Guitars

Okay..... so I really, really like guitars. I'm a guitarist after all so naturally I should. In this post I am going to post pictures of some of my favorite guitars and videos with that guitarist as well as some facts on the guitar or guitarist(s) who played the instrument. So let's start out with the Fender Telecaster.




This was a guitar that Fender sent to George Harrison in early 1969. He used it on
what would become the Let It Be album and the famous rooftop concert. He later gave it away. Jimmy Page also played a Telecaster for a time before getting his Gibson Les Paul which I'll discuss later. The solo that Page played on 'Stairway to Heaven' was in fact played on a Fender Telecaster (he had his Les Paul by this time but he said the Telecaster produced the more biting sound that he was looking for).




In 1964 when the Beatles first came to America Rickenbacker gave a twelve-string guitar to George Harrison and made another for John Lennon (which he only used live once). Harrison found that this guitar was really neat. A twelve-string guitar sounds brighter than a six string. Twelve-string's are also a bit more difficult to play obviously with the extra six strings. So when the Beatles recorded their next album A Hard Days Night a couple month or two later, the album was filled with this new bright sound. Especially on the song 'A Hard Days Night' with the famous opening chord. Harrison continued to use this guitar for another year or so before Rickenbacker sent him a new one. This one had more rounded edges and he used it to record the song 'If I Needed Someone' in late 1965 which ended up on Rubber Soul.




In late 1964 Paul McCartney bought a Epiphone Casino. He really liked that guitar and so Lennon and Harrison eventually bought their own too. The Beatles really liked these guitars and on their last world tour in 1966 Harrison and Lennon used them (except when Harrison performed 'If I Needed Someone'). After going psychadelic the next year they did a crazy "homemade" paint job on them. In 1968 though they shed their psychadelic stuff and returned to normal clothing, etc. This included some of the guitars they had painted. Like Lennon's Casino. He had it stripped down to natural wood and sanded. The result was very good and this is basically the guitar he used from this point on (see 'One After 909' from the rootop concert or the 'Revolution' promo below).




Ahh, so we now come to George Harrison's Gibson Les Paul. This guitar was originally Eric Clapton's and bore the name Lucy. In 1968 Clapton gave the guitar to George who used it most of the time for the remaining Beatles songs that they recorded. The first time you see Harrison using it is for the 'Revolution' promo in Sept. of '68. It was later stolen while George was in the US in the '70's but he later recovered it.


I already talked about Jimmy Page earlier but the 'Heartbreaker' video and the picture of him are good examples of what his Les Paul looked like. So I don't need to go into too much detail about his Les Paul other than he had two of them and the main one that he used was the first one that he had received. He now has his own signature model. Here is another video of him using it in 'Rock & Roll' late in Led Zeppelin's career.





Now we come to Angus Young, who has rarely (and I mean rarely) been seen without a Gibson SG. The above picture is some of the guitars that went on tour with him a few years back. Angus has his own signature model nowadays but still sticks with the old SG's. SG stands for Solid Guitar and it's history begins in the early '60's when it was (originally) released as a Les Paul SG. Les Paul, upon seeing the guitar, said he wanted his name off it and then parted ways with Gibson. The guitar remained however, and became a famous guitar like it's cousin the Les Paul. George Harrison had one and you can see it on the 'Paperback Writer/Rain' promos as well as the 'Hey Bulldog' promo. After getting Clapton's Les Paul George gave his SG to Badfinger's guitarist. That guitar today is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Eric Clapton also played a SG at one point and Jimi Hendrix used a white one one time. I believe Pete Townshend of the Who also played one. But Angus Young is the only one who has stuck with the SG over all these years. It's like the band's other trademark besides his school-boy outfit. The only thing's that vary with Angus' SG's are the colors. Mainly they are all black or red with black. I have a total of four AC/DC videos, two of which are the all black and the other two red and black. Here are the two with the all black guitar: 'Riff Raff' and 'Jailbreak.' The other two with the red and black guitar are these: 'Shot Down in Flames' and 'For Those About to Rock (We Salute You).'




And finally, the above picture is my very own guitar (and the reflection of the flash from the camera lol). It's a Yahama so it may not be the best in the world but it suits me for now. I really like the colors and it looks great I think.

Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin

In view of my recent post about Van Halen, I decided to give tribute to the guitarist who gave Eddie the idea of "tapping." That guitarist, is of course, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. Reportedly Van Halen said that he got the idea of tapping from the song 'Heartbreaker', off Led Zeppelin II. I have found what seems to be a somewhat rare video of Led Zeppelin performing it live a year before their break-up. Until now I had never seen a video of Led Zeppelin performing 'Heartbreaker' but there does exist a video of Page and frontman Robert Plant performing it a few years back. Unfortunately I cannot find it on youtube at this time.

I've found some notable similarities between Led Zeppelin and Van Halen. Here are a few of them:

This one's a no brainer but Jimmy Page and Eddie Van Halen are two of the best guitarists ever
John Bonham and Alex Van Halen are (in my opinion) two of the best drummers in rock history
Robert Plant and Sammy Hagar could hit upper range notes with incredible ease and shared somewhat similar hair-styles (I'm serious... look for yourself)
Both Page and Van Halen were experimental (Jimmy more than Eddie though) and were also excellent songwriters


Led Zeppelin is one of my favorite bands and Jimmy Page is one of the best guitarists ever. I must give credit to my dad who got me started on them (he has everything Led Zeppelin released on vinyl and basically everything on CD). My favorite song is 'Stairway to Heaven' (and no I don't believe any of the crap that some say they hear when they play it backwards) and some other favorites that I have include: the rare 'Hey Hey What Can I Do', the "Cadillac song" 'Rock & Roll', the Lord of the Rings inspired 'The Battle of Evermore', possibly also the LOTR inspired 'Over the Hills and Far Away', yet another LOTR inspired 'Ramble On', and the song about the Vikings: 'Immigrant Song.'

St. Louis to host All-Star game in '09

I was just searching for something to write about on Cards Clubhouse and on the Cardinals section of the forum there is a thread about the All-Star game coming to St. Louis. Apparently commisioner Bud Selig (who according to Mike Shannon will go down as the best baseball commisioner in MLB history) made the news on Monday evening at a dinner hosted by the Baseball Writers' Association.

I am happy to see that the Cards get to host another All-Star game finally after all these years. The last time St. Louis had an All-Star game was in 1966 when the old Busch stadium was brand new. Yankees and AL manager Casey Stengel had a nice thought about the new stadium. He said that his impression of Busch Stadium was that "it holds the heat well." Reportedly the temperature on the field was in the 130 degree range. Man, I bet that was one uncomfortable game for everyone there. I have a picture of Jack Buck interviewing Casey down on the field and Jack's wearing a regular ole' suit and smiling like it's a nice 70 degrees.

This is off the topic of St. Louis hosting the game in '09 but I really think that one of the dumbest decisions that the MLB has made was whoever wins the All-Star game gets home-field advantage in the World Series. The only thing I have to say is....... why? I think it should go to the team with the best record. But I'm not in charge so I guess we won't be seeing that rule change anytime soon.

Eruption

Haha no not that kind of eruption.




This kind of Eruption ^^



I figured I needed to have a post about Van Halen so this is it. Personally.. I think Eddie is one the most brilliant guitarists ever and he's not bad with the keyboard either. Unfortunately he's practically destroyed his band too. Van Halen is rumored to be going on tour sometime soon and his 16 year old son Wolfgang (I guess he watched the Munsters when he was growing up.. lol no he named him after Mozart) is replacing Michael Anthony as bassist in the band. And then there is the controversial frontman spot. Is it Dave? Is it Sammy? Is it anybody? Van Halen last toured in '04 with Eddie and Sammy reuniting... briefly. The result was Hagar saying that he'd never tour with EVH again. I think if it's anybody it'll be Roth... though who knows how long that reunion will last.

I made the comment of Eddie having almost destroyed his band. He seems to have done the same to himself. Check out this photo it'll leave you in shock after seeing it especially after looking at the healthy Eddie.


If he looked in the mirror that day he would've been having 'Dreams' about the way he used to look.