Songs In The Key Of… Electric Guitar

Electric guitars
Electric guitars

James Spectrum of Pepe Deluxé: “The element of competition has always been a driving force in electric-guitar playing.”

James Spectrum of Pepe Deluxé takes us on a tailored journey of discovery that pays tribute to the mighty axe

It wasn’t God that gave us rock ’n’ roll, nor was it the devil – it was the electric guitar. With rock ’n’ roll came attitude and non-gender-related “balls.” And without rock ’n’ roll, music would be but a soft bubble, ready to pop. The electric guitar is one of the USA’s greatest inventions, perhaps even mankind’s.

Before diving into today’s list of a dozen great axe-wielding examples, let me share my own, “That is so awesome – I wanna do that too,” moment. It happened in 1987 at the Giants of Rock festival when I saw Craig Goldy guitar heroing with Dio. His face-melting performance knocked me out. But I digress…

BRAZIL BY LES PAUL

We start our journey straight from the top of the highest guitar mountain. Les Paul isn’t just the biggest electric guitar manufacturer in the world; he was a pioneering engineer and producer who created ‘The New Sound’, the world’s first multi-track recordings. When Les’ Lover and Brazil were released in 1948, they blew the minds of millions, from lay listeners to industry professionals. Because Les used several cool studio tricks, including half-speed recording, these songs still sound more like tunes from another dimension than merely from another era.

STRATOSPHERE BOOGIE BY JIMMY BRYANT & SPEEDY WEST

Believe it or not, country music has given us the original fuzz tone (Grady Martin), the most disturbed song ever (Eddie Noack’s Psycho), and Webb Pierce’s Nudie car that makes any hip-hop bling look like fool’s gold. Supercharge country with jazz, add a special Stratosphere guitar built for twin harmony licks, and you get more music from other worlds, perhaps even the future? The only thing that could make it even better is a mad-talented pedal steel player like Speedy West…

TSUGARU JONGARA BUSHI BY TAKESHI TERAUCHI & BLUE JEANS

California has given the world blue jeans, Walt Disney, skateboarding, Hollywood, Tiki culture, Apple, Barbie, and most importantly: surf music. That big wave splashed several times around the globe; in Finland, it was called “rautalanka” (“iron string”) music, often based on sad Slavic melodies. In Japan, 8th dan Karate master Takeshi Terauchi saw the surf band Ventures live, fell in love with the sound, and added Japanese folk music ideas and shamisen picking techniques to his sonic miso soup. The result was some of the wildest surf (called “Eleki” in Japan) – or any music – ever recorded. Because “amateurs borrow and professionals steal,” we borrowed this song’s feel for our The Storm.

SHAKE WITH ME BY THE OUTLAWS

When I think about human rights, I think about Joe Meek, the saddest and most talented of all mad producers. He may have ended up killing his landlord and himself, but it was really the society, where being gay was illegal, that killed him. Joe was not just a studio wizard but a master talent scout, and many of the young artists he worked with later became famous, even legends.

Here’s a song with a “Go absolutely nuts!” – as instructed by Meek – solo by young Ritchie Blackmore. This solo’s fans included an upcoming black guitar player who made Eric Clapton realize he’d been dethroned, and there was now a new Guitar God in town. The element of competition has always been a driving force in electric guitar playing – see Stars and Eugene’s Trick Bag for more of this.


Pepe Deluxe

James Spectrum of Pepe Deluxé: “The element of competition has always been a driving force in electric guitar playing.”

VOX WAH-WAH PEDAL COMMERCIAL BY THE ELECTRIC PRUNES

Like Conan the Barbarian chasing ‘The Secret of the Steel’, guitar players have always chased ‘The Sound’ or ‘The Tone’. The most misunderstood part of this often-mythical equation is guitar pedals. Things we now take for granted were first discovered by ‘thinking outside the box’ individuals. Or, in this case, it’s, of course, ‘inside the box’!

When the first-ever fuzz box, Maestro Fuzz-Tone, was released, no one bought them. Then the Stones’ Satisfaction exploded, and every single guitarist needed at least one. A similar thing happened with wah-wah, originally endorsed by trumpet player Clyde McCoy. Yes, a TRUMPET player!?! Thankfully, someone made this groovy radio ad in 1967, Hendrix happened, and we now get to enjoy songs like Theme From Shaft and Bulls On Parade.

AD GLORIAM BY LE ORME

This is the title song from an album akin to an Italian version of Sgt. Pepper’s… I’m including it here because I dig the tune; it’s been our live band’s encore song (with theremin played on top of it), and it exemplifies what I love most in music: strong contrasts. While there isn’t much electric guitar, you can’t miss it when it finally enters the scene. That solo is like a loud, rowdy punk rocker crashing an Italian church ceremony. Like Run DMC put it so eloquently in Peter Piper, “Not bad meaning bad but bad meaning good.” For something a bit similar, I recommend David Axelrod’s fantastic works with The Electric Prunes.

THE MISCHIEF OF CLOUD 6 BY PEPE DELUXÉ

This is not just a self-indulgent, “Hey, check out my band!” plug because Pepe Deluxé is about as much a “band” as Star Wars is “a film.” Typical for us, this song features people from a few continents and tons of details “borrowed” from several decades of music. We used to sample everything; now we play musicians and keep things legal, but still sounding like samples. The mere drum track of this song contains more drum ideas than our entire first album. The guitar solo, played by Mr. Fastfinger, uses strings aged in a flower pot with dirt. Half of the solo was played with an electric drill with picks on it – an idea “borrowed” from Paul Gilbert. More about Paul a bit later.

CEMALIM BY ERKIN KORAY

It’s a common misconception that people who make music like all music. Few imagine Picasso would visit every art exhibition and oooh and aaah every time he saw a painting. Most music, like most everything, just isn’t very good. And even good is but the worst enemy of great. I usually prefer silence to music, not because I hate most of it, but because I don’t find it interesting or inspiring. This song, however, I’ve liked since I bought the album a long time ago. Even more since I found the translated lyrics; now I can’t listen to it without getting my eyes wet. To me, the song has the feeling of inevitable doom and death of the best Tarantino scenes, the parts before and after the action. The last ride, the final goodbye.

STARS BY HEAR N’ AID

After the heavy stuff of Erkin Koray, let’s get really HEAVY with the 80s metalheads’ version of We Are the World. Had they added just one more singer or guitar player, I wouldn’t be writing this text, as surely the combined weight of those huge egos (notice ‘The World’ vs. ‘Stars’) would have created a man-made black hole. Emphasis on the word “man”. The music and especially the video summarize many of the best and worst things about the 80s. Those guys first get the ‘comforting’ vocals for the suffering children done and dusted, then move on to the really important stuff: the guitar solos. The part of the song that, like one YouTube comment puts it, is, “Longer than my last relationship.” In a quite recent interview, one of the guitarists revealed that everyone was scared shitless about this young rising star, a Swedish guy named Yngwie Malmsteen. Mr. Malmsteen doesn’t exactly suffer from ego deficiency either, and according to some sources, he even, “Taught God how to play guitar.” Anyways, in hindsight, it is fun to listen to all those heroes trying too hard not to be outshone by the new king in town. Do they fail? You decide!


Pepe Deluxe

James Spectrum of Pepe Deluxé: “The electric guitar is one of the USA’s greatest inventions, perhaps even mankind’s.”

EUGENE’S TRICK BAG BY STEVE VAI (FROM THE FILM CROSSROADS)

I always thought the “Deal with the devil” to become a famous musician was just a legend. But a few years ago, my friends from Wentus Blues Band told me about their experiences with blues artist Eddie Kirkland. These stories would fill a book, but in short: according to Eddie, he chickened out from The Deal at the last moment, and even escaping to a church to pray with a priest for days didn’t change the fact that the rest of his life was going to be, well, different. Like having a little guy on his shoulder, but not one dressed in white.
And this is the main reason why everyone should see Crossroads. It’s a super rare Hollywood film; it actually “documents” fascinating and disappearing cultural history. Among many other things, the film features young Steve Vai, perhaps the most creative guitarist of all time. At the height of his powers, Vai’s playing the part of the devil’s own guitarist better than anyone else could ever play. In this song Eugene’s Trick Bag, he battles the film’s protagonist Ralph ‘The Karate Kid’ Macchio (actual guitar performance by Ry Cooder).

Yet, in the final confrontation that goes way beyond Cooder’s technical skills, it’s actually Vai playing both parts – playing against himself – and winning! Plus he’s not playing just any random solo stuff but music taken from Niccolo Paganini, the ultimate violin-shredder of all time. Who, naturally, was claimed to have made a pact with Satan to achieve inhuman skills. One of my favourite wink-wink nod-nod geeky music details ever.

SCARIFIED BY RACER-X

I’m happy to be myself, but if I really had to be someone else, I’d like to be Paul Gilbert. Paul’s Racer-X was a “super group of musicians no one had heard of,” and for a brief moment, their incredible playing and outrageous shows made them more popular in L.A. than Guns N’ Roses. They might not have had a manager, but what they did have was a hair girl doing their hair before every show, neon colour instruments, very tight pants, and songs like Scarified; a simple fast riff inspired by drummer Scott Travis’ beat, two solos, and plenty of Bach… Because even the shittiest Bach is the best.

The teenage me was blown away by those brief but amazing bass runs by Juan Alderete, who later became the bassist of Mars Volta. Scott is now the drummer of Judas Priest, whereas Paul Gilbert became a teacher, Zen master, and the humblest and nicest guy in the music world. Thanks to one of Paul’s wonderful workshops that I had the chance to attend, I even started to appreciate the guitar on The Police’s Walking On The Moon – a band I’m not a huge fan of (to put it mildly).

SUPER ROCKER BY GRANDE MAHOGANY

Let’s complete our journey with a slight return to the vintage rock theme – but this time with a local twist. I’m all for invention for invention’s sake, baby steps into some new direction. That’s because, in my opinion, it’s what one should do if one’s an artist, and not merely an entertainer. However, sometimes, “If it works, don’t break it,” is the best advice.

My parting gift is this new guy from Finland, an artist whose sound is based on the golden age of records yet is new too. I have great hopes for Jesse Essel aka Grande Mahogany. If you’re not completely allergic to early 70s funk rock, this song will blow your ears open. Enjoy! And remember, it all started with the electric guitar.

Comix Sonix by Pepe Deluxé is out now via Catskills Records. Find out more from pepedeluxe.com



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