Terry Gross, been:
This is fresh air.I am Terry Gross 50 years ago.Showroom in Vegas - 2,000 seats - in Las Vegas International Hotel, where he played two sold -out shows four weeks a week for four weeks.Burton, who also relied Elvis on the guitar.
James Burton continued to play with Elvis until the death of Elvis in 1977. James Burton is famous in the music world for his work as Sideman.With Ricky Nelson on most of his hit plates and in the TV series "Ozzie and Harriet."Burton has played with many artists, including Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Buffalo Springfield, Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris.han recorded sessions with Phil Spector and Brian Wilson.
Let's start with a song from the new "Elvis Live 1969" box set.
(Soundbite of Song, "Suste Mind")
Elvis Presley: (Song) We are trapped in a fall.I can't go out because I love you too much, honey.I say?We cannot continue with suspicious spirits and we cannot build our dreams of the suspicious spirit.So as an old friend I know comes by to say hello ...
Gross: James Burton, welcome to fresh air.
James Burton: Thanks, Terry.I am honored to be here.
Gros: So these Vegas concerts from 1969 were recorded a year after his TV combination special, and -but this was the first time he was the first time, as back on stage for many people.About the stage.
Burton: Yes, he - Backstage, just before we went on stage, he was very nervous.You have no problem.He was just relaxed and detached and he started talking to the audience.
But he was very nervous.He had not been on stage in nine years.On stage and singing for his live audience.And that is what he really missed - sings for fans.
Gross: there was once a moment when you thought he really won't do it;He will not be able to go on stage?
Burton: No, not really.He was always regularly and ready to go.I have no idea how he could jump around the podium in that suit.
Gros: Well, let me describe this.It is a white jumpsuit, but it had a very big rivets, such as ...
Burton: No.
Gross: ... along the side - both sides of jumpsuit.Later wore, but still a pretty big collar.
Burton: It was so heavy, Terry.I have to tell you.Jump around like a small child on stage with that suit.
Gros: I read that he practiced with weights on his hands and feet so that he ...
Burton: He would.
Gross: in.
Burton: He would do it because I assumed that he was wearing these suits and everything, had to be ready - to jump around the stage.
Gros: And describe your pink Paisley guitar that you have received for these concerts.
Burton: Oh, wow.The guitar - this was fantastic.My friend, he was actually Vice -President of Fender - called me.It's up to me.And he said, no.You have to come down and check it out.Said no, no, no.This is too flashy, longing for me.
But I still took the guitar to Vegas.And I said - Red West came to me, Memphis Mafia -Guy.He came to me and he said, James, you have to play the new guitar, man.So I was a bit nervous about playing.Know that it is a bit too flashy.
But anyway, I played the guitar that night..Good and it sounds good, so play it all you want.
Gros: So what was it like to stand on stage behind Elvis or on the side of Elvis, to see the audience, see the audience, see him?Elvis and you take the whole look.
Burton: Yes.You know he loved guitar.A song or something.We never knew anything to do, so we had to see him every second.We didn't want to cut our heads.
Gros: So you kept playing with Elvis from '69 until his death, so that you were unable to see his health deteriorate.
Burton: Well, you know I have never seen him do anything or have to take anything.Weight.I have seen him a lot and then lose it very quickly, which is not good..
Gross: Let's talk about you and how you can get started with music.You have your first guitar at the age of 14.Describe the first guitar you had.
Burton: Well, my first guitar was actually when I was 13.My father and father bought my first guitar.And I just wanted - I wanted to play so badly.And he was left -I couldn't play his guitar..
And I grew up with country music, rhythm and blues, gospel..When I started playing, I even came up with a small style called Chicken Pickin ', and - as many guitarists like to play now.
But my first guitar at the age of 13 - I became a professional when I was 14.I played on "Louisiana Hayride" when I was 14 in the staff band behind all the big, great distinction that George Jones and Johnnie and Jack and Billywalker - much of the country's unacceptable place.It became "Susie Q."
Gross: What was a big hit - so why don't we hear "Susie Q"?And this contains James Burton on guitar and Dale Hawkins singing.Lyrics.
Burton: Right.
Gross: Ok.And other people also admitted this after the recording of Dale Hawkin, which was so popular and influential.
(Soundbite of Song, "Susie Q")
Dale Hawkins: (sings) susie q - oh, susie q. oh, susie q, how I love you, my susie q. I love the way you go.Such as the way you talk, my Susie Q.
Gross: So it was "Susie Q" - Dale Hawkins with my guest James Burton on guitar.And James Burton wrote the famous guitar lick that you heard there.So you said you developed this chicken style.To have your own other sound, it is that you replaced some of your guitar series with Banjo strings.
Burton: Well, you know that when I got my first fender telecaster, my father and father bought me, the strings were very stiff.So I decided to experiment, to try Banjo strings because Banjo strings are lighter.
And I set the first four strings -the first, second, third and fourth banjo strings.- The string I used so there was a guitar just incredible.It played so much lighter.You can play any style - because I have a light touch.
Gross: Was it easier to bend the notes - to bend the string to bend the note?
Burton: Oh, you could bend the rope to the neck, yes (laughter).
Gross: Well, let me be re -introduced here.From this dedication was released in a new box set called "Elvis Live 1969."We will come back after a break.
(Soundbite of Music)
Gros: This is fresh air.He was in the band of Ricky Nelson in the TV series "Ozzie and Harriet."He played on many Phil Spector records.Han played with Elvis Presley from '69 until his death in '77, starting with Elvis' Scene -Comeback in 1969 in Vegas.Eleve -shows of the Vegas concepts are now again in a cash set called "Elvis Live 1969".
So you played on "Ozzie and Harriet" with Ricky Nelson.And "Ozzie and Harriet" was a sitcom in the 50s and 60s that Ozzie and Harriet Nelson contains Big Band Singer, right?
Burton: Yes.She was a singer.
Gross: Ok.So they are married and they played men and women.And their two sons, David and Ricky, played their two sons.And his band, who played, such as a school dancing or prom or a party or something.You were in the band.You were in the band of Ricky Nelson in the show and in real life.
How did it change your life in this really incredibly popular TV show in the days that there were in principle three TV stations?So if you were a teenager, you saw that show.
Burton: That's right.I went to work with Ricky, I met him.A song called "My Gal is Red Hot."And one day Ricky came to the business world while we practiced and wanted to know who the band was in the next room.Regular service studies where they do the TV program "Ozzie and Harriet".
It was amazing.And I had my guitar and bass player.And we did "Mystery Train", some of Elvis numbers.The TV program "Ozzie and Harriet".and ...
Gros: So it was the idea of Ozzie?
Burton: Well, he would put the song on the show.He said this is fantastic.In boys do this?But later we went back to Louisiana, my hometown and Ozzie maybe two weeks later and asked me to come and become a member of Ricky, be his most important guyist.At my age, I said, certainly, I would really like to go to California and accompanied me to Ricky and they invited me to come and live in their house.son.
Gros: So I have to play the first song you did with Ricky Nelson, where you played the main groc.
Burton: It was fun.I enjoyed the solo.I got the chance to stretch a little and bend a lot of nuts.
Gross: Yes.I also enjoy solo.so (laughter), so let's hear "believe what you say."
(Soundbite of Song, "Belhat What You Say")
Ricky Nelson: (sings) I believe in what you say when you say you are going stable with none other than me.I think I think beautiful baby thinks you are stable with none other than me.Go rock until we can no longer rock.
Let's dig it now.
Burton: (plays the guitar).
Nelson: (sings) if I think what you say when you say you miss no one less than me.
Gross: You know that you have had such a big impact on guitarists.He always saw it.Would you know what much of, because upcoming guitarists, including Keith Richards, saw "Ozzie and Harriet" and were influenced by what you did?
Burton: Well, I found out later.said it's my favorite show.I see it every week.And I said you should be fun.
Gross: My guest is guitarist James Burton.Medical Transport Worker and his passengers.I am Terry Gross and this is fresh air.
(Soundbite van Elvis Presley Song, "Heartbreak Hotel"))
Gros: This is fresh air.I am Terry Gross.lad us returns to my interview with guitarist James Burton.On a new box that has gathered performances from 11 of these 1969 shows in Vegas.We spoke about how he played on most of Ricky Nelson's hits and was shown in the band of Ricky Nelson in the TV series "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet."
So I think you left high school to become a professional musician because you moved to LA to be on "Ozzie and Harriet" when you were 16 years old, but you played a teenager on this teenage show that partially gymnasiumbecame.Teen life that was depicted on "Ozzie and Harriet" really different from everything you had personally experienced?
Burton: It was different, okay.A bit that it was so much work in the world.I was so busy and did everything with Ricky until he - I don't know.Playing in life and playing the guitar, and being able to earn for the stay of life was great.
Gros: I would like to come to what you did in 1966.From the people who were considered derived from Bakersfield Sound, a country music sound in California that was influenced by rock and country.Another way, how would you describe the Bakersfield sound?
Burton: Well, I probably played almost all artists in Bakersfield - Buck Owens to Merle Haggard on Bonnie Owens on Red Simpson.67, when we recorded the first song, was "The Bottle Baillay me."But Merle Haggard - "The Bottle Let Me Down" - Merle was such a great singer and play on all his songs.I got the chance to play a little chicken.
Gros: Well, we hear "The Bottle Fail Me."And Ralph Moeney is shown on pedal steel and there is a really good interaction between you on the guitar and him on pedal steel.
Burton: I just love Ralph.I just like - I love the way he plays.Git, it doesn't play like him.
Gross: OK, so here is Merle Haggard's "Bottle Let Me Down", recorded in 1966 with my guest James Burton on guitar and Ralph Moeney on Pedal Steel Git.
(Soundbite of Song, "The Bottle Let Me Down")
Merle Haggard: (sings) Every night I leave the Barrum when it is over and I feel no pain at the time of closing.In the evening the bottle let me down and let your memory come.
Gros: It was my guest James Burton on guitar with Ralph Moeney on Pedal Steel Git and Merle Haggard who sang the song "The Bottle Lets Me Down" by Haggard.The world of Phil Spector, and everyone who has worked with Spector seems to have a story about how brilliant and how crazy he was.
Burton: Well, you know he was brilliant when it came to put things together, but it was also a bit crazy because we would sometimes go into a session where he would have three organ players, maybe four piano players, two sets of drums, maybeThree bassists and 15 guitarists.All of that, you know?
Gross: So on which Phil Spector Records do you remember that you had played?
Burton: Oh, boy.I have no idea now.Sometimes it didn't agree who the artist was, you know?But I know that I would go from a session like the Monkees and of course the Beach Boys - Glen Campbell and I played on many things from Beach Boys.To go to Brian Wilson's house in Bel Air and we would play the entire weekend.We cut a record, a whole album for a weekend and he wanted all Studio -Guys to come and stay there.He said nobody is going home.All here we continue to play consecutive day and night, and it was crazy.
Gross: Did you feel a captivity, or did you like it?
Burton: Yes.I call you.
Gross: Do you read music?
Burton: Not good enough to hurt my game, really.I am a very slow reader.-Note what you write, name one of mines.The wanted me for what I do.we make.This is what we like to do.We come up with new ideas and different ideas and that is the best part of the training your ear to be, you know, yourself, train your ear to hear everything, you know?
Gros: So a few years ago - I am not sure when it was exactly;
Burton: Well, I even broke a single on my left foot..
Gross: What was it like to get out of the coma?
Burton: I can't remember anything.My wife told me a few days after we got home, what happened, but when I actually came out of the coma, there were doctors in my room who asked me all kinds of questions because she didn't know where I would be.Some doctors said I would probably be a vegetable or something like - do you know?
Gross: Thank good.So one of the things you have done in recent years - you started a basis for getting guitars for schools and perhaps churches.
Burton: Yes.You know that I have always wanted to make my own show, which we actually thought of in 2005 and also singers.And by doing that, I told my wife - I said there is something - God came to me and there is something that I needed.The children at school - you know that you get music back in schools.
Gros: Yes, it is great, because probably many of the children could not afford guitars, and as you said, many school music programs have been cut.
Burton: Well, it was probably a bit of hardships, because at that moment the guitar was like $ 350 and you know it was a bit tight., The Fender Telecaster I wanted, Mama took me there and she told my father that night that when he came home from work, I wanted to have a guitar.have it.
Gross: Well, it was a good investment.
Burton: Every day, every chance I get, every chance that I will go through my guitar.
Gross: Well, James Burton, thank you very much for talking to us.
Burton: Nee, Terry.
Gross: James Burton is shown on the guitar on the new box set "Elvis Live 1969" with 11 concerts by Hans Vegas Comeback from 1969. Her Burton joined the guitar on a song about Vegas with Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris.
(Soundbite of Song, "Ooh Las Vegas")
Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris: (singing) Ooh, Las Vegas is not a place for a poor boy like me.ooh, Las Vegas is not a place for a poor boy like me.To make a wrack of me.
Gram Parsons: (sing) Well, I spend all night with a dealer trying to continue, spent all day in the Holiday Inn trying to get out of bed.
Parsons and Harris: (sings) OOH, Las Vegas.
Gross: After we have taken a short break, Ken Tucker will judge an album that he likes a lot - the first solo album by Chuck Cleaver, one of the leaders of the band Wussy.
(Soundbite door Gram Parsons en Emmylou Harris Song, "Ooh Las Vegas"))
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