As the tributes deservedly pour in on the sad loss of Levon Helm, the departure of another great figure was announced: that of Bert Weedon.
I don’t know if he’s still that influential but, for my generation of budding guitarists, his book, Play In A Day, was the manual for learning how to become a Rock’n'Roll Star. Not the flashy, ego-flaunting side of it but the nuts and bolts: how to play Emajor, Amajor and Bmajor, the building blocks of life in rock and pop music. You had to negotiate the tune of Molly Malone too – and the book’s title was slightly over-egged – but it was enough to launch many talents down the road to axe-heaven (even I made a few steps along it).
Here’s Alan Yentob worshipping Bert and his book.
Twang In Peace, Bert.
I nearly bought the book lots of times, while I was hanging round music shops in those little streets round the back of Tottenham Court Road back in the day. Probably should’ve done!
Never heard of him, but I don’t play guitar.
Bit of a bugger how we start losing our heroes at an ever increasing pace as we age.
It’s an unfortunate fact that we start losing everything at an ever increasing pace as we age. And, oddly, rock stars (which Bert definitely was not) actually tend to last longer than we expected them to.
o/t chris but did you see this
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/20/hacktivists-battle-internet
sorry, me.
I have now, thanks. Yes, Barlow is quite a democracy/libertarian activist, I gather. He and Weir and The National did a music and discussion thing recently to encourage voter registration.
RIP Bert