Fifty years ago, during the short interlude between Elvis and the Beatles, there was a brief sighting of that rarest of species: the “instrumental hit record.”
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Riding on the coattails
Fifty years ago, during the short interlude between Elvis and the Beatles, there was a brief sighting of that rarest of species: the “instrumental hit record.”
Riding on the coattails of surf music came a spate of non-vocal bestsellers in styles ranging from cool R&B (Booker T. & the MGs’ “Green Onions”) to funky piano jazz (Ramsey Lewis’ “The In Crowd”) to shuffle blues (Freddie King’s “Hide Away”).
Joining them was a young guitar slinger from southern Indiana named Lonnie Mack, who in 1963 unexpectedly hit the charts with his instrumental cover of Chuck Berry’s “Memphis.”
Pumping his Flying V through a grainy-toned Magnatone amp, he attacked the strings with fast, aggressive single-string phrasing and a seamless rhythm style that significantly raised the guitar virtuoso bar and foreshadowed the arena-sized tones of guitar heroes to come. Well before the term was coined, “Memphis” defined blues-rock.
Apart from the title, Mack’s “Memphis” actually borrows little from the original. He converts Berry’s relaxed, proto-reggae groove into a driving, straight-eighth boogie (FIGURE 1 shows similar patterns for G, C and D chords that he arranged in 12-bar form) and folds just a hint of the melody into a big, bluesy chord figure similar to FIGURE 2. The highlights of Mack’s “Memphis” performance are his two solos, which showcase his driving, razor-sharp technique and impeccable command of timing and flow.
Each 12-bar chorus is a mini composition alternating between a repeated main theme and kinetic fills, similar to those presented in FIGURE 3. When playing this passage, pay careful attention to the quick position shifts; this kind of sleight of hand was a signature element of Mack’s flashy style. At the culmination of the last chorus, Mack debuts one of his signature