Who Needs a Guitar Hero?

An interesting thing happened to me in the late seventies.  I was learning to play the guitar by listening to all the contemporary rock guitar greats to figure out what they were doing. As you can imagine, my bedroom wall was covered with posters of these giants of rock.

One day, in a record store, I came across a poster of a really striking guitarist.  Posing and pouting in a black catsuit, his long, blond hair flying about, he brandished a white Flying V.

I remember thinking, this guy´s either something special or a complete plonker!

Some time later I went to see a British band called UFO.  They had a guitarist called Paul Chapman, who I thought was really good.  I subsequently came across a UFO album in a bargain bin and bought it.  Chapman was really good, so I bought a second UFO album.

Yet as soon as the first, hypnotic solo kicked in… I could tell that it wasn't Paul Chapman!  This solo was like nothing I´d  heard before:-  the tone, the vibrato, the microtonal bends, all of it melodic and precise.  The guitar playing on that whole album was astonishing, so I checked the album cover and noticed this guy with long, blond hair ……. A bit of research later, I found out that the guitarist was, indeed, the poser with the Flying V.

He was none other than the great Michael Schenker, of course.

I have a framed picture of that poster on my wall, for two reasons.

One: because it connects me to the feelings I experienced when I first heard Obsession.  I still love it and it will always be my No.1 rock guitar album.

Two: because it makes me feel good!  When I listen to that album thirty odd years later, I´m taken back in time. 

Moral of the story.  The best thing to inspire any guitarist is a guitar hero.

If you don't have one,  find one!