Hello friends,
As much as I love all the founding fathers of rock guitar, like Carl Perkins, Link Wray, Scotty Moore, Chuck Berry, Cliff Gallup, and Paul Burlison, nobody, and I mean nobody, tore it up like Franny Beecher. Next time you here Rock Around the Clock, listen to the lead guitar. It's blistering. Nobody was playing like that back then.
I got the pleasure and honor to meet Mr. Beecher about ten years ago at the Jackson Rockabilly Festival in Jackson Tennessee (Home of Carl Perkins) He was a wonderful guy who spent several minutes talking to me about what ever I wanted to talk about. Think about it, this cat was there at the start. He is one of the guys responsible for all this rock and roll business. From the Beatles to the Sex Pistols, Led Zeppelin to Nirvana, The Rolling Stones to Green Day, and everything in between. But I wasn't sure if I wanted to see him preform. He was in his eighties and like the dumb ass that I am, I thought he probably couldn't play very well any more, and I didn't want to see that. Well, Mr. Beecher got to join the long list of people who have proved me wrong. He destroyed that guitar. Smoked it. It was amazing.
Adios,
~e~
