MUCK
IT UP
First off, we might not
have heard distortion in
pop music if Ike Turner’s
guitarist hadn’t damaged
his amplifier en route to a
recording session. In 1951,
Turner’s band the Kings of
Rhythm were getting ready
to its blues single “Rocket
88,” but the amplifier
of guitarist Willie Kizart
was damaged on the car
ride from Mississippi to
Memphis. There’s some
dispute whether the amp
was dropped or damaged
by the rain, but in either
case the speaker cone was
out of alignment and had
to be held in place with
wadded up newspapers.
Turner and producer Sam
Phillips liked the fuzzed-up
sound though and included
it on the track.
James and Buddy Guy
pushed the limits of the
amp, while others like Link
Wray and Paul Burlison
dislodged vacuum tubes
to get the desired effect.
Years later Dick Davies of
the Kinks defined his sound
by scraping the speaker
cone of his amp with a
razor, giving the distinctive
midrange honk on singles
like “You Really Got Me.”
The important thing to note
is that no one person can be
credited for “discovering”
distortion, as numerous
musicians and engineers
discovered it independently
and just recorded it because
they liked the sound.
This became the early
method of distorting an
amp: straight-up damaging
it. Bluesmen like Elmore
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TO N E TA LK
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