Clarence White

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dragonworks

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I have mentioned Clarence White a few times here at the site but noone but myself seemed to be impressed by him. He was the best lead
guitar player I ever saw on stage and that includes, Jimmy Page, David Gilmore (3x), Johnny Winter, Rick Derringer, Ted Nugent, Steve Howe. He was very subtle and never moved a muscle while playing, using a tele and a fender Dual Showman. He was so good I went and saw him three times. Does anyone know if he was any relation to Peter White who did alot of guitar work for Al Stewart and is a great guitarist himself?
 
Clarence White was a profound musician, and so often was in the background making the mix work; his lead work is seldom heard, but still inspired a generation of guitarists who are now though of as the "best of the best."

I don't know if he was related to Peter White; I've got Peter's "Caravan of Dreams" CD and it is fine stuff. Very different from Clarence, though.
 
Treeline

I will have to give that Peter White cd a
listen, he is very impressive with the work
he did with Al Stewart but I have not heard any of his solo work. I know that Clarence White had at least one brother who played and that there are recordings of the two of
them together somewhere but I never heard any
of it.
 
are y'all talking about the man who played with the byrd's?...if so, here's a link...http://www.urban.ne.jp/home/koa7/byrds.htm ....gibs
 
Is he the guy that the Parsons/White string bender is named for? I'm pretty sure the Parsons refers to Gene Parsons. (Isn't he related to Gram?) and wasn't Gene Parsons in the Byrds for a while (Sweetheart of the Rodeo era)? Someone with Byrds knowledge chime in here!
 
Yes, Clarence White and Graham Parsons were
both with the birds and are the co-inventors
of the Parson White String bender. If anyone
wants to know what this little gadget can do
for you listen to some to the Byrds (not the
orginal Byrds) alblums with Clarence White and what you think is a pedal steel guitar is Clarence playing the tele with the string
bender. I know that at one time Fender offerd
some of their teles with the stringbender included.
 
Sorry about the slip, it is Gene Parsons, not
Graham Parsons that I am refering to. Nikki
7 is correct. As for a little story about Gene Parsons that I dont know all the details of, after he died, his body was stolen and taken to Joshua Tree national park
? and burned and noone has ever been caught
or owned up to it and no reason has ever been given for it. Can anyone shed any light
on this?
 
Actually, as I understand it Gram's dad was a big time lawyer or something who wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and resented the whole music biz thing Gram was doing. I don't think he ever thought Gram was a success. I believe that David Crosby and some other friends of Gram's got loaded one night and stole the body (much to the chagrin of the elder Parsons) and burned it out at Joshua Tree.

I know there's a recent Metallica track with string benders on it.("Unforgiven"? someone help me out here) If you've actually ever seen one of the Parsons/White string benders you'll know that it's quite a marvel of engineering and craftsmanship. There's one that pulls both the G and B strings (I think it's those two), one from each strap button. They've even installed them in acoustic guitars. Years ago I was thinking about having one put in a Tele of mine and I called the company and it's just Gene Parsons. He talked to me on the phone for a while about it but I never actually went through with it. It involves taking out a HUGE chunk of the body and I was afraid the tone of my beloved would change too much.
 
Now I am really confused and I am a big Clarence White man. Let me go and get the byrds anthology cd and take a look. It was
Gene Parsons who played with the byrds. My
wife, damn her, needs to use the phone so I
will get back to this.
 
If you are a fan of Clarence, I sincerely hope you have heard the Bluegrass work he did with the Kentucky Colonels. Clarence was one of the true innovators of bluegrass music and influenced pretty much everyone who followed him in that genre. I would put him in the same category as Doc Watson, although Doc gets more attention. I think that is because he stuck with Bluegrass throughout his career and had a much longer career (it's still going on) than Clarence did (killed by a drunk driver at 29). He did have two brothers that were musicians named Eric and Roland. Roland played mandolin with him in the Kentucky Colonels. I don't know anything about a Peter. Clarence did a lot of session work with many groups (including the Byrds before he became a permanent member) and played many different styles after bluegrass. You may be interested to know that two of his guitars are currently being used by touring artists. Marty Stewart has one of his old telecasters that he played with the Byrds. Tony Rice has an old Martin D-28 of his. Rice's guitar is especially famous because Clarence had cut open the soundhole to get more bass and so it looks pretty rough but certainly sounds good. I think that Martin put out a limited edition collectors edition that is a reproduction complete with enlarged soundhole. So if you have listened to Clarence's bluegrass stuff and like it or listen to it in the future and like it, then I highly reccomend listening to Tony Rice. In my opinion he is the best flatpicker ever. Like Clarence he is somewhat experimental and incorporates different styles of music into his playing but still keeps true to his bluegrass roots.
 
Gibs, thanx for the link. I must have spent an hour there reading and theres still plenty to go. Cliff, no I have never heard the Kentucky Colonels and am not into blue
grass much, but if Clarence played it I will
listen. I was quite astonished at the amount
of session work he did. I was aware of some
of it, Everly Brothers, Arlo Guthrie, Maria
Maldaur(Sp?). But the Monkees? Andy Griffith?
I had no clue. I wonder who played the solo
in Valerie for the monkees, anyone know? That
was some pretty good pickin there but it wasnt Clarences style.
 
Gene parsons ( drums ) and Gram Parsons ( guitar vocals ) were both in the Byrds , although not at the same time.. It was Gene and Clarence who invented the sting-bender.. Clarence played a bit of guitar on " Sweethearts of the Rodeo" which was the one Byrds album that Gram Parsons played on. .although due to a contractual despute his vocals were redone by McGuinn on the initial release ..if you buy the reissue CD they have bonus tracks with Gram's vocals put back in... I just bought the Live at the Fillmore ,Byrds CD and Clarence 's playing on it is awesome.... I am goin to buy a few moreof theirs with him playin on it... It was Grams road manager and a good friend who stole his body and cremated it ... If you like the byrds stuff check out Gram's solo stuff and also the Flying Burrito Brothers stuff with him and Chris Hillman great stuff....
 
Thanks for the clarification CellarCat. I always thought though, that it was the Eagles' Bernie Leadon who helped steal Gram's body. Anyways, is the Chris Hillman stuff as good as the Burrito's compilation FARTHER ALONG? His bass became truly great in NOTORIOUS BYRD BROS. and beyond, but I've never had a chance to hear his solo material.
 
I attended the last Byrds concert with Clarence White Feb. 24, 1973, Capitol Theatre, Passaic NJ (also saw him twice before) where Chris Hillman replaced the fired Skip Batten. I had been raving to
my buddies what a great live band they were and they were terrible that night. I could have thrown tomatoes if I had had them, but
Clarence shined through it all anyway.
 
Here's a fun trick. Find a copy of Clarence doing "Julius Fishbine's Rag" - It'll be on a reissue of the Kentucky Colonels. Listen to this guy rip through a fiddle tune on his guitar. Then pop in Doc Watson or Tony Rice doing "Beaumont Rag." Family resemblance?

Just be careful with Tony Rice. Start listening to that guy, and you'll forget all about what you were trying to do. He'll just take you away... And it was Clarence White who inspired Tony to go where nobody else had ever gone.

Makes you wonder what Clarence could have accomplished with a few more years.

[This message has been edited by Treeline (edited 07-26-2000).]
 
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