Posted on 04/10/2005 7:56:11 AM PDT by Drew68
A moment in time. A split second where everything freezes, and your mind takes a snapshot of an event you'll always keep with you - an event that forever divides your life into two groups: stuff that happened before this moment, and the stuff that will happen after. Great moments change you. The greatest ones change everything.
Most GP readers have their own list of life-changing moments, and many of those moments involve the guitar: The first guitar you ever played, the best solo you ever heard, the most transcendent tone that caressed your ears, and so on. Many of these moments will continue to give you chills for the rest of your life, and they deserve to be remembered, celebrated, and chronicled.
Which brings us to the list you have before you. These 101 events are the GP staffs' picks of the coolest, greatest, and most important moments in the history of the modern 6-string. It wasn't an easy list to compile, and it's quite impossible to publish such a list without eliciting cries of protest, dismay, and disgust at what (or who) was selected or ignored. While those debates are obviously part of the fun of publishing lists, here's an explanation of the process that directed our picks.
First and foremost, each selection had to be a moment. If we couldn't point to a specific instance when a person, event, record, or piece of gear took the world by storm, started a revolution, or changed the game, it didn't make the list. Also, while there are tons of firsts on this list, great moments aren't always firsts. Many of the entries indicate when a player or an idea transformed the guitar-playing consciousness, rather than the earliest evidence of it's appearance.
My favorites include the birth of the Fender Stratocaster (1954), Marshall's debut of the 100 watt amp (1965), Van Halen released (1978), The Ibanez Tube Screamer (1979),
Billy Gibbons was born. #1
My favorites:
“Maybellene” Released, 1955
Buddy Holly Gives America a Strat Attack, 1957
Bo Diddley Delivers The Beat, 1957
... although, from what I've heard, the "Bo Diddley Beat" story is mostly bullsh*t.
"I got my beat when I heard [Gene Autry's] '(I Got Spurs That) Jingle Jangle Jingle,' " Diddley said Monday from his home outside of Gainesville, Fla. "I heard that on the radio on the South Side of Chicago. I was 7 years old."
http://www.suntimes.com/output/music/cst-ftr-bo05.html
I liked this one as well. I can imagine people sitting down watching the Ed Sullivan Show and wondering what on earth is that strange-looking contraption that young man is playing?!?! Many people had probably never seen this "futuristic" instrument before.
Now the Stratocaster is probably the most recognizable guitar in the world. Its' silhouette symbolizes rock and roll. I dare suggest that Leo Fender's creation might be one of the most important inventions of the 20th century.
Alvin Lee is still around. I was in Naples, Italy last summer and I saw posters advertising an upcoming show.
Gibson just released the Alvin Lee signature ES-335 complete with stickers and a middle single coil.
102. The day I quit trying to play.
Yup. That's the one he's using in the photo I posted....Big Red.
I'd love to be able to afford one of those.
I had dreams of building a Les Paul Deluxe just like Townshend played in the late 70s with a middle humbucker. I noticed that Gibson has released this guitar instantly recognizable to Who fans everywhere.
I'm sure it is in the $3000+ price range if that is not an understatement.
For some entertainment, check out the build your own Les Paul page!
I'll ping you for your Rock & Roll ping list. While you are at it, go ahead and add me to the list.
a very long time ago, I had one of those $9.95 Sears Roebuck Silvertone Spanish guitars and an old mid-50s Westinghouse record player that stopped turning although the amplifier still worked. One day, a friend from down the street came over with a mic from his old made in Japan reel-to-reel tape recorder which also quit working.
We got out the scissors and electrical tape and wired the mic to the old Westinghouse, and then taped it to the guitar body, hit a chord, and "BWWWWAAAAOOOOUUUUUMMMM!!!!!" All the windows rattled and we thought we were geniuses.
We proceeded to play the most awful worst ever version of Chuck Berry's "Carol" taking turns between the homemade electric and shouting the lyrics.
It wasn't long after that that I figured maybe guitar playing's not for me.
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I did the same thing when I was a kid!
Later, my parents bought me a dirt-cheap electric from a pawn shop. (I've always been contemptuous of kids whose first guitar is a $2000 Gibson Les Paul!) I didn't have an amp and a proper one would have to wait so I rigged one up from an old tapedeck with adjustable levels and a 1/4" input jack. I hooked it up to an old receiver and two stereo speakers. I got distortion by cranking up the input levels on the tape deck. Didn't sound half bad. Loud as hell too!
1. Jimi discovers feedback
2. Eric Clapton takes acid for the first time
3. Jimmy Page meets Robert Plant
4. Roy Buchanan decides to play country *and* blues
5. Alvin Lee plays I'm Goin' Home live
6. Jorma Kaukonen meets Jack Casady and they both take acid
7. Billy Gibbons decides he doesn't need a rhythm guitar player
8. Jeff Beck records his Beck-ola album
9. Mark Farner records an album with Don Brewer and Mel Schacher and doesn't feel the need to play keyboards.
10. Chuck Berry is born.
When Tony Iommi seized upon the unholiest of intervals—the tritone—and played it with such a disturbingly sinister tone on the title track, he established the blueprint for every metal band that followed.
FREEBIRD!
Lots of great guitarists and may I add one of my favorite solos -
Dez Dickerson on "Little Red Corvette"
From Olav Torvund's Guitar Pages:
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