
Don Peake wields one of his longtime companions, the Gibson ES-335 model.
The Wrecking Crew guitarist played with the Everly Brothers, the Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye, and many more. He shares memories of hanging with Elvis, the Beatles, and the Stones, long sessions with Phil Spector, recording with Sonny and Cher, and spitballing now-iconic guitar lines ingrained in music history.
The Wrecking Crew was a group of Los Angeles session players who shaped hundreds of hit records in the '60s and early '70s. The list of guitarists often named as crew members includes Tommy Tedesco, James Burton, Glen Campbell, Al Casey, Barney Kessel, and Howard Roberts. More rarely mentioned is Don Peake, who was right there in the studio trenches with them, creating timeless tracks for Phil Spector and others.
Peake later cut hits for Motown as well. If you listen to classic pop radio, you have doubtless heard the iconic opening wah-wah lick to Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" and the guitar line doubling the bass on the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back," but probably never knew it was Peake playing those parts.
Though he appears briefly in The Wrecking Crew movie, it's safe to say Don Peake's place in the world of historic session guitarists is shamefully unsung. It's long past time for this purveyor of iconic guitar parts to be recognized. While many of his peers have departed, Peake luckily remains with us, ready to relay some amazing stories, which he does in this Premier Guitar interview.
"Elvis would come in three nights a week. We'd sit with him in the balcony on the break." —Don Peake
Don Peake was born in Los Angeles, California, on June 7, 1940. During high school, he played clarinet and sang with an a cappella choir. Picking up the ukulele at 16, he eventually moved to guitar. When word got out he could play Gene Vincent's "Be-Bop-A-Lula," it was recommended he try out for a gig with rockabilly singer Jackie Lee Cochran.
"I went to a night club called the Rag Doll," Peake recalls. "In the parking lot was a line of guitarists waiting to audition." Cochran fortuitously asked Peake if he knew "Be-Bop-A-Lula," and an affirmative answer helped him clinch the gig. Opening night, after playing that song, Cochran asked the young guitarist what else he knew. "Nothing," he replied.
Peake managed to keep the job, but to fill in the gaps he quickly signed up for lessons at Clara Joyce Sherman's School of Music in Hollywood. As luck would have it, his guitar teacher was Ray Pohlman, who would go on to be a regular guitarist and bassist in the Wrecking Crew. "Ray was a jazz guitarist who played with the Billy May Orchestra," he says. "He taught me to play and mentored me. I bought my blonde, 1946 Gibson ES-350 with the single pickup from him." A special guitar, indeed: The ES-350 Peake bought from Pohlman was a rare one-pickup jazz model made in 1946. Gibson started making the iconic two-pickup models in 1947.
Here's Peake at work in studio, putting his skill at reading music to work. This is a still from the documentary film The Wrecking Crew.
Working with Cochran helped cement the young guitarist's reputation as a rock 'n' roll player, which led to a gig with Lance LeGault, Elvis Presley's movie stand-in. "LeGault loved Ray Charles' songs and had his sax player write out 'Hallelujah, I Love Her So,' 'Drown in My Own Tears,' etc.," says Peake. "I learned the exact guitar parts, which came in handy later. Elvis would come in three nights a week. We'd sit with him in the balcony on the break."
Learning to read music while playing rock 'n' roll gigs provided Peake a perfect primer for later working with the similarly schooled Wrecking Crew, who also helped create much of the era's teenage music. Another bit of serendipity was hanging out with a young Phil Spector.
"Phil was studying with Howard Roberts," Peake remembers. "I started studying with both Barney Kessel and Roberts. Howard would write out arpeggios for me, while Barney was 'Mr. Time.' He would say, 'You've got a rod connecting your forearm to your foot. You have to tap your foot and keep your arm moving. It doesn't matter if you miss the chord, keep going. Never stop your right hand.'" Spector gave Peake a T-Bone Walker LP, adding a blues influence to the guitarist's jazz and rock background. "T-Bone had those wonderful moving 9th chords," he says.
Shown here in 1972 at an RCA Hollywood Studio session, Peake holds a modified ES-335 that began life as a 12-string, owned by John Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas. Fellow sessioner Paul Herman got it from Phillips and cut down the headstock and painted it black before selling it to Peake, who then used the instrument as his primary studio axe.
Courtesy of Don Peake
Spector's friend Marshall Leib, from his group the Teddy Bears, told Peake that the Everly Brothers were looking for a guitar player. Playing with the Everlys would be his first big gig and place him at the center of the musical revolution taking place in early '60s England.
"We flew to London," he recalls. "After the gig, we went to a night club where a pretty good band was playing." Still wearing their matching gray suits, it was clear that Peake and company were a band as well, so the local performers joined them on their break. Among those locals were Albert Lee and Eric Clapton. In his autobiography, Clapton describes Peake as one of the American guitarists who impressed him as being technically better than he was.
On the next trip to England, the Everly Brothers headlined a tour featuring the Rolling Stones, Bo Diddley, and Little Richard. "As I was watching one of the other acts, I noticed a black man in a full-length peignoir across the stage, holding a bible," he says. "One of the stagehands said, 'That's Little Richard Penniman.'"
"Brother Ray came in and sat down at the piano. He said, 'Do you know 'Hallelujah, I Love Her So?'—cut back to Lance LeGault, making me learn those Ray Charles songs—I said, 'Absolutely.'" —Don Peake
Brothers and band soon started hanging with the Beatles and Stones in Hamburg. "The Star-Club had three stages," says Peake. "We traded sets: Everly Brothers, Rolling Stones, Beatles. Jim Gordon came over as the drummer. He went on to play with Clapton."
During his Everly Brothers tenure, Peake had to leave his 1951 Fender Broadcaster at home. "The Everly Brothers were sponsored by Gibson, so we weren't allowed to use a Fender guitar onstage," he explains. "They gave me a brand new, bright red SG. We were strumming hard, and it would constantly break the 3rd or 4th string. I didn't have a spare guitar, so I would finish the show playing an octave higher."
Once back in Los Angeles, producer Jimmie Haskell heard about Peake and arranged for him to play with Ricky Nelson. "I played on the Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet sessions for a little while," he says. "James Burton was there at the same time. He came in the studio one day and started bending strings. I said, 'How did you do that?' He said, 'I've got an E string, where my G string is supposed to be.' That was the first time we saw anybody play a light G string."
Don Peake bought this blonde 1946 Gibson ES-350 with a single pickup from Ray Pohlman, his guitar mentor and Wrecking Crew bandmate. This rare jazz model was a precursor to the two-pickup model introduced in 1947. Peake's chart-reading and big-band chops were honed while playing in the jazz band at L.A. City College, where this photo was taken in 1960.
Photo courtesy of Don Peake
Peake's sessions with the Wrecking Crew started around 1966 with the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'." That record would define Spector's "Wall of Sound" and become one of the most played radio tunes of all time. A sizable chunk of that "wall" was the guitar section, including Barney Kessel, Howard Roberts, Bill Pittman, Tommy Tedesco, and Peake, all playing together.
"Tommy or Barney would be the first chair," Peake recalls. "There were always three guys playing miked Gibson L-5s. I bought mine from Howard Roberts. The board at Gold Star only had seven channels, so they had all the guitar mics running together on one channel. Phil would have us move around to get the balance. He would rehearse us for three hours. Howard Roberts once said, 'Man, you come out here and play this. I'm getting tired.'"
Peake is featured on another major hit that sounds like a Spector production, but isn't. "One day, I'm up at Armin Steiner's studio and a shaggy-haired guy comes in with a beautiful girl in bangs," he relates. "The producer said, 'This is Caesar and Cleo.' The song was 'Baby Don't Go.' I did the tremolo strumming part."
"Don was the best reader of the three of us and would help us with any problems reading charts." —Louie Shelton
A week later, Ahmet Ertegun heard the duo, changed their name to Sonny and Cher, and ordered a full album, which included the massive hit "I Got You Babe."
"That tune is me on my Fender Telecaster with a lot of reverb," says Peake. "Sonny produced the records. He'd been a gofer for Phil Spector and, like Phil, he was into lots of reverb and long rehearsals. Barney Kessel was sitting next to me. He had played jazz with Charlie Parker and Lady Day [Billie Holiday]. After playing this one F7chord for three hours he said, 'Sonny, if a doctor told me I had only two weeks to live, I'd spend them with you because each moment is like an eternity'."
In 1964, Peake landed a gig with a man whose music had inspired him as a teenager. While recording at Gold Star Studios, he ran into his friend Arthur Wright on the phone with Ray Charles' manager Joe Adams. Wright put Peake on the call.
Don Peake with his boss, the great Ray Charles, in the dressing room before a show in Wichita, Kansas, circa 1993.
Courtesy of Don Peake
"Adams said, 'Ray Charles is looking for a guitar player," he recalls. "We've tried 35 guys and can't find anybody who can play the blues, read music, play jazz, and already knows Ray's old songs, because we've lost some of that music.' I said, 'I'm white.' He said, 'Can you play?' I said, 'Yes.' He said, 'Get down here.'"
Peake grabbed his Deluxe Reverb, Gibson L-5, and ES-350, and drove to the studio, where he hauled all three up a flight of stairs. With his hands full, he kicked open the rehearsal room door, slamming it into the wall.
"Staring at me were five saxophones, four trombones, four trumpets, bass, drums, an empty piano chair, and an empty guitar chair," he says. "I'd been playing with the jazz band at L.A. City College, so I knew how to read big band charts. The drummer called an up-tempo Count Basie blues and I started playing that L-5 as fast as I could. Leroy Cooper, the baritone player, leaned over to Lily Fort, the lead singer of the Raelettes, and said, 'That boy is serious.' Then they said, 'Get out your electric.' I picked up the 350 and we did 'Jumping with Symphony Sid.' Brother Ray came in and sat down at the piano. He said, 'Do you know 'Hallelujah, I Love Her So?'—cut back to Lance LeGault, making me learn those Ray Charles songs—I said, 'Absolutely.'"
Joe Adams informed Peake that Charles wanted to hire him at $200 a week. "I told him the Everly Brothers were paying $225," says Peake. Adams said he would have to talk to Mr. Charles. Fearing he had blown the gig of a lifetime, Peake drove to his mother's house, where he lived when he was off the road. "She said, 'Joe Adams called," he recalls. "They're going to pay you $225, but give you a separate envelope for the $25, so the rest of the band doesn't know about it.'" Thus, Don Peake became the first white guitarist to play with Ray Charles.
Don Peake peeks out of a Sonny and Cher sandwich while backing up the iconic duo at L.A.'s Hollywood Bowl in 1966.
Courtesy of Don Peake
Before they hit the road, Charles recorded a live album. During the show, he began playing the introduction to "Makin' Whoopee"—a song for which there was no chart. "I had never played it with him," says Peake. "When he goes up a half-step on the dominant you can hear me slide into it. I'm learning the song onstage while they're recording it."
Peake continued recording with Charles even after he stopped touring with him, cutting classics like "America the Beautiful" and "Crying Time." He can be heard loud and clear on a lesser-known Charles cover, "Blue Moon of Kentucky," playing the signature intro and the solo over the fade. Toward the end of the track, you hear Charles exhorting the guitarist, "Play it! Play it 'til it gets good." Rather than being critical, according to Peake, he is encouraging him. "He's saying, 'Keep going. It's good,'" Peake says.
While "Blue Moon of Kentucky" is a deep cut, the guitarist's soulful blues licks on the massive Charles hit "Let's Go Get Stoned" have been heard by countless millions through the decades. Though the tone sounds Fender-ish, the guitar was an old Gibson ES-175. "I restrung it with real light strings," Peake explains. "I ended up not liking it, but I did use it on that recording."
In 1966, Peake was asked to go on the road with Bobby Darin, but told Darin he wanted to stay in town and be an arranger. A week went by before he got the call from the singer's managers. "I went to their office, where they played me 'If I Were a Carpenter' by Tim Hardin," he says. "They wanted strings and I'd never written for strings before. I went home, opened up the Russell Garcia arranging book [The Professional Arranger Composer], and feverishly figured out how to write the string quartet. When we recorded at Gold Star, I stood near the studio door so I could get out quickly. When the strings came in, I thought, 'That sounds all right,' and started walking back into the studio." This Bobby Darin hit would mark the beginning of an arranging and scoring career that would ultimately replace Peake's session work, but the guitarist still had some classics to cut.
"There are certain guitar licks or solos that always give me goose bumps, and Don Peake's opening part on 'Let's Get It On' is one of those." —Denny Tedesco
By 1969, Motown had started recording in Los Angeles. Diana Ross was going to produce the first Jackson 5 record with Ben Barrett as contractor. For the Ross-produced record, Barrett put together a band that included Peake, David T. Walker, and Louie Shelton on guitar, Wilton Felder on bass, and Gene Pello on drums. "On 'I Want You Back,' I doubled the bass line with Wilton," he recalls. "I had to read it."
Peake was quite good at that, Louie Shelton recalls. "Don was the best reader of the three of us and would help us with any problems reading charts," Shelton says.
In addition to doubling one of the most famous bass parts of all time, Peake appears on much of the Jackson's subsequent output. That's his Coral electric sitar on "Maybe Tomorrow" from Third Album and his early fuzz pedal shaping the memorable distorted part on "ABC." "I also had a Cry Baby wah," says Peake. "It said Thomas Organ Company, Sepulveda, California, on the bottom." He doesn't remember if it was him or Wah Wah Watson, aka Melvin Ragin, playing the wah part on the Jacksons' "Never Can Say Goodbye," but he is very clear about who played the memorable intro to Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On." As with many Peake performances, there's a fascinating backstory.
"There was a fabulous guitarist named René Hall who was also a great arranger," he relates. "Hall started using me because of my blues playing. He actually had me come in and finish a B.B. King album. B.B. had walked away from the record company and wouldn't talk to them. They had already recorded the songs but needed guitar fills, so I did them."
Peake stands beside bassist Wilton Felder on an early Jackson 5 session. Peake played essential parts on some of the group's early, barnstorming hits.
Courtesy of Don Peake
In 1973, Hall was the arranger on "Let's Get It On," working at Motown's L.A. studio on Romaine Street. "René said, 'I want you to make up something at the beginning'," says Peake. "I turned on my wah-wah pedal and played." As was so often the case in those days, Peake's name was left off the album. Wah Wah Watson was on the road with Gaye at the time, so everyone assumed he played the part. "It's me," says Peake. "I made a terrible mistake about 15 seconds in," he says. "I got excited and hit the open G string." (Editor's note: Actually, it's 13 seconds in, and you can hear it clearly.)
"There are certain guitar licks or solos that always give me goose bumps and Don Peake's opening part on 'Let's Get It On' is one of those," says Denny Tedesco, director of The Wrecking Crew movie and son of Tommy Tedesco.
In addition to playing on some of the biggest hits of the day, Peake played on numerous movie scores. Though his excellent reading skills no doubt played a part, sometimes it was his rock 'n' roll heart that landed him the job.
"I played for Elmer Bernstein on the Steve McQueen movie Baby the Rain Must Fall," he says. "Bernstein called me because, though Tommy Tedesco could pretend to be musically ignorant, I just naturally came up with stuff that was unsophisticated. Bernstein said, 'Just do whatever you want.' On the soundtrack, you'll hear me playing all this crazy guitar."
As the 1970s progressed, with guitarists like Larry Carlton, Jay Graydon, and Steve Lukather coming up, sessions began drying up for Peake's generation of musicians. The guitarist looked toward composing and arranging for the next chapter of his musical life, but to be successful he found he had to fully commit. He began studying arranging and composing with Albert Harris, a famed Hollywood orchestrator, and called composer/conductor and frequent session contractor Ben Barrett to bow out of his studio guitarist role. "He didn't say the words, 'Are you out of your fucking mind?'—but I know he was thinking it," says Peake. Sane and serious, he sold the instruments in his cartage trunk and devoted himself to a career that would provide compositions and arrangements for more than 50 movies and television shows, including Knight Rider and My Two Dads.
For the last decade, Peake has been a professor at Los Angeles' Bridges Academy, a school for gifted children that have learning differences, such as autism and ADHD. "I teach guitar, jazz, and blues," he says. "Our music program allows these children to put both sides of their brain together. They get better at their studies."
As of this writing, Peake is still playing with some of the surviving members of the Wrecking Crew, including Chuck Berghofer, the bassist who played the slithery part on Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walking."
"Don Randi is playing piano," he says. "The drummer is Ed Green. We do a Glen Campbell tribute, because we played on his records. We also do a Sonny and Cher song. We were just about to go on the road, when COVID hit."
This just scratches the surface of Peake's extraordinary life. Did we mention he was a champion race car driver? While there may be no official designation of who was in the Wrecking Crew, by any definition, Don Peake deserves mention as a member of that historic assembly. Maybe even more important is the mark his guitar playing left on memorable Motown tunes that have become embedded not just in music history, but in the culture at large.
Don Peake Essential Listening:
Description: Don Peake recorded tracks with Ray Charles even after he stopped touring with the pianist, cutting classics like "America the Beautiful" and "Crying Time." Peake can be heard loud and clear on a lesser-known Charles cover, "Blue Moon of Kentucky," playing the signature intro and the solo over the fade. Toward the end of the track, you hear Charles saying to Peake with enthusiasm, "Play it! Play it 'til it gets good."
Description: Peake played the guitar line doubling the bass on the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back." In addition to complementing one of the most famous bass parts of all time, Peake appears on much of the Jackson 5's subsequent output. He plays a Coral electric sitar on "Maybe Tomorrow" from 1970's Third Album, and that's also Peake's early fuzz pedal shaping the memorable distorted part on "ABC" from the same year.
Description: In 1966, Peake was asked to go on the road with Bobby Darin, but declined because he wanted to stay put and be an arranger. A week later, Peake got a call from the singer's managers to arrange strings for "If I Were a Carpenter." Peake had never written parts for strings before, but quickly figured out how to write for a string quartet. This Bobby Darin hit would mark the beginning of an arranging and scoring career that would ultimately replace Peake's session work.
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The Brian May Gibson SJ-200 12-string in the hands of the artist himself.
Despite a recent health scare, guitarist Brian May cannot be stopped. With the Queen reissue project, he’s celebrating his legacy, and with his new SJ-200—a limited edition signature Gibson acoustic guitar—he looks to the future.
Long lasting instrumental relationships are something we love to root for. Neil Young and Old Black, Willie Nelson and Trigger—those are inseparable pairings of artist and instrument where, over the course of long careers, those guitars have been shaped, excessively in both cases, by the hands that play them. Eddie Van Halen went steps beyond with Frankenstein, assembling the guitar to his needs from the get-go. But few rock ’n’ roll relationships imbue the kind of warm-and-fuzzy feelings as the story of Brian May and his dad building Red Special, the very instrument that hung around his neck for his rise to superstardom and beyond.
Together, with a legion of Vox AC30s and a few effects, May and his homemade Red Special have created some of the richest, most glorious guitar sounds that have ever been documented. It is with that guitar in his hands that he’s crafted everything from his velveteen guitar orchestras to his frenetic riffs and luxuriant harmonies to his effortlessly lyrical leads, which matched the dramatic melodic motifs of Freddie Mercury in one of the most dynamic lead singer/guitarist pairings in rock music.
Although it has a smaller role in his body of work, overshadowed by such an accomplished, prolific electric guitar C.V., May’s acoustic playing is a major part of the story of his music. His bold opening strums of “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” are some of the most recognizable D-major chords in the classic-rock canon, and his supportive work on “Spread Your Wings” adds lush dimension between Freddie Mercury’s arpeggiated piano chords and his rich electric guitarmonies. The multi-tracked 12-string figure that opens “’39”—his “cosmic folk song”—is among his most recognizable.
It’s a surprise, then, that when I ask May about the acoustic guitars used while recording with Queen, the most notable is his Hallfredh acoustic, a “cheap as hell” guitar from a virtually unknown brand. “My little old acoustic, which I swapped with my dear friend at school,” he reminisces. “The strings were so low on it that everything buzzed like a sitar. I capitalized on that and put pins on it instead of the bridge saddles, and you can hear that stuff on ‘The Night Comes Down’ [from Queen]. I used it all the way through Queen’s recordings, like on ‘Jealousy’ [from Jazz] years later and lots of things.” He also recalls his Ovation 12-string and some others, but the Hallfredh remains in the foreground of his acoustic memories.
The cosmic inlays on the Brian May SJ-200 represent the rock legend’s work in the field of astrophysics, in which he holds a PhD.
In recent years, May has been performing the 1975 ballad and emotional Mercury vehicle “Love of My Life,” which appears on A Night at the Opera, as an acoustic tribute to the late singer. May and his acoustic 12-string sit center stage each night as he leads the crowd through a heartwarming rendition of the song, joined at its climax by a video of Mercury. For that powerful, commanding moment, he’s relied on “a number of guitars we won’t mention, but it just came to the point where I’m thinking, ‘This isn’t sounding as good as I would like it to.’”
At one concert, a Gibson representative who was around piped up and offered to make him a guitar to his specs specifically for this piece. “I was surprised that they would notice me in the first place,” May recalls, “because part of me never grew up.” A surprising take from a rock star of such stature, but he explains, “I’m still a kid who was reading the Gibson catalogs and not able to afford anything, seeing the SGs and the Les Pauls and dreaming of being able to own a Gibson guitar. I now have a couple of the SGs, which I absolutely love, but, of course, I made my own guitar and I now have my own guitar company, so I went a different way. But to me this was a joy that they would offer to make me a guitar, which I could take out onstage.”
After building one for the guitarist, Gibson created a limited edition run of 100 instruments of the new model, called the Brian May SJ-200 12-string. Featuring a AAA Sitka spruce top with a vintage sunburst finish, AAA rosewood back and sides, a 2-piece AAA maple neck with walnut stringer, and a rosewood fretboard, it’s a top-of-the-line acoustic. The most noticeable feature on the SJ-200 is probably the string arrangement, which is flipped—as is most commonly found on Rickenbacker 12-strings—with the lower string above the higher string in each course. May has made that modification on other 12s, because he likes to string the high string first when fingerpicking. “You get an incredibly pure sound that way,” he points out. “‘Love of My Life’ is a good example—if it’s strung the other way, it sounds very different.”
On its pickguard, all seven of the other planets in our solar system are etched. The shaded one, close at hand, is Mercury, a tribute to the Queen singer.
May’s aesthetic customizations draw from his astrophysics work and add a personal sparkle to the large-bodied acoustic. The pickguard features a custom design with the seven other planets in the system, which is to say, not Earth. Mercury sits close at hand, a tribute to the singer. The fretboard and headstock include 8-point star inlays—to give a “more cosmic feeling”—that are made from agoya shell, as are the bridge inlays.
“It became a discussion about art and science, which I love,” May says of the design process. “That’s probably the biggest thread in my life, this path trodden, some people would say, between art and science. But I would say that they’re the same thing. So, I just tread among art and science.”
May’s own Gibson has already appeared in concert during the “Love of My Life” segment of Queen’s show, and occasionally for “’39.” On social media, where May stays active, many fans caught a glimpse of the guitar when he posted a new song for Christmas Eve. “I just wanted to say Merry Christmas, and that’s the way it came out,” he says. “It was incredibly spontaneous. I wanted it to be a gift. I didn’t want it to be, in any way, a way of advertising or making money or anything. It was just a Merry Christmas gift to whoever wants to listen to me.”
“It became a discussion about art and science, which I love,”
While that was one of the first things created with the new Gibson, he has more plans. “I’ve been playing around with it. In fact, we’ve been dropping the D,” he says, hinting at some future plans with guitarist-vocalist Arielle. “I have quite a few songs with the bottom D dropped. I haven’t normally played them acoustic or 12-string, but I’m discovering that some of that sounds really good. It gets such a lovely big clang and a big depth to it.”
Recently, May spent a great deal of time looking back as the band prepped the Queen I box set. The remixed, remastered, and very expanded version of their 1973 debut, Queen—they’ve added the “I” here—which was released last October, encompasses a rebuild of the entire record, plus additional takes, backing tracks, a version recorded specifically for John Peel’s BBC Radio 1 show, and a 1974 live concert recording from London’s Rainbow Theatre.May says of his new Gibson: “To me, this was a joy that they would offer to make me a guitar."
Revisiting this early document over 50 years later, it’s amazing to hear how well-developed the guitarist’s sound already was—full of the propulsive riffs and harmonies that would become part of his signature. May concurs, “You go back into these tracks quite forensically, and I hear myself in the naked tracks and I think, ‘Wow, I didn’t realize that I could do that at that point.’ It must have happened very quickly.”
Reflecting on those formative times, he continues, “I think there’s a period of just exploding, knowing what it is in your head, and striving to make what you play match what’s in your head. But I see it in other people, too. Sometimes, I go back and listen to the first Zeppelin album, and they were pretty young when they made that. But I think, ‘My God, how did they get that far and so quick?’”
“I thought guitars do work as primary orchestral instruments, so that’s what I want to do.”
Before Queen, May had already recorded a two-part guitar solo on the song “Earth,” a late-’60s track recorded with his earlier band, Smile, which also featured future Queen drummer Roger Taylor. While that lead certainly points toward the ambition in May’s later work, its raw untamedness doesn’t quite show evidence of his ultimate precision. But he says he had it in mind from early on. “There weren’t any more tracks to do three parts” when they recorded with Smile, he says, “but I always dreamed of it. It goes back a long, long way to hearing harmonies in other ways from the Everly Brothers, from Buddy Holly and the Crickets, from all sorts of things that we were listening to when we were kids.
“I wanted to make the sound of an orchestra just using guitars, and there’s other little inspirations along the way,” he continues. “Jeff Beck was an inspiration because there’s that wonderful track, ‘Hi Ho Silver Lining,’ which Jeff hated. But there’s one bit where he double-tracks the solo and in just one point it breaks into a two-part harmony, probably by accident. I guess I should have asked him—damn well wish I had. But that sound echoed in my head, and I thought guitars do work as primary orchestral instruments, so that’s what I want to do. I could hear it in my head for a long time before I could make it actually happen.”
Brian May and his Red Special at a recent concert.
Photo by Steve Rose
Though the Queenrecording sessions gave the guitarist his first opportunity to explore the larger harmonized sections that would become part of his signature, many of the sounds on the record left the band dissatisfied. Recorded at Trident Studios in London, the young band could only afford to use the room during downtime. Over the course of four months, they had sessions, usually at night, with in-house producers John Anthony and Roy Thomas Baker, both early supporters. However, the Trident style and sound wasn’t what Queen had in their collective ears, and they’ve remained unhappy with the sonic quality of their debut all these years.
The drums were the band’s primary issue, which Taylor describes as having a “very dry, quite fat, dead sound.” May’s tone is recognizably his own. “Well, I’m a very pushy person,” he laughs. “But nevertheless, it was difficult for me, too. Because of this Trident style of recording, the intention was not to have room sound on it. I kind of pushed, I suppose, to have a mic on the back of the amp as well as the front. That gave me a bit more air. I did feel a little hampered and the change is more subtle on the guitar, but it’s there.
“Jeff Beck was an inspiration because there’s that wonderful track, ‘Hi Ho Silver Lining,’ which Jeff hated. But there’s one bit where he double tracks the solo and in just one point it breaks into a two-part harmony, probably by accident.”
“It’s funny because it changed radically as time went on,” he continues. “And I can remember by the time we got to Sheer Heart Attack, Roy is putting mics all over the room and miking up windows in the booth and whatever to get maximum room sounds. It’s certainly nice to go back and make everything sound the way we pretty much would’ve liked it to sound at the time.”
With Queen I out, a new Queen IIset is in the works, which May calls “a very different kettle of fish.” The drum sounds on their sophomore effort were more in line with the band’s original vision, but the dense layers of overdubs that famously appear on the record came at a cost. “I think it is the biggest step musically and recording-wise that we ever made,” says May. “But there’s a lot of congestion in there. There’s mud because of all this generation-loss stuff [caused by overdubs], and because we liked to saturate the tape, which seemed like a good idea at the time. It made it sound loud. But if you disentangle that and get the bigness in other ways, I think Queen II is going to sound massive.”
The AAA rosewood back and sides of May’s signature acoustic are stunning.
At 77 years old, May certainly seems to keep his schedule packed with music work—not to mention his animal advocacy and scientific endeavors. In May of last year, though, everything came to a halt when the guitarist suffered a stroke. “I couldn’t get a fork from the table to my mouth without it all going all over the place,” he recalls. “It was scary.” Luckily, things began turning around quickly. “After only a few days, it’s amazing what you can get back. By sheer willpower, you just start retraining your muscle.” Not quite a year on when we speak, May estimates he’s regained 95 percent of his abilities, which, he says, “is enough.
“The short answer is, ‘I’m good,’” he assures.
May is in great spirits and appears excited about all his recent projects, finished and in-progress alike. In this time of looking back on his earliest works, I ask him to think about his beginnings, when he would gaze at Gibson catalogs but had to build his own guitar out of necessity, because, as he points out, he “couldn’t afford anything else.”
So, what would young Brian May, stepping into an afterhours session at Trident, making his band’s debut, think about his new limited edition signature model Gibson acoustic? He takes a long pause. “It would have been …” he pauses again, “unthinkable.”
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Two Notes Unveil the Next Giant Leap in Their Reactive Load Box Legacy With Reload II
Introducing Torpedo Reload II - Two Notes Audio Engineering's latest groundbreaking reactive load solution, featuring twin-channel operation, multi-impedance compatibility, and continuous attenuation. With a Celestion® Approved Load Response and 215W per channel power amplifier, Reload II redefines backline control.
Two Notes Audio Engineering, the world's leading innovator and manufacturer of load boxes, attenuators, and digital cabinet emulators, has just announced Torpedo Reload II - The latest installment in Two Notes’ class-leading reactive load solution legacy marking the definitive watershed in contemporary backline control.
Featuring twin-channel operation, selectable multi-impedance compatibility, and true continuous attenuation, Reload II is Two Notes’ most advanced Load Box to date. Its mission is simple: unleash the power of any amplifier or line-level source without compromise. Armed with a ground-up rework of their defining reactive load for a Celestion® Approved Load Response, the match is set to drive any amp’s power stage (rated up to 200W RMS) to perfection, retaining all the sonic integrity your performance demands. Scalable from a whisper to a full-throttle onslaught, Reload II’s ultra-transparent dual-mono 215W (per channel) amplifier/attenuator and paired speaker outputs preserve every facet of your tone. Add a Stereo FX Loop, dual Line outputs, and GENOME Reload II Edition (software download) into the mix and Reload doesn't just enhance your rig, it redefines it.
“When it came to developing Reload II, it was obvious this couldn't be a run-of-the-mill update of its predecessor. Fuelled by an ethos rooted in continual redefinition of contemporary backline control, we set our sights on a ground-up rework of our defining reactive load. The results speak for themselves: hands-down the best-in-class impedance match available on the market to date and the first reactive Load Box to feature an industry first Celestion® Approved Load Response.” Said Guillaume Pille, Two notes CEO. “Whether it’s a tube amp, a line level source, or even both simultaneously, all the hookup flexibility you demand from a Two Notes product is here. Throw a 215W (per cab output) power amplifier into the mix, and you’re primed with everything from studio-friendly silent loadbox operation to mainstage-ready source amplification. If that wasn't enough, there’s a suite of expertly-tuned tone-shaping tools - plus a super-versatile Stereo/Dual Mono FX loop - that all combine to make Reload II our most adaptable solution to date. The next generation of our Reactive Load legacy has arrived. It’s now up to you to reimagine your backline with everything the Two Notes ecosystem has to offer!
Reload II is now available for pre-order from Two Notes stockists worldwide, scheduled for shipping Q1 2025. At launch, Reload II ships with the following MAP / MSRPs
US: $999.99 (MAP)
Euro: 999.99€ (MSRP)
GBP - £849.99 (MSRP)
For more information, please visit two-notes.com.
Introducing Torpedo Reload II - YouTube
On That’s the Price of Loving Me, “We’re Not Finished Yet” is a love letter to Wareham’s 1968 Gibson ES-335.
The singer-songwriter-guitarist, known for his time with indie rock heroes Galaxie 500, Luna, and Dean & Britta, reunites with producer Kramer on his latest song-driven solo effort, That’s the Price of Loving Me.
“You want there to be moments where something unexpected hits you,” says Dean Wareham. “They’ve done studies on this. What is it in a song that makes people cry? What is it that moves you? It’s something unexpected.”
The singer-songwriter, 61, has crafted many such moments—most famously during the late ’80s and early ’90s, helping cement the dream-pop genre with cult-favorites Galaxie 500. Take the tenor saxophone, by Ralph Carney, that elevates the back half of “Decomposing Trees” from 1989’s On Fire, or the Mellotron-like atmosphere that bubbles up during “Spook” on This Is Our Music from 1990—both of which, notably, were recorded with journeyman producer Kramer, who’s part of Wareham’s rich sonic universe once again with the songwriter’s new solo album, That’s the Price of Loving Me.
Following This Is Our Music, the final Galaxie 500 album, Wareham and Kramer went their separate ways. The former founded the long-running indie-rock band Luna, formed the duo Dean & Britta with now-wife Britta Phillips, worked on film scores, and released a handful of solo projects. Kramer, meanwhile, grew into a hero of experimental music, playing with and producing everyone from John Zorn to Daniel Johnston. They stayed in touch, even as they drifted apart geographically, and always talked about working together again—but it took the weight of mortality to make it happen.
“[Kramer has] been saying for years, ‘It’s crazy we haven’t made a record together,’” says Wareham over Zoom, his shimmering silver hair flanked in the frame by a wall-hung cherry red Gibson SG and a poster of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1975 drama Faustrecht der Freiheit. “He was living in Florida, and I was living elsewhere and doing other things. But I did lose a couple of friends over the pandemic, and it did occur to me, you can’t just say, ‘I’ll get to it’ forever. Not to be morbid, but we’re not gonna be here forever. We’re not getting any younger, are we?”
Dean Wareham's Gear
Wareham was a member of the early indie dream-pop trio Galaxie 500. After their split, he formed indie rock stalwarts Luna as well as Dean & Britta, with wife and Luna bandmate Britta Phillips.
Photo by Laura Moreau
Guitars
Amps
- Lazy J 20
- Mesa/Boogie California Tweed
Effects
- EAE Hypersleep reverb
- EAE Sending analog delay
- Dr Scientist Frazz Dazzler fuzz
- Danelectro Back Talk
- Joe Parker Raydeen overdrive
Strings, Picks, and Accessories
- Curtis Mangan nickel wounds (.010–.046)
- Dunlop Nylon .88 mm picks
- Truetone 1 Spot Pro CS12
In 2020, Dean & Britta recorded a covers album, Quarantine Tapes—the perfect opportunity, amid the agony of lockdown, to finally get Kramer involved. The producer mixed their hazy version of the Seekers’ “The Carnival Is Over,” which planted the seeds for a bigger collaboration on That’s the Price of Loving Me. At first, though, Wareham didn’t have any songs, so he gave himself a hard deadline by booking some time at L.A. studio Lucy’s Meat Market.
“What is it in a song that makes people cry? What is it that moves you? It’s something unexpected.”
“I don’t write songs every day—sometimes I don’t write songs for a whole year or something,” he says with a laugh. “The only thing that gets me to do it is booking studio time. Then I have to write some songs because it’ll be embarrassing if I show up with nothing.”
The space itself—decked out with a jaw-dropping amount of vintage guitars and amplifiers and keyboards—helped animate his sleepy-eyed and gently psychedelic songs. “I thought I had a few nice instruments,” Wareham says, “but I showed up, like, ‘Oh, your Les Paul’s from 1955? I think I’ll play this one. Your Martin is from the ’40s?’” Speed and spontaneity were essential: They worked six full days, with Kramer guiding him to capture every performance without overthinking it.
Wareham’s latest was produced by Kramer, a former member of Shockabilly, Bongwater, and the Butthole Surfers who owns the legendary underground label Shimmy-Disc. He produced all three Galaxie 500 LPs.
“[That’s] how I worked with Kramer back in the day too,” he recalls. “Maybe it kinda spoiled me—he was always like, ‘Yep, that’s it. Next!’ I got lazy about going back and redoing things. We’d make the decision and move on: keep that drum track and bass track. Maybe Britta [bass, backing vocals] would change a few things. Sometimes you’re with people who think every single thing should be replaced and made perfect, and you don’t actually have to do that. When it came time for me to overdub a guitar solo or something, Kramer would just allow me two takes generally: ‘Do it again a little differently. That’s it. That’s good.’”
“I thought I had a few nice instruments, but I showed up, like, ‘Oh, your Les Paul’s from 1955? I think I’ll play this one.’”
The material itself allowed for such malleability, with ringing chord progressions and gentle melodies often influenced by the musicians who happened to be gathered around him that day. “You Were the Ones I Had to Betray” has the baroque-pop sweetness of late-’60s Beatles, partly due to the sawing cellos of L.A. session player Gabe Noel, who also added some boomy bass harmonica to the climax. “It’s an instrument you’d mostly associate with the Beach Boys, I guess,” Wareham says. “It kinda sounds like a saxophone or something.”
Wareham, his 335, and Mesa/Boogie California Tweed at a recent Luna show, with bassist Britta Phillips in the background.
Photo by Mario Heller
It’s easy to get wrapped up in the warm hug of these arrangements, but it’s also worth highlighting Wareham’s lyrics—whether it’s the clever but subtle acrostic poetry of “The Mystery Guest” (“I’d never done that before, and it’s not that hard to do actually. Sometimes it’s just to give yourself a strange assignment to get yourself thinking in a different way”) or the hilarity of “We’re Not Finished Yet,” which scans as carnal but is actually a love letter to his semi-recently acquired 1968 Gibson ES-335.
“Sometimes it’s just to give yourself a strange assignment to get yourself thinking in a different way.”
“I read this poem about a guy polishing an antique wooden cabinet or something,” Wareham explains. “I thought, ‘That’s funny—it’s vaguely sexual, how he’s like rubbing this thing.’ I thought it would be funny if I wrote a song not about a piece of furniture but about the guitar—the experience of buying this. The lyrics in there: ‘I waxed you; I rubbed you; I reamed you.’ It all sounds like a dirty song, but it’s like, ‘No, I had to get the peg holes reamed!’ It works kind of as a love song, but that’s what it’s really about.”
Which brings us back to that idea of the unexpected. The most beautiful touches on Loving Me, crafted with his ol’ producer pal, are the ones that appear out of nowhere—like the blossoming guitar overdubs of “New World Julie” and “Dear Pretty Baby.” Kramer, he says, liked to “run two or three guitar tracks at once, where it becomes a symphony of guitars.”
These surprises, indeed, are the moments that stick with you.
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Luna’s four-song performance on KEXP showcases Dean Wareham’s sparse, low-key indie rock vibe as well as his simple and sweet guitar embellishments.
The Delecaster offers a passionate Mexican-culture spin on the tried-and-true Tele model.
Drawing on the appointments of the traditional acoustic instruments that have been the Delgado family’s stock-in-trade for three generations, a new take on the Tele is born.
Growing up as the son and grandson of luthiers renowned for their concert classical and flamenco guitars, I was immersed in the world of handcrafted instruments from a young age. While I learned the traditional techniques passed down through generations, my musical tastes spanned a wide spectrum, from the soulful melodies of boleros and mariachi to the raw energy of punk and folk. This diverse musical upbringing instilled in me a deep appreciation for the unique character and personality of different guitar styles.
At Delgado Guitars, we build more than 45 different types of stringed instruments that help players cover plenty of ground. Our concert classical guitars, bajo quintos, acoustic steel strings, and mariachi instruments are sought after by musicians worldwide, often with a waiting list. In recent years, we've expanded our lineup to include a modern classic with a twist: the Delecaster. It’s not an acoustic instrument, but bear with me. I think it’s a story worth sharing.
My vision for the Delecaster was to create an instrument that honored the iconic Telecaster design while infusing it with the distinct flavor of my Latin American heritage. I've always been drawn to the elegant simplicity and versatility of the Telecaster, but I also wanted to push the boundaries and explore new sonic possibilities.
“I've always been drawn to the elegant simplicity and versatility of the Telecaster, but I also wanted to push the boundaries and explore new sonic possibilities.”
”Each Delecaster is handcrafted in our workshop, where traditional techniques mingle with modern innovations. We use only fine tonewoods, carefully selected for their resonance and beauty. The body is typically crafted from lightweight ash, known for its bright and articulate sound. The maple neck provides a smooth and comfortable playing experience, while the 9.5"-radius, 25.5"-scale-length ebony fretboard adds a touch of warmth and sustain.
One of the hallmarks of the Delecaster is its unique aesthetic. I drew inspiration from the intricate inlay work and vibrant colors found in our traditional Latin American instruments, and incorporated these elements into the Delecaster's design. The binding is what you would see on our bajo sexto instruments and similar to designs on our vihuela or guitarrón. The purfling I have also used to create rosettes on requintos and jaranas. The vibrant colors are seen throughout Mexico’s art, architecture, and festivals. They have spiritual and mythological meanings, and can represent beliefs, passion, and tradition.
The combination of Fralin Vintage Hot Tele pickups and a 4-way switch system delivers a wide range of tonal possibilities, from classic Telecaster twang to thick, overdriven tones. The Wilkinson string-through bridge with compensated saddles ensures accurate intonation and sustain, while the Wilkinson tuners provide smooth and precise tuning, and the bone nut adds a touch of warmth and clarity to the overall tone.
At Delgado Guitars, we believe that the soul of an instrument lies in the hands of its maker. That’s why we don't rely on CNC machines, shapers, or assembly lines. I pour my heart and soul into each instrument. From the initial selection of tonewoods to the final setup and inspection, every step of the process is carried out with the utmost care and attention to detail. We take pride in our work, and the Delecaster demonstrates this passion.
The Delecaster is a work of art, a symbol of cultural fusion, and a testament to the power of human creativity. It’s an instrument designed to inspire musicians to express themselves in new and exciting ways. Wherever we’re from, isn’t that what we’re all looking for?