A Moment In Time With Roy Buchanan

[drumbob]

I have been asked by Brian "Winston" to contribte stories about some of rock personalities and musicians I have known as a journalist and author over the years. First, a little introduction; I am known here on the forum as DrumBob. My name is Bob Cianci, and I am a working drummer and guitarist, longtime music journalist and author of the book
Great Rock Drummers Of The Sixties, which is now in its second printing.

Here's the first story about my one and only encounter with the late, great guitarist Roy Buchanan. I hope you enjoy it.


I met Roy Buchanan in 1976, shortly after the release of his Atlantic Records debut,
A Street Called Straight. I was already well aware of his prowess on the Telecaster; I owned his older Polydor album, and had seen the now-famous PBS documentary about him, The World’s Greatest Unknown Guitarist. The Aquarian sent me to review his concert at The Showplace club in Dover, NJ, one of my favorite hangouts at the time. Needless to say, I was jazzed to catch Roy’s live show. During Roy’s set, I was surprised to see a roadie bring out endless bottles of Heineken, which Roy drained, one after the other. Roy hardly sang-he never had much of a voice-but his guitar playing was everything I expected; his pinched harmonics and volume swells were breathtaking, and when he launched into “The Messiah Will Come Again,” I got the feeling I was witnessing something epic and historic. The man knew how to play a Telecaster.
After the set concluded, I went backstage to meet Roy and possibly get a few quotes for the review. We chatted, I told him I played a Telecaster too, but mine was an early seventies model.
“Those newer ones aren’t any damn good. I’ll get you an old one like mine. People offer them to me all the time. I can get you one for about $300.” That sounded fine to me, but I doubted it would ever happen.
At this point, I noticed that Roy was alcoholically impaired, no surprise really, considering the vast amount of beer he drank during the first set. Let’s get real here; the man was blind drunk.
During our conversation, the subject of Les Paul came up, and I mentioned I had been to Les’s house a couple of times in Mahwah, NJ, to which Roy said, “I don’t know why people get so excited about Les Paul. He was never that good a guitarist. His old records were all gimmicks.” I was pretty shocked by that statement, but let it slide, chalking it up to Buchanan’s altered state of mind. The next day was Saturday, and around 2:00 pm, the phone rang. My sister took the call and said to me, “Roy Buchanan is on the phone for you.”
How the heck did Roy get my phone number? I didn’t give it to him, and the Aquarian office was closed, so there was no one there who could or would have given it to him. To this day, I still don’t know how he got my number.
“Hey Bob, this is Roy. Listen, man, please don’t tell Les Paul all that stuff I said about him last night. I don’t want to cause any trouble between him and I.”
“It’s OK, Roy. Don’t worry, I’ve forgotten about it already, “ I assured him. Roy thanked me and hung up. I never heard from him again, but did follow his career closely during his lengthy stint with Alligator Records and beyond.
On August 15, 1988, Roy Buchanan hanged himself in a Fairfax, Virginia jail cell after being arrested for disorderly conduct. I felt a wild sense of despair upon learning the news. How could this supremely talented, yet troubled man have done such a thing? We’ll probably never know what went on inside his head, just as we’ll never know why Danny Gatton, a similarly gifted guitarist and a rival of Buchanan’s, blew his brains out in a barn.
Yesterday, I pulled out my copy of A Street Called Straight that Roy had autographed. Here’s what he wrote to me on the front cover; Thanks Forever…Thanks Future…Love…Roy Buchanan. On the back, he wrote simply; Be Happy. To this day, it’s the most interesting autograph I have ever gotten, one that just may be a window into the troubled soul of the late Roy Buchanan. I have given up trying to find some hidden meaning in those words, but have no doubt they were sincere and straight from heart of Roy Buchanan.

[scotty]

Bob welcome again to R`N`R and thanks for that story i loved it.

[winston]

What a great story Bob. Roy Buchanan was truly a gifted guitar player.

Thanks for this contribution, your first of many in this series as I announced last week. I am really looking forward to reading the next one and the next one and so on.