Busted Bicycle
Added 2021-10-01 14:00:09 +0000 UTCHello friends, and welcome back.
This month we're focusing Leo Kottke's "Busted Bicycle" as he played it on the record My Feet Are Smiling.
This solo was the piece that got me interested in Leo Kottke's music. The first time I heard it was on My Feet Are Smiling. This was my father's favorite Leo Kottke record, and he was excited that my mom got it for him on CD for his birthday. We spent nearly every Saturday hanging out, just running errands or going to look at cool cars at dealerships, pretending we could afford something like that. It would have been about 1999 or so, he put on the CD on one of our drives and I couldn't make sense out of what I was hearing. I was hooked.
The first commercial release of "Busted Bicycle" was on Kottke's 6- & 12-String Guitar in December of 1969. I am attaching my transcription of this version as well for your interest and research, but I will not be focusing on it other than just brief mentions and comparison in the lesson video. Kottke continued to perform it at least up to the early 80s. He revisited the piece and introduced a new version into his concert repertoire in about 2015.
I'm drawn to the My Feet Are Smiling performance because of his ability to bring life and musicality to a piece of music as it approaches almost 300bpm. I also find it interesting because we can see an evolution in his technique as he starts to vary the patterns with his thumb and incorporate the ring finger in the right hand.
I believe everything I have to say is covered in the lesson video. Time stamps have now been added for your convenience. I'm also attaching a recording of Leo performing the piece in March of 1973, just a few months after My Feet Are Smiling. I would have likely used this one for the transcription because I think it is a stronger performance, but is seems somewhere down the line some of the audio was lost in the conversion from tape to digital and there is a noticeable splice at the end and a portion of the tune is missing.
Lesson Video: https://youtu.be/--dr3JhJgLc
My YouTube performance: https://youtu.be/sWSJsLexFio
The transcriptions are attached!
Comments
Hello Walter. I wanted to include that little audio snippet because it’s the only mention I’d ever heard of the meaning of the title. I would assume Kottke and Koerner knew each other and it was an inside joke. I saw “Spider” John Koerner perform about 10 years ago. Lots of 12 string, good playing and a great joke teller!
Andrew Lardner
2023-06-30 12:56:43 +0000 UTCMagnificent playing wow! Thanks Andrew. Do you have any idea what Kottke is talking about when he says in the clip at the beginning of the recording "this is a song I wrote about John Koerner's bicycle"? Presumably it's about the John K. from the amazing Koerner, Ray and Glover blues trio. And Koerner I believe lived in Rochester, MN so perhaps near Kottke?
Walter Seaman
2023-06-30 01:46:25 +0000 UTCThank you Peter
Andrew Lardner
2022-02-23 22:40:25 +0000 UTCAndrew: Thanks a lot for the great advice. I'd like to tell you that you did a real nice job on your performance of the song Easter on the Bozo 12 string. It's a really beautiful song and you do it very well. Peter Tumminaro
Peter M Tumminaro
2022-02-23 22:39:12 +0000 UTC
