jbbobbitt - Posted - 03/23/2018:  19:29:17

Hi all, I'm new here. Thanks in advance

Slidennis - Posted - 03/25/2018:  11:13:40

I would be surprised if there are tabs out there for this one. I do not do tabs.

My recollection is that the song was played in open D. Only two chords - D and G. Very basic slide fills generally homed on the two open chord positions. Shouldn't be too hard to noodle it out.

It seems to me there is a YouTube video of a guy plying it on roundness which might be helpful to watch.

Both Ronnie Lane and Ron Wood played resonators. Lane had a ShoBro roundneck he played bottleneck slide on in Faces. Wood did play some lap dobro in Faces and onward. When that was recorded Lane also played with a couple of multi instrumentalists as part of Slim Chance who may have contributed to April Fools.

wlgiii - Posted - 03/26/2018:  06:17:11

I have a video on here of me doing it; it should be in Soundoff! somewhere, if that helps. I learned it by ear with LOTS of listening and playing, and I'm fairly certain Eric Clapton played it on a roundneck, in low-bass G, with a 7th fret capo. It's quite playable in GBDGBD on a squareneck; you just don't have a couple of Eric's low notes at the end. It also works in open D, but being an octave lower it doesn't have quite the same sound.

Good luck, and I hope you can get there by Sunday (assuming you're learning it for Ronnie Lane's birthday).

Slidennis - Posted - 03/26/2018:  07:13:23

youtu.be/0Znts3foDAE 

Is that the one, Wlgiii? Nice job there.

There is a story out there where Glyn Johns related that Clapton was at that session observing things and Johns saw he was into the song so he asked if he would like to play. Clapton accepted and nailed it in one take.

I think those lower notes might be the giveaway to an open D tuning. But in any case the song can be done well in G as you have shown. 

Thanks for bringing up that tune. It made for some nice time travel. Nice song. Good to remember Ronnie Lane.

Edited by - Slidennis on 03/26/2018 07:16:54

wlgiii - Posted - 03/26/2018:  07:34:54

One take for Eric to nail it vs 1752 for me? Sounds about right.

Slidennis - Posted - 03/26/2018:  07:51:38

LOL. Yeah, I know that feeling.

Now I can't get "Ooh la la" out of my head. Gonna be a good day.

MarkinSonoma - Posted - 03/26/2018:  09:48:12

I still have my vinyl copy of Rough Mix, a fine album.

Eric Clapton is credited as playing "Dobro" on the album and for years I just figured it was a roundneck, but in listening to the recording today on YouTube it sounds pretty squareneckish.  From Wikipedia: Eric Clapton: guitars, Dobro on "Rough Mix", "Annie", "April Fool" and "Till the Rivers All Run Dry"

In this video where the studio version is played over bits of film and various photos,  the song is  performed at one point what is apparently a television show, and @ 1:45 you can see a lap style F-hole dobro and a guy taking the lead, and it appears to be the other Ronnie, as in Wood. Earlier in the video there is a brief moment showing Woody  - you can't see him with a dobro at that point but later when you do see it, the shirt the player is wearing appears to be the same.  Ronnie Lane is on a large body roundneck resonator that looks an awful lot like a Sho-Bro, but I wasn't able to read the name on the headstock. 

I haven't sat down to try and play this myself along with the recording but maybe I will give it a shot later.

Edited by - MarkinSonoma on 03/26/2018 09:56:11

Slidennis - Posted - 03/26/2018:  10:42:19

Here's the "Top of the Pops" video from which those pics were grabbed. (I think)

youtube.com/watch?v=RLLKPuuNu5M

I do think it is a Sho-Bro Lane is playing.  It appears in several other videos and photos from that period. The Sho-Bro must have had a hard time over the years.

youtube.com/watch?v=ZsJdtQaIbhY

He later played  both six and twelve string Zemaitis resos. 

youtube.com/watch?v=cpSlT2BVvGc  (Just to keep Ooh La La banging around my head)

No surprise there.

Edited by - Slidennis on 03/26/2018 10:49:02

wlgiii - Posted - 03/26/2018:  10:48:54

You're welcome. Or, sorry about that.

MarkinSonoma - Posted - 03/26/2018:  11:35:07

I guess the song in the piece together video/photo collage isn't even the same as we're discussing here.

Still, when I listen to the studio recording today, especially when you listen to the dobro break at 1:45, it sounds pretty clean like a lap style dobro.

When Clapton has historically played acoustic  slide, he gets some of the extraneous slide noise going on the strings like the old blues guys who influenced him. 

wlgiii - Posted - 03/26/2018:  13:33:09

(This is a fun discussion, even though we've totally gotten sidetracked from the TAB)

I've only see photographs of Eric with a roundneck. Perhaps he played the roundneck lap style, like Ron Wood for the Faces playing "Richmond": youtube.com/watch?v=uOO4l-v3zXc

By the way, that Sho-bro was cannibalized to build the Zemaitis.

Viejo - Posted - 03/21/2019:  23:19:37

youtu.be/lcrcXTQNjJs

MarkinSonoma - Posted - 03/22/2019:  15:16:02

Hey Lynn, I of course don't have any idea how much time you have put in on internet forums since it became a "thing" a number of years ago, but I'll give you an "Internet 101" tip here - unless one is curious, or has too much time on their hands (like me), when you post a link and don't bother with any verbiage to support it, the odds of getting people to click on it are very small. I've seen this in particular on The Steel Guitar Forum over the years. Very large membership there.

Too many people sharing links on the SGF in threads with no description and folks just gloss over it. I attribute this to our modern era of information overload - it's like the line from the Eagles "Life in the Fast Lane" - "...everything, all the time"

So I will do a little service here and embed the video you were sharing above.

By coincidence I was watching recently a rig rundown from Premier Guitar on the band below, this was after viewing the one on Jerry Douglas about which we have a thread going  here on the hangout. Rich Robinson and Marc Ford are former members of the very popular band The Black Crowes.

In this video guitar genius Marc Ford is playing a fairly inexpensive Gretsch and it sounds pretty decent to me. Another coincidence - when I was in Los Angeles at Bill Asher's place in November he had a couple of his Asher Marc Ford signature model electrics in the shop. I believe they sell for ballpark $3500. Like many celebrity players, Ford has a bunch of nice guitars - vintage Les Pauls, etc. 

So I was sort of amazed to see him playing this inexpensive Gretsch. You'd think he'd have something like a nice National for the occasion. 

At any rate, a nice version of "April Fool" below from The Magpie Salute. 

Edited by - MarkinSonoma on 03/22/2019 15:26:09

Viejo - Posted - 03/22/2019:  15:28:08

quote:

---

Originally posted by MarkinSonoma

Hey Lynn, I of course don't have any idea how much time you have put in on internet forums since it became a "thing" a number of years ago, but I'll give you an "Internet 101" tip here - unless one is curious, or has too much time on their hands (like me), when you post a link and don't bother with any verbiage to support it, the odds of getting people to click on it are very small. I've seen this in particular on The Steel Guitar Forum over the years. Very large membership there.

Too many people sharing links on the SGF in threads with no description and folks just gloss over it. I attribute this to our modern era of information overload - it's like the line from the Eagles "Life in the Fast Lane" - "...everything, all the time"

So I will do a little service here and embed the video you were sharing above.

By coincidence I was watching recently a rig rundown from Premier Guitar on the band below, this was after viewing the one on Jerry Douglas about which we have a thread going  here on the hangout. Rich Robinson and Marc Ford are former members of the very popular Black Crowes.

In this video guitar genius Marc Ford is playing a fairly inexpensive Gretsch and it sounds pretty decent to me. Another coincidence - when I was in Los Angeles at Bill Asher's place in November he had a couple of his Asher Marc Ford signature model electrics in the shop. I believe they sell for ballpark $3500. Like many celebrity players, Ford has a bunch of nice guitars - vintage Les Pauls, etc. 

So I was sort of amazed to see him playing this inexpensive Gretsch. You'd think he'd have something like a nice National for the occasion. 

At any rate, a nice version of "April Fool" below from Magpie Salute. 

 

---

Thank You for the advice Mark. I am old and not very tech savy. I too was surprised to see Marc playing a Gretsch Resophonic . I agree it is a great version of  Ronnie Lane's song . My main reason for posting the video is that it makes it obvious that both the Guitar and Dobro are in open D tuning