He’d been expecting this newcomer to hold back: Clapton, Clapton, 80.
“Eric was standing [there], trying to light a cigarette”: Chandler in Seven Ages of Rock.
“They loved it, and I loved it, too”: Clapton, Clapton, 80.
to meet Muddy Waters: Murray, Crosstown Traffic, 38–39.
found a deep commonality with Jimi: Schumacher, Crossroads, 80–83.
CHAPTER 41
“They were so unfashionable, Stratocasters”: Clapton, quoted in “Leo Fender Story.”
“As far as the new blues-rock hotshots were concerned”: Murray, Crosstown Traffic, 212.
“I use a Fender Stratocaster”: Bill Kerby and David Thompson, “Spanish Galleons Off Jersey Coast or ‘We Live Off Excess Volume,’ ” Los Angeles Free Press, August 25, 1967.
small amplifiers suitable for rehearsals: Mitch Mitchell and John Platt, The Hendrix Experience (London: Mitchell Beazley, 1990), 18.
Chandler was then selling off his personal bass guitars: Cross, Room Full of Mirrors, 163.
“We tried everything to break them” . . . matching hundred-watt Marshall stacks: Mitchell and Platt, Hendrix Experience, 18–21.
employ it consistently: This consistency was surprising given that in private, he played all sorts of different instruments and amplifiers, and would later make a habit of buying new gear en masse and at huge expense. Henry Goldrich and Holly Goldrich Schoenfeld, The Wall of Fame: New York City’s Legendary Manny’s Music (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, 2007), 23–30.
“the Black Bob Dylan”: Jan Waldrop, “Jimi Hendrix Shows His Teeth,” Humo, March 11, 1967, reprinted in Steven Roby, ed., Hendrix on Hendrix: Interviews and Encounters with Jimi Hendrix (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2012), 17.
“the Black Elvis”: Michael Lydon, “Jimi Hendrix: The Black Elvis?,” New York Times, August 25, 1968.
“the best guitar-picker in the world”: Michael Thomas, “The Persecution & Assassination of Rock and Roll, as Performed by the Jimi Hendrix Experience . . . Under the Direction of the Jumping Jimi Himself, the Cassius Clay of Pop,” EYE, July 1968, reprinted in Roby, Hendrix on Hendrix, 98.
“There was something about the way he played”: “Leo Fender Story.”
switched to the more commonly available SG: Hunter, Gibson Les Paul, 51.
“They’re showing up at my house”: Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 297.
CHAPTER 42
highest-paid player in rock music: Cross, Room Full of Mirrors, 255.
“We got tired of ‘the Experience’ ”: Jimi Hendrix, Jimi Hendrix: Live at Woodstock, MCA Records, 1999.
“You can leave if you want to”: Hendrix, Live at Woodstock.
“Everything just stopped”: Henry Diltz, quoted in Joel Makower, Woodstock: The Oral History (New York: Doubleday, 1989), 287.
“A quintessential piece of art”: Ibid.
“Before that . . . if someone would have played”: Cross, Room Full of Mirrors, 271.
“It was probably the single greatest moment”: Ibid.
EPILOGUE
Clapton knew he’d be seeing Jimi: Clapton, Clapton, 130.
behaving rather strangely: Cross, Room Full of Mirrors, 329.
scheduled to meet Sly Stone: Mitchell and Platt, Hendrix Experience, 157–59.
Hendrix had taken a heavy dose: This account is from Cross, Room Full of Mirrors, 331–33, who offers the most credible account of Hendrix’s final hours and death.
“filled with a feeling of terrible loneliness”: Clapton, Clapton, 130.
a lifetime of service: Author interview with Geoff Fullerton, March 21, 2017.
appeared on Forrest White’s desk in 1966: White, Fender, 172–74.
flat and dull: Smith, Fender, 253.
abandoned the entire line: Wheeler, Soul of Tone, 297.
shuddered over the cheaper bridge: Author interview with Charlie Davis, March 23, 2017.
“And CBS come and said use it, use everything”: NAMM Oral History interview with Abigail Ybarra.
took bets with his coworkers: NAMM Oral History interview with Babe Simoni.
out to Fullerton to work as punishment: Author interview with Charlie Davis, March 23, 2017.
earned more per year . . . “the ‘fairyland’ in which you were living”: Don Randall, letter to “all key salesmen,” June 9, 1967, in Richard Smith Files.
Two years after: Gans, “Electric Guitar Pioneers,” 37.
skirted the edge of legitimate medicine: Author interview with Geoff Fullerton, March 21, 2017.
“a place to tinker and some friends around to have lunch with”: Smith, Fender, 268.
a private phone line: Author interview with Geoff Fullerton, March 21, 2017.
He felt loneliness and profound guilt: Author interviews with Phyllis Fender, August 4, 2015, and December 19, 2015.
a shiny brown glass eye: Ibid.
Leo rejected the idea: Smith, Complete History of Rickenbacker, 277–79.
legal action over G&L’s use of the name Leo Fender: Michael Flagg, “Leo Fender’s Legacy: G&L Sales on Rise,” Los Angeles Times, August 11, 1993.
Tavares . . . actually designed several: Author interview with David McLaren, March 29, 2017.
“Fred Tavares was employed in late 1953”: From copy of note given to author by Dave McLaren.
Leo took a certain pride: Author interview with Geoff Fullerton, March 21, 2017.
Buffet tables stretched out in a long line: Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 292–93.
slapped Les on the right side of the head: Ibid., 265.
After five surgeries: Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 315.
spend hours together on the phone: Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 276.
Mary would call him late at night: Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 312.
shattered by her death: Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 277; Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 312–13.
Peter Frampton approached him: Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 275.
jokes he’d collected and filed on index cards: Les Paul Papers, box 3.
extended, then extended again: Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 286–87.
Juszkiewicz had no choice: Ibid., 292.
“I had an LP at a very early age”: Page quoted in MTV News report on the party, posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7KOOyzEfIA.
until August 12, 2009: Many sources list Thursday, August 13, as the day Les died; however, the date listed on his grave in Waukesha (and given by Gibson) is August 12.
INDEX
A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.
Allison, Jerry, 121, 149
Amburn, Ellis, 119
amplifiers. See also Fender amplifiers
Beatles and, 196
Clapton and, 224–25, 226–27
Dale and, 157–61
Hendrix and, 252, 253, 257, 259
loudness and, 1–2
Marshall brand of, 224, 225–26, 246, 252, 253, 257, 259
Music Man company and, 268
Paul’s early experiment (“the log”) in New York with, 7–8, 10–13
stacked design of, 160, 161
surf music and, 165
transistors’ impact on, 202
Animals, 153, 236, 245
Arbiter company, 252
Aristocrat Records, 100
Armstrong, Louis, 242
Aron, Evelyn, 99–100
Aronowitz, Al, 260
Arthur D. Little consultants, 206–9
Associated Press, 213–14
Atkins, Chet, 39, 276–77
Atkins, Jim, 42
Autry, Gene, 23, 24, 25, 26, 54
Babiuk, Andy, 58, 203, 20
4
Bacon, Tony, 74
Baker, Ginger, 245, 246
Baldwin Company, 205–6, 209
Ball, Ernie, 268
Barber, Chris, 151, 153
Barnard, Junior, 15–16, 18, 19, 33
bass guitars. See also Precision Basses
role in recording sessions, 191
Bassman amplifiers (Fender), 224
Beach Boys, 238–40
Beatles compared with, 195–96, 209
early performance by, 167, 168
filmed concert of, 1–2, 3–4, 5, 6
guitars used by, 1–2, 4, 168, 239, 243, 244
Kaye in sessions with, 192, 238–40, 242–43
songs by, 2, 168, 220, 239–40, 244
surf rock and, 161, 167–68
Beatles, 149, 193–99
electric guitars’ popularity and, 209, 216
Fender’s offer of cash for use of Fender equipment by, 203–4
guitars used by, 194–95, 196–99
Hall’s meeting with, 194–95, 197–99
Motown sound and, 241
music industry changed by, 200, 209
songs by, 194, 196, 199, 220, 239
Sullivan show and, 195–96, 197
bebop, 65, 189
Beck, Jeff, 230, 232, 273, 277, 278
Berlin, Arnie, 254
Berlin, Maurice H., 86, 87, 120, 254
Berry, Chuck, 129, 133–35, 155, 156
Beatles and, 196
guitars used by, 5, 133, 141, 171, 196
Holly and, 134–35
later musicians and, 168
racial lines in music and, 3, 134, 242
songs by, 133, 134, 150–51, 168
Bigsby, Paul, 103, 270
background of, 37
custom-built guitars by, 37, 57–58, 67–68
Fender guitars’ similarities to work of, 47–48, 50, 53, 58, 66–67, 68, 115, 123, 124–25, 271
Fender’s relationship with, 36–37, 68, 115, 123, 124
Paul’s custom guitar from, 57–58
Paul’s relationship with, 36, 37–39, 57–58
pickup invented by, 39
Travis’s guitar made by, 39–40, 41, 48, 50, 53, 66, 67, 68, 118
Travis’s sketch for guitar by, 40, 47, 280
vibrato bridge of, 114–15, 123–24, 232
Billboard, 55, 81, 82, 87, 100, 102, 110, 118, 129, 155, 164, 240, 241
black audiences
country blues for, 99
electric blues and, 221–22
Paul and Ford’s songs and, 102
black music
Clapton’s influences in, 227–28, 248, 249
English audiences for, 222, 236
hillbilly tunes with rhythm from, 18
Holly’s listening to, 120
racial divide and, 134, 241–42
white audiences for, 103, 133, 134, 153, 222, 242
white musicians’ use of, 4, 134, 241–42
black musicians
black-run theaters and clubs for, 184
charts by, 2, 3, 240, 242
electric guitar legacy of, 248
Gibson Les Paul guitars used by, 143–44
Hendrix representing legacy of, 248
segregated clubs and, 134
Blonde on Blonde (Dylan), 234
Bloomfield, Mike, 217–18, 230–31, 232, 235
blues, 141
Clapton and, 227–28, 249, 262
England and, 151–53
Gibson Les Paul guitars used in, 5, 143–44, 171, 274
Hampton’s big band and, 92–93
Hendrix and, 185, 246, 248, 249, 253
Holly and, 148
Jordan and, 133
Paul and, 279
Paul and Ford and, 81
Waters and, 97–100, 101, 151, 152, 153
Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers), 228, 229–30, 251
blues rock, 5, 251, 274
Bluesbreakers, 222, 223–24, 228–29, 230, 251
Boggs, Noel, 19–20, 174–76, 179, 215, 271
Boggs, Sandy, 177–78
Braunstein, Phil, 88
Brenston, Jackie, 101, 102
Broonzy, Big Bill, 98
Bruce, Jack, 245, 246, 247
Bryant, Jimmy, 117, 118, 271
Bixby’s custom guitar for, 67–68
Esquire guitars and, 72–74, 75, 76, 115
Fender guitars and, 65–66, 67–68, 118
Buckner, Harold, 195
Burton, James, 146
Capitol Records, 72, 167
Beatles and, 194
Kaye and, 190, 191
Paul and, 43, 43–44, 54–55, 58
Paul and Ford and, 79, 80–81, 110–11, 169
Carson, Bill, 115–16, 117, 118, 125, 182, 213, 271
CBS
consultants’ Fender report for, 206–9, 263
Fender brand sold by, 272
Fender division (CBS-Fender) of. See Fender Musical Instruments, CBS
Fender employee reactions to, 212–13, 215
Fender negotiations by, 206–7, 209–11
Fender’s reaction to purchase by, 214–15
media reactions to, 213–14
purchase announcement from, 212
Chandler, Chas, 236–37, 245–46, 248, 252
Chantays, 164–65
Chess, Leonard, 99–100
Chess Records, 100, 102, 133, 150, 248
Chester and Lester (Atkins and Paul), 276–77
Christian, Charlie, 112, 248
Clapton, Eric, 221–28, 245–49
Berry’s influence on, 148–49, 150
black music and, 227–28, 248, 249
Blues Breakers album of, 227–28, 229–30, 251
Cream and, 230, 245–47, 248
electric blues and, 221–23, 227–28, 229
English fans’ reactions to, 224–25
fuzz pedals used by, 252
guitars used by, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 228, 230, 249, 251, 253, 261, 262–63
Hendrix and, 237, 246–47, 253, 261, 262
loudness technique of, 226–27, 228
musicians influenced by, 230–31
playing style of, 223–24, 228
Cole, Mike, 94, 95, 180
Cole, Nat King, 242
Compton, Stan, 166, 213
Conkling, Jim, 43, 80, 81, 82
Cooke, Sam, 188, 238
country blues, 99, 100
country music
Bigsby’s guitars and, 39, 40, 47
Bryant and, 66, 72–73
Dale and, 156
electric guitars in, 73–74, 103, 104, 113, 156
Fender and, 8, 17, 29, 49, 158, 182, 216, 272
Fender products and, 31, 36, 64–65, 113, 115
Ford and, 61, 276
Gibson guitars and, 171
Holly and, 120
Paul and, 4, 37, 43, 55, 276–77
rock ’n’ roll modeled on, 133
sidemen in, 50–51
Cream, 230, 245–48
Crickets, 131–32, 147–48, 149, 196
Crosby, Bing, 2, 23–24, 25, 26, 57, 61–62, 129, 154, 155, 168, 276
Curtis, Sonny, 120
Dale, Dick, 156–62, 167, 182
background of, 156–57
echo system and, 163–64
Fender amps developed for, 157–61, 216
Fender marketing and, 166
Fender Reverb developed for, 164, 165
Fender’s attendance at concert of, 158–59
guitars used by, 159, 161, 168
songs by, 165
surf culture and, 161–62, 168
Danelectro guitars, 185, 188, 190, 201
Davis, Charlie, 264–65
Davis, Clive, 206
Decca Records, 24, 43, 121–22, 225
Del-Tones, 156–57, 162, 164, 166
Deluxe Reverb units (Fender), 201, 264
Dickens, Little Jimmy, 64–65, 66
Doggett, Bill, 155
Domino, Fats, 129, 242
Dorsey, Tommy, 111, 156
DownBeat, 10, 87, 93, 94, 95, 166, 280
Driver, Dave, 74
Duchossoir, A. R., 231
Dudgeon, Gus, 225, 226–27, 228
Duo-Sonic guitars (Fender), 166
Dylan, Bob, 217–20, 260
Newport performance of, 217–18, 220, 230
songs by, 217–18, 234, 235, 239
echo system, 107, 163–64, 165
Ed Sullivan Show, The, 131–32, 195–97
Eddy, Duane, 155, 273
electric basses. See also specific models
G&L guitar company and, 269–70
Music Man company and, 268
electric blues, 100, 152, 185, 221–22, 229
electric guitars. See also Fender guitars; Gibson guitars; and specific models
Beatles and popularity of, 209, 216
Bigsby’s prototype for, 280
CBS purchase of Fender and, 212, 216–17
Clapton’s electric blues and, 229
cultural shift after 1965 and, 250–51
G&L guitar company and, 269–70
Hendrix and black musicians and, 248
Music Man company and, 268
obsession for vintage models of, 231–32
Paul’s contributions to, 271, 280
reactions to Dylan’s use of, 218–19, 220
as tools for serious art, 220
electric pianos, Fender, 181, 205–6, 210
EMI, 194
Epiphone company, 8–11, 12
Epiphone guitars, 11, 16, 41, 70, 84, 89, 188, 189
Epstein, Brian, 195, 203, 204
Esquire guitars (Fender), 70–78, 86, 115, 141
development of, 70–76
naming issues with, 76–78
Feather, Leonard, 92–94, 95
Fender, Clarence Monte (father), 51, 52, 215
Fender, Esther (wife), 113, 158, 212, 217, 271
death of, 268–69
life after selling Fender, 267, 268
marriage to Leo, 30, 91, 92, 174–77
new home built for, 142
rental house with Leo’s studio and, 30
support from job of, 30, 32, 177, 269
well-matched harmony between husband and, 176–77
Fender, Harriet (mother), 16–17, 51, 52
Fender, Leo, 174–79
BACKGROUND AND CHILDHOOD
family and childhood, 51–53
radio electronics interest, 34, 49, 51, 52–53, 57, 65
BUSINESS VENTURES
acoustic guitar and electric piano division investments, 181, 205–6
Beatles’ rise and his reaction, 194, 196
CBS consultants’ report on Fender’s role in company, 208–9, 263