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How an accident revolutionized guitar sound

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Re: How an accident revolutionized guitar sound

#31

Post by tehwalrus »

philjohn wrote: post #28
tehwalrus wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in Music Technology lessons (yes, that was a subject for a few years in the UK, I think it's defunct now) they loved giving us Phil Collins to analyse - he used all sorts of weird stuff noone else has ever bothered with (gated reverb, reverse reverb, short time delay on vocals, all in the same song, almost as a matter of course.) The endless repetition is why I still sit still every time I hear the intro to "in the a…

Ah, I remember doing Music Technology A-Level - it was a brilliant course, and it helped that our school had the funds to build a halfway decent digital recording studio.

I was lucky enough to attend Hurtwood House - I really wanted to do proper Music A-Level, but they didn't offer it, only music tech.

In retrospect, I enjoyed it far more than I would have pure music, because I was right in the middle of my guitars-are-awesome phase - a studio was just an elaborate set of effects pedals to me.

Hurtwood, anyway, had a ridiculously awesome setup - they spend much of the (substantial) school fees on Media, Theatre and music tech kit, so full digital edit suites, a huge theatre with proper cabling and sound systems, underground recording studios with proper soundproofing and huge mixers for A level projects (In my day, a 24-channel soundcraft monster, plus numerous physical compressors, EQs etc - I remember a particularly expensive white valve-driven vocal preamp! Now I believe their kit is just a digital desk + Logic Pro.)

When I left for Cambridge, I didn't make it onto their "wall of fame" - because Cambridge isn't an Equity-approved drama school. Seriously.

Re: How an accident revolutionized guitar sound

#32

Post by fredsanford »

Nav_Panel wrote: post #20
ricardobeat wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, when the 60s came around, guitar distortion was already a pretty common sound. Just think Beatles, Kinks, Rolling Stones, and of course Chuck Berry before them. What the fuzz changed is that it was the first distortion pedal, a smart alternative to destroying your amp speakers. Link to Rocket 88 (1951): http://grooveshark.com/s/Rocket+88/24PPYE?src=5 Rock a While (1949), featuring the trademark rockabilly riff:…

Oh, oh, let's play the "find similar but older music" game! I'll go next! You were on the right track with blues from Texas, but it goes way before 1949. Try to find the Chuck Berry riffs... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odwaE1hlwgc T-Bone Walker - I Got A Break Baby (1942) (B-side of Mean Old World, Capitol 10033) (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_Old_World ) Here's an article about him that I grabbed o…

I tried to play along... There was a blues dude in the mid '40s who originally played an acoustic but on his live shows he had to play electric to be heard over the band. He did a lot of the same material as T-Bone Walker. I cannot for the life of me find or remember his name.

Along with Robert Johnson (and Bix Biederbeck, a jazz trumpet player form the 20s/30s) this gentleman helped make the blue guitar single note repertoire what it is.

Wish I could remember his name... :)

Re: How an accident revolutionized guitar sound

#33

Post by DavidBradbury »

Nav_Panel wrote: post #9
drcube wrote: post #3

> The distorted sound of rock ’n’ roll guitar aggression was born in Nashville, in 1960. That's not the way I heard it. Snoddy might have introduced the Fuzz-Tone in the 60s, but the distorted guitar sound began with Link Wray poking holes in his amplifier's speaker on "Rumble", in 1958. Not to minimize the Fuzz-Tone's impact, by any means. Just setting the record straight. ;) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumble_(in…

Although all of the comments here have been valid and interesting, I'm gonna poke this reply thread with a Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAqTrbuxCRI James Cotton - Cotton Crop Blues, on Sun Records. Recorded 1954, with a guitar solo harder/heavier than most records up until the late 60s (with a few exceptions like Dick Dale). And it features distorted power chords. Pretty much the first really heavy tr…

I love learning new pieces of music history, and I'd swear that track was made by a time traveler. I've taken a number of music history classes (I originally wanted to major in music education) in jazz history, classical history, world history, and American history, and have never heard that track. Really appreciate it.

Re: How an accident revolutionized guitar sound

#34

Post by Nav_Panel »

DavidBradbury wrote: post #33
Nav_Panel wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although all of the comments here have been valid and interesting, I'm gonna poke this reply thread with a Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAqTrbuxCRI James Cotton - Cotton Crop Blues, on Sun Records. Recorded 1954, with a guitar solo harder/heavier than most records up until the late 60s (with a few exceptions like Dick Dale). And it features distorted power chords. Pretty much the first really heavy tr…

I love learning new pieces of music history, and I'd swear that track was made by a time traveler. I've taken a number of music history classes (I originally wanted to major in music education) in jazz history, classical history, world history, and American history, and have never heard that track. Really appreciate it.

You're welcome :) Glad to share it.

I'd love to take more classes in music history! I already took one (called "Roots of Rock & Roll", covered the mid-1800s minstrel show through the 1960s) that I absolutely adored, but unfortunately there aren't any other jazz, world or American music history courses offered (I wouldn't be that interested in classical history, I'm not quite ready for it yet, but we'll see where my growing musicianship leads me over the rest of my years).

If you have recommendations for good books that deal with music history, especially American musical history from the past 200 years or so, I'd be interested. I also would be interested in discussing this stuff in general; it seems like a lot of people, especially within the tech community, don't delve that deeply into the history and context of music (or really of art in general), so it's great to meet individuals that do.

Re: How an accident revolutionized guitar sound

#35

Post by Nav_Panel »

fredsanford wrote: post #32
Nav_Panel wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, oh, let's play the "find similar but older music" game! I'll go next! You were on the right track with blues from Texas, but it goes way before 1949. Try to find the Chuck Berry riffs... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odwaE1hlwgc T-Bone Walker - I Got A Break Baby (1942) (B-side of Mean Old World, Capitol 10033) (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_Old_World ) Here's an article about him that I grabbed o…

I tried to play along... There was a blues dude in the mid '40s who originally played an acoustic but on his live shows he had to play electric to be heard over the band. He did a lot of the same material as T-Bone Walker. I cannot for the life of me find or remember his name. Along with Robert Johnson (and Bix Biederbeck, a jazz trumpet player form the 20s/30s) this gentleman helped make the blue guitar single note…

Huh, I remember hearing a similar story but I too can't place the name. I bet he was a Chicago guy... maybe Muddy Waters?

Johnson and Beiderbecke are both good name from their respective periods (30s country blues and 20s jazz), but I'd argue that there were significantly more influential musicians on the development of the blues style throughout the 40s and 50s. More on that in a minute... Robert Johnson's an interesting guy.

Johnson's influence is a weird case: he was almost totally unknown until the early 1960s, when that classic compilation (King of the Delta Blues Singers, on Columbia, 1961) came out with many of his recordings. As a result, his influence really begins to widen in the 1960s, as many white blues-rock bands were starting to form and gain popularity (such as The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds (featuring Eric Clapton), and Mike Bloomfield + Bob Dylan). This blues-rock was the stuff that really made an impact on American society at large, and as a result, we tend to consider Robert Johnson to be one of the seminal blues artists. Odd how that turns out.

Anyway, back to seminal blues artists. Lonnie Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3yd-c91ww8) were the two who I'd argue contributed most to the "classic" style. Johnson was exceptionally prolific and exceptionally good, and Blind Lemon mentored many young artists, including Robert Johnson and T-Bone Walker. On the white side of things, Eddie Lang (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Loc8WiDvNaE) was arguably the first jazz guitarist (and had a heavy influence on many blues musicians), and Jimmie Rodgers (yay, awesome video footage! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIlURYJI-xs) was arguably the first guitar-playing "modern" country musician (he fused country and blues). He too had a wide influence on blues artists, going so far as to collaborate with Louis Armstrong (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BFbY9Vw8DM), and to be the reason why Howlin' Wolf started "howling."

Thanks for playing :)

Re: How an accident revolutionized guitar sound

#36

Post by GoodIntentions »

Zecc wrote: post #25
GoodIntentions wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OT, but that Cotton Crop Blues link is at 6575 views as of now. (19:25 6Aug2013 ) Very curious to see what an HN link does to it.

It's at 6605, after nine hours (according to the time indicator between your username and "| link | parent | flag"; you forgot to say in what timezone you're in). One of them is mine, and I only went there because of your comment to be honest. Edit: you said "19:25" and "nine hours ago" was 2013-08-07 09:03:45 UTC, so you're at EDT? (incidently, everytimezone.com is pretty cool)

haha, yeah. Edit the comment to tag the time, forget the the timezone... EDT ( views are 6785 as of 21:42 7Aug2013, fwiw )
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