|
|
Born on April 26th, 1938, Duane Eddy was the most successful instrumental rocker of his time. He was also one of the first rock stars to successfully crack the LP market. His distinctively low, twangy riffs could be heard on 15 Top Forty hits between 1958 and 1963. That sound, achieved by using the bass strings of his Gretsch guitar recorded through an echo chamber, was devised in collaboration with producer Lee Hazlewood, an Arizona disc jockey whom Eddy had met while hanging out at a radio station as a teenager. By the late '50s, Hazlewood had branched out into production. (Hazlewood would record duets, "Summer Wine" and "Jackson" with Nancy Sinatra in the late sixties)
Before Duane began recording, his principal influence had been Chet Atkins, but at Hazlewood's suggestion, he started concentrating on guitar lines at the lower end of the strings. His opening riff of his debut single, "Movin' and Groovin'," would be copied by the Beach Boys five years later to open "Surfin' U.S.A.". "Movin' 'N" Groovin'" made the lower end of the US charts, and for the next six years, Eddy repeated this formula with greater success. His backing group, the Rebel Rousers was a tight, experienced band with a prominent saxophone sound played by Jim Horn and Steve Douglas, completed by pianist Larry Knechtel.
The next 45 release, "Rebel Rouser," would prove to be the song that would really make Duane Eddy a national star, reaching the Top Ten in 1958. Opening with a down-and-dirty, heavily echoed guitar riff, it remains the tune with which he's most often identified.
Eddy's phenomenally successful run of hits over the next few years was to some extent a variation on the "Rebel Rouser" theme. With cowboy whoops from the backup band helping driving things along, they weren't nearly as innovative as work of Link Wray during the same era, but they were much more popular. The singles "Peter Gunn," "Cannonball," "Shazam," and "Forty Miles of Bad Road" were some of the best, and also did their part to help keep the raunchy spirit of rock & roll alive, during a time in which it was in danger of being watered down. Much of that raunch was not solely due to Eddy himself, but to the honking sax solos of Steve Douglas, who would go on to become one of the top session players in the industry.
Duane would have his biggest hit, however, in 1960, when he sweetened the twang with strings for the movie theme "Because They're Young." The song was used by UK disc jockey Johnny Walker as his theme music for over 25 years and this classic still sounds fresh.
Eddy started to lose momentum in the early '60s, and left the Jamie label in 1962 for the much bigger RCA. "(Dance with the) Guitar Man," which featured a chorus of female vocals, would be his last Top 20 hit that same year. His albums, often based on loose themes, like "A Million Dollars Worth of Twang", "Twisting with Duane Eddy", and "Surfing with Duane Eddy", kept him afloat to some degree, but his style doggedly refused evolution.
The hits dried up in 1964 at the dawn of the Beatles' invasion, and for many years his sound was out of fashion. An attempt in the contemporary market bombed with "Duane Goes Dylan". Apart from producing Phil Everly's excellent "Star Spangled Springer" in 1973, Eddy travelled the revival circuit, always finding a small but loyal audience in the UK. Tony Macauley wrote "Play Me Like You Play Your Guitar" for him in 1975, and after more than a decade he was back in the UK Top 10.
He slipped back into relative obscurity, but returned to the charts in 1986 when he was flattered to be asked to play with the electro-synthesizer band "Art Of Noise", on an updated version of his own song, "Peter Gunn". The following year Jeff Lynne produced his first album in many years, being joined by Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ry Cooder, all paying tribute to the man who practically invented the word "twang".
Duane Eddy
