How’s this for praise? The authoritative All Music Guide describes Eddie Van Halen as “second only to Jimi Hendrix… undoubtedly one of the most influential, original, and talented rock guitarists of the 20th century.” Starting with the 1978 eponymous debut, Van Halen rewrote the entire book on what an electric guitar could do. Within six months Van Halen was certified platinum and providing the template for all other rock bands to follow. Even established bands would now have to reconsider what audiences expected from a lead guitarist.

Born January 26, 1955 in the Netherlands, Eddie Van Halen immigrated to the U.S. in 1967. The son of a musician (his father played saxophone, clarinet and piano), both he and his brother Alex took piano lessons at an early age. Eddie began playing drums while Alex took up the guitar. They soon switched roles when it became apparent what their respective talents were. Eddie’s early guitar influences included the hard rock guitar work of Cream and Led Zeppelin. He claimed to have learned note for note nearly every one of Eric Clapton’s guitar solos in Cream, while he identified himself with Jimmy Page’s “reckless-abandon” approach to guitar.

Growing up in L.A. the Van Halen brothers could be found playing a mix of covers and originals in backyards and clubs. Their first band, Mammoth had Mark Stone on bass and Alex on drums while Eddie fronted the band with vocals and guitar. They had no PA and rented one from singer David Lee Roth for ten dollars a night. Eddie found himself unhappy as lead vocalist and, in a stroke of artistic and budgeting genius, asked Roth to join the band. Stone wound up being replaced by bassist Michael Anthony and (at Roth’s suggestion), the band’s named changed to Van Halen.

The group caught a big break when KISS bassist Gene Simmons saw them live. He was so impressed that he financed a recording session and on the strength of his recommendation the band was signed to Warner Brothers, a label they stayed with for over thirty-five years.

Their 1978 debut album, Van Halen, features the songs “Runnin’ With The Devil,” a cover of the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me,” “Jamie’s Cryin’” and “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love.” The album’s second track, “Eruption,” serves as Eddie’s electrifying signature song. This one minute forty three second instrumental track showcases Eddie’s prodigious talents as a soloist. The All Music Guide praises “Eruption” for producing “sounds that were unimagined before this album, and they still sound nearly inconceivable.”  From the late seventies and all through the eighties “Eruption” would play a big role in popularizing the tapping technique of soloing. Eddie’s guitar talents had already found many admirers, including his own inspirational hero Jimmy Page who said, “For my money, Eddie Van Halen’s the first significant new kid on the block. Very dazzling.”

Van Halen cemented the group’s reputation as “the best bar band in the world” by selling over 10 million copies, making it one of the biggest selling debut albums in rock history.  Van Halen II, 1979′s appropriately titled sequel. proved an excellent followup, by offering more of the same and then some. Starting off with a super charged cover of “You’re No Good.” Eddie showcases his pyrotechnical guitar ability also works on an acoustic guitar with the instrumental “Spanish Fly.” And what Van Halen album would be complete without a few party anthems? “Beautiful Girls” and “Dance the Night Away” kept the party atmosphere going – the latter gave the band their first top twenty single.

With an air of confidence from their early successes the band swaggered into the studio to record their next album, Women and Children First (1980). Forgoing a cover song this time, the album was recorded live in single takes, with only minimal overdubs. The minor flubs you can hear only add to the rock and roll exuberance of songs like “And The Cradle Will Rock…” “Everybody Wants Some!!” and “Take Your Whiskey Home”.

By their third album, Fair Warning (1981), inner tensions were starting to dominate the band’s output. Singer David Lee Roth was trying to steer the band in a more commercial direction while Eddie wanted to be taken seriously as a musician. Neither Fair Warning or it’s followup, Diver Down (1982), produced any significant hits for the band. Fair Warning was a decidedly dark album with rockers like “Unchained” while Diver Down reveled in its lightness. The album was recorded in twelve days and was mostly highlighted by cover songs, including the Kinks’ “Where Have All The Good Times Gone,” the soul number “Dancing In The Street” and Roy Orbison’s “(Oh) Pretty Woman.” It’s also more of a family affair with Eddie and Alex’s Dad playing clarinet on the song “Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now).”

Now that it sounded like the band was having fun again, they were ready for their biggest album to date. Released on New Year’s Day of that year, 1984 was to be their last album with David Lee Roth as lead singer. At the time a lot was made of the heavy use of synthesizers, which the band had been using since Women and Children First. Perhaps the hype over electronic instruments was because Van Halen was crossing over to pop audiences for the first time. “Panama” and “Hot For Teacher” were popular MTV favorites, while “Jump” became one of the most played songs of the year and one the top rock songs of the decade. As Stephen Thomas Erlewine of the All Music Guide said, it’s probably for the best that Roth left the band after this album. They never could have topped it.

1984 halted at number two on the charts, the top spot taken up by Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Eddie had a role in the making of that blockbuster album as well, playing the uncredited guitar solo on the song “Beat It.” He recorded the solo free of charge and was prevented from appearing in the music video by his record company.

According to the website Classic Van Halen: “All was not well within the band… Rising tensions between Roth and the other band members were increasingly evident; on their 1984 world tour the band didn’t even play on the same stage, but rather performed on four separate platforms, symbolic of the escalating rift among its members.” Roth was already enjoying success as a solo star on MTV and the band soon moved on without him.

In 1985 the Van Halen brand started a new phase with replacement singer Sammy Hagar. Ignoring the record company’s suggestion that they change their name, Van Halen pushed forward with a new album 5150 (1986). The new songs with Hagar were noticeably different – 5150 contianed more ballads and love songs than any previous Van Halen album.

Additionally, Roth wasn’t the only collaborator the band had lost. Ted Templeman, who’d produced all of their albums to date, left to produce Roth’s solo album Eat ‘Em and Smile (1986). With a new producer, Van Halen’s guitar sound was definitely different. On the Templeman-produced albums Eddie’s guitar was always prominent placed in the mix and usually pushed to the left channel to simulate a live sound. The “new” Van Halen sound offered a more balanced mix and there were decidely mixed opinions about the results, both with the critics and with the group’s audience.

One interesting thing that Hagar brought to the new Van Halen was his solid guitar playing ability, which gave Eddie more leeway to use keyboards during live performances. Perhaps because of his early training in piano, Eddie was always striving for musical credibility, and with Roth’s antics behind them the world’s biggest party band could seek out more respectability. Hagar’s run of albums was certainly not short lived, although 5150 and its followup OU812 (1988) were not well received by the critics. Robert Christgau of The Village Voice suggested that “trading Dave for Sammy sure wrecked their shot at Led Zep of the ‘80s.” With Dave the music sounded like a party, with Sammy the songs sounded like hard work.

By now Van Halen were no longer being touted as the best bar band in the world, instead they were routinely knocked for having “the most predictable rhythm section in rock.”  They reconciled with producer Ted Templeman who joined them For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991). The album produced the most recognizable Van Halen hit of the Hagar era – “Right Now.” They released a live album, Right Here Right Now in 1993, and one more studio album Balance in 1995. They contributed two songs - Human’s Being and Respect the Wind  – to the soundtrack for the film Twister.

In 1996 the band released Best of Volume I, a hits compilation featured songs from both Roth and Hagar. The inclusion of two new songs with Van Halen’s original singer effectively marked Hagar’s departure from the band for the time being. Roth was only back on the band briefly before an appearance at the MTV Music Awards went awry and he was out again. Former Extreme singer Gary Cherone was recruited as the next new singer for Van Halen III in 1998. Roth and Hagar had each served eleven years in the band. Van Halen III was Van Halen’s eleventh and final album.

In the summer of 2004 the band toured with Hagar again. In 2006 Michael Anthony was replaced by Eddie’s son Wolfgang on bass. The band then reunited with Roth and managed to tour successfully without falling out again. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. Today Eddie is ranked 8th on Rolling Stone’s list of Top 100 Guitarists. The song that started it all, “Eruption,” was voted #2 on Guitar World magazines 100 Greatest Guitar Solos.

In 2012 fans have good reason to be excited. In February, Van Halen will release a new album with David Lee Roth singing called  ”A Different Kind of Truth.” They are also kicking off a 44 city North American Tour on February 18.  As Sammy Hagar said in a 2011 interview for Rolling Stone, “He really needs to be more prolific because we need more great music out there. There’s a lot of bad music out there. We need guys like Eddie Van Halen.”

Eddie Van Halen was written by Paul Hackett for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

Never fear, Guitar Noise still reigns supreme when it comes to quality lessons for beginners, tuning information, guitar chords, easy guitar songs and advice on learning the notes on guitar. And let’s not forget that we still have the friendliest guitar forums with a community of players that are always ready to welcome new friends.

Owing to a recent drop in traffic, all of the most read lessons this year were published prior to this year. Let’s take another look at them. These are the Guitar Noise lessons that helped loads of other people learn guitar in 2011.

11 Most Popular Posts of 2011

1. Hey There Delilah by Plain White T’s
Easy Song for Beginners
We didn’t do a best-of list for 2010, but this was still the number one lesson way back in 2009. Why did it jump back to the top? Just this past November, we finally started working with music publishers to post licensed versions of our popular song lessons. Hey There Delilah is an easy to play pop song that beginners can make sound great thanks to this great lesson.

2. House of the Rising Sun
Easy Song for Beginners
Because of copyright restrictions we had to make do with public domain songs for most of the year. House of the Rising Sun is actually a perennial favorite. It has been covered by too many artists to mention – although we would like to say both The Animals and Bob Dylan have recorded memorable versions. Our lesson gives you a couple of different fingerpicking patterns to try out.

3. Absolute Beginner Part 1: Chords
The Internet is a great place for beginners at anything. We’re not ashamed to be one of the number one destinations for beginner guitar lessons. If you can already play guitar like Steve Vai or Joe Satriani there’s not much more we can teach you. But if you’re just starting out this really is a helpful lesson for the absolute beginner.

4. Scarborough Fair
Easy Song for Beginners
We’ve been teaching the Simon and Garfunkel version of Scarborough Fair for years. No we’ve added a different version to coincide with David Hodge’s The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar. While writing the book David came up with a great version you can play without a capo, and our maestro forum moderator Nick Torres supplied a haunting and memorable vocal you definitely won’t want to miss.

5. Horse With No Name – The Simplest Song
Easy Song for Beginners
This is where it all started. The first easy song for beginners ever came about by accident. To this day it is still one of our most popular lessons and it will be getting an improved treatment next month.

6. Where Did You Sleep Last Night
Easy Songs for Beginners
A lot of people are familiar with Where Did You Sleep Last Night because Nirvana performed it on their Unplugged in New York album. Kurt Cobain attributed the song to Leadbelly but it’s actually a lot older than that. David’s version, which he came up with while writing The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar, still sounds great and so will you.

7. Man on the Moon by R.E.M.
Easy Song for Beginners
R.E.M. is a great guitar band and it’s a shame they decided to call it quits in 2011. Fortunately for us, around the time they were calling it a day we managed to negotiate the rights to use some of their songs for our easy songs for beginners lessons.  Man on the Moon is a beautiful song that beginners can easily learn to play. Our arrangement adds some nice touches that will make it sound very cool even when being played by one guitar.

8. The Underappreciated Art of Using a Capo
This is another Guitar Noise classic that dates back to our early days. Most guitarists probably have one of these handy little capo devices, and if you make a little extra effort to learn more about your fretboard you can really unlock a lot of guitar secrets with it.

9. Silent Night
Easy Song for Beginners
Christmas may be over but Silent Night has always been one of my favorite Guitar Noise lessons. It’s short and sweet. The simplicity of this lesson means it will take you no time at all to learn something that sounds great and is recognized by everyone. Don’t wait until next December to try out this three chord song.

10. How to Play Guitar Chords on Keyboard and Guitar
It seems Guitar Noise readers can never get enough chord theory. And one of the best ways to cement what you learn on guitar, believe it or not, is to learn the basics of another instrument. This lesson takes some of the rudiments of music theory and shows you how it applies to the keyboard.

11. Tip for Those With Small Hands
Judging by all the comments this article has received, a lot of people still have a real hang up about the size of their hands. The article itself has some important advice, and the thoughtful comments people have left adds even more value. You’ll find all sorts of advice here about what guitars are easy to play.

Editors Picks

I just want to add two more lessons to this list. In November we also added reworked versions of the R.E.M. easy song lessons Driver 8 and Losing My Religion. Since we spent a lot of time working on the deal to use these popular songs (not to mention money) we’d like to see even more people enjoying them. Check out both songs if you haven’t already.

We’re also looking forward to adding lots of new lessons in 2012. Thanks for another exciting year of learning and playing guitar.

Happy new year from everyone at Guitar Noise.

The Top Guitar Noise Posts of 2011 was written by Paul Hackett for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

In 1968 George Harrison traveled to Bombay to record a film score with Indian musicians playing sitar, tablas and other traditional Indian musical instruments. On his last day in the studio he recorded the music for “The Inner Light.” He returned to Abbey Road Studios in London and added lyrics inspired by the ancient philosophy of the Taoist Way. Spiritual forays such as “The Inner Light” only confirmed that George Harrison’s way was not the way of the rock star. His thoughtful and professional stage presence had already earned him the reputation of being “the quiet Beatle.” He dodged fame and celebrity life at the height of Beatlemania to immerse himself in spirituality and meditation. The paradox of George Harrison is that fame and material wealth are the things that allowed him to live a spiritual and reclusive life.

Like other members of the Beatles, George Harrison came from a working class family in Liverpool. Born just before midnight on February 24, 1943, he was the youngest of four children. He claims to have had an epiphany of sorts when he was 12 or 13 years old – while riding his bike around the neighborhood he heard Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” playing from a nearby house and was instantly hooked on music. He spent £3 (a lot of money in those days) on his first guitar and started devoting his time to music, practicing along to records of his early musical heroes like American rockabilly idol Carl Perkins and British skiffle legend Donnie Lonegan.

“I had no ambition when I was a kid other than to play guitar and get in a rock ‘n’ roll band. I don’t really like to be the guy in the white suit at the front.” – West 57^th Street interview, December 1987

While studying at the Liverpool Institute he met an older student named Paul McCartney. Impressed by Harrison’s knowledge of more than just the basic chords, McCartney introduced him to John Lennon. Their skiffle band, The Quarrymen, needed someone to play lead guitar and the fifteen year old Harrison was invited to join. Two years later, in 1960, the band was covering rock and roll hits by Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Chuck Berry. And they’d also changed their name to The Beatles. Adding Ringo Starr to their lineup in 1962 they began a rapid succession of hit songs that soon made them the most famous rock group in the world.

Harrison’s subdued lead guitar style combined elements of rockabilly and country and helped shape the sound of mid-1960s pop music, yet his influence went well beyond the guitar, as did his own playing. His use of the twelve string guitar on A Hard Day’s Night (1964) also popularized its use by other bands, like the Byrds and, later, Tom Petty.  He, along with Ray Davies of the Kinks, was one of the first pop stars to make use of sitars and Indian musical influeneces in rock music. In addition to the sitar, Harrison could also play traditional Indian instruments like the tambura, sarod and swarmandal. Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones taught himself how to play the sitar after a visit with Harrison and performed on it on “Paint It Black.” Jones was also both sitar and tamboura on “Street Fighting Man.” And when Delaney Bramlett of the band Delaney & Bonnie introduced Harrison to slide guitar in 1968, he became a leading proponent of that style as well.

“Not guilty for leading you astray, on the road to Mandalay.” Not Guilty, recorded for The White Album in 1968

George Harrison was only twenty-six when the Beatles broke up. For someone who preferred being a musician to being a rock star, he achieved tremendous amount of success outside of the Beatles. He was the first ex-Beatle to achieve a number one single “My Sweet Lord” and number one album “All Things Must Pass” in 1970. He was also the first band member to do a solo tour and the only one to ever open his own record label and film production company.

“I’ve got no time for you right now, don’t bother me.” Don’t Bother Me, the first Beatles song Harrison wrote, 1963

Listed by Rolling Stone as one of its choices of “the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time,” Harrison often shied away from media and publicity, at times even refusing to promote his own music. His quiet and diffident public image mirrored the first song he wrote for the Beatles: “Don’t Bother Me” from With The Beatles in 1963. The song, unusually mirthless for early Beatles, was written while Harrison was laid up sick in a hotel. Up to this point Lennon and McCartney were getting all the songwriting credit and Harrison wanted to see if he could write as well. He didn’t think it was a particularly good song but the experience showed him that if he kept writing he might eventually write something he thought was good.

“I think people who truly can live a life in music are telling the world, ‘You can have my love, you can have my smiles. Forget the bad parts, you don’t need them. Just take the music, the goodness, because it’s the very best, and it’s the part I give most willingly”

In 1991 Eric Clapton had to coax Harrison out of seclusion to play a tour of Japan. He hadn’t toured since 1974, even though recent years had been kind to him. The critically acclaimed Cloud Nine (1987) became his best-selling album in years, thanks to his popular reworking of the sixties song “Got My Mind Set On You.” He also revives some Beatles memories with “When We Was Fab,” which features a bit of sitar and self-referential jokes like “back when income tax was all we had,” a reference to his 1966 song “Taxman.”

While “Taxman” was one of the staples of his live show in Japan, its angst was a little unusual for a Harrison song. In 1988 he formed a new group with some of his mates called The Traveling Wilburys. The band’s hand-picked members were Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne. The name “Wilbury” itself was an in-joke between Harrison and Lynne that they came up with to describe small errors in performances during the recording of Harrison’s Cloud Nine album (“we’ll bury them in the mix”). The group’s songs, recorded at Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics home, were noticeably upbeat and positive, especially the Harrison tune “Heading for The Light.” In an interview Tom Petty pointed out that the band of was made up of people who wanted to hang out together rather than the best musicians – although their individual talents were not light. The Wilburys never toured but did release a pair of albums: Volume One (1988) and Vol. 3 (1990).

“Try to realize it’s all within yourself no-one else can make you change” – Within You Without You, 1967

In 1965 Harrison was first introduced to sitar music while filming the Beatles movie Help! Around that time he bought a sitar from an Indian shop in London and began listening to the music of Ravi Shankar. The Beatles became the first band to use the sitar on a rock song thanks to Harrison’s contribution to “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown).” Harrison met Shankar in London the following year and followed him to India to study sitar. Harrison later claimed that of all the people he met, from famous movie stars to his music idols like Elvis Presley, Shankar was the first person to really impress him, mainly because he was not trying to impress anyone. The Beatles connection and his lifelong friendship with Harrison would make Shankar the most famous Indian musician in the world.

The Beatles also famously spent their last overseas trip together studying meditation at an Indian ashram with the Maharishi in 1968. While the trip was fraught with misunderstandings and tensions, the band had one of their most productive periods of songwriting. Many of the songs that appeared on the White Album and Abbey Road including Harrison’s “Long Long Long” and “The Inner Light,” were written during this trip. Before rejoining the rest of the band in England, Harrison spent more time with his Indian music mentor Ravi Shankar. Before long Harrison set the guitar aside to do what he did best: write songs for guitar.

“With our love, we could save the world, if they only knew” – Within You Without You, 1967

In 1971, Shankar asked Harrison for help putting together a benefit concert to help refugees suffering the dual effects of Cyclone Bhola and a regional war. The concert, which took place on August 1, 1971 at New York’s Madison Square Gardens, brought together Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan, two revered artists that seldom played live at this time. As well as featuring the first live performance of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” it was the first time Harrison had to stand out front and talk to the audience. The show’s opener, Ravi Shankar, once again introduced Indian music to a wider audience. Proceeds from the concert and film and album that followed raised over $13 million for UNICEF. It was the first benefit concert of its kind, and its success set the stage for later benefits like Live Aid.

“It doesn’t really matter what chords I play, what words I say or time of day it is…” Only a Northern Song, written in 1967 and released on the Yellow Submarine Soundtrack Album, 1968

Harrison’s talents a songwriter were often underused in the Beatles. “Within You Without You” and “The Inner Light” were written and recorded without much participation from the other Beatles. “Within You, Without You” was the second Beatles’ song to be released without any of the other three members involved in the recording (McCartney’s “Yesterday being the first). Harrison taught himself how to write out the music in Indian script and had an uncredited group of classical Indian musicians. He did the same with “The Inner Light,” the first of his compositions to be on a Beatles’ single (it was the B side for “Lady Madonna”), recording the music with his group of musicians while later Lennon and McCartney overdubbed some backing vocals.

He’s also credited with writing some of the Beatles most lasting songs : “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Something,” “Here Comes The Sun,” “If I Needed Someone,” “Taxman” and “I Me Mine.” Several songs he wrote during his time in the Beatles wound up on his first solo album, All Things Must Pass, which included such Beatles rejects as “All Things Must Pass,” “The Art of Dying” and “Isn’t It A Pity.”

“Can’t say what I’m doing here, but I hope to see much clearer, after living in the material world” Living in the Material World, 1973

Being in the Beatles showered Harrison with money and fame at a relatively young age. This gave him the opportunity to focus more ardently on the search for spiritual answers, and his lifelong search for a higher consciousness usually worked its way into his songs. The title of his second album, Living in the Material (1973), summed his life up nicely. Songs like “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” addressed the weighty matters on his mind in a commercial way. Just like the previous albums “My Sweet Lord” which combined Hallelujahs and Hare Krishnas into a popular song, he found he could carry on in a spiritual vein. Both albums spent time at the top of the charts.

“All through the day, I me mine” I Me Mine, recorded in January 1969, Lyrics by George Harrison, Let It Be album

“I Me Mine” was the last song the Beatles recorded together, minus John Lennon who had already privately quit the band. The song serves a dual purpose by referring to the ego in the Hindu context while making a fair reaction to the ego clashes that divided the Beatles during their last days in the studio. Harrison also used “I Me Mine” as the title of his book of reminisces that came out in 1980. John Lennon took offense to the book, telling an interviewer: “I was hurt by it… By glaring omission in the book, my influence on his life is absolutely zilch and nil… I’m not in the book.” Lennon was shot dead soon after the book’s publication, while he and Harrison were still no longer speaking to each other.

In the aftermath of Lennon’s sudden death Harrison recorded a song for John Lennon with the surviving members of the Beatles. “All Those Years Ago” features Ringo Starr on drums and backing vocals from Paul and Linda McCartney. The song, never sounding sad, makes amends with Lennon by referencing the Lennon songs “All You Need is Love” and “Imagine”. Harrison admits his admiration for Lennon with the line “Living with good and bad I always look up to you.”

“Why try to live a life that isn’t real” Be Here Now, Living in the Material World, 1973

Harrison wasn’t only a serious person. He was often quite funny. Two days before the new millennium, an attacker broke into his London house and stabbed him in the chest, nearly killing him and his wife in the attack. The swift action of his wife Olivia, who hit the attacker on the head with a poker and a table lamp, saved his life. From his hospital bed Harrison told the police that the crazed attacker “certainly wasn’t auditioning for the Traveling Wilburys.”

“Been beat up and battered around, been set up and I’ve been shot down” Handle With Care, The Traveling Wilburys 1988

George Harrison died of brain cancer on November 29, 2001. He was 58 years old. A year later, some of his closest friends gathered at London’s Royal Albert Hall to pay tribute. The concert to benefit George’s Material World charity brought together Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney as well as Ravi Shankar, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Eric Clapton. An album of posthumously completed songs, Brainwashed, was released in 2002.

Harrison once remarked that life doesn’t take long to go from age seventeen to fifty-seven. It’s hard to believe that it’s now ten years since the youngest Beatle died.

“I remember thinking I just want more. This isn’t it. Fame is not the goal. Money is not the goal. To be able to know how to get peace of mind, how to be happy, is something you don’t just stumble across. You’ve got to search for it.”

George Harrison Guitar Lesson

The follow patterns show how to play While My Guitar Gently Weeps, written by George Harrison. This mini lesson was provided by Guitar Alliance. Don’t miss Guitar Noise the solo guitar arrangment of While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

The chord progression is as follows: Am, Am/G, Am/F#, Fmaj.7, Am, G,D, E. As you can see, it is a fairly involved progression. If you don’t know how to play all of these chords that’s okay. Here they are in tab:

When you’re playing the riff below, just keep the chords in mind when you’re trying to determine the best way to finger it. To hit the low notes on the 2nd and 1st fret of the low E string in the Am/F# and Fmaj.7 chords I use my thumb.

George Harrison was written by Paul Hackett for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

There are all sorts of websites, apps, books and videos for learning guitar. How many of them really teach guitar the way you want to learn? Most of you probably picked up the guitar because you wanted to play songs. Even if you’re already in a band or really just want to write your own songs you’ve still got to start somewhere.

This is where Guitar Noise’s Easy Songs for Beginners come in.

I started this website back when I was a beginner myself. I wanted something that would really help me learn guitar. I couldn’t find what I was looking for so I created the kind of website I would want to use. From there it grew into a passion project and all these years later I still haven’t given up on it.

As the site grew in popularity and new friends came onto the scene, we wound up shaping our teaching style around your feedback. The Guitar Noise Easy Songs for Beginners lessons grew out of that. I’d never even seen an easy song for beginners lesson before David sent me the first one, “Horse with No Name,” over ten years ago. Instead of simply giving someone the lyrics and the chords (the tablature sites do), David’s lessons gave you step by step instructions on both what to do and why. And the quality of instruction of his lessons is still, in my opinion, among the best you can get on the Internet, free or otherwise.

And you obviously thought so, too. The feedback we received from you told us right away that we were really connecting with guitarists on a level they wanted. The divide between the teaching side of the Internet and yours started getting smaller.

Finally, we can continue doing that again.

We plan on adding new lessons every month. For those with song requests, please bear in mind that these lessons take a long time to put together. A tremendous amount of work goes into making something that goes well beyond a tabbed out version of the song. Our goal with these lessons has always been to teach you things that will work in other songs you play. Copyright agreements have to be worked out on a song by song basis, so now we also have the extra step of getting the music publishers, and in some cases the songwriters, on board to share their music. We’ve certainly got our work cut out for us.

This has been a long time coming and we can’t thank you enough for both your patience and support. It thrills me to know that there are people out there playing guitar – people who might have given up or not succeeded without this site.

If you ever find yourself playing one of these songs, whether it’s for your roommate or an entire room full of strangers, please be kind to us and let them know where you learned it.

As always, we look forward to hearing from you. Your comments and suggestions are always welcome.

The Return of Easy Songs for Beginners was written by Paul Hackett for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

Try googling “guitar” and “noise” and you’ll probably uncover more than a few articles on Neil Young. In a recent review, the writer said that to be a Neil Young fan you really have to be into the concept of Neil Young, because he is an artist who deliberately changes track trying to upset fan expectations. If you “get” what Neil is all about, you might end up liking just about everything he does, whether mellow acoustic music or raucous feedback and guitar noises.

Born in Toronto, Neil Young began his music career in Winnipeg, Manitoba working in folk clubs where he crossed paths with the likes of Joni Mitchell, Randy Bachman and Stephen Stills. After a record deal with Motown fell through, he relocated to Los Angeles, and met up with Stephen Stills to form the band Buffalo Springfield. Although short-lived, the band scored a hit with the classic song For What It’s Worth. Young’s songwriting contribution to Buffalo Springfield included Expecting to Fly, Broken Arrow, I Am a Child, On the Way Home and Mr. Soul. He followed Buffalo Springfield with a series of solo albums, sometimes with the backing band Crazy Horse (three musicians whom Neil recruited from the band The Rockets). His second album, “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere,” opens with Cinnamon Girl and also features the lengthy jam tracks Down by the River and Cowgirl in the Sand. In 1969, Neil reunited briefly with Stephen Stills by joining Crosby, Stills and Nash – forcing the group to change their name rather than working as their sideman. They appeared together as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young at Woodstock and recorded one album together as a quartet, Déjà vu, which features Neil’s ballad Helpless.

Neil then recorded and released a series of solo albums that heavily favored country-folk sensibilities. Harvest from 1971 includes some of his most famous songs, such as The Needle and the Damage Done and Heart of Gold. Neil felt that Heart of Gold was a song that put him smack in the middle of the road, and he took a characteristic sharp turn for what he called “the ditch.” He followed the hugely successful Harvest with darker sounding electric albums like Tonight’s The Night, On The Beach and Zuma (performed with the re-formed Crazy Horse).

For much of his career Neil has alternated between acoustic and electric based albums. The 80s saw a period of experimentation in guitar noise, rockabilly and electronic music. At one point, he was even sued by his own record company for making music that didn’t sound enough like “Neil Young”. He returned to the forefront of rock music in 1989 with Freedom, one of his strongest albums to date. In the 90s he would become known as the “godfather of grunge” for his distinctive electric style on albums like Ragged Glory and Sleeps with Angels. Fans of his lighter acoustic material were pleased with his returned to acoustic prominence during the unplugged fad of the 90s with Harvest Moon and Unplugged . In 2005 Neil had a near death experience due to a brain aneurysm. After recovering, he released Prairie Wind which contains eight songs he wrote prior to undergoing medical treatment. Jonathon Demme’s film, Heart of Gold, documents the premiere public concerts for Prairie Wind, performed at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.

Neil recently toured in support of his latest album Chrome Dreams II, which is reminiscent of albums like Freedom and Rust Never Sleeps, touching on both lighter acoustic material and longer jam style songs. He also remains busy releasing live performances from his extensive catalog. In 2009 Neil released The Archives Vol. 1 1963–1972, the first in a series of boxsets that will span each stage of his career. The same year Neil released Fork In The Road, an album loosely based on his experiences converting a Lincoln Continental to run on alternative energy and driving it cross-country.

In 2010 Neil performed his classic song “Long May You Run” at both the closing ceremonies for the Olympic winter games in Vancouver and the final episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. Neil spent much of 2010 on a solo North American tour where he played a mix of old songs and new material from his latest album Le Noise. In September 2011 yet another fim by Jonathan Demme called Neil Young Journeys premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Neil Young Guitar Style

For those of you interested in making some real guitar noise, we have lessons on many of Neil Young’s most popular songs, complete with guitar tab and MP3 files. Neil Young’s work generally falls into one of two distinct styles: folky-acoustic rock (as in Harvest Moon, Old Man, and Heart of Gold), or feedback laden hard rock (Cinnamon Girl, Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) and Rockin’ in the Free World). You will find several of these songs arranged here.

Easy Songs for Beginners

Beginners will appreciate the simplicity of the two chord song For What It’s Worth. In our arrangement we use this old Buffalo Springfield classic to learn a new strumming technique and figure out how to get a cool percussive rhythm sound.

Neil Young’s songs are relatively easy to learn yet still complicated enough to help you hone your skills. From 1979′s Rust Never Sleeps, Hey Hey, My My (or is it My My, Hey Hey?) can be played on both the electric and acoustic.

Neil Young’s Heart of Gold is a classic guitar-harmonica song. Take a four chord song, add a few simple touches, and you’ll be amazed how cool you sound!

Old Man is a fun and easy song from Harvest that you can learn in practically no time at all and still spend ages on practicing in order to get the kinds of sounds you want. Songs like this never get old.

Harvest Moon is a classic Neil Young tune. Have fun learning something about chord voicing, strumming, Drop D tuning and even a little ear training on the side. This lesson includes a bonus MP3 for all you twelve-string guitar players.

Songs for Intermediates

The Neil Young classic Like A Hurricane lends itself nicely to learning how to integrate a song’s melody into your strumming. In this lesson we’ll also work on arpeggios and partial chord picking.

The Needle and the Damage Done is one of Neil Young’s best loved acoustic songs. On the surface, there’s not an awful lot to this short, yet powerfully moving song. Because of the structure of the song, it’s very much up to the single guitarist to make this an interesting arrangement. And that’s what we’ll do with an arrangement that is interesting, challenging and also gives us some things that we can use in our every day guitar playing.

Here’s a short lesson on After The Gold Rush that uses the chord melody approach to come up with a nice song arrangement that you can play either as a chord melody or as a single guitar accompaniment for a singer (or yourself).

Let’s take Cinnamon Girl to look at alternate tunings and a song with an instantly recognizable and catchy riff.

Neil Young was written by Paul Hackett for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

The adopted son of a firefighter, Jeff Healey was born in Toronto in 1966. At the age of one he lost both of his eyes to a rare form of cancer known as retinoblastoma. His adoptive parents encouraged and supported his discovery of early American music. When he was three years old he started to play a guitar laying flat on the floor. At that age, the instrument was obviously too big for him to strap around his neck and play in the conventional way, so he played it flat on his lap, like a Dobro or lap steel guitar but using his fingers to fret the notes. A few years later, at a school for the blind, he was taught the usual way of playing but he still preferred playing his own way. Playing his Fender Stratocaster on his lap, he made longer stretches along the fretboard , giving him a wider range of notes in any one position. He could also play more powerful bends and very distinctive vibratos.

By the time he was a teen he had played in a few of the local blues-rock bands, including a band  he founded at 17 called Blues Direction. They played covers of his favorite blues heroes: John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton. As a regular performer at jam sessions in Toronto bars, Jeff’s  talents came to the attention of  legendary bluesman Albert Collins, who invited Healey to share the stage with him one night. That connection soon led Healey, still a teenager, to share the stage with two other blues giants – B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

During this time he met drummer Tom Stephen and bassist Joe Rockman. He recruited them to form The Jeff Healey Band. This new band was so popular with both the crowds and the critics that they were playing nightly at the big name clubs in the busy Toronto Music scene, and in 1987 they were signed to Arista Records.

The band’s demo was given to American music producer Jimmy Iovine, who had produced albums by U2, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and Dire Straits. Not only did Iovine co-produce their first album, he landed the band a role in the Patrick Swayze film Road House, playing the part of the “Double Deuce” house band. Their performances clearly showcased Healey’s unique talents and they had the bar band sound down good enough to also provide songs for the film’s soundtrack, which included a amped-up version of the Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues.”

In 1988 the band released their first album See The Light. It was a big hit at the time with the band scoring the only top forty song of their career. The John Hiatt co-written “Angel Eyes” reached number five on the Billboard charts and the album received a Grammy nomination. Jeff Healey was now an artist to be reckoned with. For his followup album, Hell To Pay (1990), he was treated to guest performances by Mark Knopfler on “I Think I Love You Too Much” and George Harrison and his Wilbury brother Jeff Lynne on a cover of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” Also appearing on the album were keyboardist Paul Shearer (yeah, that one) and Bobby Whitlock, from Derek and the Dominoes, on the Hammond B3 organ.

Touring steadily the band released one more album, Feel This in 1992. The album captured more of their live bar band personality but only sold 100,000 copies. That was enough for a gold record in Canada but earned the band a contract dismissal in the U.S.

Healey took a surprising turn mid career. Although becoming a  well-known and widely respected guitarist, singer, songwriter who had sold millions of blues-rock albums, Jeff Healey had a wider interest in music to showcase. His enormous music collection included more than 30,000 78-rpm records. He drew from these archives for his own radio show called “My Kind of Jazz.” He’d actually been a radio host almost from high school onward. Modeling himself on his all time musical hero Louis Armstrong, and putting all the music theory he’d picked up on his own to good use, Healey learned to play trumpet and recorded two albums of traditional pre-war jazz: Among Friends and Adventures in Jazzland. Both albums featured Healey on guitar, trumpet and valve trombone and were released independently to modest sales.

He would undertake short tours of Europe a couple times a year but preferred to stay close to home most of the year and raise his family. He opened a club in Toronto called Healeys which featured international and local acts. When not touring he appeared there regularly with his new backing band the Jazz Wizards. Once a week he also hosted informal jams with special guests that favored the blues-rock covers that made him famous.

Jeff Healey died on March 2, 2008 at the age of 41. The cancer that took his eyes as a child had returned. He had made a total of ten albums of blues-rock and jazz that make it hard to believe the same artist created them all. Who else can play 1920’s and 30’s jazz on trumpet and ZZ Top blues-rock on guitar and do so with a unique style and voice?

When it came to guitar, Jeff Healey played the instrument all wrong and yet he was almost certainly a virtuoso player. Some people may have regarded his disability and unique style of playing as a gimmick. But he was no more of a novelty act than other great artists like Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder; whose loss of a single sense was more than made up for with a gift for music. The main lesson to take from Healey’s life and music is that there are very few physical barriers to continue learning and enjoying playing guitar.

Jeff Healey was written by Paul Hackett for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

Like the Saturn rockets that launched the Apollo spacecrafts to the moon, the events of 1967 launched the hippie subculture from its underground hipster origins to mainstream culture. Not surprisingly, this period saw experimentation in popular music that often sewed together themes of social justice, spiritual awareness as well as paranoia and political protest. Movies chronicling this period, such as Easy Rider, Forrest Gump and Apocalypse Now, interweave nostalgic soundtracks that help keep hippie music a never-ending part of popular consciousness and consumption.

Here for your perusal are my five picks for the most enduring hippie songs:

Almost Cut My Hair – Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (1970)

“I’m not giving in an inch to fear,” David Crosby sings in this unusual rebel song that equates getting a haircut with selling out to the man. Recorded live in the studio you can hear the angst in his voice, as if shedding his locks is a metaphor for everything that is wrong with the world. At any cost, he wants the world to know where he stands, and that’s why he’s going to let his “freak flag fly.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XWmwvT8bCw

If 6 Was 9 – The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967)

And speaking of “freak flags,” Jimi Hendrix may have been the first to put that particular expression into a song (and it may be most likely the above CSNY song is referring to Jimi’s dismissive “I don’t care if the hippies cut off all their hair.”) Mixing psychedelic blues with sonic experiments in the studio, “If 6 Was 9” is one of Jimi’s great anthems of individualism. While those who visited Easy Rider hippie communes may have embraced the song as one of their own, it doesn’t sound anymore sympathetic to hippies than it does to the businessman who “can’t dress like me.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xylaFXwoQS8

Somebody To Love – Jefferson Airplane (1967)

“When the truth is found to be lies/And the joy within you dies” are the opening lines of “Somebody to Love,” showing this to be a song about alienation and despair. This was the first big hit for Jefferson Airplane and it helped introduce San Francisco’s music and happenings to a wider audience. As Dan Lasley says in Playing Along “Somebody to Love” is the perfect song for beginners because “it is high-energy, has powerful chords, and be adjusted to almost any vocalist who is willing to user her power. But the last best reason is that no one would ever play it ‘just like the album.’” In fact, it’s a great song to use to learn to construct your own guitar solos, as done in this lesson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg1AJV2DPFg

For What It’s Worth – Buffalo Springfield (1967)

“There’s something happening here,” is the opening line to Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” a haunting and psychedelic political song. Stephen Stills wanted to write a song about young soldiers going to fight in Southeast Asia but wound up writing about the police breaking up a crowd that had turned up to mourn the closing of their favorite bar. The song’s title doesn’t appear anywhere in the lyrics but the message still makes it through. Something is always amiss when lines are being drawn, yet “Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g9PiEgYYUU

Truckin’ – Grateful Dead (1970)

It’s no wonder that “Truckin’” has wound up as one to the Grateful Dead’s lasting anthems. It tells the band’s own story in song – the story of young men touring America and getting into trouble along the way. As well as being one of their most often played live songs, it gave rise to the line “what a long strange trip it’s been,” something most hippies could relate to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPNgjA4i6gM

There are plenty more memorable songs from this era that I could have listed. Consider this a jumping off point, what are your nominations for best hippie song?

What are the Best Hippie Songs? was written by Paul Hackett for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

Born on August 1, 1942 in San Francisco to musical parents, Jerry Garcia learned piano as a child until he lost part of his middle finger in a wood-chopping accident. After his father drowned in a fishing accident the following year he was sent to live with his grandparents where he heard country and folk music for the first time. This was the beginning of his lifelong obsession with country, folk and bluegrass music. He took up playing the banjo almost four years before getting his first guitar, a Danelectro, on his fifteenth birthday. His mother had actually gotten him an accordion which he convinced her to exchange for an electric guitar and amp at a pawnshop. His stepfather, who was also very musical, helped him learn some open tunings

Garcia dropped out of high school in 1960 when he was 17 and joined the army (as a punishment for stealing his mother’s car!), where he became serious about playing acoustic guitar. His leisurely approach to army life soon led to him getting discharged. Using his final paycheck he moved to Palo Alto where he began playing clubs and bookstores near the campus of Stanford University. It was here, while living out of his car, that he met the aspiring poet Robert Hunter, who would become his longtime songwriting collaborator. In 1961 he survived a near fatal car crash which served as a wake up call that got him to start taking guitar playing more seriously.

Fascinated with folk, bluegrass and old time country, he started to play for Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions in 1964. Other members of this jug band included guitarist and singer Bob Weir and singer/keyboardist/harmonica player Ron McKernan. With bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones dominating the airwaves in 1965, and even Bob Dylan going electric, the group decided it was time to switch to electric instruments. They renamed themselves The Warlocks and added Bill Kreutzmann on drums and the classically trained trumpet player Phil Lesh on bass. They soon became the house band for the public LSD parties held around the San Francisco Bay area known as Ken Kesey’s Acid Tests. Renaming themselves the Grateful Dead (owing to there already being a group in the area named The Warlocks), the band moved into a communal house at 710 Ashbury Street in San Francisco and were financed by the renowned chemist and LSD manufacturer Owsley Stanley. On the strength of many free concerts they built a large fan base and became a fixture on the local music scene playing at popular venues like the Fillmore Auditorium.

The infamous Summer of Love was in 1967 and the Dead, already one of the most popular bands in the Bay Area, released their self-titled debut album on Warner Bros. Records. They had little experience in recording music in a studio and the album was nothing like their psychedelic live shows. The album may have been a big deal in San Francisco but it was largely ignored everywhere else. They followed the album up with Anthem of the Sun in 1968 and Aoxomoxoa in 1969. Their interest in studio experimentation left them $100,000 in debt to their label. Bowing to the demands of fans they released their first live album Live Dead, which was recorded in 1969 at the Fillmore West in San Francisco. It was their first album that came close to capturing the true essence of the group in their improvisational psychedelic glory and sold well. Their fame outside of the Bay Area started to grow with performances at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and at Woodstock in 1969. In 1973 they joined The Allman Brothers Band and The Band at The Summer Jam at Watkins Glen, which attracted 600,000 fans and was once in the Guinness Book of World Records for largest audience at a pop festival.

In 1970 they released two albums, Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty, which would become the band’s only real studio masterpieces. While American Beauty featured excellent compositions from everyone in the band, Garcia contributed some of his strongest songs ever: “Candyman,” “Ripple” and “Friend of the Devil.” Throughout the seventies and eighties the band would not release another album nearly as strong, and yet their following continued to grow to the point where it became it’s own subculture. Mythologist Joseph Campbell called Deadheads the world’s newest tribe. The band allowed its fans to record and share their shows, even setting up a taping section at all their shows. Deadheads followed the band religiously, compared notes on concerts and made a cottage industry of selling tie-dye t-shirts at concerts. If you were a Grateful Dead fan a concert was a religious experience. If you weren’t a fan, the whole thing was a resounding mystery.

Garcia’s highly improvisational guitar style reflected almost all styles of music, most noticeably the country and bluegrass of his early childhood icons. His melodic solos could reflect the sharp edges of James Burton or echo the lilt of a Celtic fiddle tune. He cited John Coltrane as one of his biggest personal musical influences.

In addition to the Grateful Dead, Garcia had numerous side projects, most notably The Jerry Garcia Band. He also worked with other bands. He served as an uncredited producer on Jefferson Airplane’s second album Surrealistic Pillow and added the signature pedal steel guitar to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s “Teach Your Children.”  As a solo artist he performed different styles such as jazz-rock, bluegrass, country-tinged rock and he even released an album of children’s music in 1993 called “Not for Kids Only.” Jerry Garcia is believed to be the most recorded guitarist in history, with thousands of live Dead and Jerry Garcia Band shows caught on tape, plus hours of studio work – altogether totaling more than 15,000 hours of recorded music.

As the bands most recognizable member, Jerry Garcia came to be viewed as a spokesman of the Hippie movement of the 1960s, not only for the Deadheads, but also the public at large. Although he totally dismissed himself as speaking for the band (or its fans), Garcia appeared quite amused by the band’s success. He once said:

“I feel like we’ve been getting away with something ever since there were more people in the audience than there were on stage. The first time that people didn’t leave after the first three tunes, I felt like we were getting away with something. We’ve been falling uphill for 27 years. I don’t know why. I have no idea. All I know is it’s endlessly fascinating, and incredible luck probably has a lot to do with it.”

The success of touring in a band that could sellout stadiums every night was not without its tolls. Garcia suffered from poor health owing to drug and alcohol abuse and an ongoing battle with obesity. He nearly died in a diabetic coma in 1986. In 1992 the Dead had to cancel 22 shows because of his ill health. The band’s tour still grossed $31 million that year, more than any other band except U2.

Garcia died of a heart attack just eight days after his 53rd birthday. As news of his death spread the Internet was flooded with eulogies and reminisces, while fans could be seen crying in the streets of San Francisco. More than 25,000 fans attended a memorial at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. His body was cremated and part of his ashes were sprinkled in the Ganges River in India and the other part in the San Francisco Bay.

“There’s no way to measure his greatness or magnitude as a person or as a player,” said Bob Dylan, who toured with the Grateful Dead in 1987. “He really had no equal. His playing was moody, awesome, sophisticated, hypnotic and subtle. There’s no way to convey the loss.”

Jerry Garcia was written by Paul Hackett for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

Born in Duluth, Minnesota in 1941, Bob Dylan has released over sixty albums and compilations. During his rise to prominence in the early 1960s, he became more than a household name with folk-inspired songs like Blowin’ In The Wind and The Times They Are A Changin’. His early popularity and appeal almost ran contrary to the popular music of the time. While rock bands like the Beatles and Rolling Stones, and pop groups like the Beach Boys and the music coming out of Motown all were coming into their own, Dylan crafted folk tales that consisted of simple acoustic guitar arrangements and harmonica. The sudden popularity of his topical and socially-conscious music forever associated him with the civil rights movement and counter-culture of the era. By his early twenties, Dylan’s brand of folk-rock achieved commercial and artistic success that surpassed even that of his own musical idols Hank Williams and Woody Guthrie.

It’s hard to believe how fiercely he was criticized when he introduced electric instruments into his music in 1965. Highway 61 Revisited, released that very year, opens with the legendary six- minute song Like a Rolling Stone, which if anything signals the end of Dylan’s career as a protest singer and rebirth as rock n’ roll singer with something to say. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine chose this song as the greatest song of all time, saying that “No other pop song has so thoroughly challenged and transformed the commercial laws and conventions of its time.” Touring at this time, Dylan divided his concerts into two sets: a solo acoustic performance, followed by a raucous electric set which featured Ronnie Hawkins’ band the Hawks, who would soon rename themselves as The Band. At times the electric set would be jeered by fans that still preferred to hear the acoustic folk music.

Over the course of the 1970s Dylan released more than ten albums, including Before The Flood, a double live album documenting his tour with The Band. He had recorded extensively with The Band in the late sixties writing several albums worth of music, some of which would eventually appear on The Basement Tapes. Dylan also worked with George Harrison, first appearing on Harrison’s debut solo album with If Not For You and later taking part in the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971.

Showing an interest in other arts, Dylan appeared in the 1973 film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. While the film is recognized as a one of director Sam Peckinpah’s major works, it’s often remembered for the music Dylan supplied the soundtrack, especially the sublime Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door. This soundtrack album is often overlooked in light of the huge successes that followed. In 1975 Dylan released something of a comeback album, with the deeply personal Blood on the Tracks. The album was a critical and commercial success with the songs Tangled Up In Blue, Simple Twist of Fate and Shelter From the Storm (all available as song lessons on Guitar Noise).

Sometime in the late 1970s Dylan announced he was a born again Christian and subsequently released a trilogy of spiritually themed albums. Among them was 1979′s Slow Train Coming which features guitar work by Dire Straits front man Mark Knopfler. The song Gotta Serve Somebody was a hit and won a Grammy award. Dylan again enlisted Mark Knopfler in 1983 to produce the album Infidels. This album is generally seen as Dylan’s return to secular music, although songs like Jokerman still contain biblical and religious references. If anything, the song melds Dylan’s socially conscious folk roots with a spiritual rebel message.

Constant touring throughout the 1980s may have helped Dylan lighten up. He played with Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood at the end of the Live Aid concert in 1985; toured with the Grateful Dead in 1987, releasing a live album, Dylan and the Dead, commemorating the occasion; and reunited with George Harrison to become a member of The Traveling Wilburys in 1988. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s Dylan continued to release strong albums that ventured into different musical territories, such as folk, blues, rockabilly and swing – almost anything distinctly American. In 2005, a Martin Scorsese documentary, No Direction Home, dissected Dylan’s life and music from 1961 to 1966. Dylan released the eighth installment of his bootleg series entitled Tell-Tale Signs in 2008. The twenty-plus songs consist of outtakes and rare songs recorded between 1989 and 2006. His most recent album, Together Through Life, was released in April 2009. In early 2011 Dylan played his first concerts in communist China and Vietnam (See our review of Bob Dylan Live in Ho Chi Minh City). This year Mr Dylan also celebrates his 70th birthday and more than fifty years of making memorable music.

The Music of Bob Dylan by David Hodge

What can you write about someone who, essentially, is a whole genre of music? About someone who posted in his high school yearbook that his ambition was “to join Little Richard?” About someone who’s latest recordings are as influential as the first ones he made close to fifty years ago?

Born on May 24, 1941, Robert Zimmerman grew up in Duluth and then Hibbing, Minnesota and played in a few rock cover bands while in high school. By the time he started college at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis) in the fall of 1959, he was already leaving the rock scene for what he thought were the realistic, thoughtful and serious trappings of folk music. Performing locally, he started using the stage name of “Bob Dylan.”

Dropping out of college, Dylan moved to New York to join the folk scene of the big city. He made a point of visiting his idol, Woody Guthrie (who was hospitalized with Huntington’s Disease) and also made friends of Guthrie’s pal Ramblin’ Jack Eliot, who taught Dylan much of Guthrie’s music. Performing at many Greenwich Village clubs, he was noticed and signed to Columbia Records, who released his self-titled debut album in 1962. While his first album barely broke even, his second, The Free Wheelin’ Bob Dylan, saw the young artist get plenty of attention, both as a performer and a songwriter. His songs could have a topical bite, but they also could be wonderfully humorous and artists from all over the world took an interest in his music and his performances. And things would just keep growing from there.

By 1965, Dylan was back playing electric rock, although now it was rock that was “realistic, serious and thoughtful.” His four albums from the mid-sixties, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde and John Wesley Harding (though the latter was very spare – guitar, bass, drums and pedal steel), would inspire musicians of all genres for the next forty years. After a motorcycle accident in the summer of 1966, Dylan set aside touring for eight years. But he still wrote and recorded at his own home and at “Big Pink,” a house where the Band (who as “The Hawks” had backed up Dylan in some of his early electric sets) worked and lived. Much of the music recorded there was released years later as “The Basement Tapes.” He also still performed, playing at Woody Guthrie’s memorial concert in Carnegie Hall in the winter of 1968 (Guthrie having passed away in October 1967) as well as the Isle of Wight Festival in the summer of 1969.

While some fans will claim his music through the sixties as their favorite, others will be just as (if not more) passionate about his work of the 1970′s. Planet Waves, Blood on the Tracks¸ Desire and Street Legal, gathered all sorts of reviews, some good and some not so kind. Blood on the Tracks, much like the Kinks’ The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, has seen much of the critical world change its tune – claiming it as Dylan’s finest work. And though his work through the next decade would also set the critics off to both ends of the spectrum, Dylan would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in early 1988. He would also co-found the band, the Traveling Wilburys, that same spring.

Through the present day, Dylan still writes, records and tours. Some of his latest albums, Time Out of Mind (1997), Love and Theft (2001) and Modern Times (2006) show Dylan still can play in almost any style from rockabilly to lounge song, from blues and back to folk. And his latest release, Together Through Life, scheduled to be released on April 28, 2009, promises to be just as interesting, with guests artists such as Mike Campbell (best known as Tom Petty’s guitarist in the Heartbreakers) and Los Lobos, not to mention quite a few songs cowritten with long time Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.

The Allmusic.com website has this to say about Dylan:

Bob Dylan’s influence on popular music is incalculable. As a songwriter, he pioneered several different schools of pop songwriting, from confessional singer/songwriter to winding, hallucinatory, stream-of-conscious narratives. As a vocalist, he broke down the notion that a singer must have a conventionally good voice in order to perform, thereby redefining the vocalist’s role in popular music. As a musician, he sparked several genres of pop music, including electrified folk-rock and country-rock. And that just touches on the tip of his achievements.

Bob Dylan Guitar Lessons

Singers, songwriters, and guitar players of all levels can learn from many of Bob Dylan’s classic songs. A lot of his early material features a simple three chord structure arranged to support a singer with no more backing than an acoustic guitar and harmonica. Guitar Noise has covered several classic Bob Dylan songs in our lessons.

Some of you may agree with the “Easy” label, but our arrangement of the Bob Dylan favorite Lay Lady Lay (from the album, “Nashville Skyline”) can be played very easily with the use of a capo, plus a very simple picking pattern. More important, though, is that is can be used as a great lesson to help you get used to switching between open position chords and basic barre chords. With some practice and patience, you should find yourself playing it well in no time.

Taking advantage of our MP3 lessons, Tangled Up In Blue is a great song for us to focus on strumming. We take another song from Blood on the Tracks, Simple Twist of Fate to use as a lesson in chord progressions and chord construction in open tuning. We also use this song to practice strumming and work on string muting.

We also have a rather faithful arrangement of Buckets Of Rain, the closing song from Bob Dylan’s immortal album, “Blood on the Tracks.” Using open D (or open E) tuning, as well as a steady (and incredibly easy) bass part, it’s easy to make this song sound really good. And, it’s excellent practice both for honing your finger picking technique as well as for developing a good sense of syncopation.

If Not For You is a another very easy song. Our simple arrangement of this classic will help you with figuring out the basics of playing slide guitar.

In our second lesson Open Tuning, Here There Be Monsters, we learn how to put together a fretboard map and use it to figure out chords in open tuning. Follow along until you reach our arrangement of Shelter From The Storm.

Other useful guitar tricks appear in the lesson Connecting The Dots Part 3, which features an example from You Ain’t Going Nowehere.

Our beginner’s lesson on basic travis finger picking includes a lesson on playing Blowin’ in the Wind.

The Dylan classic Knockin on Heaven’s Door also appears in two other Guitar Noise lessons: Tricks of the Trade and Leading Questions.

Bob Dylan was written by Paul Hackett for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

Ho Chi Minh City used to be called Saigon. Today, it is the largest city in Viet Nam. On April 10, 2011 Bob Dylan and his band brought their latest tour to this city of nine million people. The show took place outdoors on the campus of RMIT University, just a little outside the hustle and bustle of the crowded city center.

Of the 8,000 tickets available only about half were sold. The show was all general admission on the grass of the university sports field. The regular ticket price was about $50, making it quite expensive for the average Vietnamese consumer. Recently the Backstreet Boys played to over 30,000 people at the sports stadium in Ho Chi Minh City, which should give you an idea of who the average consumer is! More than half of the people in Vietnam were born after the war ended thirty years ago and many of them haven’t even heard of Bob Dylan. His songs of peace and protest certainly resonate more with the foreigners, who easily made up half of the crowd.

This show was only Dylan’s fourth of the year. He played in Taiwan and then two nights in China before arriving in Viet Nam. Over the past few days some news reports have made a big deal out Dylan allowing the governments of China and Vietnam to vet his setlist. Their point seems to be that Dylan was once perceived as a protest singer, whether he agreed with that role or not, and he should seize the opportunity to protest on their behalf. I don’t really understand the reasoning behind it. What protest have those journalists who are calling for bravery made themselves? Bob Dylan is a performer and on this Asian leg of his tour he has shown he simply comes to play.

In fact, it’s typical of a Dylan show that he doesn’t generally interact or even acknowledge the crowd until the encore, when he briefly introduces the band.  In some ways there’s not much point to Dylan trying to communicate with the crowd in any way other than through music. A lot of the crowd didn’t seem to be paying that much attention to the show itself. True, it was a warm night and everyone seemed to be enjoying the music and the freedom of a general admission concert.  I saw a lot of people twittering, making status updates, snapping photos (of themselves) and chimping throughout the show.

They should have paid more attention because it was a rare, once in a lifetime chance, for the both the Vietnamese and the expats living there to see Bob Dylan. He and his band played an excellent show, rolling through the excellent selections of their eighteen-song set and offering new arrangements on everything, not just the old songs but the new ones as well. The show opened with “Gonna Change My Way of Thinking” with Bob playing keyboards. As the song ended he quickly grabbed a guitar and launched into a very different sounding version of “It Ain’t Me’ Babe.” The new arrangement had Bob playing a simple riff on his electric guitar and the chorus was stripped down so much that you’d think you weren’t supposed to sing along on the “No, No, No, it ain’t me” babes.” Each new arrangement brought an element of surprise to these songs that people have probably heard many, many times. For what Dylan lacks in stage presence, he makes up for in his ability to craft fresh sounding arrangements with his band that never wanders far from blues rock.

While Dylan played keyboard for the majority of the evening, he did pick up a guitar for four songs. The aforementioned “It Ain’t Me Babe” plus “Simple Twist of Fate,” “Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum” and the newer song “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’” Bob didn’t touch an acoustic guitar all night but this was a rock show, not a folk festival. His touring band consists of Charlie Sexton, Stu Kimball and Donnie Herron on the various guitars: electric, acoustic, dobro and pedal steel. George Receli turned in a smashing and flawless performance on drums while Tony Garnier rounded out the rhythm section alternating between electric and stand up bass. And regardless of what you may have heard over the years, Bob’s voice is fine. You can always figure out what song he is playing and understand every word. Perhaps the outdoor setting helped because the sound was as good as you could have hoped for. Vietnam should be lucky to get more artists and shows like this in such a laid back setting. Security was almost non-existent with people bringing in their own bottles of beer and wine (not to mention marijuana) and yet there were no problems at all. Everyone fed off the good vibes this road tour was bringing to town.

At some point Bob Dylan’s tireless touring will end. While Dylan and his band are still making the rounds you should do yourselves a favor and check him out near you. He’ll be playing in several corners of the world this year so check to see if he’s playing near you.

Setlist: Gonna Change My Way of Thinking, It’ Ain’t Me Babe, Beyond Here Lies Nothin’, Tangled Up In Blue, Honest With Me, Simple Twist of Fate, Tweedle Dee Tweedle Dum, Love Sick, The Levee’s Gonna Break, A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, Highway 61 Revisited, Spirit On The Water, My Wife’s Home Town, Jolene, Ballad Of A Thin Man, Like A Rolling Stone, All Along The Watchtower, Forever Young

Bob Dylan Live in Ho Chi Minh City was written by Paul Hackett for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

It’s not always obvious but the band wears their influences, mainly 1950s rock and roll, on their sleeves. Bon Scott’s musical idol was Little Richard. Lead guitarist Angus Young still takes his cue from Chuck Berry, copying him right down to the duck walk he does across stage while brother Malcolm Young’s rhythm guitar is also heavily influenced by fifties rock and roll and blues rock guitar of the sixties and seventies. His riffs and open chord progressions are the heart of the AC/DC sound.

Often formulaic and repetitive, the typical AC/DC song is recognizable for its rocking signature riff, simple familiar chords, blues-scale solo and abrupt ending. Someone once said to Angus Young that it sounds like AC/DC had made the same album fifteen times. A little outraged he replied, “That’s not true. We’ve made the same album 16 times!”

AC/DC’s first album, 1975’s High Voltage, was recorded in Sydney over 10 days. It opens with a cover of the blues standard “Baby Please Don’t Go,” which the band played live on Australian TV with Bon dressed in drag as a blond haired schoolgirl. This memorable performance is available on the compilation DVD Family Jewels. Later the same year the band released T.N.T. which featured the title track and a cover of the Chuck Berry song “School Days.” Neither of the first albums was officially released outside of Australia. The following year Atlantic records mixed songs from both albums for an international release of High Voltage, which Rolling Stone magazine trashed as being an “all-time low” for rock music. The album eventually sold three million copies in the United States, proving in AC/DC’s case it’s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll.

Their followup album Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (1976) featured the title track and a rebellious song about breaking out of jail in a hail of gunfire. The songs “Jailbreak” and “Crabsody in Blue” from their next album Let There Be Rock (1977) were cut from the international versions of the albums by Atlantic over concerns about the lyrics. It may have seemed a bit dog eat dog but the record company didn’t object to “Whole Lotta Rosie,” an autobiographical song about Bon’s one night stand with a woman of immense girth. Let There Be Rock was the first album to feature the band’s distinctive logo designed by Gerard Huerta. Using as many double entendres as possible, the band released two more studio albums with Bon Scott: Powerage (1978) and Highway to Hell (1979) plus a live album If You Want Blood You’ve Got It (1978). Highway to Hell presented a leaner sounding album with the help of new producer John “Mutt” Lange and was their biggest success to date.

In retrospect, Highway to Hell may have been one of those ironic messages life sometimes give us because on February 19, 1980 Bon Scott died in London after a night of heavy drinking. The official cause of death was overdose from acute alcohol poisoning and death by misadventure. He was 33. The best tribute the band could pay was to carry on. They did so in style by hiring Brian Johnson, a singer that Bon had met and admired in England.

Within months of Scott’s death, the revamped band released Back in Black, which aside from the dark cover, was anything but black. The songs have more to say about living than dying. “Have a Drink on Me” and “You Shook Me All Night Long” carry on the party atmosphere that characterised the Bon Scott era. The lyrics of the album’s title track, penned by Brian Johnson, celebrate Bon without being morbid and the song has featured prominently in TV and movies, most recently the opening scene of Iron Man. The album sold over 49 million copies, making it the biggest selling album by any band, only being outsold by Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Fans certainly weren’t going to kick the band in the teeth over the new singer. The songs were memorable and AC/DC were carrying on their legacy of rock n’ roll ain’t noise pollution.

Bon Scott had written a lyric that it ain’t no fun waiting around to be a millionaire. On the success of Back In Black, the band was definitely living in that tax bracket now. They continued to release a stream of similar sounding albums with For Those About To Rock We Salute You (1981), Flick Of The Switch (1983), Fly On The Wall (1985) and Who Made Who (1986) for the Stephen King directed movie Maximum Overdrive. The over reliance on formula seemed to cost the band some of their mojo during the 1980s. Fans were thunderstruck when the band loudly returned in 1990 with The Razors Edge, featuring songs like “Are You Ready” and “Moneytalks.” In 1991 they headlined the Monsters of Rock Festival in England for the third time. The concert was filmed in front of 70,000 fans for release on DVD.

In 1997 the band released Bonfire, a box-set that pays tribute to Bon Scott with a pair of live performances from the late 1970s. The band signed a long-term, multi-album deal with Sony in 2002 and, along with Rush and the Rolling Stones, played at a 2003 Toronto concert that still holds the record for the largest paid musical concert in North America. Their 2008 album, Black Ice kicked off a world tour that took them to 28 different countries.

Having such a recognizable sound makes playing AC/DC guitar very satisfying. Many of the band’s earlier songs rely on power chords, while some of the more famous songs like “Highway to Hell” and “You Shook Me All Night Long” are played with simple open chords. Angus Young’s soloing features a lot of blues scales and licks, played faster than the 1950s guitar heroes he’s trying to emulate. One trick for the rhythm guitar is to have the volume on the guitar turned down real low! Before you head out to spend a lot of money on instructional DVDs and books, check out some of Justin’s free video lessons on Angus Young (AC/DC) Style Licks.

AC/DC was written by Paul Hackett for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

Kurt Cobain was born in Aberdeen, WA on February 20, 1967. A hyperactive child, he was prescribed medicine to help him focus at school and sleep at night. At age seven, his personality changed dramatically when his parents divorced. He became defiant and withdrawn, and at times he was sent to live with relatives. At school he was good at sports but an unwilling participant. Without many friends he became interested in art and would often draw during class. He wrote journals prolifically and they contained many sketches and drawings.

On his fourteenth birthday, he bought his first guitar and starting learning to play songs like “Louie Louie” and The Cars’ “My Best Friend’s Girl.” He also began working on his own songs but seldom found anyone to play music with. Cobain found escape from high school in the punk scene in Seattle, a hundred miles from his home in Aberdeen. He frequently visited the practice space of his favorite band, the Melvins, and even helped carry their equipment to shows. He once tried to audition for the band but was so nervous he forgot all his parts. Realizing he didn’t have enough credits to graduate high school he dropped out a few weeks before graduation.

Hanging out with the Melvins he met bassist and fellow punk rock devotee Krist Novoselic. Cobain had a home demo of an earlier band he was in called Fecal Matter which he gave to Novoselic. After some time the pair formed a band and began recruiting drummers. They came up with the name Nirvana from the Buddhist concept, described by Cobain as “freedom from pain, suffering and the external world,” something not too dissimilar to punk. Cobain said the name was chosen because he wanted something “that was kind of beautiful or nice and pretty instead of a mean, raunchy punk rock name like the Angry Samoans”.

Nirvana’s first album, Bleach, was recorded between December 1988 and January 1989 for just over $600. The album sold 35,000 copies and the band toured the U.S. and played their first international shows in England. The album was popular on college radio and in the British music press, who may have mistakenly believed everyone from Seattle wore lumberjack shirts and patterned retro sweaters.

The band had many different drummers during their first years. Though they liked Chad Channing enough to have him record Bleach, Cobain grew dissatisfied with his playing and Channing left in 1990. By the end of that summer they chose Dave Grohl (who, as a member of the Washington, DC hardcore punk band, Scream, had impressed both Cobain and Novoselic at a show),  as their permanent drummer. Nirvana signed with the major label Geffen Records for $287,000.

As well as playing guitar and singing, Cobain was Nirvana’s main songwriter. When writing he preferred to focus on the melodies of the song, coming up with the music first on an acoustic guitar and then finding a singing style. He’d reach into his poetry and personal life to compose lyrics, which he considered the least important part of the song. Sometimes he would only arrive at the lyrics minutes before recording the song. The rest of the band helped determine the songs length and how many parts it should have. In his journals Cobain referred to John Lennon as his idol and he admitted to writing the song “About a Girl” after listening to Meet the Beatles for three hours.

Prior to recording their second album Nevermind in 1991, the band had been experimenting with the dynamic of playing quiet verses and loud choruses, much in the style of the Pixies, one of Cobain’s biggest musical influences at that time. He was also listening to R.E.M. and the Smithereens and found himself inspired by these more melodic songs. Even though he was a “music first, lyrics second” type of songwriter, he wanted the melodies of his song to be strong and memorable.

Cobain’s rhythm guitar style relied on power chords played on a guitar often tuned down a half or whole step. The band was known to play their instruments so hard that it was nearly impossible to keep them in tune. Cobain also eschewed playing guitar solos and when he did they were often slightly out of tune single note lines that were variations on the songs melody. Music writer Jon Chappell described them as “almost an iconoclastic parody of the traditional instrumental break”. Guitar World magazine wrote that the Nirvana-sound “set the tone for Nineties rock music.”

Nevermind gave the band something most bands never get: critical and popular acclaim that drew huge legions of fans. The unexpected success of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is often marked as the point where alternative rock entered the mainstream. It has been called the “Louie Louie” of the nineties. Almost embarrassed by its success, Nirvana would later exclude the song from their setlist. Their popularity exploded after appearances on Saturday Night Live and MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball. The songs “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “Come as You Are,” and “Lithium” were all hits that received heavy airplay on MTV. By the beginning of 1992 “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was in the American Top Ten and the album knocked Michael Jackson’s comeback album Dangerous from the top of the charts.

After Nevermind, nothing was ever quite the same again, for the band and for popular music. Now part of the mainstream, Nirvana were responsible for popularizing alternative rock and grunge. The success of Nevermind also drew wider audiences for other Seattle bands like Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. Cobain reluctantly found himself cast in the media’s role of spokesperson for Generation X. He tried to focus more on the band’s music and they returned with a third album, In Utero in 1993.

In the early nineties Cobain began doing heavy drugs such as morphine and heroin. With a shared interest in drugs, Cobain bonded with the lead singer of indie band Hole, Courtney Love. In 1992 the two were married in Hawaii and shortly thereafter Love gave birth to their daughter Frances Bean. For a short time the baby was taken from their custody owing to an article in Vanity Fair where Love admitted to using drugs during her pregnancy.

Cobain’s repeated drug use led to increasingly erratic behavior and the band was only able to tour sporadically. Cobain was hospitalised numerous times, once for a heroin overdose in 1993. The extent of his condition and drug use was generally unreported to the public and he and Love were frequently speculated about in the tabloids.

In November of 1993 Nirvana played an acoustic performance at Sony Music Studios in New York for an episode of MTV Unplugged. The stage was ominously decorated like a funeral with black candles and lilies. Breaking the mold established by previous unplugged shows, Cobain played his acoustic guitar through an amplifier and simple effects unit. The set consisted mainly of lesser known Nirvana songs and covers of artists as diverse as The Vaselines, Meat Puppets, David Bowie and Lead Belly. (Nirvana’s take on the traditional song Where Did You Sleep Last Night can be found on Guitar Noise.) Their performance demonstrated that Nirvana was able to transcend the grunge sound they were known for and indicated a possible future direction for their music.

In March of 1994 Cobain was hospitalized in Europe for a drug overdose. After spending five days in hospital Cobain was released and he returned to Seattle. On April 8, 1994, Cobain’s body was discovered by an electrician who arrived to install a security system at his home. A suicide note was found nearby and the coroner ruled that Cobain had taken his own life with a shotgun on April 5, 1994. Traces of Valium and heroin were found in his body.

Cobain had been listening to one of his favorite albums, R.E.M.’s Automatic for the People before taking his life. R.E.M.’s lead singer Michael Stipe says that the next Nirvana album was going to have a lot more light and shade in it like Automatic for the People. The posthumously released CD, MTV Unplugged in New York, revealed that different side of Nirvana. And it earned Nirvana a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album the following year.

For all his success as a musician and cultural icon, Cobain was uncomfortable with people’s adoration. In his suicide note he explained: “The worst crime I can think of would be to rip people off by faking it and pretending as if I’m having 100% fun.” Whether you like his music or not, he was an artist who created something for himself. There was something Cobain needed to say with his music, he just never expected anyone would listen.

Kurt Cobain was written by Paul Hackett for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

Eric Clapton is one of rock music’s quintessential guitarists. Years before he released an album under his own name he was already an iconic figure on the British music scene. His legendary status was gained through stints in bands such as The Yardbirds, Cream and Blind Faith. In fact, Clapton is the only artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times, for his time with The Yardbirds, Cream and also as a solo performer. His influence on rock music and guitar players is immense; yet most of the music he makes is very clearly paying tribute to the musicians that inspired him.

Eric Clapton was born in Surrey, England and raised by his grandparents. Like many of his guitar peers, Clapton was self taught. For his thirteenth birthday, he got a cheap acoustic guitar, so cheap that its high action almost led him to quit in frustration.  According to his autobiography, he spent countless hours listening to and copying American blues musicians like Freddie King, B.B. King and Buddy Guy and you can hear these blues legends’ influence in all of Clapton’s music.

In 1961 Clapton left school and  busked around London, Kingston and Richmond before joining his first band “The Roosters.” Two years later, he was lead guitarist for The Yardbirds, a group with a huge cult status as they were the Rolling Stones’ replacements at Richmond’s Crawdaddy Club.  Clapton wore his musical influences on his sleeve during his two years with the band. When their songs steered too close to pop music for Clapton’s taste, he quit the band, just as they were racking up their first hit song “For Your Love” in 1965.

Clapton promptly joined John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers for an album of mostly blues covers. By the time the album came out in 1966 Clapton had already left that band as well. He wouldn’t be on his own for long. That same year he joined bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker to form the power trio Cream. Remembered today for classic songs  like “Sunshine of Your Love,” “White Room” and their cover of Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads,“ at the time they were one of England’s bluesiest and most psychedelic bands. Their concerts featured extended jams where each musician showed off their talents by competing to be the loudest.  Tensions quickly rose within the band and they soon put together a farewell album and tour. One of their last songs, “Badge,” was co-written by Clapton’s close friend George Harrison. Around the same time Clapton played lead guitar on the Beatles classic “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

Following the disintegration of Cream, Clapton teamed up with Cream drummer Ginger Baker and Steve Winwood to form Blind Faith. Their first gig together was in London’s Hyde Park before a crowd of 100,000 fans.  Less than seven months later, Blind Faith broke up and Clapton found himself weary of the attention and hype of being part of a “supergroup.”

But stepping into the background, being more a sideman in a band, wasn’t going to be easy. He played guitar for Delaney Bramlett’s band (who had opened for Blind Faith) on a U.S. tour, making an appearance on the “Delaney and Bonnie and Friends” album as well. Bramlett encouraged Clapton to continue with his own singing and songwriting and in 1970, he borrowed Bramlett’s band with Leon Russell and Stephen Stills to record his first solo album. That album produced the hits “After Midnight” and “Let It Rain.”

With the star culture still eating at him, Clapton once again tried to step into the background by putting together the band Derek & The Dominos. The group’s sole studio album produced “Layla,” a song of unrequited love written for George Harrison’s then wife Pattie Boyd, which became one of Clapton’s greatest hits. The Layla album itself is mostly blues-based rock, memorable for the heavy doses of slide guitar provided by Duane Allman. The Dominoes toured the U.S. without Duane Allman who returned to work with the Allman Brothers Band before dying in a motorcycle accident in 1971.

When the Dominos expired Clapton finally began a full-fledged solo career. Throughout the seventies, when guitar rock was at its peak, Clapton recorded some of his most enduring songs, such as “Wonderful Tonight,” “Cocaine,” a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin on Heaven’s Door” as well as Bob Marley’s “I Shot The Sheriff.” Despite his successes, the seventies also saw a series of declines caused by recurring problems with drugs and alcohol. Many of these problems would dog his career throughout the following decade as well. In 1988 his career received a suitable retrospective with the career spanning, multi-platinum box set Crossroads. Proving he wasn’t going to rest on his laurel’s he released the blues rock album Journeyman the following year.

Musically and personally, much of Clapton’s life appeared to be back on track. Then tragedy struck in 1991 when his son Connor fell to his death from a New York City apartment window. Much of Clapton’s grief was captured in the song “Tears in Heaven,” which wound up becoming one of his signature songs. His performance of that song and the reworking of other blues songs in an MTV unplugged special resulted in the strongest album sales of his career. He followed the huge success of Unplugged with an album of blues covers called From The Cradle in 1994. In 2004 Clapton returned with another collection of blues covers, the tribute album Me and Mr. Johnson.

Clapton continues to record and tour today, both with his own band and other collaborators such as Jeff Beck, Steve Winwood and B.B. King.  Like many of his contemporaries, Clapton didn’t invent anything new. He was more perhaps more instrumental in popularizing blues music for a mainstream audience than anyone else at the time. He is a consummate rock performer, gifted with two voices. His singing is as recognizable as his guitar playing. Those interested in Eric Clapton’s life will enjoy his memoirs, which came out in 2007. Eric Clapton: The Autobiography looks back on his life in music and his struggles with overcoming drugs and alcohol, which at times were fused with the music he was making.

Clapton released his 19th studio album in September of 2010. Simply titled Clapton, the album is a mixture of cover songs and new material. Celebrating his 66th birthday in 2011, he will spend much of the year touring the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Eric Clapton was written by Paul Hackett for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

Rewind to 1974 when Prince was a sophomore at Minneapolis Central High School, taking as many music classes as he could and not paying much attention to other subjects because he already knew he was going to be a star. He’d already fully experienced the allure of musical life from seeing his jazz musician father playing live. While in high school he found two patrons: Chris Moon the owner of a local recording studio who helped Prince with his first demo and gave him a key to the studio; and Owen Husney, a promoter who bought the young musician new instruments and circulated his demo to major record labels. Prince graduated high school in 1976 and flew to New York City to try and land a record deal. No one was willing to meet with him because he was still just a teenager. Contrast that with the Bieber-reality of the music industry today.

Back in Minneapolis, Husney continued to court major labels, trying to sell them on the Stevie Wonder-like talent of someone who could write, perform and produce his own music. On June 25, 1977, Prince signed a three album contract with Warner Bros. who agreed to give him creative control over the albums. He moved to California and recorded For You, playing all 27 instruments on the album and producing it himself. He wrote all the songs except “Soft and Wet” which he co-wrote with Chris Moon. Warner Bros. had budgeted $180,000 for the first three albums and Prince spent $170,000 of it making For You.

The next year’s self titled follow up quickly recouped that money with the song “I Wanna Be Your Lover” nearly making the top ten. Two other songs “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad” and “Sexy Dancer” also did well on the R&B and dance charts. Prince’s early style was unique in the way it mixed dance, funk, R&B and rock with his virtuoso guitar playing. He also showed significant growth on each new album even though they were released a year apart. His controversial lyrics about sex and religion played out on his increasingly popular albums that followed: Dirty Mind (1980), Controversy (1981) and 1999 (1982).

While Prince was used to working alone in the studio, he needed a live band and assembled some of Minneapolis finest musicians to accompany him on the road. In 1980 they opened for R&B/funk legend Rick James on his Fire It Up Tour. The following year they appeared on Saturday Night Live to play “Partyup.” In December 1981 Prince was invited by Mick Jagger to open two shows for the Rolling Stones in L.A.  During the first night’s show, shocked fans pelted the band with wax cups. Knowing what sort of opening act to expect the following night, concert goers brought food with them to throw.

1999 turned out to be Prince’s his biggest artistic and commercial success to date. Originally released as a double LP it went four times platinum in the United States. It spawned the hits “Delirious” and “Little Red Corvette” and its title track, the party anthem “1999,” is one of Prince’s most upbeat and enduring songs. Not bad when you consider the lyrics are about the end of the world brought about by nuclear war.

By now Prince was more accustomed to playing with live musicians not only while touring but also in the studio. His band,  The Revolution, can be heard throughout many of the tracks on 1999 (especially the title cut) and their name is playfully written backwards on the album cover.

On his next album, 1984’s Purple Rain, the band got full credit as it is by “Prince and the Revolution.” The album definitely sounds more like a band than his earlier work and features some showy guitar work, especially on the extended “Purple Rain” guitar solo.  The album’s first single “When Doves Cry” was considered fairly avant-garde for a pop song in that there is no bass guitar. Other singles would become equally anthems for Prince’s fans, including “Let’s Go Crazy” and “I Would Die 4 U.” The album sold over 13 million copies and was released in conjunction with a movie of the same name.  The movie won an Academy Award for best original score and in July of 1984 Prince was the first artist since The Beatles to simultaneously have the top song, top album and top movie.

Along with Michael Jackson, Prince was one of the few black artists at the time to receive wide exposure on MTV. He was so prolific at writing that he had more than enough songs for himself. He has written songs for and been covered by artists as diverse as Chaka Khan, Sheena Easton, Patti Labelle, Stevie Nicks, Sheila E, Sinead O’Connor, The Bangles (he re-used his “1999” melody on “Manic Monday”) and Alicia Keys. In 1981 he also created a side project called The Time that featured his high school band mate and fellow Minneapolis musician Morris Day. Prince wrote all the songs and sang most of the backing vocals for The Time’s first two albums which he also produced. The Time appeared in the film Purple Rain with Morris Day playing Prince’s musical nemesis.

Prince continued to write and record, releasing Sign ‘O’ The Times in 1987 and the Batman soundtrack in 1989.  Warner Bros. wasn’t entirely happy with his tireless output. They felt his desire to release a new album every year saturated the market, particularly when artists like Michael Jackson waited several years between albums. For his part, Prince felt the label wasn’t doing enough to promote his music and he had so much music he wanted to make.

These feelings set the stage for a truly bizarre and legendary dispute between artist and corporation, one that would almost irreparably damage Prince’s career. In April of 1993, Prince announced he was retiring from recording new music. This was followed by the announcement a month later that he was changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol that was a mixture of the symbols for male and female. He was also going to use that as the title for his final album. Warner Bros. placed an ad in Billboard magazine making fun of the name change. The Artist responded the following week with an ad of his own. The media picked up on it like it was a joke and began referring to him as “The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.”

He started appearing in public with the word “slave” written on his face. There were back and forth moves by the Artist and Warner Bros. with Prince implying in the media that he was withholding his best work, leaving Warner Bros. to initially reject the albums he offered them. When his contractual obligations were finally met he reverted to his original name.

Believing that the Internet had made major record companies unnecessary, he founded the New Power Generation Music club which charged members $100 a year to download new Prince songs. He also gave away free copies of his 2004 album Musicology with concert tickers, which certainly helped the album reach the top 5, making it his most successful album since Diamonds and Pearls in 1991. The album received five Grammy nominations and Prince won his first two Grammies.

In 2006 Prince unexpectedly closed his online music club and opened a night club called 3121 in Las Vegas. He performed at his club every week for several months before departing for London and a string of performances at the O2 Arena. Prince’s recent albums Planet Earth (2007) and 20Ten (2010) were both given away with European newspapers for which Prince was paid a generous advance. These moves caused some controversy and infuriated the already struggling record companies. In the case of Planet Earth Columbia records refused to release the album in the UK because of the newspaper giveaway.

It seems that avenues Prince once championed like online music sales are things he now challenges. He refused to allow online stores to sell 20Ten and in a 2010 interview he was quoted as saying “The Internet is completely over. I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else.” He has closed his own official website and threatened to sue Youtube and eBay for not doing more to stop the unauthorized use of his music.

As well as being a pop superstar Prince is a bonafide guitar virtuoso. Check out his performance on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” at the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony if you have any doubts. He’s often compared to Jimi Hendrix. He replied to these comparisons in a 1985 Rolling Stone interview: “It’s only because he’s black. That’s really the only thing we have in common. He plays different guitar than I do. If they really listened to my stuff, they’d hear more of a Santana influence than Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix played more blues, Santana played prettier.”

In a 2010 interview with the Daily Mirror, Prince also claimed that “Playing electric guitar your whole life does something to you. I’m convinced all that electricity racing through my body made me keep my hair.”  You can check out his 1974 high school yearbook photo to see what electricity did to his hair back then.

Whether he is appearing at the Super Bowl halftime or appearing as a special guest on American Idol, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Prince yet. Some of his weird antics and strange turns over the years have challenged his most ardent fans. It seems in recent years he’s focused on reclaiming his legacy by doing what he does best, concentrating on the music.

Check out our review of Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince for further reading.

Prince was written by Paul Hackett for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

David’s newest book The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar comes out on October 5 but you can miss the lines by entering to win a free copy today. We’re giving away two free autographed copies every month.

If you’d like to enter this giveaway here’s what you do. Get yourself a copy of David’s last book The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar. If your library doesn’t have it you can ask them to order it for you! Then all you need to do is take a picture of yourself with the book somewhere interesting. What you think is interesting is totally up to you.

You can check out our Facebook page or David’s blog to see examples of all the winners so far.

Then send your photo in an email to David at dhodgeguitar@aol.com. Be sure to include an email address where you can be reached, as well as a mailing address. We’re looking forward to seeing where in the world the books end up!

Winners are being announced all the time so get in on the action.

Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar Giveaway was written by Paul Hackett for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

Proud Mary

“Proud Mary,” from CCR’s second album Bayou Country in 1969, is the band’s most recognizable and characteristic song. Like many Creedence songs it’s built around a powerful riff which opens the song and is repeated throughout. It also features a guitar solo that Fogerty says was influenced by Steve Cropper of Booker T & the MG’s. “Proud Mary” was remade by Ike & Tina Turner’s two years later. It became one of their signature songs as well owing to their reworking of the gospel and soul elements of the “Rollin’ down the river” chorus.

Suzie Q

“Suzie Q” is CCR’s only Top 40 hit that wasn’t written by John Fogerty. The song was written by Louisiana born guitarist Dale Hawkins in 1957 and was a part of CCR’s setlist for years before appearing on their debut album in 1968. The song’s signature lick is a great example of hybrid picking for rock guitar, with the constant bass note being an integral part of the song’s rhythm. If you want to get schooled in both the Hawkins original and Fogerty cover, check out the Arlen Roth video lesson “The Open E Position ‘Suzie Q’ Lick”

Who’ll Stop the Rain

“Who’ll Stop the Rain” is one of CCR’s more serious and moody songs. Lyrically it can be seen as a criticism of the American war in Vietnam, although Fogerty really wrote the song after playing at Woodstock in 1969. “Who’ll Stop the Rain” is primarily an acoustic song with a melancholy melody that matches the downbeat theme of the song.  The open chord rhythms and lilting notes played on open positions gives the song its smooth folk rock sound.

Fortunate Son

In their review of the album Willy and the Poor Boys, Rolling Stone’s reviewer noted that even Bob Dylan couldn’t write a protest song that made you want to dance. “Fortunate Son,” which Rolling Stone placed #99 on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, is an angry yet danceable protest song. It stands out against the other somewhat relaxed songs on the album. Starting with a simple riff that skips strings, “Fortunate Son” turns into one of Fogerty’s hardest rocking songs. The verses and chorus are played with power chords that fuel the outraged lyrics.

Up Around the Bend

CCR songs rarely fall back on extended guitar solos to make a statement. In fact, their concise solos are what keeps most of their songs from going past the three minute mark. “Up Around the Bend” begins with a high pitched riff played on a single guitar before the rest of the band joins in with a driving rhythm that mirrors the good times the lyrics promise. The riff returns during a break in the song and leads into a brief but effective solo, similar to the sparse, simple solo heard in “Proud Mary.”

I think all of these songs sound great on guitar. Even if you don’t have bandmates to play along with they can be made to sound good on their own without much rearranging. Feel free to leave a comment and tell me what some of your favorite CCR songs are.

Best CCR Songs For Guitar was written by Paul Hackett for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

John Fogerty was born in Berkley, California in 1945. He bought his first guitar, a Silvertone, from Sears, along with a five-watt amplifier with eighty dollars he’d earned on his paper route. In the late 1950s he joined a band called The Blue Velvets with his older brother Tom on guitar and school mates Doug Clifford and Stu Cook on drums and bass. Originally it was the elder Fogerty’s band, but while Tom could sing he admittedly didn’t have as distinct a sound as his younger brother. The elder Fogerty brother eventually switched to rhythm guitar and John took over singing and fronting the band.

In 1965 the group was signed to Fantasy Records, an independent jazz label based in San Francisco.  At the direction of the record company they changed their name from The Blue Velvets to The Golliwogs. They suffered an early setback when both John Fogerty and Doug Clifford were called up by the draft board in 1966. Fogerty enlisted in the Army Reserve and Clifford served in the Coast Guard Reserve. Both were discharged in 1967 and all members of the group quit their jobs to play music fulltime.

In 1967 Fantasy Records was purchased by Saul Zaentz (remember his name for later). He offered the band a chance to record a full-length album if they changed their name. The first thing name they came up with was Creedence Clearwater Revival and it stuck. In July of 1968 they released their self-titled first album.

Though CCR was very much a group in their tight, punchy arrangements, their vision was very much singer, songwriter, guitarist, and leader John Fogerty’s. Fogerty’s classic compositions for Creedence both evoked enduring images of Americana and reflected burning social issues of the day. The band’s genius was their ability to accomplish this with the economic, primal power of a classic rockabilly ensemble. – All Music Guide

Their first album was a mixture of new songs (“Gloomy”), a pair of Golliwog leftovers (“Porterville,” “Walk On The Water”) and a trio of nifty covers (“I Put A Spell on You,” “Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won’t Do)” and “Suzie Q”). The band had been playing “Suzie Q” live for years and, quite ironically, their unfashionable mix of psychedelia and R&B introduced them to a much larger audience. Radio stations in San Francisco and Chicago began giving the song a lot of airplay. Other stations around the country picked up on it and CCR’s had their first Top 40 hit.

Their follow up album “Bayou Country,” released in January 1969, included the group’s biggest hit. “Proud Mary” tells the story of someone leaving a good job in the city for a life of freedom on the river. It’s a timeless bit of storytelling that seamlessly fits into the hook of a three minute song. It may be the most characteristic of CCR songs in its fusing of genres, notably rock and roll, blues, gospel and soul. Fogerty has said the guitar solo, a deft blend of rhythmic partial chords and simple, sing-able single note lines, was influenced by the work of Steve Cropper of Booker T & the MG’s.

Every song on “Bayou Country,” from the moody swamp-rock opener “Born on the Bayou” to the almost eight-minute long “Keep On Chooglin’” that closes the disc,  showcases a band that had found its signature sound. And except for an unrestrained cover of Little Richard’s “Good Golly Miss Molly,” John Fogerty had penned each number.

All the songs add up to a superb statement of purpose, a record that captures Creedence Clearwater Revival’s muscular, spare, deceptively simple sound as an evocative portrait of America. – All Music Guide

The world wanted more from CCR and only had to wait seven months for the group’s third album.  “Green River” came packed with deceptively simple sounding songs like “Bad Moon Rising,” “Green River,” and the tired story of a burnt out traveling singer still stuck in “Lodi.” Fogerty would say in later interviews that he’d never even been to the town (about seventy miles from his childhood home of Berkeley) but picked it because of its cool sounding name.

That same year CCR played at the infamous Woodstock concert. Their performance is conspicuously absent from the film of the concert. Fogerty felt their performance was sub-par owing to the fact that they didn’t start playing until three a.m. after the Grateful Dead finished an epic jam set. By this time many people in the audience had already gone to sleep.

The band still had plenty of fire in them though. They toured incessantly for the next two years and released three more albums: “Willie and the Poor Boys” (November, 1969), “Cosmo’s Factory” (July 1970) and “Pendulum” (December 1970). Fogerty’s song about Woodstock, “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” as well as  “Down on the Corner,” “Fortunate Soon,” “Up Around the Bend,” “Travelin Band,” “Run Through the Jungle” and “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” all became both huge hit singles and classic rock standards that are played to this day.  In fact, it’s hard not to include the B side of “Cosmo’s Factory” – “Up Around the Bend,” “My Baby Left Me” (a cover from venerable blues legend Arthur Crudup – who also wrote “That’s All Right”), “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and “Long as I Can See the Light” in any list of “must hear” album sides. It’s no wonder that “Cosmo’s Factory” reached Number 11 in the Soul Charts!

But while success greeted CCR on both the charts and on tours, tensions within in the band led to the departure of Tom Fogerty in 1971. The remaining members made an album that included more contributions from Doug Clifford and Stu Cook. “Mardis Gras” was released in 1972 and, despite containing one of the group’s most powerful songs (“Someday Never Comes”), the album was easily the band’s most disappointing work both in terms of reviews and commercial acceptance.  It was to be their final album together. After two years of ruling the charts the band was finished.

Fogerty’s first solo outing was an album of country covers in 1973. “The Blue Ridge Rangers” was a true solo effort with Fogerty playing all the instruments himself. In 1975 he released his first solo album of rock music simply called “John Fogerty.” It’s in a similar vein to CCR with some excellent new songs and a few carefully chosen covers. Of particular note is the album opener “Rockin’ All Over the World.” The song was covered with much success by the British band Status Quo, becoming their biggest hit. They played it as the opening song for the 1985 Live Aid concert in London.

Touring in support of his solo album, Fogerty refused to include Creedence songs in his set. Unable to write new songs he didn’t release another album until 1985’s “Centerfield.” The album was Fogerty’s biggest post-CCR success owing to its familiar rock sound and unapologetic rancor. It’s a true return to form, with Fogerty playing all the instruments. The album is not without controversy. In order to get out of his contract with Fantasy Records in the early seventies, Fogerty signed away the rights to all his CCR songs. This freed him to launch a solo career on Asylum Records and wound up starting one of the longest running legal disputes in rock history. Fogerty often objected to the misuse of CCR songs to sell anything from cars, to blue jeans and even paint thinner.

There was plenty of acrimony between Fogerty and Fantasy Records owner Saul Zaentz. Two songs on “Centerfield” are apparent attacks on the Zaentz’s character. “Mr. Greed” disparages someone who will do anything for money, and “Vanz Kant Dance” includes the not so subtle line “Vanz can’t dance but he’ll steal your money.” The song was originally called “Zanz Can’t Dance” before a defamation lawsuit forced Fogerty to change the name.

Fantasy Records also sued Fogerty over the song “The Old Man Is Down The Road.” They argued that Fogerty plagiarized his own song “Run Through the Jungle,” a song which Fantasy owned exclusive rights to. Fogerty prevailed in court by bringing his guitar to the witness stand and playing excerpts from both songs. He successfully demonstrated to the court how some songwriters have distinctive styles that make different compositions sound similar. Fogarty was awarded his legal fees several years later through the Supreme Court decision Fogerty v. Fantasy.

By this time Fogerty had begun playing CCR songs at his concerts again. Most notably he played Creedence songs during a concert for Vietnam veterans in Washington, D.C. on July 4, 1987.  Lawsuits and acrimonious disagreements persisted between all the former members of CCR. When the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 Stu Cook and Doug Clifford were excluded from the musical portion of the show. (Tom Fogerty died in 1990.) In a speech made at the induction ceremony Bruce Springsteen had this to say about Fogerty: “As a songwriter, only a few did as much in three minutes as John Fogerty. He was an Old Testament, shaggy-haired prophet, a fatalist. Funny, too. He was severe, he was precise, he said what he had to say and he got out of there.”

Fogerty never lost that touch. His 2004 CD, “Déjà Vu (All Over Again)” contains ten songs full of comic and candid and even acidic commentary and still clocks in under thirty-five minutes.  In 2005 he was inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame, the same year as his inspiration, Steve Cropper.

In 2009 Fogerty released “The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again.” When touring these days he includes both Creedence songs and hits from his solo career.

John Fogerty was written by Paul Hackett for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

Since 1976 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers have released eleven studio albums, with Mr. Petty releasing three solo albums sans the Heartbreakers. Later this month (June 2010) Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers will put out their twelfth album together, Mojo, before embarking on yet another tour.

Tom Petty was perhaps destined for a life in Rock and Roll. Growing up in Gainesville, Florida, he met Elvis Presley at the age of ten while he was filming his ninth movie near Petty’s home. A few years later Petty would see the Beatles live on the Ed Sullivan Show and know right away that he wanted to be in a band. It also didn’t hurt that one of his earliest guitar teachers was Don Felder, who also lived in Gainesville at the time and who would later join the Eagles.

Petty’s music career began to take hold while playing bass for the Florida band Mudcrutch. In 1974 they relocated to L.A. and signed a deal with Shelter Records. By 1975 they were disbanded by the record company with Petty, to his own discomfort, left inheriting the record contract for himself. With leftover Mudcrutch band members Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers was formed. They recorded their self-titled first album for Shelter Records, which included the classic songs “Breakdown” and “American Girl,” in about two weeks. At the time, it got little notice in America, but did better in Britain where the band did a tour opening for Nils Lofgren.

After more extensive touring, the band recorded the follow-up album You’re Gonna Get It! in 1978. The band desperately wanted a hit single and they thought they had it with “Listen to Her Heart.” Both the record company and reluctant radio stations objected to the line “You think you’re gonna take her away/With your money and your cocaine.” They wanted him to change “cocaine” to “champagne” which seemed silly since the line was clearly against drug use. Petty refused to change the line, one of the first of many instances of the rebellious streak that has guided him through most of his career

And sticking to his guns was important (not to mention something of a recurring event) around this time because in 1979 Shelter Records was sold to MCA. Petty objected to being transferred to a new company without his consent. He became embroiled in a legal battle which ultimately bankrupted him. But he eventually emerged with a new contract and the album, Damn the Torpedoes, later that year. Most importantly, the re-negotiated contract now included the rest of the members of the Heartbreakers.

The album’s title alludes to not backing down in the face of deadly opposition. It comes from the famous navy quote, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” The band was rewarded with a pair of hit songs “Don’t Do Me Like That’ and “Refugee.” The album itself held steady at the Number Two position on the charts for a full seven weeks, only being stopped from reaching Number One by Pink Floyd’s The Wall.

Petty had more run-ins with the executives at MCA. In 1981 the label hoped to capitalize off his name by charging an extra dollar for his next album. The forthcoming album would be one of the first records released under the company’s so-called “superstar pricing.” Petty objected loudly and publicly. He threatened to withhold the album altogether, or name it $8.98 if the company insisted on selling it for $9.98. Petty was again triumphant and the company backed down. Hard Promises came out in 1981 and the band had another hit with “The Waiting.”

In 2002 Petty released his most fully charged album of angst for the music industry. The Last DJ includes several attacks on the music business, criticizing it for greed, watering down music and relying too heavily on music made by underdressed young women. It was the only flop of Petty’s career selling less than any of his other albums. Critics claimed he was being “bitter,” which Petty took issue with. He claimed the album is full of hope if you look for it. Poor sales notwithstanding, that same year the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In 2006 he released his third solo album, Highway Companion, and embarked on a tour to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Heartbreakers. Following that he reunited with his old band mates from Mudcrutch for an album and tour. Their swinging jam inspired album provides a nice side project to the Heartbreakers regular sound. The songs are more countryish and stray further into southern rock than typical Heartbreakers outings. Everything seems to have a freer flow, perhaps owing to the fact that everything was recorded in a two week period. Petty also lays down his guitar to return to bass duties.

Tom Petty’s style of songwriting has a lot in common with his band mates from his more famous side project The Traveling Wilburys. If you look through all the commonality between Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Geoff Lynne and Roy Orbison – you’ve got yourself a typical Tom Petty song. Writing mostly about successes and failures or love and romance, Petty frequently revisits the theme of American individualism (“Into The Great Wide Open,” “Running Down a Dream,” “I Won’t Back Down”). Listening to songs like “Free Falling,” “Learning to Fly” and “Room at the Top,” you can’t help but notice a recurring exploration of the highs and lows experienced in life. They’re not just songs about a rock stars life, but about common human experiences. There can be no feeling of joy and success without the flipside of disappointment and failure. No matter how high you go, you always have to come down. Whatever you make of it, the music is always uplifting and optimistic while remaining realistic and true to life.

An example from the 1980 song “Here Comes My Girl” – “It just seems so useless to have to work so hard and nothing ever really seems to come from it,” Petty murmurs. “Then she looks me in the eye and says, ‘We’re gonna last forever.’ and, you know, I can’t begin to doubt it.”

For some interesting behind the scenes reading check out the Cameron Crowe interviews with Petty for Rolling Stone back in seventies – Tom Petty returns for more (April 20, 1978) and Tom Petty’s going to get it – his way (October 19, 1978).

And if you get a chance make sure you catch Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers next time they play somewhere near you.

Tom Petty was written by Paul Hackett for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

Over the years, B.B. has developed one of the world’s most identifiable guitar styles. He borrowed from Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker and others, integrating his precise and complex vocal-like string bends and his left hand vibrato, both of which have become indispensable components of rock guitarist’s vocabulary. His economy, his every-note-counts phrasing, has been a model for thousands of players, from Eric Clapton and George Harrison to Jeff Beck. B.B. has mixed traditional blues, jazz, swing, mainstream pop and jump into a unique sound. In B.B.’s words, “When I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille.” - from “BBKing.com”

Riley B. King was born on September 16, 1925 on a plantation in Itta Bena, Mississippi. At the age of twelve, B.B. bought his first guitar for fifteen dollars. When you take into account that this seemingly small sum was the equivalent of about $230 today, you can understand that he was definitely driven to play guitar in order to save up that kind of money at such a young age.

During his early years he worked on farm near his home driving tractors and working as a sharecropper (a system of farming that came to an end during the 1940s in the U.S. due to mechanization.) In his twenties, he hitchhiked to Memphis, Tennessee, the Mecca of  all important musicians of the South. Here he stayed with his cousin Bukka White, already a successful musician, who would help school B.B. in the blues.

In 1948 B.B. began his career in music by performing on Memphis radio. As his popularity grew he adopted the name Blues Boy King, which was eventually shortened to B.B. King. Nearly as iconic as his name, is B.B.’s love for his trademark guitar “Lucille.” The guitar’s name came about after a near tragedy at one of B.B.’s shows. Two men got into a fight over a woman named Lucille and, while brawling, accidentally set the dance hall on fire. After initially escaping safely with everyone, B.B. realized he had left his cherished guitar behind and rushed back inside, saving the guitar while narrowly escaping death himself. It was a testament to his love for his guitar and an important lesson on how far to go for love. B.B. retells the story in the song “Lucille,” which you can find on his retrospective box set “King of the Blues.”

B.B. started recording in 1949 under a contract to RPM records. Many of his earliest recordings were produced by Sam Phillips, who later founded Sun Records. Phillips produced records for many notable rhythm and blues acts like Bobby Blue Bland and Howlin’ Wolf,  and went on to play a significant role in the emergence of rock and roll by launching careers for the likes of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison.

During the 1950s B.B. toured nationally on the famed “Chitlin’ Circuit.” Backed by handpicked musicians and a relentless touring schedule, B.B. and his band sometimes played more than three hundred shows a year. His first hit single was “Three O’Clock Blues” which went to #1 on the American R&B charts. In 1968 B.B. was introduced to white audiences at the Newport Folk Festival and a series of shows at the Fillmore West, where he shared the bill with contemporary rock acts of the day like Booker T & the MG’s and The Mothers of Invention. The Rolling Stones invited B.B. King along with Ike and Tina Turner to open their shows. B.B.’s short but fiery opening set is captured on the Rolling Stone’s recently released expanded edition of “Get Yer Ya’ Ya’s Out.”

After a steady decade of blues and R&B hits like “Payin’ The Cost To Be The Boss,” “How Blue Can You Get,” and “Why I Sing The Blues,” B.B. scored his biggest hit in 1970 with “The Thrill is Gone.” The song reached #15 on the pop charts and would go on to etch itself into popular culture. The song was originally written in 1951 by Rick Darnell and Roy Hawkins. B.B.’s version departs from the original as well as B.B.’s own style to that point by including a string section.

In 1988 B.B. recorded “When Love Comes to Town” with U2 for their “Rattle and Hum” album, which was meant to serve as a tribute to American music. Over the years B.B. has played live and recorded with many of the artists he helped inspire, including Eric Clapton. The pair recorded “Riding with the King” in 2000. B.B.’s most recent album is 2008’s “One Kind Favor,” which features a stripped back and pure blues. The Grammy winning album was produced by T Bone Burnett, hot off his success working with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.

B.B. has been inducted into both the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He’s won fifteen Grammy Awards and countless other accolades. In fifty-plus years of playing live he’s given more than 15,000 concerts worldwide, including Glastonbury in 2011.  Today, more than twenty years after receiving Grammy’s “Lifetime Achievement Award, “ he still tours ceaselessly, quipping that he never said his “Farewell Tour” would be his last.

Check out our review of B.B. King – The Ultimate Collection. You might also enjoy reading the official bio of B.B. on his site as well as Dan Cross’ Learn to Play Like B.B. King lesson.

B.B. King was written by Paul Hackett for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

Last month I told you about a legal notice we received from the Music Publishers Association demanding that we remove any copyrighted guitar tab and lyrics from Guitar Noise. Since that time we’ve received quite a few messages of support and questions from readers.  It’s been a busy month, and while I have a short breather I’d like to share a bit of what has been going on.  Some of you have asked if there is anything you can do to help and I’ll get to that in a minute. First, let me bring you up to speed.

You may have noticed already that guitar tabs and lyrics have been removed from most of the song lessons. This sometimes makes for confused reading and I’m sorry about that. We’re going to try and fix that. The lessons are still there for you to read, but for now you’ll have to work out the notes and lyrics on your own using the audio files and information in the text. In the cases where published transcriptions can be bought they will certainly make useful accompaniments. If you’re looking to buy guitar tabs from the publishers you should check out our FAQ on Where can I find guitar tab for any song?. There are still several lessons featuring public domain songs, such as our Christmas songs and Celtic arrangements that have been left untouched. And you can always email your questions about any lessons to David who is always happy to get information to people who ask for it.

On the legal side of things, I have been in contact with a copyright lawyer familiar with the issues at stake. His counsel has been very helpful because it has furthered my understanding of copyrights. Unfortunately, the result is not so positive. His advice confirms what I’ve already learned from other website owners who have faced similar takedown letters. Simply put, the MPA can make it prohibitively expensive for us to argue that we’re not copyright infringers. We may have a good argument for fair use and non-infringement, but from a business point of view, it isn’t worth the cost of trying to reach that conclusion.

It’s clear from emails I’ve received that many of you have spent more money on published works of music because of this site. The publishers, however, do not see it that way. Their position is that they are also engaged in creating, publishing and distributing teaching materials using their songs. It’s virtually impossible for them to compete with free and pirated works. To protect their business, lawyers for the MPA are demanding our ISP takes Guitar Noise offline unless we remove the “unauthorized” material or obtain a license to use the material lawfully.

Permanently removing the lyrics and tabs or negotiating a license with the publishers may be our best choices for a way forward.  While we do this, though, understand that we are working at a way of bringing them back within the legal copyright system. This process may take some time, though.

Many of you have written to ask what you can do to help. First of all, there is no petition to sign. It’s also not necessary to begin an online petition against the MPA or NMPA. If you want to voice your opinion you can join us on Facebook and Twitter. A lot of people have been sharing ideas there. You can also comment on this post, join the discussion in the forums or send us an email.

Another thing you can do to help is continue to make people aware that this is happening. We also hope you’ll try and see both sides of the coin. Guitar Noise has always been a place where our users are pretty good about respecting the views of others. Hopefully the discussions on this topic will remain civil.

Finally, whatever your feelings about these issues, take part in the discussion. What is particularly helpful is to explain why and how the Guitar Noise lessons, in their format, has been helpful to you. From its inception, this website has always been about teaching guitar and music and hearing how it has helped you learn can help us make this place even better.

The good news is that, aside from the tabs and lyrics which we’ve removed, Guitar Noise isn’t going away. We’re talking about less than a hundred “unauthorized” guitar tabs. Anyone who’s spent any length of time on the internet knows that isn’t even a drop in the bucket.

We intend to be an even stronger community as all this works itself out.

See you around.

Where are the Guitar Tabs? was written by Paul Hackett for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise