal Rugg is also a good recording steel man. For really technical playing, Buddy Emmons is a fantastic musician. Curley Chalker is my favorite jazz steel player, but in the studio I'd have to go with the commercial thing because I'm trying to make a dollar. You know, you can play over country people's heads, and I don't think they're ready for the jazz thing. I mean I like to listen to it, but it's "musicians' music," and musicians don't buy records (laughter).
What do you think is the future of the steel guitar and country music?
Right now something is happening that I've wanted to happen for a long time: Music's coming together. It's not country music, it's not pop music, it's music. Somebody said there's only two kinds of music-good and bad. I like a little bit of it all.
(every once in a while i find some shit so priceless i Blanche myself)
John Belushi on Bourbon Street
I don't remember the exact time frame, but one year John Belushi came into Judah Poe's on Bourbon Street while we were performing.
He watched for a while and on our break he came backstage and made friends with the band. He was obviously wired on cocaine.
It was the first year of Saturday Night Live and not a lot of people knew who he was.
He asked if he could get up with us and sing a few tunes and we said "Sure."
His performance was nothing less than wild. He did his "Joe Rocker" impersonation. He swung the mike around and around above his head by the cable.
He was all over the stage, bumping into amplifiers. We thought he was going to tear up our equipment.
At one point he sang while lying down on the stage floor and poured beer on his head.
He was funny and nuts. The audience didn't know how to take him and they didn't really know who he was.
In the course of a week John came back and performed with us 4 or 5 more times.
Pete Townshend on Bourbon Street
Pete Townshend, guitarist for The Who, stumbled into Chuck's one night, when we played there. He carried a half empty bottle of wine, or who knows what was in the bottle. The rule is that a club owner would never let anyone in with their own bottle because, of course they want to sell drinks.
But for Pete an exception was made and he was allowed in.
Pete had a person with him who didn't look to be his friend, but an employee whose job it was to keep Pete out of trouble and look after him.
Anyway, after a while we convinced Pete to get up and play one with us.
He was so "wasted" he could barely get through "Johnny B. Good"
French Quarter Crime
My best friend in Salt Creek was, and still is, "Uncle" Sam Alfano. We lived close to each other and usually took turns driving to work on Bourbon Street.
The crime in New Orleans has always been really bad, especially in the French Quarter. There is a big "project" next to the French Quarter and I know for a fact that there were people whose job was to go to the French Quarter each night and commit crimes and rob tourists.
It was always late when we got off work and we walked to the lot where Sam's truck was parked. Sam had an old truck, so old that the hood did not lock from inside the cab of the truck. You could open the hood from outside. Sam's truck battery was getting old so he had purchased a new battery. We got in the truck, he turned the key and nothing happened. We got out, looked under the hood and sure enough, Sam's brand new battery had been stolen.
So Sam put the old battery back in the truck and it seemed to work OK. A few days later went got off work, got in the truck, Sam turned the key and nothing. They had stolen his old battery.
Now Sam was really pissed. He bought another new battery and got a chain and padlock, and locked the hood so no one could open it. A few days later we got off work, walked to the lot and discovered his truck was missing. This time they had stolen his whole truck!
You just had to laugh, but at the time Sam didn't think it was funny.
The police found Sam's truck a few days later on the outskirts of town. It seems that when the thieves were driving the truck away, it sprang a radiator leak and overheated. It was left on the side of the road. Sam got his truck back.
He used to dream and fantasize about wiring a booby trap so the next thief would get electrocuted and die.
SAM was later diagnosed as a psychopath who blamed all of his made up problems on black people from the Projects.
One night he was murdered while driving by the projects yelling epithets wildly from his truck window.
Street People of the French Quarter
On Bourbon Street there were a lot of creepy street people, some real characters and street performers.
There was the New Orleans Kid. He was a street person who was a singer, songwriter and played guitar. He ended up waiting tables and being a bouncer at Judah Pe's where we played.
There was Miss Ruthie, the Duck Lady. she was a little old lady, who was retarded and she would go from club to club at night, sit at the bar, drink wine for free and bum cigarettes. In the daytime she would walk around the French Quarter with eight or ten ducks following her around. She became an institution in the French Quarter and the press put out numerous articles about the Duck Lady of Bourbon Street.
There was the Chicken Man. He was a street performer, voodoo enthusiast who got his name from Andy Antippas who told him to bite the heads off of chickens to entertain the tourists.
There was Pork Chop, a little old black man that dressed like a bum, who went around from club to club, tap danced, then passed a tip jar.
The tourist would think
"Look at the poor old black man, let's give him some money."
This was just a job for Pork Chop. Occasionally he would come into our club when he was off work with his wife.
They were both decked out in fine clothes and diamond rings. Pork Chop had a brand new Cadillac.
i'm sorry. i am just now realizing that this is the most racist thing i've ever read.
Smitty, the Singing Waiter of Bourbon Street
I met Smitty for the first time when we played at Judah Pe's. He was a waiter, janitor, and did just about anything and everything that the owner asked him to do.
At some point he must have realized that he needed a gimmick or a character, either to fit in or maybe make more tips.
His costume evolved to the point where he wore cowboy boots, shorts, a blond wig, a cowboy hat and wore makeup.
He was not gay, just mentally challenged.
But the look on the tourist's face when they saw him was priceless.
They thought he was gay or at least weird.
During the course of our performance we would announce
"And now ladies and gentlemen, we have a special treat for you tonight. The Singing Waiter of Bourbon Street is going to get onstage and sing with us."
We really built him up, and he would walk on stage while we played "travel" music.
He would then sing a song like "Proud Mary" or "How Great Thou Art"
with a real non-musical, monotone style. It was terrible singing. We kept a straight face and the tourists laughed their heads off.
I guess it didn't bother Smitty. He did it just about every night and probably made more in tips because of it.
Smitty followed us from club to club as a waiter as we changed jobs.
ISABELLE ADJANI: A luminous brunette with porcelain skin and expressive blue eyes, Isabelle Adjani brings a mixture of fragility and fierceness to her screen portrayals. One of France's leading actresses, she first earned critical praise as a member of the Comedie Francaise, which she joined at age 17. Adjani had already made two features, her debut "Le Petit bougnat" (1969) and "Faustine et le bel ete" (1971), and a TV-movie before she made her stage debut in 1972.
Adjani stunned many when she refused a 20-year commitment with the Comedie Francaise in order to pursue a film career. She had garnered praise for her performance as a spoiled teenager in "La Gifle/The Slap" (1974) and went on to earn international stardom as Victor Hugo's love-obsessed daughter in Francois Truffaut's "The Story of Adele H." (1975). That film earned her a number of awards and her first Oscar nomination as Best Actress. It also laid the groundwork for what has become Adjani's signature role in films: the intense, unstable, infatuated female. Adjani subsequently appeared in films by noted international directors.
For Andre Techine, she co-starred with Gerard Depardieu in "Barocco" (1976), as the instigator of a plot to blackmail a politician, and "The Bronte Sisters" (1978), as Emily Bronte. In Roman Polanski's "The Tenant" (1976), Adjani was the suicidal former occupant of the apartment rented by a confused man (played by Polanski). She brought a passivity to her role as Lucy, victim of Klaus Kinski's "Nosferatu" (1979) in Werner Herzog's retelling of the Dracula legend.
Named Best Actress at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival, Adjani was cited for two roles: as the unfaithful wife of Sam Neill struggling with demons in "Possession" and as the impoverished mistress of Alan Bates in James Ivory's "Quartet". Carlos Saura cast her as a melodramatic patron of the arts in "Antonieta" (also 1981). Teaming (as producer and star) with former companion and first-time director Bruno Nuytten, Adjani had one of her best screen roles portraying sculptor "Camille Claudel" (1988), the mistress of August Rodin (Gerard Depardieu).
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