Monday, October 6, 2008

Badfinger - Baby Blue

I remember hearing this song on the radio. Checking them out on Youtube it's amazing how many of their songs I do remember.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The SG that Pete Ham is playing was given to him by George Harrison while George was still iwith the Beatles. Badfinger was signed to Apple Records (owned by the Beatles). I believe, reading in the book, "Bealtes Gear", that Pete's brother now owns the SG.

Jon said...

Interesting. There was a lot of that going around. Clapton gave Harrison a Les Paul at one point. It's hard to tell from the video but I can't see the Les Paul name plate on it so it is probably a mid 60's.

Anonymous said...

Further to that info, Harrison got the guitar in 1966 and played it regularly until 1969. According to the "Beatles Gear" book, the serial number is 227666, which from the Gibson records, was shipped from the factory on October 9th, 1964, so it would not have been a Les Paul model. When Harrison had it, it had Schaller replacement tuners. Further info on the guitar's history for us guitar anoraks:

1964 Gibson SG
This cherry-colored Gibson SG had standard Gibson humbuckers and a Maestro Vibrola. It was used during Revolver, and you can see it in several promotional films, including "Rain", "Paperback Writer", "Lady Madonna", and "Hey Bulldog". Harrison used it publicly only a few times. First, at the NME Poll Winners concert on May 1st, 1966. Unfortunately, this performance was not recorded because of legal issues. There are some pictures of it, though! Harrison also picked up his SG for the June 24th, 1966 performance at Circus Krone, Munich, in Germany.

There's a long story about this guitar. Harrison gave this guitar to one of the first bands on the Apple records label, Badfinger. Pete Ham and Tom Evans both wanted the SG, but eventually Ham got it. In April 1974, Ham commited suiccide. However, the guitar had been left at John Ham's home (his brother). In 2001, John Ham loaned it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In December of 2004, it was auctioned in by Christie's, where it sold for $567,500. Today, the guitar is owned by Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts.

Jon said...

That's got to be a record price for an SG. Probably only the "Fool" SG of Clapton's would get more.