Nothing like a top 10 list to heat up discussion on a cool Fall night. Feel free to argue amongst yourselves, as Bounder presents…
The 10 Greatest Moments inGuitar History By JIM HURCOMB
Let there be sound! While stringed instruments date back to antiquity,
the story of the electric guitar begins in 1931 when a guy named George Beauchamp hooked up a pair of horseshoe magnets over the strings of an aluminum guitar in the shape of a frying pan. Officially called the Rickenbacker Electro A-22, the
“Frying Pan” set the plate for other guitar makers like Gibson to move the technology forward.
The Magic Christian The first true guitar hero was Charlie Christian, who
gained fame playing with Benny Goodman in the late 30s. A guitar player in a big band was nothing new, but before Charlie plugged in, they were mostly seen but not heard. Christian elevated the guitar from a support
instrument to a lead element, and inspired both blues and jazz players to experiment and stretch the envelope. He also introduced the extended guitar solos, which would turn out to be both a blessing and a curse.
Plugging in the Blues The Mississippi Delta Blues was an exclusively
acoustic beast when Robert Johnson and Sun House were singing about the challenges of being black in the white South in the 30s. In 1961, when a compilation of Johnson’s works
titled “King of the Delta Blues Singer” was released, Johnson took on mythical proportions with a young generation of guitar players like Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.
An equally important event happened to the North,
where many blacks gravitated after World War II to find a better life. Electric Blues bands started popping up in Chicago and St. Louis, and in 1949 Muddy Waters electrified the Blues on stage and on record. The riff-oriented sound was key to the guitar-driven
hard rock of the late 60s and bands like The Stones, The Yardbirds, Cream, Hendrix and Black Sabbath.
Rockin’ round the clock! While Blues and Jazz gave the electric guitar its first gasps of life, it was Rock and Roll that kicked it
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BOUNDER MAGAZINE 35
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