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James Burton


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I have always liked James Burton's pickin. One of the all time great sidemen. I admire him and have admired him since the Elvis days. The very first recording I ever bought was Hound Dog by Elvis on a 45 RPM a record back in the middle 1950's. I don't know if Burton played on that cut, but from then on, whenever I saw Elvis on the tube and Burton was with him, I always hooked into the sound of his guitar licks. Very distinctive and excellent.

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I have fond memories of James Burton starting out with Rickey Nelson, writing the leads to hits like Hello Mary Lou and many others.  He played a lot with Elvis especially on the Vegas strip stages.  Scotty Moore (my mentor/idol) was the original Elvis lead player from the beginning on Sun Records up to and including his RCA days (also Chet Atkins helped in the RCA studio as a sideman).  My 1st 45 was Blue Suede Shoes as I was an Elvis fan from about 5 years old up to and including today.  My mom bought me the record and I just loved Elvis, she didn't have the heart to tell me my record was by Carl Perkins as the Elvis version was sold out.  She also took me to my 1st Elvis movie on the big screen when I was 7 (1957) +/-.  And that was Jail House Rock.  James is also on one of my favorite DVD's playing the leads for Roy Orbison's Black and White session...Great guitar history and players all around.  James is also known as Mr. Tele man and the King of Chicken Pick' in, in my book!  😎👍

 

 

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Take care, Larryz
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From my state!!! I got to shake his hand once a few years ago when he came into the TV studio where I work to be interviewed for an annual thing that honors State "Legends"... a guy I work with said "you brought your Tele today, right? NO?!? Go get it... I have mine, we'll get him to sign them!" So I ran home (I live .8 miles away from the studio) and grabbed one of mine and went back... but while he was doing the interview his wife walked by and said "I'm sorry... I hope you're not going to ask him to sign your guitars because I have to be the bad cop... our lawyer says not to do it because people try to sell them... and he would not be able to tell you no, so I have to..." which made no sense but we weren't going to argue with her... I will say this, he seems to be the happiest guy on earth and his default facial expression is a big smile. I was going to ask him to show me some of his licks on The Monkees' "Papa Gene's Blues" that I can't quite make out... He did the interview with his Tele in his lap.

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21 minutes ago, p90jr said:

From my state!!! I got to shake his hand once a few years ago when he came into the TV studio where I work to be interviewed for an annual thing that honors State "Legends"... a guy I work with said "you brought your Tele today, right? NO?!? Go get it... I have mine, we'll get him to sign them!" So I ran home (I live .8 miles away from the studio) and grabbed one of mine and went back... but while he was doing the interview his wife walked by and said "I'm sorry... I hope you're not going to ask him to sign your guitars because I have to be the bad cop... our lawyer says not to do it because people try to sell them... and he would not be able to tell you no, so I have to..." which made no sense but we weren't going to argue with her... I will say this, he seems to be the happiest guy on earth and his default facial expression is a big smile. I was going to ask him to show me some of his licks on The Monkees' "Papa Gene's Blues" that I can't quite make out... He did the interview with his Tele in his lap.

His lawyer is doing his job, which is protecting and looking out for the best interest of James Burton and his family.  Let's say that James signed your guitar, and you took a photo if him signing it, for proof that the signature is real.  Now, let's say that instead of keeping it so you could show it to everyone, you sold that guitar on Ebay for more money than the guitar alone is worth, because James Burton's signature is on it.  You then profited off his signature, while he got nothing in compensation.  His lawyer would not think that was very fair to James or his family.

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I rock; therefore, I am.
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45 minutes ago, Sharkman said:

His lawyer is doing his job, which is protecting and looking out for the best interest of James Burton and his family.  Let's say that James signed your guitar, and you took a photo if him signing it, for proof that the signature is real.  Now, let's say that instead of keeping it so you could show it to everyone, you sold that guitar on Ebay for more money than the guitar alone is worth, because James Burton's signature is on it.  You then profited off his signature, while he got nothing in compensation.  His lawyer would not think that was very fair to James or his family.


That is in general how autographs work, though... and go look at Reverb and eBay and count the number of signed instruments listed for 2 or 3 times their actual value. There was a music store across the street from the House of Blues in the French Quarter in New Orleans, I was there one afternoon when a guy in a House of Blues shirt walked in and bought the cheapest Squier Strat and Epiphone Les Paul they had then walked across the street, and the guy I knew who worked there said "he does this almost every day... he has the acts playing over there sign then them auctions them on eBay..." When I order vinyl records from acts I can pay $5 more (or sometimes nothing more) and have them sign the record, and I see a lot of those listed for way more than they cost everywhere... same with records or cds signed by acts at shows, books signed by authors at readings, autographed pictures... half of the charity auction things, like autographed guitars, raffled off get listed to be resold automatically by the winners... it made no sense to me because I know people who've had much bigger household names sign their guitars, and those signatures are much more valuable as far as selling them.

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1 hour ago, Sharkman said:

His lawyer is doing his job, which is protecting and looking out for the best interest of James Burton and his family.  Let's say that James signed your guitar, and you took a photo if him signing it, for proof that the signature is real.  Now, let's say that instead of keeping it so you could show it to everyone, you sold that guitar on Ebay for more money than the guitar alone is worth, because James Burton's signature is on it.  You then profited off his signature, while he got nothing in compensation.  His lawyer would not think that was very fair to James or his family.


Hypothetically, I'd easily imagine some unscrupulous types- they're out there, I know it's hard to believe! ;)- doing just that, and then selling some forgeries after that using the same photos and "provenance" and all, as well...

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Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

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  • 1 year later...

I’m trying to find the guitar tabs  solos of James Burton and Bruce Springsteen playing guitar solos to Roy Orbison pretty woman on utube live black and white 

does any one have the solos with background chords rhythm etc gladly I will pay this will complete my learning  can  anyone  help me ?

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