When the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its newest crop of luminaries Wednesday night in ceremonies at New York`s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, among the honorees will be arguably the four premier guitar heroes of the `60s: the late Jimi Hendrix (inducted along with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience), plus Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, all three of whom are former members of the newly inducted group the Yardbirds.
And while there will be a strong soul and rhythm-and-blues flavor to this year`s Hall of Famers (other new additions include Bobby ”Blue” Bland, Booker T. & the MG`s, the Isley Brothers, and Sam and Dave, as well as country`s Johnny Cash), the overriding theme will be the roar of the electric guitar.
Ten years ago, the `80s were being touted as the Decade of the Synthesizer. Indeed, artists such as Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, A Flock of Seagulls, Human League and their synth-oriented ilk were making inroads on the charts.
But by the end of the decade, it was clear that the guitar hero was far from being an anachronism, as exemplified by hot-lick merchants Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Nuno Bettencourt, Eric Johnson, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Robert Cray. If the guitar needed any further vindication, figures provided by the National Association of Music Merchants for 1990 show that while sales of fretted instruments were up 2 percent, sales of synthesizers and portable keyboards were down 19 percent.
”The synthesizer is great, and people can do wonderful things with them, but the trend in music is back to the basics, which means the guitar,” said Del Breckenfeld, director of artist relations for Vernon Hills-based guitar manufacturer Washburn International, whose endorsees include Bettencourt, U2, Steve Winwood, Joe Walsh and the Allman Brothers Band. ”The guitar is still a very human-sounding instrument, and the guitarist serves as the human side of every band.”
In fact, thanks to an image boost from music videos and MTV in particular, this particular species of rock `n` roll animal has come back stronger than ever. The long-haired lead guitarist, as epitomized by Slash from Guns N` Roses, remains rock `n` roll`s principal icon.
As proof, take a look at the current Billboard album chart, where you`ll find such guitar-oriented acts as Guns N` Roses, Metallica, the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, Ozzy Osbourne, Van Halen and Extreme all dwelling in the upper reaches. Even relative graybeard Clapton is represented with his live ”24 Nights” release.
If that isn`t enough, tune to WWBZ-FM 103.5, where you`ll hear Chicago`s sixth-most-popular radio station playing a steady diet of neo-guitar heroes represented by Queensryche, Metallica, Tesla and Skid Row.
Combine that with the more traditional guitar-based acts like Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones and the Who heard on classic rock WCKG-FM 105.9 and album rock WLUP-FM 97.9, and be assured that the electric six-string guitar is still the real king of rock `n` roll.
”The guitar is as much the hero as the player,” said Guitar World Executive Editor Harold Steinblatt, whose magazine profiles rock`s axe-wielders in enough nuts and bolts technical detail to make the editors of Car and Driver envious. ”The instrument itself is truly heroic.”
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame seems to realize that as well. Also being inducted Wednesday night is Leo Fender, a guitar hero of another type. Fender founded Fender Musical Instruments, whose guitars were prominently used by Hendrix, Page, Clapton and Beck, and remain the standard in contemporary rock `n` roll.
The Yardbirds migrate
Except for Eddie Van Halen in the late `70s, no guitarists have had as far-ranging an influence on their fellow players as Hendrix, Clapton, Beck and Page.
Formed in 1963 in south London, the early Yardbirds, featuring Clapton, vocalist Keith Relf, rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja, bassist Paul Samwell-Smith and drummer Jim McCarty, were little more than a copy band playing watered-down covers of American rhythm-and-blues songs.
By 1965, though, the group had migrated to a more pop style, scoring its first Top 10 hit with ”For Your Love.” Also the band`s biggest hit, it was ironically the last Yardbirds recording Clapton ever played on, as the blues purist left to join John Mayall`s Bluesbreakers and, later, Cream.
Clapton was replaced by Jeff Beck, whose brilliant stylistic mix of blues and rockabilly was laced with feedback and distortion effects. Beck-era Yardbirds hits included ”Heart Full of Soul” in 1965 and ”Shapes of Things” and ”Over Under Sideways Down” in 1966.
That same year Jimmy Page, the last of the Yardbirds golden trio, entered the fold. For a few months, he and Beck shared the guitar chores, combining their might on ”Happenings Ten Years Time Ago,” a highly influential record that helped inspire the psychedelic craze that would come a year later.
When Beck left the group for a solo career in late 1966, Page assumed the guitar-hero mantle. With him in the spotlight, the group got deeper and deeper into psychedelia, and they also dabbled with Gregorian chants and Middle Eastern scales and modes.
When the Yardbirds disintegrated in spring 1968, Page formed a new group called the New Yardbirds to fulfill some of the old group`s contractual obligations in Scandinavia. His new band consisted of vocalist Robert Plant, bassist John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. Following the tour, they changed their name to Led Zeppelin, and went on to become rock`s premier group of the `70s.
High standard
Interest in the Yardbirds remains strong some 23 years after they disbanded. Sony Music recently released a two-volume CD retrospective, and last year`s three-CD Jeff Beck boxed set, ”Beckology,” featured a number of Yardbirds tracks.
Reached at his south London home, drummer McCarty seemed a bit chagrined at his former group`s legacy.
”It seems we`ve become more highly regarded since we broke up than when the band was together,” he said. ”It might have been better to get some of that acclaim back then, but it`s still quite a compliment.
”As far as the guitar-hero thing, that just developed. From when we had Eric Clapton in the group we just made sure we had good players to follow him. ”When he left, we had to live up to his standard, and after Jeff there was Jimmy. It was like we had created this high standard, which in reality was probably just by chance.”
According to McCarty, who recently recorded an album in Chicago with his Pretty Things-Yardbird Blues Band, the surviving members of the group minus Clapton will be at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Lead vocalist Keith Relf died in 1976 and will be represented by his widow.
The Hendrix experience
Although the Yardbirds` trio of guitar heroes remain stars to this day, they were eclipsed by the long shadow thrown by Jimi Hendrix, whose Jimi Hendrix Experience turned the rock world on its ear with its 1967 debut, ”Are You Experienced?”
Despite having only one Top 40 hit, a psychedelic reworking of Bob Dylan`s ”All Along the Watchtower,” such Hendrix songs as ”Purple Haze,”
”Crosstown Traffic,” ”Little Wing” and ”Fire” remain staples to this day on album-rock radio stations.
Hendrix cut a dashing figure onstage, dressed in his rock `n` roll gypsy finery and playing the guitar between his legs, behind his back and with his teeth. But it was what he played that had a lasting impact on several generations of guitarists.
He spent his early years as a sideman for Little Richard, the Isley Brothers and King Curtis, giving little evidence of brilliance to come. After a move to England and the formation of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, a new Hendrix emerged.
His group made an unforgettable impression during its American debut at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, when Hendrix capped off the set by burning his guitar onstage. A star, as they say, was born.
But there was much more to Hendrix than theatrics. He was a guitarist rooted in the blues who created a guitar vocabulary all his own.
Over the years, Hendrix gradually shed the more flamboyant aspects of his show, and his records increasingly became more progressive. On Sept. 18, 1970, he died at age 27 of drug and alcohol abuse in London.
Ken Voss, former publisher of the Illinois Entertainer music paper, has made a cottage industry of his Jimi Hendrix obsession.
His northwest suburban home is headquarters for JIMI, the Jimi Hendrix Information Management Institute, an international clearinghouse and archive for all things Hendrix.
”Over 20 years after his death, it`s amazing how much influence he continues to have,” Voss said.
”You can hear it in contemporary artists like Lenny Kravitz, and artists like Sting and the Pretenders seem to be recording Hendrix songs whenever they can.”
