[msb-alumni] Nokie Edwards, Whose Guitar Drove the Ventures, Is Dead at 82
- From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2018 15:17:24 -0400
BlankI'll be darned, I never knew they met in Spokane. I knew they were from
the Northwest. About thirty years ago, our Lions Club contracted with a agent
that sold tickets to a Ventures concert that was held at one of the high
schools; it was a fund-raiser for our club, basically, all we had to do was
show
up and collect the tickets at the door and we made about $900. I was against
that type of fund-raising though, because most of the money people gave went
for
expenses (phone banking, rental of the hall, paying the group, etc.)
Nokie Edwards, Whose Guitar Drove the Ventures, Is Dead at 82
By RICHARD SANDOMIR
MARCH 16, 2018
The Ventures early in their career. From left, Howie Johnson, Don Wilson, Nokie
Edwards and Bob Bogle. Credit Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Nokie Edwards, whose virtuosic electric guitar playing helped define the
surf-rock style of the Ventures, the immensely popular instrumental band that
rose to prominence in the 1960s, died on March 12 in Yuma, Ariz. He was 82.
His death, in a hospital, was confirmed by his wife, Judy, who said he had a
recurring infection after surgery for a broken hip in December.
Mr. Edwards’s seemingly effortless picking produced a palpitating sound that
captured the vibe of the ocean a few years before the Beach Boys began singing
about California girls. The Ventures were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of
Fame in 2008.
"Although musicologists might argue that Edwards’s country-fueled and
steel-guitar-influenced licks owe more to country than pop or rock," the guitar
designer Jol Dantzig wrote in an appreciation of Mr. Edwards on the Premier
Guitar website, "there is no denying that Edwards’s twangy tone, wang-bar
glides
and staccato riffing paved the way for the California surf bands of the 1960s."
Mr. Edwards was playing lead guitar in the country star Buck Owens’s band when
he was spotted by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle in a club in Spokane, Wash., in the
late 1950s. Mr. Wilson and Mr. Bogle were construction workers with meager
musical experience when they formed the band that became the Ventures. In Mr.
Edwards, they recognized a larger talent with a broader musical pedigree who
would improve their band.
With Mr. Edwards playing bass and Mr. Bogle on lead guitar, the Ventures
recorded “Walk — Don’t Run,” which rose to No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.
Inspired by a slower, jazzier recording several years earlier by the country
star Chet Atkins (the original recording was by the song’s composer, the
guitarist Johnny Smith), the Ventures’ version had a propulsive power, driven
by
heavily amplified guitars and the drumming of Skip Moore.
Although Mr. Bogle’s playing was a key to the single’s success, Mr. Edwards
soon
replaced him as the band’s lead guitarist; Mr. Bogle’s switch to bass was an
acknowledgment of Mr. Edwards’s greater skill. Peter Blecha, the author of
"Sonic Boom! The History of Northwest Rock: From Louie Louie to Smells Like
Teen
Spirit" (2009), said the strength of Mr. Edwards’s playing rested on the
"fluidity of his picking” and the way he added “melodic flourishes in
surprising
places."
The band followed "Walk -- Don’t Run" with other hits, like "Perfidia," a
much-recorded song that reached No. 15 on the Billboard chart, and "Slaughter
on
Tenth Avenue," which peaked at No. 35. "Wipe Out," a hit for the Surfaris in
1963, became a signature song for the Ventures.
In 1964, the band rerecorded "Walk -- Don’t Run" with Mr. Edwards on lead and a
new arrangement. The song reached the Top 10 again.
Nearly 50 years later, Mr. Edwards said he had at least two more arrangements
of
the song. "I may put it out and who knows, I may get another hit out of it
again," he told the website Ultimate Guitar in 2011.
The Ventures’ second-biggest hit was their version of the theme song from the
long-running CBS television show "Hawaii Five-O," which went to No. 4 in 1969.
It became a concert staple both for the group and for Mr. Edwards as a solo
performer.
Nole Floyd Edwards was born on May 9, 1935, in Lahoma, Okla. His father,
Elbert,
and his mother, the former Nannie Mae Quinton, were migrant fruit workers. In a
family of guitarists, fiddlers, pianists and banjo players, young Nokie was
playing guitar by age 5.
About that time, the Edwardses -- who by then had 11 children -- left their
land, then owned by his mother and her Cherokee family, after violent disputes
with merchants who wanted them to sell it, Judy Edwards said. They fled in a
horse-drawn wagon, crossed the Great Plains, stopped for a time in Idaho and
settled in Puyallup, Wash., south of Seattle.
Mr. Edwards stayed with the Ventures until 1968, returned in 1972 and stayed
until 1984.
"He left the group a few times," Mr. Wilson said in a telephone interview. "He
said, "I’m tired of playing the same songs over and over again."
After that, he occasionally recorded and toured with the Ventures, sometimes in
Japan, where they have been popular for decades. The band, which is still
active, has gone through various permutations. Mr. Wilson retired in 2015 but
still occasionally records; Mr. Bogle died in 2009.
Mr. Edwards played with various artists in his career, including the country
star Lefty Frizzell.
In recent years he formed a company, HitchHiker, to make custom guitars, and
toured with his own group, the HitchHiker Band. Among other honors, he was
inducted into the Native American Music Awards & Association’s Hall of Fame in
2011.
His composition "Surf Rider" -- which another surf-rock instrumental band, the
Lively Ones, recorded in 1963 -- was on the soundtrack of the 1994 movie "Pulp
Fiction."
In addition to his wife, the former Judy Bean, Mr. Edwards’s survivors include
a
daughter, Tina Edwards Nickerson; two stepsons, Patrick Fetters and Seth
Chappell; 25 grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; four
great-great-grandchildren; and a sister, Louise Jensen. A daughter, Kim, died
in
1988. His marriages to Zelda Wade and Jean Bauers ended in divorce.
Mr. Edwards played his last show in January 2017, with the HitchHiker Band in
Medford, Ore. Despite poor health, he refused to cancel the show and was
brought
onstage in a wheelchair before shifting to a stool to perform.
"He was in a lot of distress, but he got onstage and played very well," Dan
Estremado, who played guitar with Mr. Edwards that night, said in a telephone
interview. "He did the best he could but kind of gave out at the end."
He went to a hospital afterward, where, his wife said, the doctor remarked that
he could have "fallen off the stool and died onstage from internal bleeding."
In his final days, she said, she played YouTube videos of songs for Mr. Edwards
in his hospital room -- including Thom Bresh and him playing "I’ll See You in
My
Dreams."
Steve's Note: Here is the link to the Youtube video of him and Thom Bresh
playing "I'll See You in My Dreams," and it is very much in the Chet
Atkins-style picking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6_9nuX0X2Q
Other related posts:
- » [msb-alumni] Nokie Edwards, Whose Guitar Drove the Ventures, Is Dead at 82 - Steve
