Eddie Cochran was a brilliant guitarist
Jul 14, 2019 1:11:23 GMT
Sulla, maxwellperfect, and 1 more like this
Post by petrolino on Jul 14, 2019 1:11:23 GMT
That's just my thought for the day, on one of my musical heroes ...
"BELIEVE IT OR NOT, THERE ONCE WAS A TIME WHEN EVERY NEW ELECTRIC guitar came factory-equipped with a wound third string. These telephone cables had a fat sound but limited any expressive G-string bending to a semitone or less. Ouch. But by the early ’60s, most British blues-rockers were gleefully bending and having their way with unwound Gs. So how did that happen?
You can blame it all on Eddie Cochran. Cochran was the first to lighten his load by re-stringing his trademark orange Gretsch 6120 (now on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) with a plain G string. After Cochran’s one and only U.K. tour in 1960, word spread like wildfire, and soon nearly every English guitarist had adopted E.C.’s secret recipe, with Americans not far behind. Cochran also swapped out his original neck pickup for what he felt was a fuller-sounding Gibson P-90, which distinguished him as the first rocker to modify his own instrument.
Born in Minnesota and raised in Oklahoma, Cochran was a highly accomplished if not revolutionary singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer whose career was cut tragically short. He was in the public eye for barely four years before his untimely death in a British taxi crash in April, 1960. Though Cochran attained near- Elvis status in the U.K., his work was and remains criminally overlooked in the U.S., bolstered mostly by popular cover versions of his songs and torch carriers like Brian Setzer. Notable Cochran covers range from the obvious (“Summertime Blues” by the Who and Blue Cheer) to the obscure (Krautrockers Guru Guru with their “Roken Mit Eduard Medley” hilariously sung in phonetic English). Listen closely and you’ll discover bits and pieces of E.C. lurking in the music of Led Zeppelin, Marc Bolan, David Bowie, and a host of others.
Cochran released only one album during his lifetime (Singin’ to My Baby), but you’ll find nearly everything he recorded in the truly awesome 8-CD box set, Somethin’ Else [Bear Family]. Immerse yourself in it, and you’ll uncover a staggeringly rich motherlode of performances, outtakes, rehearsals, and demos in a surprisingly wide range of styles. Particularly astonishing are Cochran’s multi-tracked and varispeed- effected cuts, many of which rival the best work of Les Paul. It’s also interesting to note the absence of guitar flash on most of Cochran’s hits—the songs just didn’t call for it. (For those on a tighter budget there are many worthy compilations available.) Cochran also appeared in several films, including The Girl Can’t Help It (performing “Twenty Flight Rock”), Untamed Youth, and Go, Johnny Go!
Eddie Cochran’s techniques, licks, and fretprints are indelibly ingrained in the language of electric guitar as we know it today, which is why we’ve placed him under investigation ..."
You can blame it all on Eddie Cochran. Cochran was the first to lighten his load by re-stringing his trademark orange Gretsch 6120 (now on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) with a plain G string. After Cochran’s one and only U.K. tour in 1960, word spread like wildfire, and soon nearly every English guitarist had adopted E.C.’s secret recipe, with Americans not far behind. Cochran also swapped out his original neck pickup for what he felt was a fuller-sounding Gibson P-90, which distinguished him as the first rocker to modify his own instrument.
Born in Minnesota and raised in Oklahoma, Cochran was a highly accomplished if not revolutionary singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer whose career was cut tragically short. He was in the public eye for barely four years before his untimely death in a British taxi crash in April, 1960. Though Cochran attained near- Elvis status in the U.K., his work was and remains criminally overlooked in the U.S., bolstered mostly by popular cover versions of his songs and torch carriers like Brian Setzer. Notable Cochran covers range from the obvious (“Summertime Blues” by the Who and Blue Cheer) to the obscure (Krautrockers Guru Guru with their “Roken Mit Eduard Medley” hilariously sung in phonetic English). Listen closely and you’ll discover bits and pieces of E.C. lurking in the music of Led Zeppelin, Marc Bolan, David Bowie, and a host of others.
Cochran released only one album during his lifetime (Singin’ to My Baby), but you’ll find nearly everything he recorded in the truly awesome 8-CD box set, Somethin’ Else [Bear Family]. Immerse yourself in it, and you’ll uncover a staggeringly rich motherlode of performances, outtakes, rehearsals, and demos in a surprisingly wide range of styles. Particularly astonishing are Cochran’s multi-tracked and varispeed- effected cuts, many of which rival the best work of Les Paul. It’s also interesting to note the absence of guitar flash on most of Cochran’s hits—the songs just didn’t call for it. (For those on a tighter budget there are many worthy compilations available.) Cochran also appeared in several films, including The Girl Can’t Help It (performing “Twenty Flight Rock”), Untamed Youth, and Go, Johnny Go!
Eddie Cochran’s techniques, licks, and fretprints are indelibly ingrained in the language of electric guitar as we know it today, which is why we’ve placed him under investigation ..."
Jesse Gress, Guitar Player
