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RIP Marshall Tucker

kingofnerf

kingofnerf

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www.savingcountrymusic.com

Marshall Tucker, Namesake of Iconic Southern Rock Band, Has Died

Marshall Tucker never played a lick of music in the Marshall Tucker Band. In fact, he wasn't known for performing at all. He was in the music business though. For almost 50 years, Marshall Tucker was one of South Carolina's most trusted piano tuners.
www.savingcountrymusic.com www.savingcountrymusic.com

marshall-tucker.jpg


For almost 50 years, Marshall Tucker was one of South Carolina’s most trusted piano tuners. He tuned pianos for some of the most famous piano players ever, including Lawrence Welk and Liberace. But through a twist of fate, his name became known worldwide, and synonymous with Southern Rock.

Born blind but with perfect pitch, Marshall Tucker learned how to tune pianos when attending a boarding school for the blind and deaf. When a piano tuner came to the school, he discovered young Marshall Tucker could name off any note he heard, and tell if it was on pitch or not. This led to Marshall Tucker being trained to tune pianos for a living.
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In 1972, original Marshall Tucker band members Toy Caldwell, Tommy Caldwell, Gray, Jerry Eubanks, George McCorkle and Paul Riddle rented an old warehouse as a rehearsal space. This was in the band’s nascent stages before they had an official name. One of the band members noticed that the key to the warehouse had the name “Marshall Tucker” inscribed on it, since Marshall Tucker had rented the space previously for his piano tuning business. Thinking that the name was cool and catchy, the band decided to name themselves The Marshall Tucker Band right then and there.
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www.loudersound.com

The Marshall Tucker Band: how to spend a million dollars on cocaine, pot and Scotch whisky

The Marshall Tucker Band sold millions of records in the 70s and 80s, and never really escaped from the shadow of Skynyrd and the Allmans. But that didn’t stop them having a hell of a good time
www.loudersound.com www.loudersound.com

“We drank a lot of whisky, but at the end of the day we were always the polite Southern guys,” Gray reminisces. “While Skynyrd was out there tearing down the doors, I was the one that went down to reception and said: ‘I don’t know what happened, sir, but your TV just fell out of the window’. I lied like a motherfucker, but somebody had to.”
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Gray, who still leads the band, is brave enough to offer an opinion on why Marshall Tucker never quite reached the heights of some of their counterparts of the southern rock scene.

“Unlike a couple of other bands I could mention, when we had tragedies we chose not to go out there and do tours [in honour of the deceased band members],” he says, getting right down to the nitty gritty. “When our guy Tommy Caldwell died, we resisted proposals to pay tribute to him that way, or to release product in memory of him. Labels asked us, we just refused to do it. I would rather mourn privately over somebody than make money and take advantage of their loss.”
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The group’s unusual name was adopted spontaneously. With nothing to put on the posters for a gig with Wet Willie, someone suggested borrowing the name of a guy whose name adorned the key ring of the warehouse where the band rehearsed.
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On stage, MTB quickly built up a head of steam. “On a tour opening for Three Dog Night, the headliners cut our set each night, from an hour to 45 minutes, then 30,” Riddle recollects. “At the LA Forum they gave us 15 minutes, so in that quarter of an hour we went out and played Take The Highway, Ramblin’ and an encore of Can’t You See and tore the roof off the place.”
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Interesting. Never new he was not in the band. This would have been a great question in the Trivia thread.
 
en.wikipedia.org

Toy Caldwell - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Caldwell decided to enlist in the United States Marine Corps. In 1966, he reported for recruit training at Parris Island, South Carolina. After being wounded in Vietnam in September 1968, he was evacuated for two weeks, then returned for duty. Caldwell was discharged in 1969 and once again began playing music with his high school buddies. The Spartanburg chapter of the Marine Corps League is named the Hutchings-Caldwells Detachment in honor of Toy, his brother Tommy and another Marine, Pvt Nolan Ryan Hutchings, who was killed during the Iraq Invasion in 2003
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Department of South Carolina - Marine Corps League

mcleaguesc.org mcleaguesc.org

Wounded in Vietnam. Lost both his younger brothers Tim and Tommy in 1980. Died from a drug-related cardiac arrest in 1993, but really had a lot of stuff to deal with.

Still South Carolina boys, though.

RIP
 
I was playing guitar in a nightclub around '78 and a drunk guy wants to sit in and play with band. He said he was a Caldwell (younger brother). Maybe he was?
We didn't let him play.
 
What is it with SC band names. No Marshall Tucker in the Marshall Tucker Band. And no Hootie in Hootie and the Blowfish.
 
I didn't realize it until I posted this thread, but 3 of the key guitarists of the rock era (can't believe I just said that) enlisted in the armed forces for whatever the reasons.

I suppose a lot of folks back then did it to have to have some control over their lives rather and being drafted and sent to the infantry or whatever.

Toy Caldwell (Marines), John Fogerty (Army), and Jimi Hendrix (Army Airborne) all had distinctive playing styles and wrote great music in their day.

Ray Manzarek of The Doors enlisted in the Army in 1961. He tried to come in as a Camera Operator with the Signal Corps, but ended up as an intel analyst with the Army Security Agency. I believe you just had one-year enlistments back then followed by a year of reserves duty.

I read somewhere that CCR drummer Doug Clifford also enlisted in the Army as well.

On its own, military service gives someone the chance to be good at something while getting 3 square meals a day with a roof over your head. Whether a person stays in or not, that is still true.
 
kingofnerf said:
I didn't realize it until I posted this thread, but 3 of the key guitarists of the rock era (can't believe I just said that) enlisted in the armed forces for whatever the reasons.

I suppose a lot of folks back then did it to have to have some control over their lives rather and being drafted and sent to the infantry or whatever.

Toy Caldwell (Marines), John Fogerty (Army), and Jimi Hendrix (Army Airborne) all had distinctive playing styles and wrote great music in their day.

Ray Manzarek of The Doors enlisted in the Army in 1961. He tried to come in as a Camera Operator with the Signal Corps, but ended up as an intel analyst with the Army Security Agency. I believe you just had one-year enlistments back then followed by a year of reserves duty.

I read somewhere that CCR drummer Doug Clifford also enlisted in the Army as well.

On its own, military service gives someone the chance to be good at something while getting 3 square meals a day with a roof over your head. Whether a person stays in or not, that is still true.
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Elivs too, right?
 
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