Alvino Rey plays "St. Louis Blues" with Stringy the talking steel guitar!

[MagneticZeroFlowers]

Win Butler's grandfather was one funky dude!

[at90r]

That's Buddy Cole on the piano! Close-up of him at 1:08

[Loqquer]

This is kinda creepy...

[Bluesebert]

this was Hollywood, 1944. Get over it

[basspig]

And kids, THAT was what WE called entertainment!

[RaiserBeazt]

this video is perfect to masturbate

[NakedSteve4u]

2:40 See? I told you Christopher Walken doesn't age

[AudioTech50]

Joe Walsh and Peter Frampton used this effect later, but used a different technique. Joe and Peter used a horn driver with a plastic tube that ran to their mouth. Playing the guitar through the driver, they mouthed the words. Rey used a different technique; his wife (one of the King Sisters) was backstage with a carbon microphone. Its variable resistance modulated Rey's guitar sound quite effectively.

[beneaththeroses]

coolest video ever made

[mgabrysSF]

To see how horrible this is check how it's supposed to be done :

youtube.com/watch?v=8Who6fTHJ3­4

[MrRJDB1969]

@mgabrysSF : The band was having fun with the song to begin with, did you really think they were being serious in this clip ? If he & his band had been taking it seriously, I'd hold it up against anything you could come up with.

[mgabrysSF]

And between the nightmare fuel that is stringy and admittedly the worst arrangement of black music since Pat Boone covered Little Richard's Tutti Frutti we have concrete proof that white people will always find innovative and remarkable ways to completely fuck shit up.

[MrRJDB1969]

@mgabrysSF : I've heard quite a bit of "black" music that sounds fucked from the get go, all on their own, w/ no help needed. Alvino Rey was a superb guitarist and his orchestra was better than most of the "black" orchestra's of the same time period, some of which sounded out of tune and un-polished . I personally, never enjoyed Little Richard's screaming and the song "Tutti Frutti", was a mediocre song at best, with a 3rd graders lyrics tossed in. SO, how about laying off the racial crap.

[Pickinbuddy]

Stringy RULES!!!!



[marsoska]

Stringy is died 65 years ago.

PS.:It's call number stayed the same!

[W3R3W00F]

Stringy.

KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!

[happymoogman]

Those guys with the "race talk" make me want to hurl. This ain't no forum for grandstanding. Comment on the music and performance, dagnabbit!

[chadcdavis]

Alvino Rey = Win Butler of Arcade Fire's grandfather.

[amaaazinglarry]

from wikipedia:

In 1939, Rey used a carbon throat microphone to modulate his electric guitar sound. The mike, developed for military pilots, was worn by Rey's wife Luise, who stood behind a curtain and sang along with the guitar lines. The novel combination was called "Singing Guitar", but was not developed further. The innovation was the first known talk box experiment.[3

[slicksnewonenow]

"She took a powder and left"... HAHAHA! Brilliant!

[gnativerson]

would love to have this little guy

[handsupbud]

This kind of music scares me cuz it makes me feel like Neegra's are lurking in the bushes watching me.

[Pickinbuddy]

MORE clips of Stringy, please!!!

[resopicker]

Awesome!

[Pickinbuddy]

Wow---thanks for posting this! I remember that puppet from WAY back in the 50s when I was a little kid---I distinctly remember him singing, "blue boy..that's what they call me..." I didn't know what that was--and I haven't seen this in about 55 years!

Thanks so much for revealing who and what Stringy was!

[toiseywoisey]

Whos that drummer? Anyone?

[The2010SnowDay]

who's singing?

[mickeydamon]

first form of auto tune

[manhatin]

Stringy just might be Peter Frampton's grand daddy.

[johnhorneguitar]

Any idea who the rhythm guitarist is? I knew a man named Ron Scott who played in Alvino Rey's band back in the day, but I can't be sure if it's him...

[mulchadu]

So glad you brought this wonderful piece back for us...Alvino and Stringy are way cool !!

[83survivor]

It's from Jam Session(1944)...the guitar talking seem to be a precursor to Roger Troutman's use of the vocoder for such songs like "I Can Make You Dance", "More Bounce To The Ounce," etc...pretty much a precursor to the 80s, even from the 1940s.

[AECEntertainment]

@83survivor i think its a sonovox hes using for stringy

[RayNDeere]

@83survivor Actually, the voice of Stringy was Alvino's wife, Luise King, using a carbon throat microphone. Alvino saw pilots using the mike in planes.

[Eddyfilm]

Ahh, how tragic. not a single black face.

[howmanypages]

@Eddyfilm Dude, Stringy is right there.

[MrTonyCejas]

@Eddyfilm Mistrel show wise or are you being a white smartass hiding behind a computer screen? Actually this is what later became the talkbox technique, like musicians such as Peter Frampton and Roger Troutman....music is not a race to see which black or white artist did this or that..all nationalities contributed greatly to theis beautiful art form called music....

[Eddyfilm]

@MrTonyCejas You know what tony? You're right. All nationalities did contribute to jazz, which is why I find it so damn odd that you only really see one of them in the crowd. Would they have let Louis Armstrong on that stage? I wonder...

[KidEllington]

@Eddyfilm I'm wondering, are you referring to the vaudeville and early hollywood comedy technique of "blackface" (one word) or "black face", as in the actual face of an african american? I'm just wondering, cuz their really two different things

[Eddyfilm]

@KidEllington I was not referring to blackface. I meant the latter

[MrTonyCejas]

@Eddyfilm Well, you know what? It is 2010, all nationalities can come together to embrace American culture, not Black or White...let's not add to 1940's segregation...let's not segregate music, either in this day and age...People like the Beatles, Motown and Michael Jackson brought love through music and races together, let's keep it that way....

[Eddyfilm]

@MrTonyCejas I think I have explained my point of view very poorly (I have 'misrepresented' my opinion!). I completely agree with you. Music is for eveyone, gay straight black, white, brown, or purple. Race itself is a stupid, entirely cultural concept. I couldn't agree more.

I made (what I believed to be) a casual lament at the lack of representation in early television. Jazz is not a 'black' form any more than rock 'n roll is 'white'

[hillbillyboy77]

@MrTonyCejas Don't listen to all that talking about 'love through music' too much. Your Beat-Less talked all that bullshit 45 y. ago but war keeps going on and will never stop. But while they were talkin' all that stuff to 60's teens, they earned millions.. 60's idols were not so silly but quite cynical )

[apossibleworld]

my favorite thing ever! so glad it's back.

[nadiaaymone]

Thank you for bringing this baCK!!!!

[YouWeirdTube]

KoolKlipsFromDeke

you're my hero. where did you find it again? i've been looking since mine went down six months ago.

[LisaFleisher]

What movie is this from?

[sands4us]

DO NOT WATCH THIS SOBER EITHER !! I close my eyes and all I can see is Stringy .... I can't sleep!! Stringy is everywhere......please make him leave me alone.... God save me from Stringy !!

[dynodon12]

Really cool!!

Dynodon12

[Mikemaniax]

It seems that what Ray did influenced both rock & roll and electronic music.