I'm in a rock n roll band................

............. well not now and probably never will be, but this was the title of a BBC TV show last night. It was the second of a 2 part series and was looking at the roll of the guitarist. Fascinating TV, for me anyway. particularly when they covered the interaction between the other leading members of the group/band. I was especially interested by the approach to song writing by the band. Many guitarists suggested they took the lead by playing a new riff and the singer/vocalist simply added the lyrics, one told a story of a singer asking, " got any riffs". It was actually attributed to Paul McCartney asking George at a studio session.

This is sort of the way I write songs. I usually have an idea ( A title or hook for the lyrics) and sit down and generate a chord sequence, making up a riff on the run. I don't often play lead guitar when writing or performing my own songs. No real reason, except it maybe means I have less to think about. I do play lead, but this tends to be in the style of Hank Marvin; my guitar hero. Never quite got around to trying to emulate rock guitarists, I like my solos to be tuneful. In fact Apache was the record that turned me on to the guitar, I had an instrument for my next birthday, my fouteenth and am still playing although not quite so regularly.

Anyhow back to the TV prog, another interesting aspect was the way that rock guitarists had haad to come up with little signature tricks to get noticed on the back line. Playing with their teeth, carry a stachel, painting their faces, windmilling, leaping or walking like a duck; they were all designed to take some of the kudos away from the singer, who naturally held centre stage and got all the interviews and other goodies which I won't go into here, LOL.

So, to end this post here is another video of mine with another self-penned number
entitled, " It's later than you think"


Thanks for your time, John