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 Mouse over guitars for details |
Guitars
If you play guitar, want to play guitar or just like to listen to guitar, you're part of a worldwide movement. From the penthouses of Manhattan to the townships of Port Elizabeth there's something very democratic about guitar.
Like most lifers, with me it started early. No one suggested I learn the guitar. The spark went off in my head on hearing the intro to The Animals' The House Of The Rising Sun.
The guitar that first blew my head off was Steve Cropper's Telecaster on the opening bar to his solo on Booker T& MG's Green Onions. A simple technical mistake created one of the all time great moments in guitar mythology. The recording session engineer had inadvertently left the fader up just a little too high. The Telecaster came in unforgettably loud on the jukebox in the basement of Murray's Record Centre. Those lining up to put their coins in the slot included the teenage Bob Geldof and other future members of The Boomtown Rats.
Soon afterwards I heard an old Big Bill Broonzy album. I don't know how big a guy Bill was but to me he was and remains a giant of the guitar. It was the effortless laid back style of Mississippi John Hurt that got me through the difficult teenage years. Back then all I wanted to be was a black blues guitarist living in the deep South. Little did I know! Finally like so many other aspirant guitarists at the time, it was Davy Graham's Angie that sealed it. Angie became a right of passage for all who craved the moniker of guitarist.
Later on when I played with The Boomtown Rats I relied on these guitarists' influences rather than the riffs of Keith Richards, Eric Clapton or Jimmy Page. I always was an acoustic guitarist masquerading as a rocker. A cross-dresser.
The acoustic guitars I am currently playing and those used in the recording of Urban Soundscapes are in the photo.
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