Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Duane Eddy's Twang

I received the following message from Duane Eddy's wife Deed, about my chapter on "Surf Music" at LEGENDARY SURFERS and thought I would share it with you and invite your comments:

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Hello Malcolm,

I was reading, with great interest, your article about surf music. I felt
compelled to write to you in order to correct one very important point.

My husband, Duane Eddy, was a working musician in Phoenix, Arizona in the
mid-50's, making his first record with Lee Hazlewood in 1956. This was also
Lee's first experience recording in the studio.
They continued to work together, as partners, and together developed an
enormously successful run of hit instrumental records based on Duane's
unique style of playing, and Lee Hazlwewood's creativity with sound in the
studio.

At the same time, a musician named Al Casey was also working sessions in
Phoenix, playing
guitar, piano, and bass on a number of recordings. He worked on Duane's
sessions, playing piano, bass, and only occasionally, rythym guitar. He
traveled on the road with Duane for a few weeks, playing bass.

A writer named Phil Dirt has, for reasons unknown, proposed his own theory
that it was Al Casey behind Duane Eddy's success, and he also says that the
unique "twangy" sound associated with Duane for nearly fifty years has been
wrongly crediited to him. This is most unfortunate, as the internet makes
everything so readily available, writers like yourself will unknowingly come
across "Mr. Dirt"'s writings and take it as fact.

I would very much appreciate your attention to this. There are numerous
biographies of Duane available. Wikipedia, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
the information is out there. I realize it might appear a small matter, but
when you realize that this is actually music history, it's quite important
that we all get the correct information.

Regards,

Deed Eddy

1 comment:

  1. WELL SAID DEED. I have been a Duane fan since around 1960 and HAVE SEEN Duane around 6 times over here in the UK. I have never heard anything quite so preposterous, goes against every other independent articles over the years. It would be good to see Duane over in the UK again. If he should come I would love to see him play some of the numbers we never get to hear live like Only Child, Cannonball Rag (Thank goodness for 'You Tube'), Trambone, and things like Joshin, Shuckin and Desert Rat, and some of those County songs. Duane has that great twang but a lot of other great numbers and style that the 'uninitiated' never get to hear. MJB, Hertfordshire, UK. Keep twanging!

    ReplyDelete

Mahalo for your comment!