Sorry to hear that one of the rock idols from my youth, Duane Eddy, has passed away aged 86. The Grammy-award winning guitarist had many top hits both in the UK and USA with material written by himself and producer Lee Hazelwood. His album Have Twangy Guitar Will Travel was one of my earliest purchases and some of his hits included, Rebel Rouser, Peter Gunn, Yep, Cannonball, Because They're Young, Forty Miles of Bad Road and Shazam. One of my favourites was the frantic Some Kinda Earthquake that I drove the household mad so often did I play it. All vinyl stuff of course. He wasn't the greatest guitarist but his style and sound was so distinctive played with heavy bass influence and, of course, the twang. He was probably more popular in the UK than his native USA and in 1960 the readers of NME voted him the World's Number One Musical Personality ousting Elvis Presley in the process!!
But he wasn't all rock and roll. His album Twangy Guitar -Silky Strings is really mellow and forms part of my vinyl collection, totally different to another famous album, The Twangs the Thang. Chet Atkins, a guitar legend, was a huge influence and Duane's favoured guitar was a Chet Atkins Gretsch 6120 that he bought in 1957 for which he traded his Gibson Les Paul Standard and some cash. In years to come Gretsch would produce several series of DE Signature guitars.
RIP, Duane. Thanks for the music and the memories. Timeless!
PS: In 1994 Eddy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In 2000 he was named the "Titan of Twang" by the mayor of Nashville.
In 2004 he was presented with the Guitar Player Magazine "Legend Award" He was only the SECOND recipient of the award after Les Paul.
Guitarists who have acknowledged his influence include George Harrison, Dave Davies, Hank Marvin, The Ventures, John Entwhistle, Bruce Springsteen, Adrian Belew, Bill Nelson, Mark Knopfler and Ben Vaughan.
But he wasn't all rock and roll. His album Twangy Guitar -Silky Strings is really mellow and forms part of my vinyl collection, totally different to another famous album, The Twangs the Thang. Chet Atkins, a guitar legend, was a huge influence and Duane's favoured guitar was a Chet Atkins Gretsch 6120 that he bought in 1957 for which he traded his Gibson Les Paul Standard and some cash. In years to come Gretsch would produce several series of DE Signature guitars.
RIP, Duane. Thanks for the music and the memories. Timeless!
PS: In 1994 Eddy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In 2000 he was named the "Titan of Twang" by the mayor of Nashville.
In 2004 he was presented with the Guitar Player Magazine "Legend Award" He was only the SECOND recipient of the award after Les Paul.
Guitarists who have acknowledged his influence include George Harrison, Dave Davies, Hank Marvin, The Ventures, John Entwhistle, Bruce Springsteen, Adrian Belew, Bill Nelson, Mark Knopfler and Ben Vaughan.