Thursday, May 21, 2009

John 5 Memory

Last post on John 5 at Sweetwater.

John was asked what kind of stuff he liked to listen to when he wasn't rocking out. He said that he was a big fan of older stuff, like CCR. He then started trying to do "Suzie Q".

There are many of you who know where I'm going with this at that mention.

"Suzie Q" is a cover. It was originally done by Dale Hawkins, with the lick done by James Burton. He's mentioned enough here that he probably deserves his own label. Which is about true for John 5 as well. John Fogerty is a good songwriter, good singer and all, but he is not anybody's idea of a technical guitarist. James Burton played with dead thumb on that, but John Fogerty just plays the notes James fingerpicked. It works, and everybody loves the song.

John 5 said CCR, but when he tried to play it, he tried to do the James Burton version. And, like me, he couldn't quite make it work. So he jumped ahead to something else.

Maybe John 5 should listen to some Joe Pass, too.

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