Please Please Me is 60 years old!

I can't believe it's been 60 years since the first Beatle album, Please Please Me was released.

I don't remember my first Beatles song that I heard on the radio, but I remember listening to them constantly. It was probably “She Loves You”.

Around that time, (1963) I got a transistor radio. It was a little brown radio and I would take it everywhere I went. I would bring it to bed with me and put the earphones on and hide my head under the pillow at night. That's so my parents wouldn't make me turn it off, or worse take it away from me.

Of course, besides the Beatles there were so many cool songs exploding on AM radio stations.I would listen long into the night.

Soon after I heard “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand”songs from Please Please Me entered the air waves. Songs such as “Twist and Shout”,“Love Me Do”,”Anna”, and more.

“I Saw Her Standing There”, the first track was a stunner though. The count off and then then the band goes into and uptempo groove and McCartney starts “Well she was just 17……..”

The album is not just nostalgia but a straight forward performance of their stage show. It’s a real document of what they actually sounded like live! Still very fresh with great originals and excellent taste in covers.

Recorded in basically one day it was the realization of a self contained band of musicians that could play and write timeless hits.

The Art of Unpreparedness or What is the Chill Factor?

The first EP from my “CHILL” sessions is Factoring the Chill. It has “CHILL” titles like “Cool Desert Mirage” and “She Walked in the Room Like a Spy” amongst others. It drops February 3rd 2023. 

I’m  happy to report that the immensely talented composer, percussionist and artist Ken Topham is featured on this recording. He did the art work to my Modes of Motion recording that was released this past November. We have collaborated throughout the years and it’s never enough. He is the legendary drummer for GIRAFFES? GIRAFFES! and played the percussion parts for this recording. 

The artwork for the album cover is by the very uniquely talented Brian Murray. He use to sit and sketch pictures of me as I played in a local Peterborough NH venue almost 40 years ago. I always love to see and am surprised to what develops next in his work…….. So imaginative and “CHILL” !

My “chill” guitar sessions have been going on and off for about a year and a half at Loud Sun Studio with sound wizard Ben Rogers. The goal was to bring my sonic blue Fender Strat, my little Fender Vibro Champ amp and maybe some picks to the studio and be as unprepared as possible.

 Well that’s slightly exaggerated.My mind wasn’t totally blank. My preparation was reminiscing about some of my favorite guitar music that involved electric guitars. Which of course would take forever to list. However,a few would be anything by the Ventures, or my very large collection of obscure instrumental surf guitar bands from the 60’s to now. Vick Flick playing the James Bond theme, Duane Eddy playing “Raunchy” and “Rebel Rouser” and so many others like these with their captivating guitar tones. I always refer to all of this music as surf, spy and psychedelic. I think that gets to the point. That’s my filing system. 

    An interesting album that also informed these sessions was one titled Painted Desert released in 1995 with Ikue Mori doing drum programming and Robert Quine and Marc Ribot on guitars. I loved their playing and their conjuring allusions to the sounds that are mentioned here.The drum programming always stuck out and fascinated me as well as the lack of a bass. This at first bothered me and over time I really dug it!

So getting back to the main point… Other than thinking about this music that I love I showed up in the studio each week having no idea what would happen. I just started composing and recording and waited for “CHILL” tunes to develop. It is past time to just write and not worry.

The mystery of the guitar part 2

It’s easily to do a little research and see that many think the word “guitar” probably comes from the ancient Greek word κιθάρα or kithara. Mythology attributes Hermes with creating the first kithara from a tortoise shell. So much for my tree question. 

Some other words and terms that are related to guitar are gittern, the vihuela, the four-course Renaissance guitar, and the five-course baroque guitar. These all have distinctive personalities. They come in different sizes but look at least like they are related to the modern guitar. Exploring these will lead to more words and terms like citole, cittern, mandore, and of course the lute . So many words to explore. I’m going to look into the gittern first, or maybe the kithara. This is so open ended.

Who looked at a tree and thought it could be a guitar?

There is a question I regularly ask my students because it’s one I ask myself. Who looked at a tree and thought it could or should be a guitar? Did you ever think about that? 

Which leads to the next question: When did that happen and where?

It is said that a plucked stringed instrument that closely resembles a guitar can be seen in a picture painted around 3,000 B.C. in Egypt. That doesn’t mean that it was then first though does it? We will have to explore.

My new EP is titled Modes of Motion

Modes of Motion is a unique five movement work that explores the world of multiphonics and harmonics implemented on the guitar.

A multiphonic is an extended technique on an instrument in which several notes are produced at once from playing only one note. This includes wind, reed, and brass instruments, the human voice....as well as strings.

This is avant-garde. This is deep ambient listening to motives and textures that morph and bend time. You might like it :). See the cover on my web page. It’s beautiful art work by Ken Topham

Upcoming releases are here.