1. Why have I just sat through a second hour of a BBC TV program by Alan Yentob called 'The history of the guitar', and only heard one mention of a rickenbacker, and all they said was "this is a Rickenbacker frying pan".
At the end of this weeks show they had got up to the late 60's and Jimi Hendrix, lots of interviews with Les Paul, lots of other Gibson stuff and about 45 minutes of this weeks show dedicated to the fender Strat, but not a Rickenbacker in sight.
What a pile of ****.
2. Why don't Rickenbacker and Fender allow American guitar dealers to sell their new guitars to European customers?
A couple of questions.....
Re: A couple of questions.....
Just saw that too Rob, a very disjointed and tangental journey. The fleeting mention of Rickenbacker (a museum caged monotone frying pan in the foreground with a sunlit uplands 381 FG in the background) was followed by a wink-with-an-a fest of Gibson and Fender completely missing 1960 to 1968. Pete Townshend talked about Hendrix, but was never given credit for his own sublime Rickenbacker-in-hand influence. Also no Beatles footage - I can only presume that their skimping is saving our licence fee. God bless Mr. Yentob, yiddle I po.
Is there such a thing as brand loyalty rage? (I may have just felt it...)
All credit to Mr Les Paul gigging at 91 years though - no wonder he was sat down playing, that thing is heavy.
I can only answer your questions with prejudical guesses.
1. Part a) The programme had an editor who liked his sixties Burtons suit, but never rated a Tommy Nutter Part b) Because it is Sunday evening and I have the "I haven't done my homework feeling" and it is back-to-work tomorrow and so I will watch any old shine-with-a-t.
2. Don't know, other than some dispute or other about some tea and taxes, which (despite a brief flirtation of importance which gave us an RM f-hole version of our faves) makes the UK market about as popular as an Icelandic banker in a council meeting.
Is there such a thing as brand loyalty rage? (I may have just felt it...)
All credit to Mr Les Paul gigging at 91 years though - no wonder he was sat down playing, that thing is heavy.
I can only answer your questions with prejudical guesses.
1. Part a) The programme had an editor who liked his sixties Burtons suit, but never rated a Tommy Nutter Part b) Because it is Sunday evening and I have the "I haven't done my homework feeling" and it is back-to-work tomorrow and so I will watch any old shine-with-a-t.
2. Don't know, other than some dispute or other about some tea and taxes, which (despite a brief flirtation of importance which gave us an RM f-hole version of our faves) makes the UK market about as popular as an Icelandic banker in a council meeting.
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fireglo67
Re: A couple of questions.....
There was so much footage that we have seen a million times before, and all the interviews were completely sycophantic.godber wrote:Just saw that too Rob, a very disjointed and tangental journey. The fleeting mention of Rickenbacker (a museum caged monotone frying pan in the foreground with a sunlit uplands 381 FG in the background) was followed by a wink-with-an-a fest of Gibson and Fender completely missing 1960 to 1968. Pete Townshend talked about Hendrix, but was never given credit for his own sublime Rickenbacker-in-hand influence. Also no Beatles footage - I can only presume that their skimping is saving our licence fee. God bless Mr. Yentob, yiddle I po.
Is there such a thing as brand loyalty rage? (I may have just felt it...)
All credit to Mr Les Paul gigging at 91 years though - no wonder he was sat down playing, that thing is heavy.
I can only answer your questions with prejudical guesses.
1. Part a) The programme had an editor who liked his sixties Burtons suit, but never rated a Tommy Nutter Part b) Because it is Sunday evening and I have the "I haven't done my homework feeling" and it is back-to-work tomorrow and so I will watch any old shine-with-a-t.
2. Don't know, other than some dispute or other about some tea and taxes, which (despite a brief flirtation of importance which gave us an RM f-hole version of our faves) makes the UK market about as popular as an Icelandic banker in a council meeting.
Gilmour showing us, and playing his Strat with the serial number 001 was pure Spinal Tap, and could there be anyone more boring in interviews than mark Knopfler?
One thing that I did learn was that the first (and now most sought after) Fender strats were literally thrown together as quickly as possible by completely unskilled workers (from Mexico).
Some things, it would seem, never change.
Re: A couple of questions.....
Ha!..Miserable...Even my Mum said it was all about the music/ians/style not the actual guitars." They haven't got anything as lovely as that one with the big carved front of yours..."(381)! She knows y'know...
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fireglo67
Re: A couple of questions.....
Mums know best!feedback wrote:Ha!..Miserable...Even my Mum said it was all about the music/ians/style not the actual guitars." They haven't got anything as lovely as that one with the big carved front of yours..."(381)! She knows y'know...
Re: A couple of questions.....
This is always the problem with shows like these ,trying to do the whole History of the guitar thing.
3 episodes is never going to be enough. I was gutted that Merle only got a passing remark,and Chet didn't even get that!
They can't get to rock n roll quick enough. I love R n R like the next man but you can't passover some of the worlds greatest players because they are not Rock!
This is suppose to be the history of the guitar ,not the history of rock guitar or history of the electric guitar for that matter.
These shows always fall way too short for me, and its just that, most people have seen this all before.
I think it could have been alot better,they should have a player presenting imo. I don't think anyone who doesn't play is interested,a guitar is a just a guitar to non players ,they just don't get
it
Overall then, a bit of a disappointment,for me anyway.
But remember ,without the player they would be just pieces of wood that are nice to look at.
3 episodes is never going to be enough. I was gutted that Merle only got a passing remark,and Chet didn't even get that!
They can't get to rock n roll quick enough. I love R n R like the next man but you can't passover some of the worlds greatest players because they are not Rock!
This is suppose to be the history of the guitar ,not the history of rock guitar or history of the electric guitar for that matter.
These shows always fall way too short for me, and its just that, most people have seen this all before.
I think it could have been alot better,they should have a player presenting imo. I don't think anyone who doesn't play is interested,a guitar is a just a guitar to non players ,they just don't get
it
Overall then, a bit of a disappointment,for me anyway.
But remember ,without the player they would be just pieces of wood that are nice to look at.
Re: A couple of questions.....
I agree with you. I don't understand this either. Considering their history.
Why did they spend half the programme talking about Les Paul, who was very important, but then having to backtrack and restate that he did not come up with the first electric guitar, then still not use Rickenbackers name.
Still, one thing that amazed me was when a friend of mine, a keen guitarist for years, said he had no idea that Rickenbacker were responsible for, effectively, kicking off the whole history of Rock music! At least it puts the record straight to some degree.
Why did they spend half the programme talking about Les Paul, who was very important, but then having to backtrack and restate that he did not come up with the first electric guitar, then still not use Rickenbackers name.
Still, one thing that amazed me was when a friend of mine, a keen guitarist for years, said he had no idea that Rickenbacker were responsible for, effectively, kicking off the whole history of Rock music! At least it puts the record straight to some degree.
Re: A couple of questions.....
Yeah- missed opportunity to mention Paul Bigsby's early solid guitars.jch wrote:I was gutted that Merle only got a passing remark,and Chet didn't even get that!
And too much Les Paul... I think I have heard this patter enough to be able to recite it in my sleep!
No Vox or any other Euroguitars.
And what of the bass? If so much is being made of how the guitar shaped culture, why not mention the 'Fender bass'? Without it we'd still be playing bull fiddle! I know it's not a 'guitar' guitar, but it's as relevant to the angle the proigramme is taking... I think.
Ooo! It's only television though.
Re: A couple of questions.....
Feel free to voice your concerns directly to the source:
Luke McMahon BBC show writer Luke.McMahon@bbc.co.uk
Emily Jeal BBC show researcher Emily.Jeal@bbc.co.uk
Working with the BBC, at least this group, was like working with 5 year olds. Matt Hill, an organologist at the Univ. of Edinburgh (and perhaps the world's authority on the origins of the electric guitar) ran into Luke at the Harrod's showing of the Frying Pan and tried to explain the fine points of the history to him but he wasn't listening.
Luke McMahon BBC show writer Luke.McMahon@bbc.co.uk
Emily Jeal BBC show researcher Emily.Jeal@bbc.co.uk
Working with the BBC, at least this group, was like working with 5 year olds. Matt Hill, an organologist at the Univ. of Edinburgh (and perhaps the world's authority on the origins of the electric guitar) ran into Luke at the Harrod's showing of the Frying Pan and tried to explain the fine points of the history to him but he wasn't listening.
Re: A couple of questions.....
The sad thing is that whenever anything comes up in the media where you either work in the field or are knowledgeable about the subject, you will find cavernous holes in the research and presentation. Translate that to everything you see and hear and what is produced is a lot of sh*t.
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fireglo67
Re: A couple of questions.....
Well, I've just sat through the third (turd?) and final instalment of this program, and I have to say that the series did nothing to redeem itself within it's final hour.
The program predictably completely lost any semblance of focus, and just became a boring vehicle for a few 'guitar gods' to have their ego's stroked. Even the Johnny Marr piece was focussed completely on him as a player and made scant reference to the instrument he actually played, which is surely the whole point of the program, no?
The sight of a guitar player called The Edge from a pop band called U2, championing the wondrous sound from one of the first guitars he owned, as the camera panned onto a rack of about 40 effects processors that would probably have made a 2 string banjo sound exactly the same, left me feeling this whole thing was as cold and souless as the music he makes.
It seems that in a world full of cheap, pap reality television and soap operas, the days of intelligently written and informative programmes are long gone.
Maybe I was expecting too much?
Very poor. 2 out of 10. Mr Yentob, see me after school.
The program predictably completely lost any semblance of focus, and just became a boring vehicle for a few 'guitar gods' to have their ego's stroked. Even the Johnny Marr piece was focussed completely on him as a player and made scant reference to the instrument he actually played, which is surely the whole point of the program, no?
The sight of a guitar player called The Edge from a pop band called U2, championing the wondrous sound from one of the first guitars he owned, as the camera panned onto a rack of about 40 effects processors that would probably have made a 2 string banjo sound exactly the same, left me feeling this whole thing was as cold and souless as the music he makes.
It seems that in a world full of cheap, pap reality television and soap operas, the days of intelligently written and informative programmes are long gone.
Maybe I was expecting too much?
Very poor. 2 out of 10. Mr Yentob, see me after school.
Re: A couple of questions.....
Well, i had no expectations after the 2nd episode ,so it was ****, as expected.
It just goes the way of all these programmes, The Guitar God thing again, blah blah blah..
The only thing i learnt from it was that Muse front man Matthew Bellamy's father was George Bellamy from The Tronados.
A missed opportunity .
It just goes the way of all these programmes, The Guitar God thing again, blah blah blah..
The only thing i learnt from it was that Muse front man Matthew Bellamy's father was George Bellamy from The Tronados.
A missed opportunity .
Re: A couple of questions.....
Hey don't forget the left field education on the art of the air guitar...or seven whole minutes devoted to students miming an Anne Frank on stage. Sheesh. The day after my father-in-law mentioned to me about Les Paul being on tele and about him inventing the electric guitar and all. I chewed his ear (regretfully too quickly..). The programme was pants.
Re: A couple of questions.....
I thought the Les Paul Chasing Sound doc was good though.
Re: A couple of questions.....
We are the "I'm a Mac" of the guitar debate. ("I'm a Rick"?!)
We know it works better, looks better and it way cooler than the norm.
If truth be told, I'm happy to belong to this merry band of smaller market share.
I don't want every guitarist I know to be a Rickenbacker fan, and they never would be - because their personalities reflect the guitar choices.
It's disappointing to be so overlooked in a show like the one mentioned, but we all know our stuff. The greatest bands in the world have played Ricks, that's recognition enough.
We know it works better, looks better and it way cooler than the norm.
If truth be told, I'm happy to belong to this merry band of smaller market share.
I don't want every guitarist I know to be a Rickenbacker fan, and they never would be - because their personalities reflect the guitar choices.
It's disappointing to be so overlooked in a show like the one mentioned, but we all know our stuff. The greatest bands in the world have played Ricks, that's recognition enough.