The Sound of the Sixties

It was sixty years ago, less six months, that I heard my very first pop records. It was Christmas 1963 and my mother had bought my elder brother a Dansette record player, and six records to play on it.

Up until then, the only record player we had was what they called a radiogram, which was more a piece of furniture than a record player. I cannot recall every single one of those six records, though I do recall at least three of them.

One was a song called 'Six Fools' by a Country and Western artist called Texas Bill Strength. Another was 'Wait Till The Sun Shines Nelly' by Buddy Holly, and the third was 'She Loves You' by the Beatles. And it was that third song that set the hairs on the back of my neck on end. What an amazing sound, I thought.

I immediately started to pester my mum for a guitar, and I never let up for six whole months, until she finally bought me my very first guitar. It was made of bright pink plastic and had a picture of the Fab Four stuck on the front of it. It was more of a toy really, but it had real guitar strings and it played and sounded like the real thing.

As it turned out, the little boy who lived next door to us, Richy Masters, had also been gifted the self-same guitar for Christmas. And so we formed an impromptu duo, leaning some chords together. And I remember we both snapped a string and like a couple of real musicians, we proudly went to the local music shop to buy replacements.

As time went on I developed a burning desire for a guitar like the ones the Beatles played. It was to be almost sixty years before I finally got the guitar of my small boy dreams, an Epiphone Casino. This was the guitar that created the sound, not just of the Beatles, but the sound of the Sixties.

The sad irony is, having finally got around to buying my Epiphone, I have hardly played a string in anger. I was a professional musician for over half my life, playing all manner of great guitars, but I never got around to buying an Eppy. And now I have one, I just can't seem to bring myself to play it!

In part, the lack of playing is down to Covid. Up until that horrible disease fell upon us in 2020, I was performing full-time as a live performer and recording albums. These days, due to being in semi-quarantine in Japan, I do not have any public opportunities to perform. Hopefully, that will change in the not-too-distant future. Until then, the Eppy shall continue to gather dust.

The other guitar I always promised myself was a Martin Dreadnought or D28. This guitar has such an incredible sound, all the greats like Clapton and McCartney, to name but two, have used it throughout their long musical careers. The only thing which has so far held me back from buying a Martin is the cost. They are not cheap instruments, but they are the best.

Other marks have come onto the scene in recent years, like Taylor, but they are not the same, in my humble musician's opinion. And a second-hand Martin D28 will cost you twice the price! They are one of the very few guitars which actually appreciate so much in value. And the older they are, the more valuable they become.

So, I hear you ask, what is it about those two guitars, Epiphone and Martin, that makes them so special? Well, apart from the Beatles connection, both guitars have great playability and a tone to die for. The Epiphone has that Beatle bright jangly tone that was the hero signature sound of almost every single Beatles song. And lots of other famous artists of the sixties and beyond wanted to copy that sound. For that reason, the guitar is a musical legend.

As for the Martin, it has such a rich, booming, full-bodied tone and projection, especially from the low, right up to the mid-range, frequencies. It says a lot that the D28 first came out in 1931, and it has not changed one little bit since. For this, the D28 too, is a musical legend. So, I better start saving those pennies before I get too old to play, I guess.