"Monkeying Around"

[chetbaker]

Chetbaker est un guitariste amateur français qui fréquente ce foutu forum depuis un moment. Il pense que vous n'êtes qu'une pauvre assemblée de vieillards qui aimez par dessus tout passer votre temps à vous entre-congratuler, chacun envoyant ses compliments à l'autre dans l'espoir d'en recevoir à son tour. Plus grave, vous n'avez toujours pas compris que Jerry Reed est bien plus grand que Chet Atkins, et ceci témoigne d'une étroitesse d'esprit et d'un très mauvais goût. Chet Atkins a été un excellent guitariste, qui possédait un touché de corde remarquable, une douceur dans le jeu, une fluidité, certes. Jerry Reed a été mille fois plus que tout cela : il a été un prodigieux compositeur, le véritable inventeur d'une nouvelle façon de jouer de la guitare, et a développé un style bien plus percutant et personnel que tous les arrangements de Chet. Seul Jerry Reed a eu le courage de casser l'ancestrale et désuète façon de jouer à la Merle Travis et consorts. Ce forum devrait être le Jerryboard, et non le Chetboard.
Une dernière chose, au lieu de rester dans votre vision passéiste de la guitare, ouvrez les fenêtres et laissez donc entrer l'air frais. L'air frais a mille visages. Certains de ces visages ont des noms : Ewan Dobson, Andy McKee, Martin Tallstrom, Gareth Pearson, Don Ross, etc.

[keener]

Jack,
You are very kind. Thank you for your concern. I'm not terribly concerned about chetbaker -- a person who tries to build himself up by putting others down, while using a fake name to do so, is rather pathetic in my view.

To save everyone the trouble of using Google Translate to figure out his latest message, here is the translated version:

Chetbaker is a French amateur guitarist who attends this damned forum for a while. He thinks you're a poor assembly of old men who love above all spend your time between-congratulation, each sending its compliments to the other hoping to receive in turn. Worse, you still do not understand that Jerry Reed is much larger than Chet Atkins, and this reflects a narrow-minded and a very bad taste. Chet Atkins was an excellent guitarist, who had a remarkable string of hit, a softness in the game, fluidity, of course. Jerry Reed was a thousand times more than that: he was a prodigious composer, the true inventor of a new way to play the guitar, and has developed a style much more powerful and personal that all arrangements of Chet. Jerry Reed alone had the courage to break the ancient and outdated way of playing the Merle Travis and others. This forum should be the Jerryboard, not Chetboard.
One last thing, instead of staying in your backward-looking vision of the guitar, open windows and let in fresh air then. Fresh air has a thousand faces. Some of these faces have names: Ewan Dobson, Andy McKee, Martin Tallstrom, Gareth Pearson, Don Ross, etc..

Obviously trying to be clever and gain some attention by stirring up even more controversy.

Do we know anyone who would go to the trouble of composing such a message in English and then use Google Translate to make it look like he is French? Do we know anyone who likes to quote a lot and use capital letters a lot, as in his post on the previous page?:

A couple of years ago I had a blog called Keener Music (how original, huh?). After I started doing YouTube videos, I pretty much abandoned it ... blogs can consume way too much of your time if you don't watch it.

Anyway, I've decided to start it back up. It has a few entries, including a tribute to Paul Yandell. I plan to introduce most of my new videos there instead of here.

Although I had not planned to do any more tutorial videos, I got enough email requests to get me to give it another stab.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I don't know. Maybe this chetbaker is clever enough to make it look like someone else. Regardless, I've wasted enough time on him and prefer to get back to more useful conversations.

Thanks again Jack. Be well,
Bruce

[guitarchuck]

I just ran "Chet Baker's" post through Google Translate. Apparently he would rather have a Jerryboard instead of a Chetboard. Which is fine, because many of us here like Jerry Reed too. He likes the new modern guitarist to but that's no reason to come on this board and bash people. Apparently he was afraid to write his thoughts in English. He also doesn't seem to understand the impact that Chet Atkins had on the history of fingerstyle guitar. (Especially Jerry Reed). If he don't like the Chetboard I don't know why he visits here.

(Bruce, apparently I was posting my message at the same time you posted your's and ran it through Google Translate).

[AngusH]

Oh dear - and well said Jack.

I too read the post in French and it doesn't appear to have been translated by an online engine, so I'm guessing the writer is either French or Canadian.

That's neither here nor there - there's no excuse to treat people on a forum like this with discourtesy and disrespect, when all they are doing is sharing their love and knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, great music.

I'll admit I came to Chet's music thinking Jerry was the genius (someone tried to teach me Blue Finger at a guitar workshop in England in about 1990 and it stayed with me...) but as I explore Chet's back catalogue, I continue to be astonished by its breadth and depth.

My recent query about Blue Angel was a case in point - it's so effortlessly good, it's almost impossible to see how good it really is, and I've only scratched the surface.

PS I checked - the French word for 'troll' appears to be 'troll'...

[BillB]

I think most of us realize what a genius Jerry Reed was, and he was great composer, both lyrically and instrumentally. But there was a reason that he held Chet Atkins in such high respect and referred to him as Chief. Without Chet, there would not likely have been Jerry Reed as we know him. Chet not only influenced him, but he helped him with his musical career. And he also recorded several of Jerry's songs that Jerry never recorded himself.

I've found myself thinking much like Bruce, that "chetbaker" may very well be the alter-ego of someone else on this board. In fact, I'm kind of thinking that person might have more than one alter-ego. And even though he speaks in a somewhat intellectual manner, the irrational approach and content of his posts demonstrate a behavior that is really immature. It's kind of like the schoolyard bully, and it definitely fits the internet discussion board description, as Angus put it, of a "troll". I personally don't think it's a young immature person such as a 7th grader, but an adult, who for whatever reason, is behaving immaturely. What emotions drive such behavior, I don't know. However, if any of you ever go to sports discussion boards (like ESPN and others), you see a similar behavior with fans who have over-the-top feelings about the teams that they root for. And many of those people go "trolling" on opposing team's discussion boards just to stir things up. Yeah, it seems strange, and it's definitely immature. Oh, and we've seen it before, even on the old Chetboard (Fretboard).

Bruce, just keep doing what you do, and we'll enjoy listening to your pickin' and having you as a Chetboard friend.

Bill B.

[keener]

Angus and Bill, thank you for your very nice comments. You both also make good comments about chetbaker's comments.

Jack, thank you again sir, not only for all the kind words you have had for me, but for stepping up for me on this "chetbaker thing." Of course, Bill is very capable of speaking for himself, but I think he meant about the same thing I was thinking: chetbaker is a fake name, used by someone who has been to this Board probably several times, and may even be a regular. I can guarantee that neither Bill or I thought that was you. You are always kind in your comments to me, plus when you are critical of anyone, you use your own name. You are not afraid to say what you think, but you don't hide behind a fake name. I think that's a good quality, and fortunately for us, most ChetBoarder's are the same way.

What makes me think that chetbaker has visited here a fair amount is that his very first post was as shown in the picture below. Note that he calls me by my first name, even though my "handle" on the Board is "keener" (at the time I signed on, I didn't realize we were supposed to use our full names ... stupid of me, but I never claimed to be perfect, by any means).

Now, does that sound like the kind of comment that a first-time commenter would use? It doesn't to me. It's possible that he was so disgusted with my videos that he chose that as his first post under his real name, but I doubt it.

I could be hugely wrong in thinking that a regular or semi-regular user is doing this, and is using a fake name to avoid negative feedback to his regular name. I honestly just don't know. Frankly, I don't even care anymore. I sure don't believe it's one of the foundational members of this Board, like yourself, though, because (a) all the foundational members are too nice and (b) none are afraid of using their real handles for whatever they say. That's why I think it's someone who has sort of showed up in the past few months or so. Again, pure conjecture. Sure could be a first-time visitor who is just an ****.

As to the Chet vs Jerry thing, there would have been no Jerry without Chet. I would not have been a picker without Chet. I doubt that Richard Smith would have or that Craig Dobbins would have or that Tommy Emmanuel would have. I personally love Chet and Jerry about equally, but I doubt that any of us would have been picking if not for Chet.

By the way, Jack, I also agree with you that it probably is time for Tom Redmond to check out chetbaker's IP address to see if it is the same that is used by someone else. Hopefully it is not. But, again, I have my doubts, largely because of his first post.

Thanks. Sorry if I confused or inflamed matters even more. That is certainly not my intent.

[BillB]

Hey Jack,
Sorry if I misled you in my post. Bruce is right on the money as far as what I was trying to say. I get a bit imaginative, and I probably made too much of it. I didn't have anyone in particular in mind.

I sent you a message as well, and I hope it will help you understand my thinking.

Take care,
Bill B.

[chetbaker]

Pour mettre un terme à votre inquiétude : je ne suis pas l'un d'entre vous qui posterait sous une autre identité. Bruce Keener n'a apparemment pas à douter de la loyauté de ses nombreux amis dans ce forum ! Je trouve simplement un peu ridicule, à son âge, de se soucier ainsi de cette vaine et minuscule célébrité de guitariste amateur. Voir quelqu'un de cette génération se préoccuper du nombre de « j'aime » sur les vidéos qu'il poste sur YT, le voir s'inquiéter du nombre de réactions positives sur Facebook, prétendre qu'il cessera d'annoncer ses vidéos sur ce forum pour le faire sur son blog, et faire le contraire quelques jours plus tard... tout ceci est franchement très amusant.
Je voudrais vous dire une chose élémentaire, Bruce : votre nombre d'amis sur Youtube et Facebook est quelque chose de vain et d'illusoire. Les commentaires flatteurs que vous obtenez régulièrement sur vos vidéos n'ont aucune valeur. Les remerciements que vous adressez aussitôt à vos encenseurs sont dérisoires. Vous êtes un bon guitariste, je n'en doute pas, mais vous devriez vous concentrer à présent sur ce qu'il vous reste à apprendre, la musique en tant que telle, l'harmonie, l'improvisation, le rythme. Vous maîtrisez les grands standards de Chet & Jerry, passez à autre chose, et travaillez donc pour vous-même, non pour obtenir le regard bienveillant des autres.
Maintenant, je vous salue tous, vous pouvez facilement obtenir mon adresse IP si vous avez la curiosité de savoir où je vis. Cela n'a rien d'extraordinaire. Je suis content d'avoir pu bouleverser quelques instants la quiétude improductive de ce forum, je suis persuadé que cela vous a bien amusé vous aussi !

[Ray Bohlken]

Isthay uygay, chetbaker, isway otnay ethay onlyway intellectualway onway
isthay oardbay. Iway ancay eakspay andway itewray inway
otherway anguageslay, ootay...ustjay osay ouyay owknay. Isthay
ypetay ofway ingthay isway uchmay ikelay away ersonpay
aintingpay anggay ignssay onway uildingsbay - ithoutway ethay
artistryway.



Have a great day.

Ray

[BillB]

Ray,

You have such a way with words.

Bill B.