Johnny Burnette: Paul Burlison, Grady Martin or BOTH?
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- Опубликовано: 4 июл 2024
- Train Kept A-Rollin', Honey Hush... Could it be so that BOTH Grady Martin and Paul Burlison played in these songs? Then who played what?
0:00 The plot: we can hear two guitars on those recordings!
2:03 Some other Grady Martin's guitar duos
2:44 Train Kept A-Rollin', ending, refrain..... intro?!
3:40 Train Kept A-Rollin', demo with two guitars
4:09 Intro of Train Kept A-Rollin', two different guitar sounds?
7:35 Refrain, typical Grady Martin's licks in the background?
8:58 Train Kept A-Rollin', the lick in the ending
10:25 Honey Hush, demo with two guitars
10:58 The lead guitar player had difficulties playing endings?
11:27 ...and what's the deal with Honey Hush's intro?
13:07 Honey Hush, the final lick
14:20 That clingy-clangy sound in the background
16:12 Alt take of Please Don't Leave Me, demo
16:47 What's up with the chord progression?
17:53 What did Grady Martin play in the beginning of his last solo?
19:15 And then it got derailed, the double octave guitar to the rescue!
20:47 Three Bb notes, two guitars!
21:51 The verdict. Who played what?
23:48 Thank you!
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This is everything I could want in a music video: Rockabilly guitar, investigative research and a great personality presenting.
...also: this investigative research, even though it's about a controversy, hopefully doesn't fuel hate, war etc. (sorry but couldn't keep myself from saying that). Thank you!
Wow! What a great way to bring two of my loves together: rockabilly and nerdism. Love this!
One of the best rockabilly guitar vids iv seen..your great at what you do🎸🎸🎸
Thank you very much for the time and effort that you put into your videos!!!
I actually enjoy making them. You know, if you just noodle in your bedroom, you play rubbish for neighbors who hate it. If you make vids, you're forced to play better for people who might like it. Thank you!!!
I bought a Grady Martin CD a good while back showing lots of different artists he'd played with. A lot of the solos he did were very much like the J Burnette Trio recordings, which made me think Grady was on most of that stuff. Tear Me Up had a thin tele sound & I wonder if that was Paul B? Also think there's one guitar on Train Keeps a Rollin'. In spite of this I think you do a great job on your videos,-so thanks!
Superbe travail de recherche et de démonstration . Merci
bravo - great work!
Preface: I never delved into who played on what for the RnR Trio. However, I did note that not every song sounded like a Fender Telecaster but just didn't give it much thought. I saw Burlison play a few times in the 1980s (as part of the Sun Rhythm Section). When I saw him at Chicago Blues Fest, he was up on stage by himself with his guitar (plugged in). While playing, he was talking to a few scattered people who were watching well before the show started. He flawlessly played the solo to Lonesome Tears in My Eyes (which is vastly more melodic than most other RnR Trio solos). I always think of that once I discovered the question and debate about who played on what. He certainly may have vastly improved over the years which is ironic as he quit guitar in the late 50s (too disappointed that they didn't get bigger) and did not pick it up again until the 70s,80s.
As a guy from a younger generation, I can only be jealous when hearing these stories, especially looking how those legends are passing away these years!
The Discography of American Historical Recordings notes the following:
'The train kept a-rollin' was recorded on July 2, 1956 (Decca matrix NA 9426) with the following instrumentalists:
Paul Burlison (guitar)
Dorsey Burnette (string bass)
Dorsey Burnette (vocalist)
Johnny Burnette (vocalist)
Johnny Burnette (guitar)
Buddy Harman (drums)
Thomas "Grady" Martin (guitar)
'Honey Hush' was recorded on July 3, 1956 (Decca matrix NA 9431) with the following instrumentalists:
Owen Bradley (piano)
Paul Burlison (guitar)
Dorsey Burnette (string bass)
Johnny Burnette (guitar)
Buddy Harman (drums)
Grady Martin also performed on 'Blues stay away from me' (Decca matrix NA 9427), 'All by myself' (Decca matrix NA 9428), 'Drinking wine spo-dee-o-dee' (Decca matrix NA 9429). He also recorded with The Johnny Burnette Trio on July 4, 1956: 'Rock therapy' (Decca matrix NA 9435), 'Rockbilly Boogie (Decca matrix NA 9436) -- and on July 5, 1956: 'Lonesome train (On a lonesome track)' (Decca matrix NA 9437), 'Sweet love on my mind' (Decca matrix NA 9438), 'My love, you're a stranger' (Decca matrix NA 9439), 'I love you so' (Decca matrix NA 9440), 'Your baby blue eyes' (Decca matrix NA 9441).
The DAHR notes that Grady Martin wasn't part of any sessions on July 3, 1956. So, it appears he must have had some previous engagement preventing his participation in The Johnny Burnette Trio session also producing: 'Chains of love' (Decca matrix NA 9430), 'Lonesome tears in my eyes' (Decca matrix NA 9432) & 'I just found out' (Decca matrix NA 9433).
Given the similar guitar tone on 'Honey Hush' (and Grady Martin's absence at the session), it now seems obvious that the distorted part on 'The train kept a-rollin' was by Paul Burlison. Though, Grady Martin later recorded various fuzz guitar recordings: Marty Robbin's 'Don't Worry' (1960), plus his singles Tippin' In/The Fuzz (recorded on January 12, 1961 and released in January, 1961); Twist and Turn/Good, Good, Good (recorded on February 8, 1962 and released in April, 1962) and Ramblin' Rose (not the Nat 'King' Cole song)/Big Bad Guitar (recorded on February 8, 1962, but released in the US in July, 1965 under the name Beauregard and the Tuffs). Grady's tighter fuzz guitar tone on all of these tracks is quite different from the open, distorted guitar tone heard on 'The train kept a-rollin', though you're probably well aware of Marty Robbin's 'Don't Worry' sessions and the issues producing those tones.
Thanks a lot for such a piece of info, really appreciated!
At the same time we need to remember that things like DAHR are based mostly on studio session logs. Those were used for official billing purposes, they might or might not reflect what actually happened in the studio. Like, in this case, for Honey Hush it lists Owen Bradley on piano but do we hear piano in that song? That doesn't mean the session log is lying. Could it happen that Owen Bradley was there on that session but, after a few tries, they decided to record the song without piano, still Owen Bradley had right to claim the money simy because he was there? I'm speculating but things like this could easily happen. Could it also happen that, at the very end of the session, Grady Martin, although he was not expected to be there, was passing by and came in and decided to plug his guitar, and that was the last and the most successful take?
By the way, is the guitar sound really that much distorted on those records? ;) If we compare it e. g. to Rocket 88?
@@kpnash Owen Bradley did play piano on (at least) 'Chains of Love', but was producer for the sessions. Vintage Guitar magazine had an extended interview with Paul Burlison (Paul Burlison - Train Keeps Rollin' - by Baker Rorick) where he describes that The Johnny Burnette Trio (at an uncertain earlier date) had a Philadelphia concert performance with the The Four Aces. While Burlison was carrying his amp to the stage he accidentally dropped it which caused a tube to come loose. The Johnny Burnette Trio's performance went on despite the distortion, but his band mates were infuriated after the concert. As soon as the tube was reseated, it fixed the issue. Burlison later described the concert incident to producer Owen Bradley, who requested to get that sound again. Burlison explained this, plus Bradley's microphone placement and such were the source of the distortion on 'Train kept a-rollin' and 'Honey Hush'. Burlison would largely leave the music business (excepting a few concerts during the period) and devoted his time towards his electrical contracting business.
I hope you can find the article. Burlison doesn't seem like he'd want to take credit (or blame) if Grady Martin was responsible for this pioneering guitar distortion. During the 1960 Marty Robbins' 'Don't Worry' session, Grady Martin did not like the fuzztone sound created due to a faulty channel in the mixing desk, but producer Don Law left the track as is, which later topped the country charts for ten weeks. Since this new sound was quite successful, it most likely inspired Grady Martin's 1961 & 1962 fuzztone singles, to very questionable success at this point.
@@borbetomagus you see, that's exactly what I was talking about. Owen Bradley simply was there on that session, that's why his name is mentioned (plus he was the boss of the studio and might have had some other reasons to mention his name, e. g. bookkeeping etc.). Nevertheless HE WAS NOT ON THAT SONG. Then, the very same DAHR mentions Paul Burlison as guitar player on Lonesome Tears in my Eyes, and that's something I just refuse to believe. On that song, we hear the same Grady Martin's sound as on many other recordings, typical Grady Martin's licks, double stops and chords, we can hear Bigsby tremolo arm being rocked, gently but at the 'right' places (and Paul Burlison's Esquire apparently didn't have a Bigsby, so even if we assume Paul had borrowed a Bigsby equipped guitar from someone, he wouldn't have been able to use a Bigsby with that level of confidence). I guess there might have been some reasons why they didn't bill Grady Martin for those sessions.
My point is, although DAHR is a great resource, we shouldn't underestimate recordings themselves as a great source of evidence. That's why btw I suggested to compare Rocket 88's sound to Honey Hush's sound and let your own ear decide which of these has distortion and which one sounds more like a mild(ish) tape saturation. (I surely know about that PB's interview. Btw there are folks who tell the same loose tube story in conjunction with Rocket 88. It's not my call to say what's the actual truth here. But it's a bit weird that PB, being a professional electrician, couldn't fix a loose tube, still he was ready to reintroduce the glitch on Owen Bradley's request.)
Completely unrelated. Thanks a lot for making me listen to the Marty Robbins' tune again! I've been struggling to understand (for years!), how come that the Grady Martin's tic-tac bass part sounded clean in the beginning, then fuzzed out in the solo, then got back to clean immediately after, and became distorted again in the ending? I was asking myself, if that was an accident, as they describe it, wouldn't it be distorted all the way through the whole song? And while listening it today I realized that it actually was distorted all the way through! However it was Grady himself, touching strings lightly in the verses, so almost no distortion happened, and then increasing picking intensity in the lead parts. Most likely he didn't hear that distortion himself while recording, so it was absolutely unintentional. Still it's not just the first song with fuzz ever, it's also the first time guitar player manipulated his picking technique in order to get more dirt or to clean it up! Wow! Once again, thanks! (And did I say those recordings themselves present a lot of evidence......? 😉)
@@aqua5680 that really might not be the same player. Yes double octaves are there but phrasing is somewhat different than the one in Honey Hush. In the end, double octaves is just a technique. Also, there are some finger picking parts in the Jerry Reed's song, and I've never heard Grady using finger picking. Now, the ending in Honey Hush is 100% Grady but it is played *simultaneously* with the double octave riff. There's a theory that Grady might have been overdubbed himself on that recording, if so, yes, the double octaves were also played by him. There's not much evidence for that theory though, so could have been some other player.
@@aqua5680 Okay, listened to the Jerry Reed's song once again. The phrasing is actually not that very much different from the Burnette's songs, some differences can be easily explained in terms of tempo, the slower tempo gives a bit more freedom. So might really be the same guy! But what is indeed interesting is... how many guitars do we hear on that Jerry Reed's one?? I'm still not getting it. On one hand, we can hear double octaves played almost simultaneously with the finger picking parts, which hints for two guitars. At the same time, I don't hear any single piece where I could have said, yes, definitely, this one is played by two guitars! Most (if not all) of the time, double octaves and finger picking parts are not truly simultaneous but morph one into another in a very seamless way. If so, then this part might have been played by one single killer finger picking player. There was a killer finger picking player capable of doing such a magic back in the days in Nashville. If that was him on both Jerry Reed's and Johnny Burnette's session, it would be kind of shocking!
Paul Burlison's son.... appreciate the enormous work the author put into this... well done... Finally we get a rational explanation using the actual recording itself...not speculation...And i never heard anyone that more accurately gives a rational explanation of what transpired... appreciate your efforts.. Unfortunately...many will still arrive at their preconceived opinion...despite your hard to dispute analysis...Thanks again...
Can't wait until someone tries to maintain my dad..Paul Burlison was not present at the recordings...Based on no proof at all..
This really takes it to next level of rockabilly research. And I feel you have it correct. BurlIson insisted he played on it. And with This believe he did. But however in unison with Grady. What a great discovery.
Thanks KP. And I hope you feel better over the summer.
Your pal in the USA. Fred
Great researching, think your correct? Now could you figure out the mystery chords scotty moore played at beginning of the second solo in Hound dog ? Great vids
OMG, you're teasing me! Thanks!
Глубоко копнул, но чертовски интересно!
a little bit ?