Alvin Lee Interview

[FPSHOT]

Here is a link to an old interview with Alvin Lee (& Scotty Moore)

http://www.mwe3.com/

"I play kind of stuff all over the place. But I’ve always admired guitarists, people like George Harrison too, they can construct a solo which is singable."

"Mylon was good at that. He was hustling everbody. He said, ‘man, I just love your music.’ He hustled George into... George had this song...Mylon said, ‘any of your songs we could do George, on this album?’ And George said, ‘there’s a lot of good songs on the albums, why don’t you do one of those?’ Mylon said, ‘George, you do them so good, I would never try and follow you. We need a song you haven’t recorded yet.’ (laughter) So George said, ‘there’s this song called “So Sad”, which I’ve been working on and I think it could be a hit actually.’ Mylon said, ‘I’ll take it!’ (laughter) It was all down to Mylon actually. He kind of got me in touch with George originally. Having a guy from Atlanta, Georgia in the Oxfordshire countryside was quite a trip. You take him round anywhere and as soon as he started talking, people just fell in love with his accent."

[beatlebangs1964]

This is very interesting...it is also interesting to learn what songs George liked and what his musical tastes were and what influenced his work.

[FPSHOT]

Here is a part of an interview with Alvin Lee where he talks about meeting Scotty Moore at Frair Park (he actually says Bryant Park, I don't know why)

Q: How did you come to hook up with the great Scotty Moore?

A; Well, I have always been a fan of his, and I joined the Elvis Presley fan club when I was 13 years old but mainly to get a picture of Scotty and his guitar. Scotty was originally quite a jazzy and bluesy bebop player, and I think his rock ’n’ roll influenced the world. It certainly influenced me. Anyway, I went on a pilgrimage to meet him in Nashville in 1995. I sought him out and found him at a tape duplication studio. I was a fan and went there and had my picture made with him and got his autograph and asked him all sorts of guitar questions. Then after that I didn’t see him again until 1999. I met him at George Harrison’s house in Bryant Park in Henley. George was a great friend to have because he would call and say, “Oh, do you want to come meet Mario Andretti or Scotty Moore?” Of course, when he said Scotty Moore I was there, and we all had dinner together and it was all very cool. I had a guitar and stuck it into his hand and asked him to show me how to do that intro to “My Baby Left Me.” Everyone was a little shocked, but I think he appreciated my innocent excitement. I was just dying to play with him and find out how he did a few of those licks and where he did that fingering and stuff. Then as soon as he showed me, everyone else was sitting around asking him questions.

We kind of bonded that evening and became quite close. I told him the story about joining the Elvis Presley Fan Club and how I got pictures of him and his guitar. D.J. Fontana was actually coming up with all these particular drum fills for my songs. He had asked me if that was OK, and I said, “Oh yeah, it is fine.” Then the next thing that happened was they called me up about two months later, and there was a jam at the studio. A Scotty Moore guitar was being put out by Gibson, and they asked me to come and jam and I was very excited. Up on stage I did a medley of Elvis songs. I hardly played any because I was so respectful of Scotty. I kept out of the way and just played chunky rythms and odd licks and let Scotty do the solos. Of course he told me afterwards that although I did “Hound Dog” he couldn’t play the solo, because normally he does it in C and I was playing it in A. I never bothered on checking what the actual keys were. I think we did “Mean Woman Blues,” “Hound Dog,” “Rip It Up.” It was a medley. After that it was just great because I was knocked out by having D.J. and those drums behind me that I had heard behind Elvis on Sun Records.

Then I asked them if there was any chance of getting them into the studio and they said, “Yeah, anytime.” So from 1999 I wrote songs for about a year and a half. I didn’t want to go into the studio and record old Elvis songs because he is still a tough act to follow, even after 20 years ago. Nobody can fill those shoes! So, I didn’t really want to be “Elvis of the day,” but I wrote some songs in that vein and in that style that I thought would suit D.J. and Scotty. So about a year and a half later I called up Scotty and told him that I was ready and asked him where he wanted to work. I asked him if there were any studios he wanted to use or engineers that he wanted to use, and he said we could just do it at his studio and he would be the engineer. I was over the moon by that! I got to play with him in his own place. So I booked three weeks in Nashville thinking that would be how long it would take me to do an album. I had 29 songs and we recorded 12 songs in two days and were done and finished. I was just over the moon, and those guys were so good. They only have to hear a song one time and then they know it. They just play it with that original feel. There is so much swing when done by masters like that. The early rock ’n’ roll had a lot of roll in it and lots of swing. I think it all comes from a kind of bebop and kind of Harlem jazz stuff that came out of New York. Early great rock guitarists were brought up on bebop.

[FPSHOT]

Btw, for those who don;t know, Scotty Moore is a long time guitarist who played guitar for Elvis when he entered the music scene with "That's All Right Mama" and was with him for 14 years. He engineered Ringo's first solo album which was recorded at Scotty's studio in Nashville. He also worked with Paul.

Scotty Moore indeed visited George at Frair Park on April 28, 1999.

Here is a link to some info and pictures from it.

http://www.scottymoore.net/beatles.html

http://www.scottymoore.net/images/georgeharrison.jpg

[twovirgins]

HI Rocky !!!!