![]() My most recent (I won’t say last) good guitar is a Martin acoustic I bought from Tom Nelson (see above) for $600 in 1995. Although the Telecaster is easier to play and to tune, the Ricky is my favorite axe. I purchased one that night online from Mandolin Bros, a gorgeous blonde (as is my wife) for about $750. I went home and grouched to my wife that “this 19-year-old kid has a Rickenbacker and I don’t.” In 1992, my ICC journalism student Josh Bradshaw, the student newspaper Harbinger’s Beatles and photography editor, stopped by to show me his guitar. Tambourine Man” by The Byrds in 1965 was a Rickenbacker 360-12 like McGuinn played. I think he still has it.īut the guitar that I had craved ever since I’d heard the first jingle-jangle of “Mr. Later I would sell it to Tim Slevin’s son Drew for the same price. I bought a 1965 Guild Starfire XII twelve-string from Paul Burson after he hung up his rock and roll shoes and retired from The Heard, the scion of The Tempests, for $385, what he’d paid for it. The blues and Dion and Buddy Holly songs flowed out of it naturally. In 1975, I added my first electric, a 1969 Fender Telecaster bought used at Don’s Music Land on Main street in Peoria for $150. I’d loved 12-strings since hearing “Silver Threads And Golden Needles” and “Walk Right In.” That Goya sounded so fine that I made myself learn barre chords at last just so I could play “Ruby Tuesday.” My first really good guitar was a big Goya 12-stringer that I bought for $160 from ICC psychology teacher Tom Nelson with my first Illinois Central College summer school teaching check in July, 1972. It took me years to realize that Brian Jones used two, an “A” and a “D,” on “Not Fade Away.” “Matchbox,” however, was a snap. I started playing harmonica, Hohner Marine Bands and Blues Harps. I got good enough to folk around with Leadbelly’s “Titanic,” Harry Belafonte’s “Jamaica Farewell,” Chad Stuart & Jeremy Clyde’s “Yesterday’s Gone” and “A Summer Song.” The Stones’ version of “It’s All Over Now” was, I decided, a folk song. ![]() I bought a Beatles songbook of tracks from Something New, but they’d all been transposed into C, which was a dirty lie, so I didn’t learn “Things We Said Today” or “I’ll Cry Instead” for years.īut I had learned the beginning of “Malaguena.” A friend from Morton had taught me modal tuning that summer, which was easier: “Turn Your Money Green.” The strings were too high, the neck was too wide, it strayed out of tune, but it was my guitar. Like most first loves, it was unsatisfactory. So I bought one from a pawn shop on Wells avenue, a nylon-string slot-head Marco Polo for $20. Well, I was already a fan of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, and The Searchers. When I went off to Milwaukee and Marquette in 1964, my mom would send me money for haircuts. She played the usual folk dreck, but I learned one good song from her, “Take Her Out Of Pity,” by John Stewart and the Kingston Trio: G-E minor-C-D 7 th, the same chords, I would discover, as dozens of other songs from Ritchie Valens’ “Donna” to The Shields’ “You Cheated” to The Safaris’ “Image Of A Girl.” In 1963, I had a girl friend who played a cheap acoustic. I just followed where Paul Burson, the rhythm guitarist, had his fingers on the top two strings. I played a little bass if Tim Slevin, the bass player, was forbidden band nights by his parents. I hung out AKA “managed” a group of friends in a band called The Tempests at Spalding Institute (the drummer was a Canadian from Woodruff, John Moffatt) from 1962 on. ![]() “I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want a guitar. Mike Foster, Metamora, Illinois, A Fine Kettle Of Fish: This problem is alleviated slightly in the 90's as they have a few recent studio albums they drew songs from.Īny memories or opinions of the band during this time? I'm also looking for recommendations for other live recordings from the era.Guitars I’ve Loved (and other instruments) They'll play the classics in almost every set list. The band at this point was very tight and confident.Ī general problem I have with the Allman Brothers is that their set lists are much narrower than other bands you might compare them to (The Dead and Phish). Their studio albums from this era are respectable and their three official live albums from the early 90's ( Live at the Beacon Theater, An Evening with the Allman Brothers, and Live at Great Woods) are great. He remains one of my favorite guitar players, and while he wasn't a prolific writer, he wrote some very ambitious rock songs with beautiful instrumental parts. I don't have the clearest memory of it, but some of Dickey Betts' solos really blew me away. I saw them twice in Camden, NJ around 1995 - 1997. I have a lot of nostalgia for this era of the band with Dickey Betts and Warren Haynes.
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