The British Steelies Society

The Cold Hard Facts of Life, one of my favourites

Do you know that the FIRST verse is Buck Trent on "Electric Banjo" ? And the steel is only on the intro, PART of verse 2 (Split with Buck) and HALF of the last verse again Split.
Buck's parts are easily identifiable as the same style is used by him on most of Porter's records, especially recognisable on the "Carroll County Accident"

Hi Basil, just watched the posted link (brilliant song, one of Porter's best) and thats quite interesting what you point out there...and really I thought it was just the steel being used in different tunes. But if you watch this version of Cold Hard Facts of Life



you see the steel is being used more throughout than in the original studio version I posted first.

I know what you mean, BUT being on the inside of this game for many a year I can tell you they are miming to a pre recorded track.. Anyway the Original DISC recording is as you first posted..
Did you notice the pedal steel, just two pedals, and playing it standing up "A La" Bud Isaacs.. In those early days the musicians were absolutely excellent at miming to what was recorded earlier, be it earlier that day (As in the case you point out) for the video, or replicating the licks on the original recording, they could "lip sync" with their hands just as well as the singers.
When you watch the old Doris Day movies (or most others for that matter) do you ever wonder how the voice sounds "Close Miked" yet there's none in sight..The movie stars were masters at lipsync, but so were many musicians. In those days you simply HAD to duplicate the "Signature" rifs and phrases from the original recording.
Some live shows have variations just like we have here, but that's the result of the "Folk Process" being applied to 200 performances per year and the consequent "Modification" of the fill ins.
The new instance you posted has live vocals and mimed instruments recorded earlier the same day in the shoot. That's why there are out of tune bass notes and also the bassist is in the wrong positions on the neck at the end. It was common practise to record the backing whilst doing a "Dress Rehearsal" just to eliminate the possible errors. In THIS case nobody paid much attention to the bass..The odd fluffed chord was presumably acceptable.

I've been fooled by Buck Trent's electric banjo too. I once had to work out all the parts for The Carroll County Accident. I spent a long time trying to figure out the steel parts only to discover some time later that it wasn't actually a steel guitar I was hearing. Buck Trent must have been a sensation in his time. He was very original and I'm not aware of anybody who carried on his style.

Patsy McDermot uses his style and licks..

Patsy McDermot uses his style and licks..

Yes indeed Basil. I was thinking of Packie as I made that post. Here's a nice example:



The steel style sounds familiar too................