The Re-invention of the Guitar

       When we think of the word guitar, many things come to mind. It might be a specific guitar, your favorite guitarist, or maybe a song will pop into your head. It has become a culture all its own, with the help of pioneers along the way. It is arguably the single most important instrument in modern music. It certainly is the most popular. But it wasn’t always that way.

    The evolution of modern music might as well also be called the evolution of the guitar. It was a simultaneous evolution. In 1931 the first electric guitar had its debut. It was first used by Vaughn Reed, a jazz guitarist in the swing-era big bands. But it was When Eddie Durham passed it on to Charlie Christian that the guitar became famous. There are many players who helped with its mass appeal, and more importantly they came in different genres. This meant that it was going through its metamorphosis for fans of jazz, blues, and country. This was the core of the record buying public. As its popularity grew, so did its worth. A guitar that cost a few hundred dollars in the 1950’s, is now worth upwards of fifteen thousand dollars.

      After World War Two, came the invention of the first solid body electric by Les Paul. In 1950 Leo Fender introduced the fender esquire. (The first prototype of the telecaster) These are arguably the two most important milestones in its evolution. Without these inventions, the payers wouldn’t have had the vehicles to create their magic.

    The 1930’s brought one of the most important talents to ever play the guitar. Django Rheinhardt, a French gypsy, who after suffering an accident which left him with the use of 2 fingers, (the other 2 were fused together from a fire) was one of the first musicians to become a star as a guitarist. A gypsy living in occupied France during World War Two, his love of American jazz (American jazz was outlawed by the Nazis) made his survival alone miraculous. His records with The Hot Club of France are legendary, and a must listen for any student of the guitar.

    It was in the 1940’s, as the big bands started scaling down to smaller combos that the guitar came to the forefront. Bands like Louis Jordan’s Timpany Five  (and many others) showcased the guitar in a five piece setting for the first time in the mid-late 1940’s. This set the stage for the next chapter in which it replaced the horn (saxophone, trumpet, clarinet, etc.) as the lead instrument in a band of this size.

    The guitar took over and never looked back. In the 1950’s Rock n Roll arrived, and forever changed the way music was made. Muddy Waters said it, “the Blues had a baby and they called it Rock n Roll. Born of the blues its primitive nature is what made it so easy to listen to. The youth of America had a mass movement unprecedented in history. The establishment fought it, but the power of Rock n Roll prevailed. In the midst of this Rock n Roll revolution, an electric guitarist who happened to be a master songwriter emerged, and crossed over into both the white and black audiences. Chuck Berry is a must learn for any student of the guitar.  He combined both blues and country into a hybrid style that had never been heard on a guitar.  Chuck was also setting new standards as a performer. He made it “cool” to play the guitar.

    Enter the 1960’s, and arguably the electric guitars most important decade. The sixties started slowly with American Rock n Roll slowing down, and the popularity of Doo Wop, the “Girl Groups, and Surf music emerging”. It is important to note, that while the charts were being dominated by these great artists, unbeknownst to most of America, electric blues artists from Chicago, Texas, and New Orleans (to name a few) were making music history that would first be appreciated by the masses years after the fact, once the British groups popularized their music. Written on the album sleeve next to some of our favorite songs, were these unfamiliar names, like McKinley Morganfeld, (Muddy Waters) or Chester Burnett (Howlin’ Wolf) to name a couple. Jazz artists were making history as well to a relatively small audience. A musical revolution was about to take place. Ironically, it would be the British that would start the revolution.

    It is fair to say that when the Beatles arrived in America in 1964 everything changed forever. Culturally and musically, more than anyone else in the world, the rest of the decade belonged to those four lads from Liverpool. All of a sudden, the songwriter, studio musicians, and performers were all one band of just four people. They raised the standards for upcoming bands to be judged by. The popularity of the guitar catapulted with the arrival of the Beatles. They all played American instruments. John favored Rickenbackers and Epiphones, George was using Gretsch, and Paul played a Hofner. The worth of these American Instruments skyrocketed and never looked back. Many other bands played a part in this historical period, such as the Rolling Stones, The Kinks, and American bands such as the Byrds, and Buffalo Springfeild to name a few. As the bands grew in popularity, so did the guitar. The guitar solo, (the instrumental piece in the middle of the song) was becoming the highlight of the song, and a new wave of guitarists were raising the bar at an incredibly fast rate.

    The era of the guitar god began in 1966, with a record by John Mayalls Bluesbrakers, featuring Eric Clapton. The records success was due to the ground breaking lead guitar work of Eric Clapton. The record buying public was not only falling in love with Eric, but the sound of a wailing electric guitar played at very loud volumes. The guitar had never been recorded at this volume before. When Jimi Hendrix arrived on the music scene, the stage was set for him. All of the rock bands of the era in some ways were emulating their American predecessors. (American bands too) Jimi was everything they were emulating. A black man who was Part Cherokee Indian, he had honed his skills as a sideman of the artists that the Stones and the Beatles were emulating, such as Little Richard, Wilson Picket, and the Isley brothers. As with Chuck Berry, his catalog crossed over to both the Black and White audiences. And he opened up doors and possibilities that were never even considered on his instrument. There was a whole new spectrum of sound to be explored, and Jimi, though not entirely responsible, had set the bar at new levels both as a performer, and with his level of musicianship. The guitar had come a long way in few short years. From 1966 to about 1970, players like Mike Bloomfield, Jeff Beck, and Peter Green kept upping the anti.

      New genres were emerging from the different styles of lead guitarists, most notably Duane Allman’s band, the Allman brothers. This was the arrival of southern rock, and the era of the twin lead guitars.(some bands had 3!) Although originated by the country swing band Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, the twin guitar concept of the Allman brothers took it to a whole new level. Bands like Peter Greens Fleetwood Mac, and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band came before the Allmans, but they only touched on the endless possibilities the two guitar lineup presented.   Duane Allman and Dickey Betts played together like two ballerinas dancing around each other, in a dance of love. Duane, like Jimi was a sideman to Aretha Franklin, Wilson Picket, and King Curtis. Once again, the bar was raised in which all twin guitar lineups were to be judged.

    At the same time Duane was also single handedly responsible for the new found popularity of the slide guitar. It is probably what he is most remembered for, and for good reason. The sounds he created on the slide had never been heard before he arrived. Like Hendrix he was exploring new territory, and is a huge part of the electric guitars evolution. Along with the twin guitar band and the slide guitar, Duane Allman and the Allman Brothers Band created an entirely new genre of music, which came to be known as Southern Rock. Often overlooked, his contribution to the evolution of the guitar in modern music is immeasurable.

      From the early fifties to the early seventies, the electric guitar grew into an instrument that Les Paul and Leo Fender couldn’t have imagined in their wildest dreams. It is in itself a multi billion dollar industry. From its humble beginnings in the forties as a side instrument in the big bands, to its modern day role as a sexy, exciting, and powerful instrument, it continues to evolve.

The references for this article are far too numerous to list. Some of it was from actually being present for some of this history. Countless hours of reading and research went into this as well.