To have had the opportunity to watch this legend of Rock and Roll history perform was memorable, but have had the opportunity to visit with him was a true blessing.
The information listed below was excerpted from Wikipedia were you can read more about this true legend. As one of the working musicians in Branson, Marshall could be seen around town and his smile could light up the darkest days. His laugh and stories could lift you out of your worst situations. His contribution to music and Rock and Roll in particular will be remembered for decades and as one who visited with him much too infrequently, I will miss him as will the world.
Reprinted from Wikipedia-
“Lytle was a guitar player before joining Bill Haley’s country music group, The Saddlemen, in 1951. But Lytle was hired to play double bass for the group, replacing departing musician Al Rex, so Haley taught Lytle the basics of slap bass playing. Lytle, who was only a teenager at the time, grew a moustache in order to look a little older, and became a full-time member of The Saddlemen and, in September 1952, he was with the group when they changed their name to Bill Haley & His Comets. Soon after, Lytle co-wrote with Haley the band’s first national hit, “Crazy Man, Crazy” although he did not receive co-authorship credit for it (until 2002).
Lytle played on all of Haley’s recordings between mid-1951 and the summer of 1955, including the epochal “Rock Around the Clock” in 1954 ( Marshall and Ambrose are the last living members to play on the 1954 Rock Around The Clock masterpiece). He played a late 1940s model Epiphone B5 upright double bass, purchased in October, 1951, for about $275. He used gut strings for the G and D strings while the A and E strings were wound. Lytle’s style of playing, which involved slapping the strings to make a percussive sound, is considered one of the signature sounds of early rock and roll and rockabilly. The athletic Lytle also developed a stage routine, along with saxophone player Joey Ambrose, that involved doing acrobatic stunts with the bass fiddle, including throwing it in the air and riding it like a horse.[1] This became a signature performance for The Comets that later musicians working for Haley were instructed to emulate………………..
As of December 2009, Lytle retired performing and touring with the Comets, stating 20 years was a long enough reunion for him, and he wished to try some new things including concentration on a solo project. In 2006 the group took up a long-term residence at the Dick Clark American Bandstand Theater in Branson, Missouri, performing more than 150 shows at the venue, with more in 2007. The group also toured Europe in early 2007. Following the death of Johnny Grande and the retirement from touring of Franny Beecher, both in 2006, Lytle was one of three remaining original band members still with the group. In 2009, Lytle released his memoir, entitled Still Rockin’ Around The Clock. At that time, he underwent surgery to remove part of his leg. Despite that setback, Lytle is still performing, albeit with other musicians and without the other Comets.
In 2012, Lytle was inducted as a member of the Comets into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Bill Haley had previously been inducted in 1987, but at the time the Hall did not include backing groups in its inductions; this was rectified in later years, resulting in the Comets and several other backing groups being inducted on their own in 2012″.
We love you Marshal and already miss you. None will touch our hearts as much as you have.
