So You Think You Can't Rock Out On An Acoustic Guitar????

The rise of rock and roll seems to be married to the amplification of the guitar. With the Fender Telecaster in 1951, Stratocaster in 1954, and Gibson Les Paul in 1952, this hybrid of country and blues music dubbed "Rock and Roll" had found the fuel to drive it's popularity. As the popularity of the music grew, the guitar players became stars in their own right. As the electric guitar became synonomous with the style, the acoustic guitar faded from prominence. Often it was only a prop for the singer. I mean, how much did Elvis actually strum those guitars in all those movies. A verse or two into the song, he got busy singing to the girl and a side man in the production number had taken the guitar away to the background. Well, I'm here to tell you...the acoustic guitar can rock just as hard as it's electrified brother!

Obviously, examples are needed. Let's start with the The Rolling Stones...yes, the World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band knew how to rock the acoustic. Early in their career, they covered the great Buddy Holly song "Not Fade Away". In 1964, the Bo Diddly beat that drives the song was played on an acoustic guitar to great effect. The Stones released Beggars Banquet in 1968. One of the highlights of this album is the hard driving "Street Fighting Man." While the meaning was somewhat ambiguous, the strength and power of the song is undeniable. It opens with an open tuned acoustic guitar ringing out the opening riff and continues with multi-layered acoustics through the end of the song. You think acoustics can't rock? Well on this tune, the only electric instrument on the song is a bass guitar.

Let's check out another band capable of rocking the acoustic. Yes, off to the left is Jimmy Page playing an acoustic guitar. Led Zeppelin, those iconic hard rockers produced more than a couple of great rock songs driven by acoustic guitars. For Led Zeppelin III Page and Plant adapted a traditional song about that tells the story of a condemned man pleading for someone to buy his freedom in the song "Gallows Pole". Once again, the song features acoustic instruments providing a bulk of the music for this tune and , like Street Fighting Man, the only electric instrument used on the song is a bass guitar. You can also look to Zep for other acoustic rockers like "Ramble On" from Zep II, "The Battle of Evermore" from IV (ok, lots of mandolin on this one), and "Over the Hills and Far Away" from Houses of the Holy.







Who else can we look at as truly acoustic rockers..."Who" indeed.....
The Who and more specifically, Pete Townshend know that the acoustic guitar is as essential to rock and roll as the electric guitar. It started early in their career with the song "Substitute". Pete tended to play with a fury during live performances. This shows in the way he played his trusty Gibson J-200 acoustic guitar. "Magic Bus" is another song featuring a Bo Diddley beat with the guitar. It may be one of the best examples of using the the acoustic to drive the beat of a song. Perhaps the signature song for a rocking out on an acoustic guitar is Pinball Wizard. Townshend impossibly sychopatic strumming throughout the song is as distictive and any electric guitar riff you could name. As a hopeful guitar player, my aspiration is that someday I may be able to duplicate that strum pattern...not likely though. Townshend has performed many of these songs solo with only an acoustic over the years including "Behind Blue Eyes" and "Won't Get Fooled Again".

How did these guys learn to make the acoustic guitar really rock? It actually goes back to before the rock and roll explosion. Let's give credit where credit is due. At the beginning of this piece, I called this rock and roll music we love a hybrid of country and the blues. Just listen to the playing of some of often forgotten and overlooked artists such as Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, Mississippi John Hurt, and blues artists that followed such as Elmore James, Bo Diddly, and John Lee Hooker.

These are the people that really are the pioneers of what eventually became rock and roll. And...they did it by playing acoustic guitars.

Rod Stewart At His Peak

Rod Stewart’s career has been lengthy, sometimes controversial, and always interesting. In my opinion, he was never better than he was in 1971 when Every Picture Tells a Story was released. Rod’s early career through the early to late 60s had him working with a who’s-who of the British rock scene. Being involved with people like Mick Fleetwood, Brian Auger, Long John Baldry (a great overlooked singer), Peter Green, and Jeff Beck, can prepare you pretty well for the rock stardom that was to come. His first two solo albums, The Rod Stewart Album and Gasoline Alley though uneven, had enough solid material to show the promise of things to come.

I still remember hearing Maggie May everywhere I went during the fall of my freshman year of college. Stewart’s raspy whiskey tinged voice retold the story of a young man learning about “love” through the guidance of an older woman. The record buying public was hooked on Rod Stewart. It was initially intended to be the “B”side of a single with another song off the album, Reason To Believe, the “A” side.

Do you kids know what 45 rpm singles were back in the day???

The success of Maggie May tends to overshadow the greatness of the rest of the album. Side one starts off with the title track which gives us a glimpse of things to come in Rod‘s career. Co-written by Ronnie Wood, this rocker also employs other members of the Faces to kick off the album on a proper tone. Also on side one is a reworking the Arthur Crudup tune, That’s All Right which helped launch Elvis’ career as the King’s first single. Rod covers a wonderful Bob Dylan tune, Tomorrow is Such a Long Time to close out side one. In my world, of all the great cover versions there are of Bob Dylan compositions, it would be hard to find one better. I think of the love of my life in the lyrics of the final verse every time I listen to this song.

Side 2 leads off with Maggie May but certainly doesn’t stop there. Mandolin Wind is a beautiful ode to the power and endurance of love through difficult times. Written by Stewart, it is as great a performance as any of Rod’s more successful commercial tunes. Rod’s cover of the Motown song, I Know I’m Losing You, is a better version than the hit single by Rare Earth. Stewart then ends the album with the hopeful Reason To Believe.

The album cover itself is not extremely remarkable. The front cover features a picture of Rod captured on stage with microphone and stand in hand while performing. As one of the best live performers of the era while sharing the stage with Faces, this is a apt visual to introduce you to Stewart. The back of the cover simply features the song titles presented as you might purchase them on sheet music from an era that has passed us by. This presentation however is also quite apt. This album of music features one of rock’s greatest and most unique voices performing great songs. After all, isn’t that where it starts…great songs. Whether penned by Dylan, Tim Hardin, Arthur Crudup, or Rod Stewart, the music doesn’t endure without great songs.

I Don't Hate Digital Music

You know, while I love the experience of setting that 12" LP on the turntable, sitting back and listening to a record in it's analog brilliance, I do appreciate aspects of digital music...specifically that little mp3 player that fits in your pocket, is capable of holding hundreds if not thousands of songs, and makes it possible to throw together your own variety of song mixes with literally touches of the fingertips. I admit, the majority of my music listening time is spent with the little headphones jammed into my ears. You may have noticed that I described that digital device as an mp3. I'm in the minority in that I actually don't have an I-pod. I have a little more than 800 songs on my Sony mp3 player and will regularly add or eliminate songs from the player as suits my moods.

I appreciate it when I rediscover a song long forgotten and by downloading I can avoid the purchase of the entire Time-Life 10 disc set that is one of the few places to get it anymore. Those one-hit wonders...great songs that brought the songwriter or performer brief fame can now be obtained much easier than ever before.

I get enjoyment from the fact that the mp3 is like my own radio station. I can just let the player roll through the list and I'll have everything from AC/DC to T-Bone Burnett in the course of a listening session. I love the ability to have about 6 versions of Sweet Jane all in a row...done by the Cowboy Junkies, Mott the Hoople, along with multiple versions by Lou Reed including the original Velvet Underground version. I like that I have Pinball Wizard in it's original version, demo version, solo acoustic by Pete Townshend, and by Pete with his band Deep End. Then (as I sit here unable to sleep) there are the "midnight" songs: Midnight Confessions by the Grass Roots, Midnight Man by the James Gang, Midnight Rambler by the Stones, Midnight Rider by the Allman Bros, and Midnight Train by Buddy Guy and Jonny Lang.

Yeah, I appreciate the convenience, variety, programming ability, and portablity of the little black retangular wonder. But still...watching the black disc turning at 331/3 rpms, gently setting the needle on to the spinning disc, hearing the brief pop and hiss just before the music starts, then hearing the music flow from the speakers in the room...that's still the best way to listen in my world.