2017
My Back Pages: Thirty Years Ago in Guitar Player Magazine (October 1987)
Welcome back to “30 Years Ago”, where I take a close look at the issue of Guitar Player magazine from exactly thirty years prior to discuss what I gleaned from the issue at the time and what I can learn from rereading so many decades later. I also provide a Spotify playlist that includes music that was mentioned in the month’s issue.
“My playing style is rather unusual. It’s mostly self-taught and I tend to pick a lot. It’s not your usual sort of fingerpicking, but almost a classical style. I like to pluck rhythms using all of my fingers at one time, so it comes out very percussive-sounding. I’m usually plucking two or three strings at once. ‘Solitude Standing’ is very hard for me because I’m sort of locking in with the snare drum, and it’s difficult to maintain that for five minutes.
I like chords that are augmented or diminished and sometimes I build around a minor. ‘Luka’ was the one exception: it begins on a major chord and has a major chord feeling all the way through. Usually when I first start writing the words, there’s a piece missing, like a bridge or part of a chorus. ‘Luka’ definitely began with the chords and the rhythm, and then the words fit the song…It never says that Luka is abused, but if you look at the words, he says everything that a kid would say who is being abused but won’t come out and say it.”
The article “A Legal Primer for the Guitarist” by Jeffery Scott, a professor at the Dickinson School of Law’s (now Penn State) Entertainment Clinic was quite interesting, and not just for the hysterical, period-correct picture that accompanied it. As the article noted, “You don’t have to be a lawyer, but know the pitfalls”. It gave brief tips about gaining representation, signing contracts and recording agreements, as well as some basics about taxation, copyright and joining rights organizations to collect royalties. This was really super, and definitely would be helpful for an aspiring musician. Some of the guys on the Sunset Strip who look like the guitarist in the picture would have been better off taking a day off from sponging off their stripper girlfriends to read this article–if so they might still be making money to support their cocaine habits!
Otis Rush is one of the most famous blues guitarists that many people haven’t heard of. I was a young blues fanatic, collecting records and listening to weekly blues programs on local radio stations in 1987 and this article by Dan Forte was really eye opening to me. Over the years, Guitar Player published lots of great interviews with blues legends, and in retrospect, this one is kind of sad. Rush seems to be aware of the ways that his career has been less successful than he would have liked, and the sense of his awareness of wasted time pervades the piece.
Rush, like his contemporary Chicago guitar slinger Buddy Guy either couldn’t get his records released or the records that did come out were a far cry from what he could do on stage. “Chess didn’t really need me when they signed me up,” he states. “But they get you and handcuff you, you know, where you can’t be making records for no one else. They weren’t too interested in pushing me, they just wanted control. That’s America. After three years with Chess I signed with Duke. I didn’t know what I was doing–they promised me the moon and only put out one single. Now I don’t sign nothing–just one LP at a time.” It’s ironic that he is featured in the same issue as “A Legal Primer…”; it seems like Otis Rush is a great example of someone who could have benefited from better career advice.
Forte asked Rush about his “progressive leanings” and the guitarist laughed, “that’s for you to decide. I just play and I’ve got sounds. I hear things onstage and I go home and try to figure them out. I know I’m gonna mess up in places, but sometimes I get away with it. To me, I’m trying to learn how to play. I’m scuffling, trying to find something new, trying to make it off the ground.
The lefthanded Rush plays his guitars upside down (with the heavy strings on the bottom), which like Albert King before him, gives a different power to his string bends. Forte points out that unlike Albert, Otis Rush “commands an impressive chord vocabulary”: ‘That’s true,’ he says with uncharacteristic pride. ‘I went to school a little bit, you know, for chords–just to make me understand my thing.'”
George Clinton, Hall and Oates, Carly Simon, Thomas Dolby, Steve Winwood, Clarence Clemons, Freddie Jackson, Melba Moore, McFadden and Whitehead, Jeffery Osborne, Nona Hendryx, James Brown and Africa Bambaataa, Lou Rawls, Sing, Force-MDs, Ray-Goodman-And-Brown, Cindy Mizelle, Malcom McLaren, Squeeze, Erasure, Edgar Winter, Jan Hammer, Santana, Buddy Miles, Steve Lukather, Tom Coster, Little Steven, Arthur Baker, Peter Wolf and the Sun City Project, which included among others Bruce Springsteen, Bono, Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis.
“When you’re starting out, it’s good to get formal training and to develop your ear by playing with records and the radio. Listen to all kinds of music and rather than copping licks note for note, focus on concepts for a balanced development. We’re all working to reach the level of being able to play clearly and instantly play whatever is in our heads. Try to play with older musicians, where you stand to learn more. Strive to become well-rounded, and learn to utilize criticism to your advantage. In other words, talk less and listen more. Further down the road, get involved in as many projects as you can and try to stay aware of each one’s potential.
You can’t lie to yourself. Know your weak points, and work on them, whether they’re on the fingerboard or in your motivation. Try to be the best player, businessman, agent and person you can be, because there are a lot of forces out there working against you. Also, one big advantage to give yourself in today’s market is to become a player, someone who knows his instrument inside and out….As technology forces musicians away from their axes, the number of great instrumentalists decreases, and having that skill becomes a commodity.”
The main story in the issue is Jas Obrecht’s double interview with Sammy Hagar and Eddie Van Halen. Hagar, who had achieved success as a guitarist and singer with Montrose and on his own (his song “I Can’t Drive 55” is a perennial favorite of mine) had joined Van Halen after the sudden departure of David Lee Roth after the 1984 tour. While the years have seen multiple tours, breakups, reunions and recriminations from all concerned, at the time of this article the two men seemed to be close friends and collaborators, with Van Halen having produced (and played bass) on Hagar’s latest solo outing. To get a glimpse of the peak of the “Van Hagar” era band, the live document “Live-Without A Net” is required viewing. The band seems to be on fire and having a heck of a time, but in the interview Van Halen dismisses the show as “average” and Hagar complains that “we were pretty damn tired that night.”The article is written in transcript form, and there are so many things that I could write about! I’ve limited myself to three things: gear, performance, and the men’s thoughts about other musicians on the scene. Obrecht knows that in 1987 the guitar playing world was obsessed with and influenced extraordinarily by Van Halen’s finger-tapping style and he makes sure that readers learn everything there is to know, from the guitars he used (he mentions his striped Kramer “it’s actually quite a piece of shit, but it sounds good”), to his legendary “modded” Marshall, to a detailed explanation of the signal path written by “equipment wizard” Bob Bradshaw himself with stops on plectra and boiled strings in between.
Performance wise, there was a lot to digest. Here are some selections:
Do you remember any solos as being especially hard to get right?
Hagar: This guy probably more than me. I never played anything that hard.
Van Halen: My solos are all just sort of winging it–different, you know.
Hagar: It’s tough because, honestly, anything he plays is not just good, it’s great.
In concert, Sammy, you introduce Eddie as the world’s greatest guitarist
Hagar: I think he is.
What are your observations on playing occasional lead guitar in a band with him?
Hagar: Kind of makes me put on a nice little hat, too: “Yeah, I can jam with this cat!”[laughs]. I don’t even consider myself in the same league–as a technician or in terms of chops. But to express myself, I can communicate as well as Eddie or anyone else. I just can’t communicate on as many different levels and for as long [laughs]. I can’t get as deep with the conversation.
Van Halen: He gets the point across very well. He’s a soulful player.
Any chance of Eddie playing bass on any of these songs [in concert]?
Hagar: [laughs] Say, hey, Mike, you wanna go wait in the bus?
Van Halen: Year Mike, we don’t need you this tour. [laughs]. No there’d be no reason for anything like that. (NOTE: How’s THAT for some foreshadowing?)
You seem very happy during your extended solo on Live Without a Net.
Van Halen: Oh yeah. I usually am. It’s kind of that way all through the show. The time onstage is also a very physical, draining thing but it’s basic euphoria. It’s fun.
If you feel like stretching out during a concert, can you nod at the guys and take a few more choruses?
Van Halen: Yeah. That happens whenever I feel like it. Sometimes Al will do it and then Sammy will. There’s no set thing. All my solos end with a nod to Al, so I just keep going until I turn around. I have no idea what’s the longest I’ve gone–about 20 minutes, probably. That’s when I started getting ragged on by a certain person [imitates David Lee Roth]: “Your solo’s gettin’ too long!” I’d say, “Fuck you. Your raps are getting longer” [laughs]. It used to be nothing but talk, man. It was three-fourths talk. But as soon as I got up there to do my solo [gives a sinister laugh] he couldn’t stop me anyway.
Do you change your extended guitar solo?
Van Halen: Yeah, I change it now and then. I was doing Beethoven’s “Für Elise” for a while, and “Eruption” is always a part of it.
Hagar: After seven months on the road, I’ve got to say that I really enjoyed this guy’s guitar solo every night–for many reasons. There was only one night where I could say that he did a sloppy guitar solo, and I told him about it. I said, “Man, that was the worst you’ve ever played.” I was real disappointed, because he was a little drunk. But at his worst, the guy plays better than most people. The people don’t notice anything, but I do, because I’ve heard him be so on.
Are you aware of what others are doing with tapping techniques?
Van Halen: No. It used to bother me when people would do my thing, but it used to bother me more when they played my melodies almost. The technique is there for anybody to use, so it doesn’t really bother me anymore.
Hagar: The worst part of people ripping you off is when they don’t acknowledge it. Hey, if I stole licks from Eddie, it would be like stealing his car and then driving it back to his house and saying “hey man, check out my new ride!” [laughs] That’s practically what some of these guys do.
Van Halen: That’s the way I do look at it.
Hagar: Some of these hotshots come up to Eddie: “Hey, yeah, check this lick out I learned!” And he goes, “Oh yeah, isn’t that from ‘Jump’?”
Do you keep up with the hot young players?
Van Halen: I’ve never really been interested. I haven’t bought a record in, I don’t know how long.
Hagar: I’m more interested in that stuff than Eddie is.
Have you ever heard Yngwie Malmsteen, for instance?
Van Halen: I heard maybe a little piece of a song on the radio once when we were driving in Sammy’s car. The dude’s fast, boy, I know that.
Hagar: Yeah. Eddie’s comment was “The guy’s playing some stuff man!”
What about Steve Morse or Eric Johnson?
Van Halen: No. What do they sound like? I like the guy with Bryan Adams [Keith Scott]. He’s real melodic. I like Steve Winwood, just as a musician. Steve Stevens is good.
Hagar: Yeah, because he’s unique. He’s not trying to rip somebody off. Those are the guys I always like, like Billy Gibbons, who’s a real good traditional guitar player. Of course, Clapton is still playing great, which is unique in itself–to keep the fire that long. (NOTE: He’s talking about Clapton at age 42; Hagar just turned 70 and he’s still playing–I guess he’s got the fire too.)
As I said, there is a lot to digest in here. Of course, if the article came out today the takeaway that would blow up social media would be a throwaway line by Sammy that crosses the line into John Mayer territory. Obrecht asked if the 5150 album going to #1 put any pressure on the band. Van Halen demurred, saying that he thinks it’s the same as always. Sammy, on the other hand, tried to put his answer in context, but seems to me to have made a bit of a faux pas:
“Yeah. I hate to let any mystique out, but the truth of the matter is that the charts all depend on who’s out at the time. For instance, I’m sure that 1984 would have been a #1 record if Michael Jackson wasn’t there. We knocked Whitney Houston off–yo man, that’s one of the greatest accomplishments of all time! But she came back. See, it’s no fair. We don’t sell to black people, and she sells to white people too. She and Michael Jackson and Prince have something over us. I got to start dancing more [laughs].
Besides the odd coincidence that all three black musicians he refers to are dead, I think that in 2017 we wouldn’t see an artist so explicitly referring to the racial makeup of his audience. Of course in 2017, any audience is precious!
Well, I’ve already written over 3,400 words, so time to wrap it up. But there’s one more cool thing! Back in the day there was a column by Mike Varney, who ran a record label called Shrapnel. Musicians could send in their tapes and he’d feature the ones he was most impressed with. One of the guys featured in this issue was “19 year old Steve Ouimette” of San Ramon, California. Varney noted that while “he may remind one of Tony MacAlpine or Yngwie Malmsteen, he possesses some qualities uniquely his own. A very talented and tasteful player, he would be an asset to any melodic metal band. Meanwhile, he’s furthering his music education in college and continuing to push himself.” He sure is. I recognize him from the Telecaster forum on the internet, but young people might recognize him from the Guitar Hero video games, where he recorded the music. Pretty neat!
Check out the playlist below for some of the music featured in articles, reviews or ads. If you haven’t checked out Joe Ely’s “Lord of the Highway”, you’ll really dig it. I’ll see you here next month (George Harrison was on the cover); until then, keep on picking!
Hits: 346