The song that inspired the British musicians who sparked the British invasion. In July, 1955, a London Dixieland/trad jazz guitarist, Lonnie Donegan, recorded a speeded-up version of a 1930s American folk track, ‘Rock Island Line’, made famous by blues icon Lead Belly. Donegan’s ‘Rock Island Line’ directly inspired a generation of British musicians, from the…
If you thought pop and rock’s most recorded session guitarist was the virtuoso who is Jimmy Page, think again. Certainly, Jimmy played guitar on an amazing amount of hits and in great sessions for top bands like the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, Brian Poole and the…
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…
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:…
