Hands up those who think the Dutch-born American rock guitarist Eddie Van Halen invented two-handed guitar tapping? It’s not true, of course, with Eddie always saying he was originally inspired by Jimmy Page’s ‘Heartbreaker’ solo, on Led Zeppelin’s self-titled 1969 debut album. But guitar tapping goes back much farther. In Jim Carlton’s 2009 book, ‘Conversations…
The ‘America’s Gift’ book review in top UK music magazine ‘Blues In Britain’ is found between books on Steve Marriott and Mike Bloomfield. The ‘America’s Gift’ review, on page 39, is between ‘All Or Nothing: The Authorised Story of Steve Marriott’ by Simon Spence and ‘Guitar King: Michael Bloomfield’s Life In The Blues’ by David…
Like the Kingsmen, Kinks, Cream, Jeff Beck Group, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath? This video’s for you. Now writing a history of rock and roll, I’ve just reached that period in the mid-1960s where blues-rock became hard-rock, which in turn became heavy metal. I remember it well, witnessing it explode around me. I saw Black…
Over 50 years ago (gulp), I worked on a newspaper alongside the guy playing the blues in the pale blue link above. We were teenagers at the time, both deeply into old-school American blues, as well as the new-style British R&B and blues-rock bands coming through in the 1960s. That’s his own composition he’s playing:…
Rock ‘n’ Roll Myths six and seven. “It’s very hard to tell what made me first decide to play the guitar. ‘Rock Around the Clock’ by Bill Haley came out when I was ten, and that probably had something to do with it.” David Gilmour, Pink Floyd. In 1955, Bill Haley and His Comets unlocked the pop…
