The Different Sounds of Brian May's Incredible Red Special - LOST70sGEMS

 Probably the most famous home made guitar of all time, and it adorned all the hits of one of the greatest rock bands of all time

Brian May's Red Special 

A mythic guitar that you can tell immediately from it's tactile purring and whining, it exudes far more character then most hard rock guitarists of the day.

In many ways, Brian May was the epitome of the great 70s guitar heroes; he had the sweet lilting tone of George Harrison, the gliding distortion of David Gilmour, the proto-speed metal playing of Ritchie Blackmore and displayed the finest expression of Jimmy Page's 'guitar army' concept with his heavy use of the treble booster and layers of overdubs.

The many tonal qualities of the Special enabled him to play a variety of styles of music; shape-shifting to fit the dynamic of each song. The animated shrieks, whines and drawls echo and back up similar trills and wails of front man Freddie Mercury's equally tangible voice.

Here is a rundown of the sounds I've identified throughout his Queen's legendary 1970s run;

1. Creamy, saturated sustain tone

 This bouncy, elastic tone pops up everywhere: its almost his default sound. It practically screams out of his treble booster with minimal volume due to the Vox AC30 amplifier. The best example is the nasally multi-tracked solo in Killer Queen, where the different tracks diverge at times for strong harmonies and interesting dissonance   

2. Sudsy sweet chord slides

One of my favourite sounds that comes out of the Red Special are the sliding figures, where May wrenches the guitar neck for maximum sustain and sweetness in tone. The texture of this sound is soapy and wringed out, as well as carrying a saccharine romantic lilt to it.  The most memorable usage of this sound was at the end of Bohemian Rhapsody, where it provides the musical bed for the bittersweet realisation that "nothing really matters": a line delivered by Freddie Mercury with breathy exhaustion, matching the weariness of the faint multi-tracked chord slide.

3. Warm flute tone

This is a fairly common tone in Brian May's arsenal; it is a clear, juicy, lightsabre tone that drips and slips all over several tracks whilst piercing through with the attack of a piccolo flute.  Midway through Love of my Life you hear this sound, as May’s Red Special prances back and forth in fanciful pied piper like doodles. 

It's spritely and fluttering like a woodwind instrument, fitting in with the jazz band mimicry of Good Company; where it spouts and dallies around the skiffle rhythms.

4. Muscular meaty torque slides

 Another feature of May's playing on the Red Special would be his ability to wrangle out the most tactile squeaks and scratches from his creation in direct contrast to the inflated, puffed up distortion. The thick gauged strings, along with his unusual choice of plectrum (an old British sixpence) and the unique dimensions and materials of the guitar itself, all allow May to achieve a equal balance of  smooth distortion whilst simultaneously producing sharp guitar zaps.

 The best example of this is the triple tracked slide guitar solo at the end of Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon where May squeezes out a zingy little solo, dragging the strings in a meaty legato slide right at the tail end of the track

Other experiments;

. Misfire kicks off with an array of sweet, multi-tracked slide guitars that sound like a hyped up Hawaiian lap steel

. In 39,  May lays down three guitar tracks, all an octave apart to create a majestic three part harmony line that cascades gloriously like a triumphant trumpet chorus

. All Dead, All Dead features walls of spongy fuzz guitars that converge on a beaming lead guitar. The sandwiched, multi-tracked fuzz guitars resemble a Moog or even a church organ in it's polyphonic grandeur

. Seaside Rendezvous features May’s tripled guitars strolling in a sultry, elegant drawl like a big band clarinet line

. In the intro of Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together), slowed down multitracked bass notes of the guitar are used to mimic the brooding cellos of a Wagnerian string section

 

Album Reviews: Player (1977) Player - LOST70sGEMS

 Though known primarily for their No 1 hit Baby Come Back, a soft rock song in the vein of Hall And Oates that peaked during the Bee Gees reign, Player had a debut album full of fresh instrumental hooks and indelible melodies. This album had a bit of everything, from yacht rock, prog rock passages, soaring falsettos and even a countrypolitan closing track;

"Come On Out" (Crowley) – 3:43 STEVIE WONDER  &  FOREIGNER 

The ending coda is very much the style of Hall and Oates soul numbers and a throbbing bass-line taken from She's Gone. There is a blues Hard rock guitar turnaround from Traffic's Mr Fantasy and Led Zep's Ten Years Gone as well as guitar arpeggios from Bell Bottom Blues. It also starts with a Stevie Wonder mix of droopy wah synth and clavinet.

"Baby Come Back" (Beckett, Crowley) – 4:10 HALL AND OATES TAVARES

A disco cymbal heavy beat, Hall and Oates styled confessional verses and a big falsetto chorus reminiscent of Tavares

"Goodbye (That's All I Ever Heard)" (Crowley) – 3:44 STEELY DAN EARLY TOTO/ EARLY FOREIGNER

This song starts off similar to the openings of Every Which Way and Come on Out, with stacks of sweet but regal keyboard chords and lilting guitar sustains, the kind you would hear from Stevie Wonder.

The verses are a walking bassline, with a Steely Dan vocal and tremolo synthesizer ripples. The chorus is built around a stacked harmony rendition of the title, again sounding like Steely Dan before a middle eight, where circular guitar riff and equally circular vocal melody enter, claiming "Love is Strange.."

  The quiet bridge is baroque with it's gentle/night time mix of playful flute, oscillating vibraphone and plucked flamenco strings reminiscent of the prog mid song breaks of early Foreigner and Toto

"Melanie" (J. Crocker) – 3:39  LITTLE RIVER BAND

A summery soft rock song, similar to Shandi by Kiss, it has the layered shimmering tremolo guitars of Wild Cherry's Hold On and the vibe of Little River Band, it's defining hook is the big meaty, flamenco tinged guitar riff that bookends the song. 

"Every Which Way" (Beckett, Crowley) – 3:34 Michael McDonald era DOOBIE BROTHERS & STARBUCK

Every Which Way is a Michael McDonald era Doobie Brothers patented song, with the funky 'Mario Kart' keyboards during the verses and Sting like vocals of the chorus; the refrain of Every Which Way reminiscent of It Keeps you Running/ Minute by Minute. However it starts with a luscious multi tracked, synth part warbling in and out alongside a vibraphone part, a combo of instruments popularised by funky, Yacht Rockers Starbuck.

"This Time I'm in It for Love" (Larry Keith, Steve Pippin) – 4:20 - ENGLAND DAN JOHN FORD COLEY & HALL AND OATES

The 'stop watch' sounding keyboard ticking away during the opening of This Time I'm in it for Love sounds like it was taken directly from the opening of Hall and Oates' Out of Me, Out of You. The chorus is the saccharine sentiment and soothing countrified balladry and twin slide guitars you would often find in songs by England Dan and John Ford Coley

"Love Is Where You Find It" (Crocker, Reed Kailing, Crowley) – 4:00 ELO  

            A light disco-fied pop rock tune highlighted by call and response vocals with sprightly, pitchy falsetto harmonies reminiscent of ELO, that remind me of the schoolkid vocals song Dance by Justice

"Movin' Up" (Crocker, Kailing, Steve Kipner) – 2:50  BONEY M BEE GEES OHIO PLAYERS  

The jumped up rhythms of the Commodores, the clanky funk guitar chord strikes of disco groups like Boney M or the Kay Gees and the hysterical falsetto of the Bee Gees. But most of all it reminds me of the Ohio Players heavy funk bops like Body Vibes,Merry Go Round, Dance (If Ya Wanta), Funk-O-Nots, Contradictions etc

"Cancellation" (Crocker, Kailing, Kipner) – 4:07 LRB FOREIGNER TOTO

Full of interesting elements from the swirling teapot flute in the middle of the verses, to the dueling Arena rock guitar riff,  to the cooing Paul Stanley falsetto and finally the punchy synth solo 

"Trying to Write a Hit Song" (R. L. Mahonin) – 4:36 - GORDON LIGHTFOOT

A typical Gordon Lightfoot type of singer songwriter ballad

 

 VERDICT: A Soft Rock Album with does of arena rock, funk disco rhythms and Blue eyed soul. Some tracks remind me of the Hall and Oates Silver album 1975 which featured more guitar interplay. Overall it has the mix of blue eyed soul soft rock and hard rock of Toto's first two albums in the late 70s

 

A lot of Hall and Oates and early Toto/Foreigner in the prog bridge sections as well as Bee Gees Pablo Cruise but mainly a precursor to the late 70s albums by Toto

Led Zeppelin (1971) Four Sticks - LOST70sGEMS

 The tune begins with a pile driving riff multi-tracked to sound as big as Kashmir, it is Indian, speed rock and monolithic as Zeppelin' most iconic riffs.The rattling battle drums of Bonham were achieved with the thickest drum Sticks available and two sets of them; the four Sticks of the title. The gung-ho riff has a funky Black Sabbath 'syncopate and wail' style, while the octave leaping notes sound slightly dissonant with its Eastern modalities. 

The chorus is built around an Olde English folk guitar figure ending in string glissandos, it is played on a semi acoustic Danelectro backed with a snoring Moog part. Plant's reedy vocal sounds similar to the tone of Indian instruments. An onslaught of overdubbed fuzz Moogs take over with a new riff, carrying a raga tinge overstate what had been a subtle Indian sound. The ending shenai like synths and Plant's thin pitch vocal and undulating vocal gymnastics at the end confirm the Indian middle Eastern influence.The structure of the song is the same as Kashmir and Friends with a verse riff/chorus riff and a gigantic third riff that closes the whole thing out. 

Lyrically, the haunted double-tracked glacial cries of Plant match the imagery of "owls cry in the night" as he describes either the end of a relationship or a drug addition in mysterious, fantastical metaphors.

Badfinger (1971) Day After Day - LOST70sGEMS

 A crash of sounds as big cymbals and acoustic guitars strike in unison to begin the track. Smothered in hypnotic layers of 12-string guitars, strumming eternally in the foreground while Pete Ham's sallow haunted vocals croon despairingly.

There's a glow to the track from George Harrison sweet lilting slide guitar aching through the mix to the golden sunshine of layers of guitars to the spellbinding use of twinkling tik-toking piano notes all add to the glorious splendour of this track. The bouncy bass drum turnarounds thud and roll like heavy artillery adding some hard rock and pace to the largely subdued tempo.  

 The drum parts kick in along with angelic oohs for the chorus to pick up before returning to the glistening malaise. This gilded production is an exercise in arrangement sense, to make lilting slide guitar, twilight piano, 12 string guitars together; the power of the vocals and the songwriting still make the track. The underlying tragic undercurrent of Pete Ham's songs was always evident, not just in the hit Without You but also here as he grimly recalls how "I remember finding out about you", it's not an endearing line but more of haunted statement, almost tinged with more regret and pathos as he struggles to go cold turkey off a relationship in a "lonely room, Day after Day" 

Queen (1975) Good Company - LOST70SGEMS

Built around a skiffle ukelele tune with a philosophical message about friends and lovers and the importance of keeping good company is probably the best example of Brian May's orchestrated gutiar army concept. While the song treads the same acoustic May led shuffle as 39, this has such a range of guitar sounds it has to be broken down.




It starts off with a trio of guitars pinging off in a a row of ascending frequencies, like a set of delayed arpeggios played in three rising octaves; it sounds like an old call signal or a TV Station Ident and functions as a motif or reoccurring break before returning to the skiffle.




Then around the 30 second mark, some syrupy flute like flutters enter and scampers around the edges of the song. The crystal clear bell tone of May's fills are fluid yet tactile. Then around 50 seconds the flute diddles are temporarily replaced by some rather spongy wah wah gasbag guitar fills chomping away in jazzy walking lines. Another run through of the 'radio station ident' delayed arpeggios, also known as a bell effect occurs ending at 1:08 in a particularly deliciously clean, triple tracked guitar scream; wrangled presumably with a very low gain tone setting so only the signal blares out with zero noise or ambiance; just a vacuum clean ghostly guitar shriek from the tracked guitars that if it wasn't for the pure distortion would mimic Roger Taylor's infamous "AAHHS" falsettos.

 The scruffy ukulele verse returns with the slap dash drums, some 'Flash Gordon/Procession/God Save the Queen' styled grand triple octave Court of the King processional guitar lines descend for this verse. Finally the group harmonies, dominated by Freddie deep velvet accent, appear for the first time, they segue in with their typical hushed 'lounge lizard' cabaret style, however it has occurred to me the undulating tone of their cooing vocals oohing and aahing matches the drawl of May's slushy/slurpy old timey clarinet licks, like a vocal reproduction of some of the Red Special. The way May could make his sleek guitar mimic the shrieks, oohs, aahhs of Mercury and Taylor's velvety vocals was very fitting.

 A hyper phased bridge resembles everyone from Deep Purple Strange Kind of Woman to Rush's Fly By the Night, however right in the middle of it at 2.22, a piercing guitar with high pitch plays a pan flute type of doodle. As 2.40 approaches we descend into Brian May's own personal one man studio Dixieland Jazz band as he heaps different guitar sounds to replicate different 1920s Trad jazz, Big Band instruments on are ears. The slinky clarinet is a clear toned guitar playing a very fluid sustain like the flutes of earlier, except instead of little prancing riffs they play bawdy long figures. Around 2.56 an elephantine trombone bawls in, clearly achieved by sliding a note down the guitar's bass string, dragged with immense pressure and possibly detuned or slowed down to get the big, huffy brassiness.

Among the baritone trombone bray of one guitar, buried deep beneath the clarinet and flutes are some guitars piping in with the chirpy Dixieland horns parts, clearly played out by more high ptiched, clean guitars.

The Steamboat Willie-esque tin whistle pip at the end is the crackly 1920s jazz band cherry on top!

Gil Scott Heron (1971) The Prisoner - LOST70sGEMS

 Off the legendary Pieces of a Man album, possibly the finest singer-songwriter record of all timecomes The Prisoner, a progressive song from one of the best voices in soul.

A 9 minute epic that starts ominously with the soul dampening thud of some bass drums, the eerie otherworldly scratchiness of an avant garde violin and the jangling of set of rusted chains. We are instantly thrown into a slave ship, the minimalism of those drums being struck with oppressive finality, the trembling vulnerability of Brian Jacksons' piano and Heron's iconic achingly crisp rasp. As always he is found contemplative and commenting against a smooth jazz double bass and piano combo, but the self destructive lyrics are given a new edge with the ceremonial pounding of the drums. 

Delivering images of "black babies shackled and bound" and the violence done to them is arresting in it's horror and the desensitized brutality.

Further lines such as 

"If I follow my mind, I know I'll slaughter my own" and "My woman, she don't say, but she hates to see her man chained this way...hemmed in by a suit and choked by a tie" sum up the existential jail or prison of his state of mind that so many of his songs were set in.

The clinking of the rusting chains and the continual interruption of those one two punch drums are again another brutal contrast to the endless fluid piano runs. 

The Miracles (1975) Smog - LOST70SGEMS

 A dazzling soundscape of a track by The Miracles, now pursuing the airy landscapes of their former front man Smokey Robinson, this shows off some excellent arrangment sense, reminscemnt of Norman Whitfield, Stevie Wonder and Roy Ayers.

Flowering daisies of fuzzy korg synthesizers bloom over the track representing the dense clouds if air pollution that spring up from the ground instead  of from the sky. The twangy chime of a water saw as it is scraped, adds a horror movie ambience fitting for the dangers of the inner city. The group's honeyed choral vocals loop over, Their gossamer harmonies glide over the track, softening the edges of the harsh instrumentation.

The central instrumental hook is a gargly, mewling synth hook ascending in a wah wah scale to a abrupt yelp at the end. It could represent the industrial factories in the workers in them pumping away on autopilot til the sudden blare at the end of the hook representing them burning out.

The scratchy whine of the water saw clash with the rubbery thudding clop of a pair of castanets.

The plish plosh castanets represent leaky pipes or the sparse drops of water, while the weird synths are the overworked machines from AC units to nuclear generators to the hardworking inhabitants that run til they bust.

The atonal harmonics of the nasally clavinet, plopping castanets and water saw creaks and synth shreiks make this a very Progressive in sound.