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Review No: 288
Added 4th August 2006

Musicians

Roy Buchanan: Guitar and Vocals

Malcolm Lukens: Keyboards and Vocals

John Harrison: Bass and Vocals

Byrd Foster: Drums and Vocals

If you had to make up a list of the top 5 most technically brilliant and influential guitarists in the world of rock music, it would be a very hard job and one that would be open to a mountain of debate. But if pushed, in no particular order I would come up with Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, and Roy Buchanan.

If you were just going for influence then a few more names would have to come into the frame: Robert Johnson, Chuck Berry, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, even the likes of Toni Iommi and all would come in. For just plain technique some of the new guys would have a say: Satriani, Vai or Stevie Ray Vaughn would have a shout, and more than a handful of votes. But to combine the two I would have to stick to my original five. Now three of those might be up to negotiation, but not Jimi or Roy.

We all know Jimi Hendrix; the man was a genius, no question there, changed the way people played the six string, and what a showman too, setting fire to his guitar, playing with his teeth, etc. He wrote songs that will remain classics until we blow up this little planet of ours. Jimi Hendrix was the male sex symbol of his time to boot, liked by all who met him. The man had everything except for enough real friends to keep him alive. If a star ever burnt brighter as it raced across the sky before crashing to earth, the earth would not have stood it.

If Roy Buchanan stood at those crossroads with the devil to make a deal, he did not make as good a deal as Jimi did. Oh sure he could play guitar; by the time he was twelve there was nobody that could touch him. But he certainly never got the looks, stage charisma, writing ability, or the ability to get along with people. If you were a friend of Roy Buchanan you had a loyal friend but if you crossed the man, real or imagined, you were written out of the book.

Throughout his career he had a reputation as being difficult to get along with. How much of this was deserved is up to conjecture, but certainly his relationship with Jack Daniels does not seemed to have helped matters. Roy Buchanan was found dead in a police cell in his hometown of Reston Virginia. He had been arrested for being drunk and disorderly, and later found dead. The circumstances were considered very suspicious, but like a lot of things will remain a mystery.

But at the end of the day it is the music that counts, and when Roy Buchanan picked up a guitar he could make it dance, sing, or anything. ‘American Axe’ is a fine example of Roy Buchanan live on stage. Backed by friends who were also all superb musicians (he could not have been all bad), these recordings are all gems and give you a fair idea of what the man must have been like in concert. The show opens up with the MC introducing Roy Buchanan as the best guitarist to have stepped the boards, and Roy gets up there to prove the guy right.

Songs

Too Many Drivers
Roy’s Bluz
Get Out Of My Life, Woman
C.C. Rider
I Hear You Knockin’
The Messiah Will Come Again
Done Your Daddy Dirty
Hey Joe
Johnny B. Goode
Further On Up The Road
Sweet Dreams

The band stretches out on opening song ‘Too Many Drivers’ in similar style to the way the Rolling Stones would open with ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ just loosening up the band. The rhythm section slips into its groove, and Malcolm Lukens even gets to put in a short solo just to get his fingers going before the governor comes in with the first of many guitar breaks that lift the roof off the place. A good place to start, preparing you for what is to come.

Next up is Roy Buchanan’s own ‘Roy’s Bluz’ - a walkin’, talkin’ blues, allowing Roy to rap about how he feels before hitting out at the audience with some sparkling stun guitar. At nearly nine minutes, long Roy Buchanan has plenty of time to tell you what he thinks and to stun the audience with his guitar. When he calls out “When I get to hell” with such certainty, the guitar licks that follow it send shivers up and down your arms.

‘Get Out Of My Life, Woman’ is the band giving the blues groove a seventies feel. It is the only song on the album that is to be more dominated by the keyboards than the guitar. The problem with this band was that they did not have a really talented vocalist amongst them all. As well as the keyboards, Malcolm Lukens gets his turn to sing on this number, and while it is not a bad job, you really paid your money to hear Roy Buchanan play guitar.

‘C.C. Rider’ is then trundled out for a ten minute workout, where we the paying audience start to get what we paid for: Roy Buchanan playing guitar, and although the inclusion of so many covers does show the weakness in Roy Buchanan’s song writing abilities, the old chestnut is turned on its head and the guitarist devours it, taking it from a slow blues to a rip roarin’ climax.

To bring the emotion level down, but the tempo up, we are then treated to quick romp through Dave Bartholomew’s ‘I Hear You Knockin’. Then it is back to serious business with ‘The Messiah Will Come Again’, which is begun by a sombre Roy Buchanan with a spoken introduction, before playing some of the most dramatic guitar on the album, making every note count and showing it is not what you play but how you play it. It’s a fine centrepiece to the album.

On ‘Done Your Daddy Dirty’, Roy Buchanan turns the tables by reverting to the old adage: if you have it flaunt it, just ripping up the rule book and shredding his guitar strings for seven solid minutes, by which time the band has given up any hope of keeping up with him, and you feel they would rather just sit back and applaud. This is what Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin wanted to sound like.

How could Roy Buchanan possibly mess this up by next playing ‘Hey Joe’? Well he does. The guitar playing as you would expect is straight out of the top drawer and a fine example to any budding young guitarist. But the vocals are appalling, weak at best, with Roy Buchanan sounding as if he was standing six feet from the microphone. When Jimi Hendrix did Billy Roberts song he sounds as though he means every word of the lyrics, and you knew that Jimi was going to shoot his old lady down. Here it sounds as if the lyrics are being read from a book. The guitar playing is outstanding though, with a nice touch at the end when the band breaks into a refrain of ‘Foxy Lady’ to bring the song to a rockin’ end with a nice nod to his fallen comrade.

Perhaps wisely, bass player John Harrison then gets his turn at the vocals, as the band thunders through ‘Johnny B. Goode’. No complaints here for this, and it’s interesting to notice the different way that Buchanan and Hendrix handled covering these two songs. Both did it differently, but also brilliantly, and it’s hard to say who comes out on top in the guitar playing stakes. By now the band members are really enjoying themselves and have a party playing ‘Further On Up The Road’ with Byrd Foster huffing and puffing behind his drum kit as he handles the vocal duties.

To close the show Roy Buchanan dismantles and then puts back together Don Gibson’s ‘Sweet Dreams’. When people say they heard a guitar sing, this is the sort of thing they are talking about. A stunning way to bring the show to its conclusion. Later, Mick Ronson would play his own version of this as the centrepiece to his solo spot whilst touring with Ian Hunter.

If anyone disagrees with my assessment of the world’s most influential and technical top 5 guitarists, have a listen to ‘American Axe’ and it may well change your mind.

Mott the Dog resides at Jameson's the Irish Pub