ROY BUCHANAN - ROY BUCHANAN 1972.
Sometimes funny looking people are tremendous musicians. There was a time when such people were allowed to be successful. And so it came to pass that a guy that looked like a high school shop teacher (but just so happened to be one of the greatest guitarists to walk the earth ever. Fight me.) could be a major label recording artist. Legend has it that, at live shows, he turned all the knobs on his amp to 11, and turned the amp to face the back wall, and controlled all the sound from the two knobs and pickup switch on his guitar. Bad Ass. Legend has it he was asked to join The Rolling Stones, but told them to piss off. Badder Asser. He had such command of the instrument that he was beyond any “riff” that any lesser mortal guitar player may often resort to. Both “Sweet Dreams” and “The Messiah Will Come Again” from this LP will make any guitarist want to set all their guitars on fire, and shove their hands into the garbage disposal in the warm glow of the flickering flames. Intrigued?
-John G.
Bad Kitty Music #1: Bobby "Blue" Bland
7 comments:
Great write up!
Sadly, Roy, like Danny Gatton, another under-appreciated guitar hero, was a suicide.
A tremendous gift can be a terrible burden sometimes.
No argument here. Some of his string bending I've got on live & studio albums sounds like it's at the wrong speed, so fast is it, but the technique is spot on perfect & masterly. Occasionally, the solos sound other worldly as if not capable of being played by human hand but the live stuff dispels that (admittedly fanciful) notion.
Well put bbj. Both Buchanan and Gatton were astonishing musicians. Thanks again Sal, very much enjoy reading these Bad Kitty music morsels.
Another great post and artist we lost way too soon.
The delusion of God
Fantastic post.
Roy
You nailed that one spot on. Many many tales re Mr Buchanan... and it doesnt matter which are true and which are not. A great player. Both the Bad Kitty albums so far have been in my top 50 "best" albums for a long time.
Saw him play live once, great show, I was dazed for a few days after.
BTW: his suicide is doubtful, more than likely murdered by cops after his arrest for being drunk & disorderly.
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