Terry says:
> As for Chet
> Atkins, since most of the artists he worked with wound up receiving
> similar arrangements for their tunes, I'd say that's fairly good evidence
> that he was calling the shots. That doesn't mean the artists had a problem
> with his choices (though I don't know that you can assume perfect harmony
> on those choices either).
I'm going to pick at this a little bit more, if y'all can stand it. The
problem, as I see it, is that this still suggests a model in which the
artist simply comes in to get his orders and has the choice of objecting or
assenting, when the way things work in the studio is typically somewhat more
complicated, if only because it's not a vacuum. A lot of records, not just
those produced by Atkins, had similar arrangements in the sense I think you
mean, Terry; everyone would arrive at the studio with the same
commercial/artistic context in mind. Let me recommend again to anyone with
an interest in the subject the current issue of the Journal of Country
Music, which has a lengthy excerpt from a transcript of a 1989 roundtable
discussion among a bunch of studio musicians who were on many of those old
records; the title is "Let's Cut A Hit: talking with A-Team Nashville Studio
Musicians."
Personally, having had experience both as a writer and as a recording
musician, I think the differences between the two situations outweigh the
similarities.
> np Bobby Bare/Chet Atkins again. "The Game of Triangles" is a killer song.
> I'm wondering how it would go over here in the late 90s. It has one line
> that goes something like this, "A woman can't steal a husband who's happy
> at home." Yikes.
Haven't we talked about this before? I don't mean "The Game Of Triangles"
(BTW, since the liner notes to the R&T set don't mention it, let me point
out that the Liz Anderson singing on this cut with Bare and pretty Miss
Norma Jean is the one that wrote "I'm A Lonesome Fugitive" and a bunch of
other stuff that helped make Merle Haggard a star), but the way that
changing social mores have affected the content, or how we perceive it, of
cheating songs. OK, *I've* talked about it before.
Jon Weisberger Kenton County, KY [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://home.fuse.net/jonweisberger/
