[ Post a Response | Lonnie Donegan - Official Forum - King of Skiffle ]
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Posted by ROGER RETTIG on July 17, 2008, 10:39 pm, in reply to "Re: Top 10 Skiffle Songs"
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In recent years I've come to regret that Lonnie ever was linked to the 'Skiffle' tag. It was a passing fad that he was single-handedly responsible for, yet one that he managed to remain aloof from.
Comparisons with the other groups is almost absurd - who remembers Pete Murray's comment in that '90s 'Skiffle' documentary (Channel 4) when he declared that 'Donegan was the Master...'? All the other bands seemed to thrash away at countless cheap acoustic guitars, chanting in ribald unison and sounding more like a rugby club sing-song than professional music!
I knew it instinctively at the time (even at 14 years old), but listening in retrospect nowadays is clear affirmation that even the best of the also-rans couldn't shine his shoes!
I got to know Wally Whyton quite well in later years (my band would do sessions for the BBC for his 'Country Meets Folk' shows in the '80s and '90s) and spent many happy hours at Lorne and Maggie Gibson's '4th of July Garden Parties' talking with Wally about those faraway days. He'd laugh at the suggestion that they were ever a threat to Donegan's supremacy, but said it was fun trying!
No: I would rather that Lonnie had stressed his folk/blues influences - maybe he'd be more highly-regarded these days had he done so. It still irks me that I'm constantly meeting musicians here in the USA who have no idea who Lonnie Donegan is or was!!! Can you imagine???
Then LD himself goes and reaffirms the 'skiffle' connection by having CF Martin & Co emblazon it all over his 'Signature Edition' 000-28 guitar!!!
A 'top ten' of non-Donegan Skiffle recordings? That requires more than a little 'scraping of the barrel'.....
Roger Rettig (Still exiled to North Dakota - we have a pretty good band here, guys!!!!!)
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