We're trying to re-form Mick's Lawmen as a strictly old-school rock & roll band. All we need is a guitarist.
OK, slightly more accurately, all we need is a guitarist who can play the classic rock & roll guitar licks. You know - Mick Green, Buddy Holly, Scotty Moore. And, of course, Chuck Berry.
Now I grew up listening to Chuck, sometimes filtered through The Beatles and The Stones, more frequently in the raw original. I recognise that they're harder than they sound, but I had no idea how hard.
We must have had half a dozen guitarists pass through so far, and not one of them was able to[list]
[*]Match the right intro lick to the right song,
[*]Play all the famous Chuck licks,
[*]Play the licks in the right position on the neck,
[*]Actually, y'know, [i][b]sound [/b][/i]a bit like Chuck.
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We've had the ludicrous situation of a bassist (me) having to show multiple guitarists how the lick goes - on bass, of course - while the drummer (Mick) tells them how to adjust the EQ on their guitar & amp to get closer to the right sound.
These are guys who can match perfectly to Mick Green, Buddy Holly, Scotty Moore, Eddie Cochran, Duane Eddy, you name it. They're competent guitar players.
But Chuck Berry? They all [i][b]think [/b][/i]they can play Chuck, some of them play a bit like Keith Richard, most of them get nowhere near.
When we started looking, it never occurred to Mick and me that the ability to play Sweet Little Sixteen would be a deal-breaker. Did we miss something?