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One song or piece of music that influenced your playing...


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On 11/12/2021 at 6:00 AM, fortyearspickn said:

Now that you (and Hall) mention it ...   I can't nail my 'AHA' guitar moment to only one song,  but The Ventures probably were the band...  which song"  Pipeline, Wipe Out, Hawaii 5-0,  Apache ... or Walk Don't Run?  My musical taste moved forward and upward. several steps because I was apparently ready for it to .   And not so much as an influence to my playing.   Just my love for the instrument.  My  'playing'  specifically ???    I'll have to confess -  probably  "Malagueña"  when I took lessons.  The first serious, difficult full piece of music after snippets and scales. 

The reason The Ventures, **** Dale and Jörgen Ingmann were so important to us was that they were "pre-Beatles".

I was trying to learn "Walk Don't Run", "Misirlou" and "Apache" before I ever heard of The Beatles.

 
 
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On 11/15/2021 at 8:23 AM, DanvillRob said:

The reason The Ventures, **** Dale and Jörgen Ingmann were so important to us was that they were "pre-Beatles".

I was trying to learn "Walk Don't Run", "Misirlou" and "Apache" before I ever heard of The Beatles.

 
 

Funny that the forum censored "Richard" Dale's nickname!

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On 11/12/2021 at 10:47 AM, Whitefang said:

I do hope you know that "Pipeline", "Wipeout", and "Apache" were "covers" by The Ventures, not originals?  Matter of fact, "Walk, don't Run" was ALSO a "cover".   From '54.

Whitefang

Just read an article in the new Fretboard Journal on Johnny Smith and this record. Chet asked Johnny for permission to record his version of the record and played it for him. The Ventures first heard Chet's version.

 

 

Edited by Dave F
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And of course, The Ventures weren't the first, nor the last, to record a "cover" of a tune and have it attributed to them as the originators.   Without going into the long story, I once won a joint on a bet that THIS song was a "cover" when it made someone else famous  'round 30 years after originally recorded.   [wink] 

Sepiatone

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I don’t know if it was just one song, but I always liked the way Luther Perkins and Bob Wooton (Johnny Cash’s lead pickers) played.  I can do that pretty well, along with keeping a constant baseline going like Doc Watson used to do.  Then, I’ve also picked-up some stuff from Peter Yarrow and Joanie Mitchell.  There are probably too many influences to remember.  I just took whatever I was capable of using from these artist and made it into my own limited ability technique.  Like most folks, I have a lot of favorite songs, but the ones that have had the most influence on my playing are of the folk genre.

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11 hours ago, MissouriPicker said:

I don’t know if it was just one song, but I always liked the way Luther Perkins and Bob Wooton (Johnny Cash’s lead pickers) played.  I can do that pretty well, along with keeping a constant baseline going like Doc Watson used to do.  Then, I’ve also picked-up some stuff from Peter Yarrow and Joanie Mitchell.  There are probably too many influences to remember.  I just took whatever I was capable of using from these artist and made it into my own limited ability technique.  Like most folks, I have a lot of favorite songs, but the ones that have had the most influence on my playing are of the folk genre.

Uh,.... JONI.   [wink]

Whitefang

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When I first started playing guitar 9 years old  (1973) it was all about the Beatles. Then on a cold brisk fall evening in 1976 my older brother took me to go see Van Halen at Pasadena City College. In an instant the way I viewed the electric guitar made a complete 180. On the way home all I could think about is how I could get a Marshall Amp and a Gibson Destroyer with one pickup.

Pretty much for the next 14 years was all about heavy metal…. That one evening shaped me for better or for worse. 

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As a child I was very influenced by anything Simon & Garfunkel did, so everything that I played was acoustic unlike my friends at school who were all electric.  That situation changed when my older sister took me to see my first live rock show, Mott the Hoople supported by Queen (who I'd never heard of).  That changed everything, it had to be electric from that point on.

About a year later I went to see another concert, this time Queen headlining and supported by a band called Hustler, who's guitar player Micky Llewellyn was playing a Flying V and they played a track called Miranda and from that point onwards it had to be lead guitar.

Sadly Hustler didn't get very far and only produced two albums, neither of which sold very many.  Still a great guitar track though!

 

  

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While there've been many iconic 'mostly guitar' songs that have influenced me (and hopefully my playing over the years,  I think I'm most in debt to the few I heard in my tweens that made me realize I wanted to play, not just listen.   I was not an 'air guitar' kind of guy.  

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22 hours ago, mihcmac said:

When I was 9 I built a crystal radio and started listening to music all night through the ear piece, the songs I liked usually had interesting guitar.

When was that?

My brother had a crystal radio he built from a "snap on" kind of kit that I used to sneak listening to after he went to sleep at night.

Long story short, it was when I developed a strong liking for blues due to a Chicago station I'd pick up in the wee hours.

I was about 5 or 6 at the time, which would make it '56-'57.

Whitefang

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2 hours ago, Whitefang said:

When was that?

My brother had a crystal radio he built from a "snap on" kind of kit that I used to sneak listening to after he went to sleep at night.

Long story short, it was when I developed a strong liking for blues due to a Chicago station I'd pick up in the wee hours.

I was about 5 or 6 at the time, which would make it '56-'57.

Whitefang

59 in Montrose California.

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Mind you, I don't live in or near Chicago.  But I learned at an early age that AM radio waves travel pretty far in the "wee hours".  In the Detroit suburb I lived in then(and still do, really) I also, on that crystal, picked up St. Louis,  Philly,  Montreal and others.  But that blues station in Chicago was playing the better music.

Whitefang

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On 1/11/2022 at 4:10 PM, duane v said:

When I first started playing guitar 9 years old  (1973)it was all about the Beatles.

As I recall, 1973 was all about Alice Cooper, Elton John and Pink Floyd.  There were others of course, but those guys got a LOT of attention.

Whitefang

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Sometimes I forget how much of influence the early Yardbirds had on me, like when their version of "I'm a Man" was released.

Or even earlier hearing Johnny Cash strumming his guitar to sound like a train on "Folsom Prison Blues" over my crystal radio, in the late 50's.

I really liked it when guitar sounds got animated..

Edited by mihcmac
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