POST # 186 Carlos Santana on Writing Europa

“I started writing this song in 1966 or ’67, but didn’t finish it until ’75 when we were on tour with Earth, Wind and Fire, in Manchester, England. We were backstage while they were on stage playing. And we were just warming up, tuning up. I started playing it and [keyboardist] Tom Coster and I completed it right there on the spot. It immediately became a crowd favorite; it is one of those songs that, whether it’s played in Japan or in Jerusalem or in South America, it just fits right in with everything.” - Carlos Santana

( Love this song, Santana gets some beautiful tone from his YAMAHA SG2000 and nice use of a wah pedal in the middle to change it up. What's up with the chef's uniform though??!! I guess he is cooking up some nice tone! - Ed)

POST # 185 Irvin Berlin on Show Business

" Talent is only the starting point. "

" There is an element of truth in every idea that lasts long enough to be called corny. "

" There's no business like show business. " - Irvin Berlin

"Irving Berlin has no place in American Music, Irving Berlin is American Music."
-Jerome Kern

( Unless you are playing for your own amusement at home...it's all show business baby ! Amazing how many of Berlin's songs have endured and are still played today. - Ed )

POST # 184 Adrian Belew on Elephant Talk

"As you can appreciate over my lifetime I've developed a large vocabulary of sounds each requiring certain physical techniques often combined with a specific effect box....For example, after developing a sound similar to an elephant trumpeting, I wrote the song Elephant Talk which gave my elephant sound an appropriate place to live." - Adrian Belew

( With the excellent Robert Fripp on guitar as well! - Ed)

POST # 183 Leonardo da Vinci on Importance of Theory

"He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast." - Leonardo da Vinci

( Knowledge is power ! - Ed )

POST # 182 Leo Fender on his first PICKUPS for K&F in the 40's

"The magnets in our pickups came off the flywheel of Model T Fords, which used magnets on the flywheel and coils on the engine block as an alternator" - Leo Fender

( I think it'd be pretty cool if my pickups came from a flywheel of a Model T Ford! Dick Dale talks about Leo Fender. - Ed)

POST # 181 Lenny Breau on his Style

"What I'm trying to do is make impressions. I think of myself as a colorist, adding different colors and shades by using different techniques and touching the guitar in different ways. I'd like to play sounds you can see if you've got your eyes closed. I'll always be a student, because I think of music as never ending." - Lenny Breau

( Lenny Breau what a beautiful cat. - Ed)

POST # 180 Ritchie Blackmore on Writing and Playing Smoke on the Water

"Simplicity is the key. And it is simple - you can still hear people playing it at music stores. I never had the courage to write until I heard "I Can't Explain" and "My Generation." Those riffs were so straightforward that I thought, "All right, if Pete Townshend can get away with that, then I can, too!" - Ritchie Blackmore

" It's like Jeff Beck - when he can't find a pick, he just plays with his fingers. You know how it is. You're watching television and you can't find a pick, so you just play with your fingers. Even on something as simple as the riff to "Smoke On The Water," you'd be surprised how many people play that with down strokes, which makes a world of difference. Otherwise, you're just hitting the tonic before the fifth." - Ritchie Blackmore

POST # 179 Charlie Parker on Musicians and Different Genres of Music

"There's always room for musicians, you know. There's no such thing as the middle of the road, it will be one thing or the other -- good music or otherwise, you know. And it doesn't make any difference which idiom it might be in -- swing, bebop, as you might want to call it, or Dixieland -- if it's good it will be heard." - Charlie Parker

(Musical styles go in and out of fashion but who cares what style you are into as long as you are playing your heart out and playing it good! - Ed)

POST # 178 Buddy Guy on his Style

I’ve learned a little more, but it’s still Buddy Guy. If you put me through a modern amplifier, somebody is going to say, “He don’t sound like he used to.” Well, of course, the guitars and amps aren’t the same today. But the man is still the same. I’m using the same fingers I left Louisiana with. I can’t really say how my style has changed, though. I used to tell T-Bone Walker, B.B., Lightnin’ Hopkins, Muddy, and John Lee Hooker—all those guys I learned from—that I didn’t have anything unique. Guess what they said? “Buddy, we got it from someone else, too.”


(Buddy Guy with a couple of legends. - Ed)

POST # 177 Joe Pass on His Choice of Picks

"Always the same kind. It's half a pick really, a pick broken in two. It's a medium-thin gauge, not soft, but firm. But I use my fingers a great deal too; and pick and fingers, or thumb and fingers. It's not quite as fast with the fingers though." - Joe Pass

(Joe playing beautiful rapid fire bebop lines with Oscar Peterson - Ed)