Play It Loud: An Epic History of the Style, Sound, and Revolution of the Electric Guitar - Alan di Perna, Brad Tolinski (2016)
NOTES
CHAPTER 1 BROTHER MUSICIAN, LISTEN TO A MIRACLE!
Beauchamp’s friend: André Millard, ed., The Electric Guitar: A History of an American Icon (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004), 43.
“Adolph was a real”: Author interview with John C. Hall, December 15, 2005 (Alan di Perna Archive).
Known as “Rick” to his friends: Ibid.
The Great Depression would: Robert S. McElvaine, The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941 (New York: Times Books, 1984), 75.
De Forest himself: Ritchie Fliegler, Amps! The Other Half of Rock ’N’ Roll (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Publishing, 1993), 12.
“If you can amplify”: Millard, The Electric Guitar, 47.
A small number: Matthew Hill, George Beauchamp and the Rise of the Electric Guitar up to 1939 (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Edinburgh, 2013), 35-41.
There’s a legend: Ibid., 76.
While primarily designed: Ibid., 90-91.
“In the orchestra”: Collection of the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum.
“When everybody started”: Richard R. Smith, The Complete History of Rickenbacker Guitars (Fullerton, Calif.: Centerstream Publishing, 1987), 20.
CHAPTER 2 THE CHRISTIAN CRUSADE
Goodman would later: John S. Wilson, “Benny Goodman, King of Swing, Is Dead,” New York Times (June 14, 1986).
“To bring recognition”: John Hammond with Irving Townsend, John Hammond on Record (New York: Penguin Books, 1977), 68.
The bandleader, who: Ibid., 223.
Locating a job: Wayne Goins and Craig McKinney, A Biography of Charlie Christian, Jazz Guitar’s King of Swing (Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2005).
“You couldn’t escape”: John Perry, “Deep Second Still Lives in Dreams,” The Oklahoman (January 8, 1993): http://newsok.com/deep-second-still-lives-in-dreams/article/2417719.
“We was really dropouts”: Jim O’Neal and Amy van Singel, The Voice of the Blues: Classic Interviews from Living Blues Magazine (Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge, 2002), 142.
“For a while it was”: Robert Gottlieb, Reading Jazz: A Gathering of Autobiography, Reportage, and Criticism from 1919 to Now (New York: Vintage Books, 1996), 108.
Two anxious weeks: Goins and McKinney, A Biography of Charlie Christian, 150.
“Benny didn’t have to”: Gottlieb, Reading Jazz, 128.
“I wasn’t worried”: Ibid., 128
CHAPTER 3 THE WIZARD FROM WAUKESHA
“We enjoyed sharing”: Andy Babiuk, The Story of Paul Bigsby: The Father of the Modern Electric Solidbody Guitar (Savannah, Ga.: FG Publishing, 2008), 33.
“Looking back over”: Author interview with Les Paul, September 8, 1999 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“They were short on hats”: Ibid.
Hillbilly and western: Bob Millard, Country Music: 70 Years of America’s Favorite Music (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993), 9-16.
“In 1934 the Cumberland”: Author interview with Les Paul, September 8, 1999.
“In the daytime”: Ibid.
“When I started fooling”: Ibid.
And so, starting: Alan di Perna, Michael Molenda, Art Thompson, and Walter Carter, The Guitar Collection: Stories (Bellevue, Wash.: Epic Ink, 2011), 62.
“I took it to”: Dave Hunter, The Gibson Les Paul: The Illustrated History of the Guitar That Changed Rock (Minneapolis: Voyageur Press, 2014), 20.
“Epi looked at me”: Author interview with Les Paul, September 8, 1999.
“The guy told me”: Ibid.
“Bing just loved”: Ibid.
“She said, ‘Lester’ ”: Ibid.
“I remember the sound”: Chris Gill, “Jeff Beck Pays Tribute on Rock ’N’ Roll Party Honoring Les Paul” (Guitar World, April 2011).
“She was a very”: Author interview with Les Paul, September 8, 1999.
“That wouldn’t have fell”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 4 THE MODEL T
“Ozzie said, ‘I know’ ”: Author interview with James Burton, February 4, 2010 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“Leo wanted to move”: Author interview with George Fullerton, July 14, 1999 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“Leo said that”: Forrest White, Fender: The Inside Story (San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books, 1994), 13.
“former shipping clerk”: Ibid., 15.
“Those years were absolute”: Ibid., 15.
Exposure to the instruments: Andy Babiuk, The Story of Paul Bigsby: The Father of the Modern Electric Solidbody Guitar (Savannah, Ga.: FG Publishing, 2008), 19.
“I kept wondering why”: Merle Travis, “Recollections of Merle Travis 1944-1955,” JEMF Quarterly (Los Angeles: John Edwards Memorial Foundation, 1979). Quoted in Babiuk, The Story of Paul Bigsby, 44.
In later years: White, Fender, 39.
“We used to draw”: Author interview with George Fullerton, July 14, 1999.
“YOUR USE OF TRADEMARK”: Richard Rayhill Smith, Fender: The Sound Heard ’Round the World (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Publishing, 2003), 86.
Reluctantly, Randall: Ibid.
“It is a shame”: Ibid.
“The idea was”: Charles and Ray Eames, An Eames Anthology (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015), 315.
His goals were identical: Charles and Ray Eames, “The Best for the Most for the Least,” Eames official site, eamesoffice.com.
“The guitar should”: Tony Bacon and Paul Day, The Fender Book (San Francisco: Miller Freeman, Inc., 1992), 21.
“Two is good”: Ibid.
“I went to him and said”: Author interview with Dick Dale, March 13, 2009 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“I’m interested in”: Ibid.
“When I plugged that”: Ibid.
“The teenage market”: Robert Perine, “How I Helped Leo Fender” (Vintage Guitar, September 1997).
“[Leo] said, ‘Sit down’ ”: White, Fender, 145.
“Monday evening, January 4”: Ibid., 146.
CHAPTER 5 THE BLUES (AND COUNTRY) HAD A BABY
It was hard for him: From the raw transcript of an interview with Muddy Waters conducted by Robert Palmer for his book Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi (New York: Penguin Books, 1982), courtesy of Amanda Palmer.
“I’d be hittin’ ”: Ibid.
“It was the fastest”: Ibid.
“The country sounds”: Ibid.
“Muddy had a Gretsch”: Robert Gordon, Can’t Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters (New York: Back Bay Books, 2003), 74.
“He had a bass”: Ilene Melish, “The Man Who Shaped a Sound,” Melody Maker (October 6, 1979).
Little Walter knew: John Anthony Brisbin, “Jimmy Rogers: I’m Havin’ Fun Right Today,” Living Blues (September/October, 1997).
“He was traveling”: Author interview with Fred Gretsch III, n.d. (Alan di Perna Archive).
In a 1992 interview: Tony Bacon, The Gretsch Electric Guitar Book (New York: Backbeat Books, 2015), 16.
“At the time I”: Ibid.
“The colored folk been”: Nicholas Dawidoff, In the Country of Country: A Journey to the Roots of American Music (New York: Vintage, 2011).
“We took the twang”: Gerald W. Haslam, Alexandra Russell Haslam, and Richard Chon, Workin’ Man Blues: Country Music in California (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1999), 135.
“Hoochie Coochie Man”: Jas Obrecht, Rollin’ and Tumblin’: The Postwar Blues Guitarists (San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books, 2000), 107.
“The music played”: Chuck Berry, Chuck Berry: The Autobiography (New York: Faber & Faber, 2001), 3.
“It was the feeling”: Ibid., 98.
CHAPTER 6 THE SOLID-BODY STRADIVARIUS
“There were several stores”: Eric Clapton, Clapton: The Autobiography (New York: Broadway Books, 2007) 52-53.
“It was almost brand new”: Michael Leonard, “Touched by the Hand of God,” Guitarist Icons (n.d.), 15.
“The result”: Clapton, Clapton, 72-73.
“As is well known”: Author interview with Billy Gibbons, May 29, 2007 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“He was a Golden”: Author interview with Paul Reed Smith, 2009 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“Their attitude was”: Tony Bacon and Paul Day, The Gibson Les Paul Book: A Complete History of Les Paul Guitars (San Francisco: GPI Books, 1993), 13.
“I said, ‘What about Les Paul?’ ”: Willie G. Moseley, “Ted McCarty: I’m Not a Musician,” Vintage Guitar (April 1999).
McCarty vehemently denied: Bacon and Day, The Gibson Les Paul Book, 16.
Les claimed credit: Author interview with Les Paul, September 9, 1999 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“I preferred the tone”: Moseley, “Ted McCarty.”
“Fender was talking”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 7 THE FAB TWELVE
On January 2, 1964: Richard Smith, The Complete History of Rickenbacker Guitars (Fullerton, Calif.: Centerstream Publishing, 1987), 69.
“Watch out for”: Ibid.
“I have a definite”: Andy Babiuk, Beatles Gear: All the Fab Four’s Instruments from Stage to Studio (San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 2001), 108.
Sitting in bed in: Smith, The Complete History, 77.
“Roger certainly had”: Author interview with John C. Hall, December 15, 2005 (Alan di Perna Archive).
He and his wife: Ibid.
“He became the father”: Ibid.
The twelve-string guitar produces: Michael Simmons, “12-String Power,” Acoustic Guitar (November 1997), 51.
It’s a subtle difference: Bjorn Eriksson, “The Beatles and Their Rickenbacker Guitars,” rickbeat.com (website).
The Beatles’ prominent use: Author interview with Gretsch historian Edward Ball, June 3, 2015 (Alan di Perna Archive).
In the vivid language: Ritchie Fliegler, Amps! The Other Half of Rock ’N’ Roll (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Publishing, 1993), 31.
Clarke phoned his boss: Babiuk, Beatles Gear, 67.
“When we started playing”: Author interview with Keith Richards, July 25, 1997 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“British R&B bands”: Author interview with Giorgio Gomelsky, 1983 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“The very little budding”: Ibid.
“We were a blues band”: Author interview with Keith Richards, July 25, 1997.
“The Stones weren’t really”: Author interview with Gomelsky, 1983.
“Brian was always searching”: Author interview with Keith Richards, July 10, 2002 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“It was my first touch”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 8 THE REVOLUTION WILL BE AMPLIFIED
“The Star-Spangled”: Author interview with Michael Lang, October 9, 2013 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“On that song”: Author interview with Billy Cox, January 22, 2013 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“The rain really”: Author interview with Jack Casady, April 21, 2009 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“Jimi looked out”: Author interview with Billy Cox, January 22, 2013.
Hendrix backpedaled: Charles Cross, Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix (New York: Hyperion Books, 2005), 271.
“He would never raise”: Author interview with Jeff Beck, January 11, 1999 (Alan di Perna Archive).
One report has claimed: Sy and Barbara Ribakove, Folk-Rock: The Bob Dylan Story (New York: Dell Publishing, 1966), 61.
“The electric guitar represented”: Howard Sounes, Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan (New York, Grove Press, 2001), 200.
“I was absolutely screaming”: Ibid., 182.
“He played all kinds”: Jan Mark Wolkin and Bill Keenom, eds., Michael Bloomfield: If You Love These Blues (New York: Backbeat Books, 2000), 99.
“I remember going to”: Author interview with Jorma Kaukonen, May 22, 2013 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“I saw him at a few”: Jann Wenner, “The Rolling Stone Interview: Mike Bloomfield,” Rolling Stone (April 6, 1968).
“It was never like”: Wolkin and Keenom, Michael Bloomfield, 101.
“Dylan just got a hair”: Sounes, Down the Highway, 180-81.
“Bill hired B.B.”: Wolkin and Keenom, Michael Bloomfield, 124.
“Prior to Bloomfield”: Author interview with George Gruhn, October 20, 2010 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“When Bloomfield was playing”: Ibid.
Bob Dylan himself: John Anderson, director, Born in Chicago (documentary film, Anderson Productions, 2013).
“I had a terrible”: Author interview with Jeff Beck, January 11, 1999.
“It was totally magical”: Ibid.
“Auto-destructive art”: Peter Selz and Kristine Stiles, eds., Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists’ Writings (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), 401-4.
“The toggle switch”: Author interview with Pete Townshend, July 6, 1994 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“I started to knock”: Richard Barnes, The Who: Maximum R&B (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982), 37.
“Pete was one of”: Author interview with Jim Marshall, June 11, 2002 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“They came to me”: Ibid.
“When Pete started to”: Ibid.
“I bought some”: Author interview with John Entwistle, July 5, 1994 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“Hendrix came to”: Author interview with Pete Townshend, July 6, 1994.
“Jimi was covered”: Author interview with Pete Townshend, April 26, 1996 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“I was the hotshot”: Jerry Hopkins, Hit and Run: The Jimi Hendrix Story (New York: Perigee Books, 1983), 81.
Bloomfield introduced himself: Ibid., 81.
As a musician: Author interview with Al Marks, January 18, 2013 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“I shared with Eric”: Author interview with Pete Townshend, April 26, 1996.
“I thought it was incredible”: Eric Clapton, Clapton: The Autobiography (New York: Broadway Books, 2007), 80.
“Even if it had been crap”: Author interview with Jeff Beck, January 11, 1999.
The idea of putting: Author interview with Lou Adler, August 8, 2007 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“Jimi was on acid”: Author interview with Pete Townshend, July 6, 1994.
“Monterey was predominantly”: Peter Neal, ed., Jimi Hendrix: Starting at Zero (New York: Bloomsbury, 2013), 88.
“That was something that I couldn’t”: Author interview with Michelle Phillips, August 10, 2007 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“He couldn’t see a market”: Author interview with Jeff Beck, January 11, 1999.
“I also knew that stereo”: Marc Meyers, “The Making of ‘Whole Lotta Love,’ ” Wall Street Journal, May 29, 2014.
“From 1966 onwards”: Michael Doyle, The History of Marshall (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Publishing, 1993), 16.
Seminal punk band: Author interview with Johnny Ramone, March 8, 1995 (Alan di Perna Archive).
CHAPTER 9 ERUPTIONS
Cocaine took its place: Office of Applied Studies, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Preliminary Results from the 1997 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (Rockville, Md.: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1998), 66.
Memorably described by: Ian Christe, Everybody Wants Some: The Van Halen Saga (Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2007), 33.
When they arrived: Ibid.
“When I came to”: Chris Gill, “Of Wolf and Man,” Guitar World (February 2009).
“When I first picked”: Steven Rosen, “The Life and Times of Van Halen,” Guitar World (July 1985).
“I bought one”: Gill, “Of Wolf and Man.”
“I started building”: Chris Butler, “Fathers of Invention,” Guitar World Buyer’s Guide 1990-91 (New York: Stanley R. Harris, 1990), 133.
“The first time Ed”: Wayne Charvel, www.wayneguitars.com.
“That 335 used”: Gill, “Of Wolf and Man.”
“I slapped a humbucker”: Ibid.
“Tapping is like”: Steven Rosen, “California Dreamin’,” in Guitar World Presents Van Halen (Milwaukee: Backbeat Books, 2010), 36.
“For my money”: Author interview with Jimmy Page, October 1999 (Brad Tolinski Archive).
“I get this call”: Joseph Bosso, “The Monster of Rock,” in Guitar World Presents Van Halen (Milwaukee: Backbeat Books, 2010), 190.
“I don’t know”: Gill, “Of Wolf and Man.”
“The museum collects”: “National Museum of American History Receives Van Halen’s ‘Frankenstein Replica’ Guitar,” National Museum of American History, press release, February 6, 2011, http://american history.si.edu.
CHAPTER 10 MADE IN JAPAN
“It was like a monolith”: Author interview with Steve Vai, September 30, 2015 (Brad Tolinski Archive).
In 1962, Teisco: Frank Meyers, History of Japanese Electric Guitars (Anaheim, Calif.: Centerstream Publishing, 2015).
founded in 1908: Joe Bosso, “How the West Was Won,” in The Wild & Weird History of the Electric Guitar (single-issue magazine from Guitar One and Guitar World, 2012).
“When I came on”: Author interview with Bill Reim, September 21, 2015 (Brad Tolinski Archive).
Within months, record stores: Simon Reynolds, Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 (Penguin Books, 2006), 340, 342-43.
“Functional and clean”: Author interview with Ned Steinberger (Alan di Perna Archive).
“Traditional basses were”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 11 THE REVENGE OF THE NERDS
“I remember meeting Paul”: Author interview with Ted Nugent, December 9, 2015 (Brad Tolinski Archive).
“It was Paul Reed”: Ibid.
“There were immense”: Author interview with Paul Reed Smith, November 23, 2015 (Brad Tolinski Archive).
Realizing the magnitude: Dave Burrluck, The PRS Guitar Book: A Complete History of Paul Reed Smith Guitars (New York: Backbeat Books, 1999).
“His bright eyes”: Author interview with Carlos Santana, May 23, 2008 (Alan di Perna Archive).
While his guitars: Burrluck, The PRS Guitar Book, 30.
“You had your Gibson”: Chris Gill, “Building the Perfect Beast,” in The Wild & Weird History of the Electric Guitar (single-issue magazine from Guitar One and Guitar World, 2012).
“They were just”: Tom Beaujour, Guitar Aficionado, The Collections: The Most Famous, Rare and Valuable Guitars in the World (New York: Time Home Entertainment Inc., 2013), 147.
“Jimmy was still playing”: Author interview with Joe Walsh, October 10, 2012 (Brad Tolinski Archive).
“I could joke”: Alan di Perna, “George Gruhn: Nashville’s Vintage Guru,” Guitar Aficionado (Winter 2011).
“I thought, who’s Ted McCarty?”: Author interview with Paul Reed Smith, November 23, 2015 (Brad Tolinski Archive).
McCarty had faded: Burrluck, The PRS Guitar Book.
“I’m no guitar snob”: Author interview with Billie Joe Armstrong, 2004 (Alan di Perna Archive).
CHAPTER 12 PLASTIC FANTASTIC
“The idea behind”: Jimmy Leslie, “Jack White Mega Sonic on the Sounds That Drive the White Stripes, Raconteurs and Dead Weather,” Guitar Player (September 9, 2010).
“It’s obviously harder”: Author interview with Jack White, April 13, 2007 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“We found that”: Tom Wheeler, American Guitars: An Illustrated History (New York: HarperCollins, 1990), 310.
In it the writer: Terry Carlton, “Whack Job: 1964 Montgomery Ward Airline,” Guitar Player (June 4, 2013).
“The foundation of”: Author interview with Kerry Keane, September 15, 2015 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“I like raw”: Author interview with Dan Auerbach, June 11, 2014 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“I usually use off-brand”: Ibid.
Auerbach was still: Ibid.
“I wanted to open up”: Author interview with Patti Smith, October 9, 1997 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“I was impressed”: H. P. Newquist, “Glenn Branca Interview: The Devil’s Choirmaster,” Guitar Magazine (March 1996).
“I’m bored with”: Anil Prasad, “Marc Ribot,” Guitar Player (October 17, 2008).
“It was completely inside”: Author interview with Thurston Moore, May 19, 2000 (Alan di Perna Archive).
“My particular guitar”: Corbin Reiff, “St. Vincent Discusses Her New Signature Ernie Ball Music Man Guitar,” Guitar World website, posted February 14, 2016.
“I can’t even play”: Ibid.
“The inevitable result”: David Byrne, “The Internet Will Suck All Creative Content Out of the World,” The Guardian (October 11, 2013).
“A culture of blockbusters”: Ibid.
Speaking with Rolling Stone: Simon Vozick-Levinson, “Q&A: Rick Ross,” Rolling Stone (January 28, 2016).