Ever wonder how Peter Frampton came up with his talking guitar sound?

Here is the story.

During the recording of George Harrison’s album All Things Must Pass in London’s Abbey Road studios, Pete Drake enthralled everyone with his ‘Talking Guitar’ especially a young Peter Frampton.

“He was setting up his pedal steel right in front of me and got out this little box. I didn’t know what was doing,” Frampton recalls. “He had a pipe and plugged this in here and that in there, stuck the pipe in his mouth, started playing the pedal steel and it started coming out of his mouth. The pedal steel was singing to me, talking to me. That’s when my jaw dropped, and I said, ‘There it is. I’ve got to get that.'”

After meeting during the sessions, Pete and Peter remained friends throughout the rest of Drake’s life.

Shown left to right in image from the All Things Must Pass recording session are Pete Drake, George Harrsion, Ringo Starr, Peter Frampton (kneeling next to steel) and Billy Preston.

Read more about Peter Frampton discovering this sound in the article on Spinner.com: Peter Frampton Explores the Origins of His Talking Guitar.

 

It is early 1970 on Music Row in Nashville. Pete Drake is in his office.

His assistant buzzes in, “George Harrison wants you on the phone.”

Pete says, “Well, where’s he from?”

Assistant: “London.”

Pete: “Well, what company’s he with?”

Assistant: “The Beatles.”

Pete Drake recounted this story with laughter in an interview he did for Guitar Player Magazine. “His name, you know, just didn’t ring any bells-well, I’m just a hillbilly, you know (laughter). Anyway, I ended up going to London for a week where we did the album All Things Must Pass.”

Photo (Left to Right): Ringo Starr, Pete Drake, Phil Spector and George Harrrison.

Recorded between May and August 1970 at Abbey Road Studios and produced by Harrison and Phil Spector, All Things Must Pass, became one of Rolling Stone magazine’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” selling more than six million copies. Musicians appearing on the triple album included Ringo Starr, members of Badfinger, Eric Clapton and the other members of Derek and the Dominos, future Yes drummer Alan White, keyboard players Billy Preston, Gary Brooker and Gary Wright, and Pete Drake on steel guitar. A young, pre-Genesis Phil Collins played bongos on “Art of Dying.”

It was during the recording sessions that Pete met Ringo Starr, who later asked Pete to produce his solo album. It was recorded in Nashville in June of 1970.

In 2000, George Harrison personally oversaw the remastering of All Things Must Pass, the beginning of a re-issue project that was to see all his albums refurbished. For this 30^th anniversary reissue, Harrison added the song “I Live For You,” left off the original version of the album.  When asked about the song in an interview for the re-issue, Harrison said he felt the original recording wasn’t good enough, except for Pete Drake’s steel guitar which he kept.  He re-recorded several of the other parts and included the song on the reissue.

Harrison lived long enough only to witness the 30^th Anniversary reissue of  All Things Must Pass in January 2001 on his own GN Records imprint, distributed by EMI. After George’s passing in November 2001, the album once again topped the Billboard charts.

Download the album from iTunes:

 

All Things Must Pass [BOXED EDITION]

Pete Drake recorded with Dolly Parton many times during his four decade career. His steel guitars can be heard on some of Dolly’s biggest hits “Jolene” and “Coat of Many Colors.”

In 2009, the first-ever multi-label, career-spanning box set Dolly was released.  The four CD, 100 song collection features many of Pete’s performances with Parton such as the early duets with Porter Wagoner and her first number one single.

The box set has received great critical praise and is a must-have for Dolly Parton fans.

Learn more about it here:

Dolly (Box Set)

 

In the mid-1960s at the height of the psychedelic era, Tracy Nelson was the lead singer of San Francisco band, Mother Earth, performing at the Fillmore with the likes of Janice Joplin, The Grateful Dead, and Jimi Hendrix. Tracy came with Mother Earth to Nashville in 1969 to record a country side project.  She had learned about a great producer and steel player named Pete Drake from her work with Bob Dylan and asked Pete to produce her album. Elvis Presley’s original Sun-era guitarist, Scotty Moore, engineered and co-produced the album, which was cut at Music City Recorders. Tracy Nelson was the first of the female rock ‘n roll artists Pete produced. The album Mother Earth Presents Tracy Nelson Country was released on Mercury Records in 1969. Tracy liked Nashville so much she decided to relocate and has lived here ever since.

Pete Drake’s longtime business partner and wife, Rose Drake, shares her recollections from the project: “Tracy was fun and a bit of fresh air for everyone during those sessions. She came to the studio and to our office with several of her very well-behaved dogs every day. Tracy found out she could embarrass Pete by saying her famous “four letter word,” so she decided to use it often. Before press meetings and recording sessions, Pete would remind her, ‘In the south, ladies don’t use that language.’  That was a real big mistake,” Rose laughs, “because Tracy would get him in front of someone and let the expletives fly!  You could see Pete and Scotty Moore just want to go under the console with their red faces. I remember the musicians would just scatter and start laughing saying,  ‘She did it again!’ All the musicians loved working with Tracy. This was always one of Pete’s favorite projects because she was such a professional, a great talent and a beautiful person.”

Later when Ringo Starr came to Nashville to record his solo album, Pete took him out to visit Tracy’s farm in Burns, Tennessee to spend some time in the Tennessee country with Mother Earth. In fact the album cover and promo shots for Ringo’s Beaucoups of Blues were photographed at Tracy’s farm.

Today Tracy Nelson still records and tours as a solo artist.  You can learn more about her and find her upcoming shows on her website www.tracynelson.com.

Download Mother Earth Presents Tracy Nelson Country produced by Pete Drake from iTunes: