This week Gordon and I explored one of popular music’s most beloved instruments, the Stratocaster. For the uninitiated, it’s a solid-bodied electric guitar, first released in 1954. It introduced several features that were innovative for electric guitars in the mid-1950s; the distinctive body shape, with double cutaway, elongated horns, and heavily contoured back were all designed for better balance and comfort to play while standing up and slung off the shoulder with a strap; the three-pickup design (which has since been changed to include a five-position selection switch) offered players increased versatility and choice in tone quality; and a responsive and simplified vibrato arm (“or “whammy bar”) integrated into the bridge plate.
Though the Strat was introduced in 1954, it wasn’t until it appeared in the hands of Buddy Holly on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1957 that the guitar gained popularity. Since Holly became the first “Strat hero”, the instrument has become widely used by numerous guitarists across multiple genres of music from rock and blues to jazz and R&B.
Hank Marvin is reputed to be the owner of the first Fender Stratocaster in the UK. Marvin was directly inspired by Buddy Holly, and adopted not only his instrument choice but also (reportedly) his choice of eyewear. The guitar was given to Marvin by Cliff Richard, and was finished in a shade of Fiesta Red. And of course the Strat’s tremolo arm contributed significantly to The Shadows’ signature sound, heard most distinctly in their 1960 song Apache (compare to Bert Weedon’s 1960 original, which is way twangier!).
Jimi Hendrix is widely regarded as the greatest guitarist in the history of popular music, and one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Hendrix acquired his first Stratocaster in 1966, and it remained his instrument of choice. The Wind Cries Mary, released in 1967 as the follow-up single to Hey Joe, demonstrates Jimi Hendrix’s unique ability to push the guitar beyond its traditional sonic boundaries.
Le Freak (1977) is a tour de force in funk guitar from Chic‘s Nile Rodgers. Rodgers’ famous “chucking” technique, characterised by relentless sixteenth-note right-handed strumming and a combination of fretting and muting in the left hand, was honed on a Fender Stratocaster known as “The Hitmaker”. “The Hitmaker” is 1960 Fender Stratocaster with a 1959 neck, a maple fingerboard, and a worn white finish, and was acquired in Miami Beach, Florida.
Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd, released in 1979 on their eleventh studio album The Wall, contains two incredibly iconic guitar solos performed by David Gilmour on his ‘Black Strat’. The ‘Black Strat’ is a 1969 model with a maple cap fingerboard and large headstock, and was purchased in 1970 from Manny’s Music in New York. The guitar was auctioned in 2019 for a world record $3.9 million, surpassing a record previously held by another Strat.
Love Sneakin’ Up On You (1994) provides evidence for B.B. King’s assertion: Bonnie Raitt is “the best damn slide player working today”. The song was released in March 1994 on her 12th album, Longing in Their Hearts, and features bottleneck slide sounds throughout, a technique Raitt obviously specialises in.
Jeff Beck‘s rendition of the Beatles’ classic A Day in the Life was recorded at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London in 2007. Beck’s performance captures his special relationship with the Fender Stratocaster, which he started playing in 1969, as he uses his thumb to pluck the strings, his ring finger to manipulate the volume knob, and his little finger wobbling on the vibrato bar, all of which combine to produce a sound that almost mimics the human voice.
From Beck we move to a modern-day guitar hero: songwriter, producer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist H.E.R.. H.E.R. made history in 2020 when she became the first Black female artist to have her own Signature series with Fender, which she played during Usher’s Superbowl halftime show and during the In Memoriam at the 72nd Emmy Awards. We feature her 2020 ballad Sometimes on the show, which features the screaming solo lines that have come to define her guitar sound.
Should time allow, we will hear Tom Misch‘s Lost In Paris from his debut album Geography (2018). Another modern guitar hero, Misch’s sound is characterised by jazz-and-R&B-inflected and J Dilla-inspired pop, and is often crafted on a Fender Performer Stratocaster.
Lastly, we visit Lenny by Stevie Ray Vaughan. Lenny is both the tenth and final track on the first Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble album Texas Flood, and the name of SRV’s 1963 or 1964 Stratocaster, bought for him by his wife, Lenora. Ray Vaughan is widely considered to be one of the most important guitarists of all time, and his high-energy blues playing has influenced countless players since.
Our soundslike this week features a number of pop hits that all take inspiration from Pachelbel‘s Canon in D: Maroon 5’s Memories, The Farm’s All Together Now, Green Day’s Basket Case, the Moody Blues’ Isn’t Life Strange, Vitamin C’s Graduation (Friends Forever), Ralph McTell’s Streets of London, Pop-Top’s Oh Lord, Why Lord, Hook by Blues Traveler, One Tin Soldier by the Original Caste, Spicks and Specks by the Bee Gees, Cryin’ by Aerosmith, and Rain and Tears by Aphrodite’s Child.
For our quiz you will have to identify six famous Stratocaster songs – we’ll give you a small snippet of the iconic guitar part in reverse!
As always, find the show and blog at joebennett.net/5live, with occasional Instagram extras at @joebennettmusicology. And you can find our Spotify mega-playlist, which contains all songs ever featured on the show, here:
- Words: Joe Bennett, John Pierce O’Reilly
- Audio production: Joe Bennett, Rafi Waters, John Pierce O’Reilly
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