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Saturday, July 21. 2012

Roy Buchanan (1939-1988)

The shy master of the electric guitar, a guitarist's guitarist with, to my amateur ear, perfect taste without gratuitous flash. I think he was Robbie Robertson's hero, and hero of many others too: THE MESSIAH WILL COME AGAIN (LIVE 1976)


Then listen to this one:


 


Posted by Bird Dog at 16:52 | Comments (12) | Trackbacks (0)

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One of the most unknown, unappreciated guitarists. He was largely responsible for what is now known as the "Telecaster" sound.

A great guitarist indeed.
#1 Tom Francis on 2012-07-21 18:08 (Reply)
People do say that, which is funny because what makes the "Telecaster" sound is the -- Telecaster!!

But Seriously!! What he did was show how versatile the Telecaster's tone could be. The Tele's about as simple as a solid-body electric guitar can be; slab of wood for the body, slab of wood for the neck, two single coil pickups routed through a three-way selector switch with tone and volume pots. Not much to it.

Supposedly Buchanan he set his amps up "flat-out", volume and tone controls set to max, and controlled everything through the guitar's volume and tone controls, and fingering technique. He was able to get a wide variety of tones out of simple elements.

In this clip I think he's got the volume on his amp up pretty high, it's just very under control. I bet if he had chopped a barre chord hard the amp would have distorted the tone up pretty dirty. The old tube amps could be like that. Which is why they are so much fun to play!!


(The Telecaster, btw, was the first mass-produced solid-body electric guitar starting in about 1949 when it was called the "Broadcaster". Fender had to change the name due to a copyright infringement).
#1.1 T.K. Tortch on 2012-07-21 22:41 (Reply)
Yep. And of course there was the whole No-Caster series after the Broadcaster fiasco with Gretsch.
#1.1.1 Tom Francis on 2012-07-22 11:32 (Reply)
Forgot to mention Abigail Ybarra who wound almost all the original Telecaster and Stratocaster pickups. A lot of guitarists swear that her pickups had a sound all their own.
#1.1.2 Tom Francis on 2012-07-22 11:42 (Reply)
I have liked Roy for a long time. Even have a couple of his records on vinyl. Rolling Stone magazine made a list of the top 100 guitarists of all time last fall. Roy didn't make the cut according to them.

Here's the list: Rolling Stone's Top 100 Guitarists

Saw Roy in Minneapolis back in the late 70's. After the show, my friends and I went to some hotel bar for a drink. In walked Roy and a couple of other people. Roy was carrying his guitar. No case, just the guitar. We didn't talk to him. We were either too polite or too afraid.
#2 Mike (Link) on 2012-07-21 19:40 (Reply)
Green Onions - my favorite Roy Buchanan song.
#3 Tom on 2012-07-21 20:15 (Reply)
I saw Roy twice, back in the Seventies, and he was just amazing and inspiring. I also knew a few of his band members. His Second Album (aptly titled) remains one of my absolute favorite guitar-oriented recordings, it creates its own world. If Mundell Lowe and Jeff Beck were in awe of his ability and taste, he was truly one of the greats. Sad that his life was so troubled.
#4 Seppo on 2012-07-21 21:46 (Reply)
Tom Francis and you other guitar aficionados... I would like to propose another brilliant guitarist for the definitive 100 top guitarists list: Les Paul who used to perform regularly on the same TV station I did -- WTMJ - TV in Milwaukee. He developed unique multi-track arrangements with his wife, Mary Ford. I can't explain how he did it, but he would stack one recording on top of another until he had a unique sound that no one else could duplicate back then. I just checked and youtube has several recordings of theirs, including 'How High the Moon". I just listened to it again and it's still one of the great ones.

Marianne
#5 Marianne Matthews on 2012-07-21 22:58 (Reply)
He is on every list of Top however many guitarists there ever has been. Les Paul certainly changed the way the recording industry works that's for sure. I've owned a Les Paul guitar, but I'm not really a big fan - they just don't fit me the same way my Stratocaster or Telecaster do.
#5.1 Tom Francis on 2012-07-22 11:35 (Reply)
That was mighty good.
#6 cat on 2012-07-22 15:09 (Reply)
Roy and Danny Gatton were both local heroes. So sad, their troubles. I recall seeing one of Roy's Gibsons for sale in the 80s at a local guitar shop. I believe it was an Explorer with a serial number in the xxxxx50s. I cant recall the price.
He and Danny were great players.
Another local player I saw often who never failed to impress was John Jackson, a great Piedmont Blues player.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ND2NFtImjlY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OT_aaAtFr0&feature=player_embedded
#7 Dave J on 2012-07-22 16:26 (Reply)
I saw Roy live, fronting in an empty venue for a washed up one-hit wonder Fifties singer who had to let Roy finish his songs because he forgot the words.

The story goes the Rolling Stones invited him into the band, but Roy's wife wouldn't let him. She wanted him to keep working his day job. Roy was a barber.
#7.1 herbork (Link) on 2012-07-25 08:55 (Reply)

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