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©2000 by Ely Music/Pub |
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Getting to Know You... HSGA Member, C. C. JohnsonC. C. returns Hawaiian steel guitar music to post-WWII Japan (C.C., who lives in Texas, was born in Mishawaka, Indiana, and is a frequent respondent in the "Talk Story Forum" at HSGA's Internet web site. He told us "this is strictly a Hawaiian bio, leaving out all other types of music I have been involved in." We thought you ought to know, however, that C.C. was inducted into the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame this past Spring. He asked if he would be "shot down in flame" by HSGA members. Hey - you should hear Alan Akaka and some other Hawaiian "pros" play Western Swing... and Blues, and Jazz.)
I started lessons on acoustic steel guitar from the O`ahu Publishing Company at age 7. Herby Remington was about three classes ahead of me. When I became good enough, as others said, I played in various Hawaiian style bands in northern Indiana and southern Michigan. We moved to the St. Louis area in 1940, and there I also played in Hawaiian bands. My dad was a tech rep, and we arrived in Hawai`i six months before Pearl Harbor. I spent all the time I could pestering and listening to David Keli`i, Benny Rogers, Pop Rogers, and anyone else that would put up with me. My dad forsaw a war starting, so we left Hawai`i about two weeks before December 7, 1941. Back in St. Louis, I continued playing with Hawaiian bands. In January 1946, I graduated high school and joined the Army; I chose the 1st Calvary Division in Japan. The Japanese had not heard any Hawaiian music (legally, that is) all during the war, and they loved steel guitar, so all my off-duty time was taken up playing in Tokyo clubs. You oldtimers that served in Japan - remember the "Rocker Four:, "The Union Jack", etc.?? It was illegal for Americans to play in Japanese bands or to do anything that was deemed taking a job away from a Japanese. There were not too many steel players around, so I didn't feel that I was depriving anyone of a job. I did wear a black wig, and kept my head down so that no one could see my western features. I transferred to Hiroshima and continued my music in my off-time. When I was leaving, in December 1949, I gave my National New Yorker and my Epiphone amp to a 16-year-old Japanese kid who would come to every gig I played and sit out of sight on the bandstand. I hope he found a teacher. I was given the nickname "Pake" by the Japanese in the band, as I had spent about four months in Shanghai, China just before the communists took over. I am still playing Hawaiian gigs, mainly with Ed Maunakea and the Kama`aina Hila Troupe, in Texas. 
HSGA * HAWAIIAN
STEEL GUITAR ASSOCIATION Homepage URL: www.hsga.org (hsga@lava.net) Last updated: 07/23/02 by Gerald Ross (gbross@umich.edu) |
