George Barnes

[voxo]

Was this teenage prodigy the world’s first electric guitar player?

[Cunamara]

The answer is no (without reading the article) but only by a few days or weeks, although this is controversial and perhaps impossible to prove one way or the other. At least in terms of who was *recorded* first on electric guitar- my understanding is that the first electric guitar recording was Floyd Smith's "Floyd's Guitar Blues." I could be wrong.

Barnes was a prodigiously talented and skilled musician. His technique and ideas are incredibly fluent and facile. This creativity extended to developing instruments with Guild- the Acousti-Lectric signature model (very limited production) and the "Guitar in F."

[joe2758]

Now there's a guy who could play the hell out of the Flintstones theme.

[RLetson]

I've seen all kinds of accounts of who-was-first, electric-wise, and this piece seems mostly based on the Guitar Player interview, with a quick reference to the website that Barnes' daughter assembled. Which is fine, as far as it goes. But there are signs of spotty research--for example, not mentioning that the frying-pan electric was a lap-steel instrument, or that nobody in the guitar-history biz would conflate resphonics with electrics, even though both were addressing the same set of problems. (And Eddie Durham wasn't the only mid-1930s player to use a reso in a dance/swing band context--in Paris there was Oscar Aleman.)

For me, the question of who made the first commercial recording of an electric guitar is one for the trained historians, which means that the answer is less in anecdotes and memoirs than in the session archives of record companies. Which probably means that getting a definitive answer is unlikely. As far as I can tell, a lot of people were devising solutions to the amplification problem, and while it's nice to be able to name a particular recording as the very first, I find it less interesting than the when-it's-time-to-railroad story that leads to the emergence of a particular solution (say, in the form of the ES-150) and its acceptance by players.

FWIW, the Wikipedia article on Eddie Durham bases its claim that "Hitting the Bottle" was the first recording with electric guitar is based on a Texas tourism guidebook. But my ear hears a resophonic (maybe a tricone) and not an electric on that recording. Some of this reminds me of the debate over whether the guitar Nick Drake played on the "Bryter Layter" album is the Guild M-20 in the cover photo.

In any case, Barnes was a wonderful, playful player, particularly in his work with Bucky Pizzarelli, Ruby Braff, Carl Kress, and Joe Venuti, and I tend to buy any album with his name on the personnel list.

[Cunamara]

David Grisman’s record label has an excellent live recording of GB later in his career. He sounds like his technique was very free and unhindered. If he could think of it, he could play it.

[jameslovestal]

In any case, Barnes was a wonderful, playful player, particularly in his work with Bucky Pizzarelli, Ruby Braff, Carl Kress, and Joe Venuti, and I tend to buy any album with his name on the personnel list.

Yes, Barnes could really make his guitar "sing" (what I believe you're implying by playful). E.g. those recording he did with Rudy Braff, for Concord records late in his career.

[wolflen]

[I]"...In any case, Barnes was a wonderful, playful player, particularly in his work with Bucky Pizzarelli,..."

Years ago..on a late night talk show (Carson) George and Bucky played together..I was young but it was a mesmerizing experience.

They were having fun.and the music was alive.. i could almost see the notes.

[AndyV]

Barnes has a 'bounce' in his rhythm feel that was unique and to my ear, much closer to early Chicago jazz horn and reed players than guitarists like say, Herb Ellis who were quoted as wanting to sound like a horn. He was self taught but spent a lot of time arranging so he knew music theory well which informed his playing as well. His lines can have a bubbling quality that swings hard but differently than many swing guitarists. There are a lot of arpeggio-based lines and a vibrato that he often applies at the end a phrase. I read a quote where he said he imitated a horn vibrato where one hits the note square-on and then applies a vibrato that blooms and then recedes (think of a round waveform).

Barnes was also a prolific studio player on 50s and early 60s country and pop records like "Lipstick on your collar" and many, many more.

Lipstick on Your Collar

Bach G minor Fugue

Country Jazz

[Alexandra]

This is not the first time I've been moved to address this issue. Guitarists and music journalists and other interested parties enjoy going back and forth in various corners of the Internet about who was first. I understand; it's a legitimate historical perspective, one I have considered since my late mother and I founded The George Barnes Legacy Collection in 2010, and while writing the memoir about my father and our lives in music (still in process).


Here's the thing I know for sure:
My father never cared about being "the first." Someone would ask him, "Were you the first electric guitarist?" Given the fact that his older electronics genius brother Reggie created an amplification system for the Sears Silvertone ten-year-old Georgie had picked up in 1931, because the piano he's been playing since he was four had to be sold for groceries, he'd say, "I don't know; maybe" and go on about his work. I think we can safely say he was a pioneer of the electric guitar.


The bio written by Downbeat's George Hoefer for Dad's 1960 Guitar Galaxies album opens thusly: "One of George Barnes' chief aims in life has been to establish the guitar as a solo instrument as acceptable to music listeners as a trumpet, clarinet, or saxophone." If we go all the way back to the '30s (his recordings as a 16-year-old with the Black blues greats of the time––Big Bill Broonzy, Blind John Davis, et al––and his radio appearances as a soloist on "Plantation Party"), into the '40s (his George Barnes Octet concoctions are 100% proof of concept) and '50s and '60s (countless pop and rock records featured him as a soloist––"Lipstick on Your Collar" actually made Eric Clapton realize what an electric guitar could do), I think we can all agree that he accomplished that goal.


His main motivations were achieving musical excellence, expanding his musical language, working with like-minded musicians, and––this was of the utmost importance to him––making people happy with his music. His music definitely makes me happy. How about you?


He also enjoyed making music with his singer-songwriter daughter, and was so excited that, in the summer of 1977, I'd relocated from Manhattan to the Bay Area, where he and Mom had moved two years earlier, to make our first album together. The fact that he died three weeks later at 56 was a profoundly tragic loss from which Mom and I never quite recovered...which is why I am always exceptionally happy to see the appreciation bestowed on him by you truly fine people all these years after his premature departure. A clear indication that authentic musical genius never dies.


If any of you are on Facebook, please feel free to reach out to me on the George Barnes, Guitar Legend page. Since 2013, I've posted lots of music, and photos, and stories, and that's where I let everyone know about the oldest and the newest releases from the GBLC.


Thank you for letting me share in this forum.

~ Alexandra Barnes Leh

I've seen all kinds of accounts of who-was-first, electric-wise, and this piece seems mostly based on the Guitar Player interview, with a quick reference to the website that Barnes' daughter assembled. Which is fine, as far as it goes. But there are signs of spotty research--for example, not mentioning that the frying-pan electric was a lap-steel instrument, or that nobody in the guitar-history biz would conflate resphonics with electrics, even though both were addressing the same set of problems. (And Eddie Durham wasn't the only mid-1930s player to use a reso in a dance/swing band context--in Paris there was Oscar Aleman.)

For me, the question of who made the first commercial recording of an electric guitar is one for the trained historians, which means that the answer is less in anecdotes and memoirs than in the session archives of record companies. Which probably means that getting a definitive answer is unlikely. As far as I can tell, a lot of people were devising solutions to the amplification problem, and while it's nice to be able to name a particular recording as the very first, I find it less interesting than the when-it's-time-to-railroad story that leads to the emergence of a particular solution (say, in the form of the ES-150) and its acceptance by players.

FWIW, the Wikipedia article on Eddie Durham bases its claim that "Hitting the Bottle" was the first recording with electric guitar is based on a Texas tourism guidebook. But my ear hears a resophonic (maybe a tricone) and not an electric on that recording. Some of this reminds me of the debate over whether the guitar Nick Drake played on the "Bryter Layter" album is the Guild M-20 in the cover photo.

In any case, Barnes was a wonderful, playful player, particularly in his work with Bucky Pizzarelli, Ruby Braff, Carl Kress, and Joe Venuti, and I tend to buy any album with his name on the personnel list.