June carter quote...

[Norm]

Somewhere I read June Carter talking about when she knocked Chet's D;Angelico over and broke it.

She said something like "you would think the thing was going to bleed because of all the commotion"

That's not exactly it but I know the reference to 'bleed' was there. Anybody remember seeing that and remember where?

[Ray Bohlken]

Norm, it was on page 62 of the Me and My Guitars book.
Ray

[Norm]

So it is

I looked thru the carters bio and a book I have written by June and even in country gentleman but misse that

thanks, Ray

[Ray Bohlken]

You're welcome, Norm. I hope your project is going well.
Take care,
Ray

[Norm]

It is.
I ran across a woman, a former english teacher, who is going over my manuscript in sections. She's perfect. She knew Paul, Jerry and Chet, plays a little guitar but not enough to distract. She is gently blunt when she corrects me and is tenacious in that she will patiently keep nipping my ankle until a rough spot makes sense. I'm not getting as much input from others as I'd hoped but it's early.

I cobbled a list of suggestions to perhaps trigger some responses. Randy Goodrun came through for me.

So I'm doing a focused readthrough and edit guided by my schoolteacher friend so it's not like I have nothing to do...

[Ray Bohlken]

Sounds like you're making progress. The teacher sounds like someone who'll do a great job for you and is some one who'll stick to her guns. I'm looking forward to your project down the road.
Ray

[Norm]

I hope I can get it to work

The text is not a problem. I'm still editing but it keeps looking great it's just that I have no real experience with this kind of thing. I may just end up with a great detailed history for Marie and Micah to have. It has so much information and I think I'm laying it out intelligently. The 'schoolma'am' yanks my sleeve any time something is unclear to her. Sometimes it takes us a couple of days to get it so it's understandable to her. Not everyone speaks "guitarese". So she's perfect. She also busts my chops on English kinds of things which is good also.

I'm learning a lot

I have a written by June Carter book and she mentions the incident

“I just broke Chester’s D’Angelico guitar yesterday. He’ll probably never speak to me again. I dreamed he beat me to death with the neck and what was left of the guitar. Both pieces still looked pretty good to me when I was still running”
__June Carter Cash “From The Heart”

What a treasure she was...

[Ray Bohlken]

I feel sure you will get it to work. Your posts are always interesting and I enjoy them. I think if you trust your instincts and listen to the teacher, you'll wind up with a great outcome. That June Carter incident and her comment was priceless. Things like that will keep up interest. I hope you get a lot of input from everyone who knows Paul and his compadres.
Ray

[bill_h]

Well did Chet ever clobber her??? How did that turn out?

Norm, if you don't mind me asking could you enlighten us as to your project? Something to do with your Paul archives? Sounds like a very valuable and worthy endeavor from what I could make of it from this thread.

[Norm]

It's turning into a book written about a man who said there wasn't enough material about him and his life to make into a book.
It is based on my archive of Paul's quotes saved over the years. That archive got bolstered by Craig Dobbins sending me his archive that I was able to cherry pick and between the two, get some extremely informative information about Paul's life and times. After he died, and at Maries encouragement, I started shaping my archive into a biography. As this went on, I began to see that his life before he signed on with Jerry Reed was tyypical of the working musician of his day...your faceless but necessary sidemen.

This sparked the working title Paul Yandell...Second to The Best. A Sideman's Chronicle. "Second" being how he referred to the rhythm guitar player in a given situation.

It is mostly about Paul but as his life went on his life became mostly about Chet so the book does and all the information he shared over the years about Chet and as importantly, Chet's gear, is detailed. The D'Angelico and The '59 are almost mini-biographies in themselves. There is a constant thread throughout about the difficulty of making a living as a non-star...a sideman.

The way it's going now, all of Paul's words are written in boldface. Quotes from other people are in a different font to set them apart. I have extensive quotes from Marie, Micah, Paul's brother Forrest...Craig Dobbins is in there and Craig has been a major assist. I put out a call for stories and got a great piece from Randy Goodrum. John Knowles has contributed some (I'll be getting back to you with more questions, John) as well as other board members. I even have some great insight from guys on the steel guitar forum!

Thanks to Marie, I have a retired schoolteacher (a pricipal, acutally) , Jan Hite, who has me clapping erasers after class. I feed her what I've written and she gets out her Red Pencil and corrects my english and grammar errors.

If this thing ever gets published I have no doubt there will be those who will criticize my metodology. I had to make judgement calls and decide what to keep and what to throw out. I had to change words around and correct spelling. If I had been rigid and not done the editing I have I think it would have defeated its purpose. In my foreword I describe it thusly

_____________

I'm writing the biography of a man recently deceased as if someone said. "This person wrote a song. It's on several hundred pieces of tape made at different times and they're all mixed up. The parts were made on different days and sometimes contradict themselves but it's one song...make the song play like it is on the record"

So what I'm doing is splicing it...trying to Second Paul's music by staying out of his way as much as I can and filling in where I think it's necessary. Once in a while I even have to punch in something.____________________

See what happens when you ask questions...? I spend HOURS every day on this thing and it's still a blast.

And I'm still wanting stories about Paul... what he was like... things he said... things that set him apart. Beyond the "Paul was a great guy" kind of thing...
I'm keeping a list of contributors and some of the pieces people send are being credited in the text. Some things I have put in that the person thought I should put in but did not want their name used. I honored that.