In this stupendously rare video, Damian Fanelli — Guitar World's editor-in-chief — plays and discusses some of the riffs, licks and solos that changed his bipedal life. He's playing a Palir Titan with Lollar pickups (Lollar Royal T in the neck position) and a B-bender installed by the Byrds' Gene Parsons. Get ready for some Beatles, Byrds, B-benders, Bobby Bare and Batman!
00:23I'm here at Guitar World's secret lair in New York City.
00:30To play a few of the riffs that I like and that meant a lot to me as I was a young'un,
00:35when I was learning guitar, and the things that have brought me
00:39to this magical spot in this room, this stool and this couch.
00:44So anyway, I was a wee one in 83 when Steve Ray Vaughan first appeared,
00:51and you know the album that came out that year by Stevie was called
00:55Texas Flood. So I didn't have YouTube or anything, so I just,
00:58I gravitated to the easiest thing on the album, which I always thought was
01:02Mere had a little lamb, which goes a little something like this.
01:06I didn't have um .
01:13I thought for you I was a man.
01:15I thought I could've been on and for you I was a man.
01:17Who's a man who's gone?
01:17Why's he not at all?
01:18I thought he didn't have something, but that's why he's not at all.
01:19I thought I could've been on and for you.
01:20I thought this is the way that I got to go.
01:22And I thought that I would have to go and get up,
01:24Holy crap.
01:25I thought you were a man who should have the act.
01:57So I learned that back in 83 or so, and it's still kind of the first thing I play every time I pick up a guitar.
02:04I don't know, it's fun to play. It's kind of a self-contained melody when you think about it.
02:08It's got a little bit of lead bits and pieces, and they've got the rhythm thing.
02:12It's great when demoing a guitar, actually, and it's a nice mixture of lead bits and rhythm bits.
02:27If you're familiar with either of the songs I've played, you'll know that I'm not playing them like the record.
02:47And the reason is I've been playing them for years and years and years, and they just developed into their own things over the decades.
02:55And I don't even know how to do it like the records anymore. I don't even attempt to do it.
03:01Eric Gales here was here a few months ago, and he said, why do it like the record? It's already been done.
03:07Always add your own stuff to it. So that's what I do.
03:09However, that tends to work mostly for blues and jazz and country, those really rootsy American types of music.
03:19But I notice, I find that if you're in a cover band, or if you're going to see a cover band, you want to hear the riffs.
03:26You don't want to hear some guy's interpretation of the riffs.
03:29So I think with pop music, rock, you want to kind of stick with the script a bit more, whereas with blues, it's more fun to do your own thing.
03:39A good example of the kind of riffs that I'm talking about that you try to stick with the script is like this kind of thing.
03:58That's trying to Clarksville by the Monkees. That's a good one.
04:00Which reminds me of something else. When I was thinking about the riffs I was going to do in the video,
04:04I was thinking how it seems as though I like riffs that have a droning note, or a note that kind of stands in before the drone.
04:14And then it's surrounded by notes that are either descending or ascending, like that one that I just did, or from the same era.
04:21Batman. Or, let's see, what else? How about this one?
04:47Secret Agent Man, which is similar to Honey Don't by Carl Perkins.
05:05Or, this one by Cream.
05:06You know, that kind of thing.
05:29So, I talked about the drone note that's surrounded by the ascending or descending notes.
05:34The note that stays the same is called the pedal point. Just a few more of the pedal point things.
05:39Here's one by The Who. A quick one.
05:41And that kind of reminds me a bit of Dear Prudence. I know my picking isn't right. I just want to play the notes. I don't care about the picking. Right now. At this moment. Just leave me alone.
06:07There you go.
06:23This is an old song by Bobby Bear from the early 60s. I don't know who the guitar player was, but it fits the pedal point thing that we're talking about. As you'll see, it goes a bit like this.
06:32Okay, the tuning wasn't perfect, but you get the idea. So now I'm going to magically go back to normal tuning.
06:55So this next one, wow, gets us into the 90s. Imagine that. It's by Paul Weller. And it's a song called Sunflower.
07:03Sunflower.
07:04Sunflower.
07:16Sunflower.
07:32There you go.
07:32Um, so once again, pedal point. And that always reminded me of...
07:46Which gets us into the world of the Beatles. I'm in a couple of bands that does a lot of
07:50songs about the Beatles, have been since I was a wee one, and thinking about what is my favorite
07:58George Harrison thing to play, or which one do I appreciate the most. And I think it's this next
08:02one. I think about him being 20 years old when this was done. Once again, this is the time before
08:07YouTube and all that stuff. And he's just this kid from Liverpool, and he's playing this pretty
08:11sophisticated thing, Till There Is You. And I don't know what he would have based the solo on,
08:17except for just from his own head. Like, there's no recording of the song from before their recording
08:23that had a beautiful guitar solo. So this is done by George, and it goes a little something like this.
08:32kind of like the only thing that we have required, but just from saja.
08:36And you say, let's do the first time!
08:38Ok!
08:38Goodbye!
08:40Bye and gentlemen
08:43Good job!
08:55Draw it!
08:58Also drudgeon connu
09:00and sticking with the Beatles thing for a little while something by the Beatles from the Ivy
09:18Road album. In the olden times I used to play it exactly like the record which is
09:21but in the past couple of years or so I've I've decided to play it a bit fancier based on how he
09:34played it on the Live in Japan album from the early 90s. He got fancy with it.
09:43Now I wouldn't go starting the song like that because once again people want to hear the real
09:47thing but I think when you're coming out of the solo that's the perfect place to just insert
09:52that. It's like oh that's nice and the cool thing about it is if you love the Beatles it's not like
09:57it's come out of the blue like George did it so it counts. So yeah I'll do it one more time because
10:04it's it's so nice. Sticking with the Beatles let's go into Paul McCartney land. Here's one that I love
10:15from late 1973 three three three three and the hits just keep on coming coming coming.
10:45Bend on the run and the part was played by Paul on the record. You might notice I'm doing this
10:58business. That's a B bender which you can see right here and there's a little bit of it right here
11:04you see it bending. I got this guitar in 2015. This is a paler. They're made in in Louisiana. Three years
11:12later I sent it out to Northern California to Gene Parsons from the Byrds to install this B bender.
11:17I love it. No really I have like four B benders. I love it. They're little secret weapons. They're handy
11:25and dandy. But I guess the cool thing about that is it's a segue to bring me into B bender territory.
11:33The guitar player that came into the Byrds in the later versions of the band Clarence White. He's one
11:37of my favorites and unfortunately he died back in 73. He was so young but he was just amazing. He's been
11:45compared to Jimi Hendrix by Roger McGuinn. Just listen to some of the stuff that he did. Getting
11:50back into the way I don't do anything like the record. Here's sort of my version of a solo that
11:55he did in 1969 for a song on the Ballad of Easy Rider album. The song is called Tulsa County, County, County, County.
12:02The song is called Tulsa County, County, County, County, County, County, County, County, County,
12:32It just gives you like a secret weapon. No one's expecting it. This just looks like a regular
12:37telecaster but look it's got this thing under the hood. I don't play this one very often.
12:41I haven't played it since I was a top but we'll see how it goes.
13:02So that song is called Farewell Blues and I will say my farewell. Thanks for watching. Be sure to pick
13:20up a guitar world magazine or visit guitarworld.com. Guitar world, guitar world, guitar world.
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