Wilco Johnson's Tele

[DocMac]

I ran across this on YouTube. I haven't seen it here so I thought I'd share.

[lambchop]

Excellent stuff. Thanks for sharing.

[titus]

Cool...thanks for that. I have to admit I had to look up Wilco Johnson. I'm familiar with Ian Dury and didn't know he was with that band. I need to get some Wilco Johnson music! I like all styles of music and have a large music collection, but I sometimes feel like there's nothing new (or old) that I haven't seen before and then a new (to me) name pops up. Fun.

[Fourth Feline]

Thanks very much for sharing ! that really was a treat to hear and see...

[lambchop]

It's Wilko actually

[casterway]

Okay. I'm hooked. Thanks for posting. What cd's should I seek out? Or vinyl, for that matter?

[stax]

Fantastic, what a great Guitarist and what a brilliant band.
The Feelgoods are the reason I started playing and still love them as much today.
Also I count myself lucky to of opened for Wilko on several occasions he even tried to show me how to play "She does it right" once.
Thanks for posting.
Stax

[0le FUZZY]

...I liked most of that video!

...Thanx!


0le FUZZY

[JimiBryant]

that's good one! didn't Wilko step into Hugh Cornwell's spot
in THE STRANGLERS after Hugh left the band as well??

[jholcomb]

That was freaking awesome!

Dr. Feelgood's "Malpractice' made me want a Tele as much as anything when it came out.

Really cool. Thanks!

[byrdbrain]

I sometimes forget the small but perfectly formed branch
on the Telecaster tree with Mick Green and Wilco on it.
And Stupidity is one of the rockinest live albums, right?
Great video of a legendary guitar!

[titus]

It's Wilko actually

Ooops..apologies...habit I guess (Wilco-the band).

So, where should one start listening?

[graham232]

There is a great clip of Dr Feelgood playing Roxette live on one of the Old Grey Whistle Test DVDs. Wilko is live a live fire walking backwards and forwards very fast and playing the most amazing rhythm guitar.

"Okay. I'm hooked. Thanks for posting. What cd's should I seek out? Or vinyl, for that matter?"

Stupidity, their live album from 1976 is a pretty good place to start.

[Grin'n'pick]

Originally Posted by byrdbrain

I sometimes forget the small but perfectly formed branch
on the Telecaster tree with Mick Green and Wilko on it.

Very very true! There's a certain type of European (British maybe, but I don't want to be accused of bias! ) guitar player, and I would definitely place Johnny Marr and James Honeyman-Scott in there too, that you can sort of hear the reverence to a whole history of American guitar playing rolled up in their style and yet they plough their own furrow and play in bands which are anything but.

I love all those guys precisely because of that, they somehow take all of the roots American stuff I love (which IS the history of the electric guitar in many ways) and yet turn out something something that's their/'our' own, fitting perfectly into the fresh and the new (or what once was...). I have always found that more intoxicating and honest than Clapton, for instance, who just took American guitar and sold it back to 'em (not that that was bad, he did it very skilfully, but he has always been on a quest to be a Chicago bluesman, notwithstanding the bigger amps at his disposal - no flame wars please).

Wilko was all the best R&B players you ever heard, but still managed to sound like Wilko; Johnny Marr had a real appreciation of soul and rockabilly guitar (oh alright, and quite a lot of The Byrds!), which came out of every pore, and yet The Smiths sounded totally different; Mick Green was (is!) one of the best rock'n'roll guitar players wherever you come from but Johnny Kidd had a very British sound; and JHS seemed to have so many guitar styles (country, soul, rock'n'roll, etc. etc.) running through him like a stick of rock but The Pretenders still sounded fresh and 'new wave'.

Sorry to ramble but you touched on something I think about often. I don't mean to say that intrinsically American styles are old, or bad, anything but, but like English singers singing with an American accent sometimes things can sound a little trite. These players managed somehow to mix it all in without apeing or ever losing their own identities. People say Gatton and Buchanon were, to use the phrase, "guitarist's guitarists", and I think some of that is because they seemed to assimilate everything somehow and then spew it out as something completely original without ever losing the ethos of all that went before. I feel the four guys I mentioned did that too, albeit in quite different ways. But that for me is what puts them all in the upper echelons as 'players'.

Incidentally I think the fact that they all used teles at various points is anything but coincidental, and certainly one of the reasons I got interested in the instrument.

[jholcomb]

The thing about Wilko and Mick Greeen which is true about a lot of British guitarists of that era-they all had that great right hand and were great rhythm players....I think it's the skiffle influence.

[lambchop]

Originally Posted by titus

Ooops..apologies...habit I guess (Wilco-the band).

So, where should one start listening?

No worries, I wasn't sure myself till I googled it

[Lostheart]

Wow, what a cool video!
I've met Philippe Dubreuille years ago and he was a super-nice fella (probably still is!) and you just gotta love the accent!
(I believe back then he was still located in France)
He offered to make me a custom Telecaster with skull inlays and all which if I remember it corretly was around the same price as a 52 RI!
Unfortunately I opted for the 52 RI...
Come come think of it...I must still have some of his flyers as well as the price quote somewhere in my guitar folders...

Cheers for posting the link to the video!

Sascha

[Togman]

It's interesting to hear a lot of comments about Wilkos sound made in this thread. I saw him on many occasions with Dr Feelgood where he was always playing through an HH IC100 amp. A 2x12 Combo with not a valve in sight.

Not sure what he uses nowadays, but I am sure the HH is used on the 'Stupidity' album as it can been seen on the photgraph on the rear of the cover.

[Five Fingers]

Yes...i really enjoyed that. Excellent! Fuzzy liked most of it and i liked all of it.

PS. I actually met Wilco on several occasions.

[stax]

Originally Posted by Togman

It's interesting to hear a lot of comments about Wilkos sound made in this thread. I saw him on many occasions with Dr Feelgood where he was always playing through an HH IC100 amp. A 2x12 Combo with not a valve in sight.

Not sure what he uses nowadays, but I am sure the HH is used on the 'Stupidity' album as it can been seen on the photgraph on the rear of the cover.

He uses a new Fender twin which apart from Tele, bass and drumsticks is
all the band cart around, all other gear is normally supplied by support band.
Stax