The Story Of My Life
Record by Guitar Slim recorded for Specialty (490) in 1953.
I waited for records that had guitar solos on them, but they were always too short. "I wanted to be able to play my own solos -- long ones -- so I taught myself how to play the guitar. I didn't bother to learn any chords -- just blues licks."
"Stylistically, my (approach is closest to Guitar Slim, a mid-fifties blues player who recorded for the Specialty label (check out the solo on "Story of My Life") until somebody stabbed him to death with an ice pick."
"When I first heard it I thought: "What the fuck is he doing? He really gets 'pissed off at it.' " His style of playing seemed to be 'beyond the notes' -- it had more to do with the 'attitude' with which he was mangling his instrument. What came out was not just the sum total of certain pitches versus certain chords versus certain rhythms -- to my ear, it was something else. Besides the 'attitude,' he also provided the first instance I can recall of a distorted electric guitar on a record."
"And I especially like Guitar Slim. His solo on "The Story of My Life" (The Things That I Used To Do, Specialty) is one of the best early distorted guitar solos; it really sounds like he's mad at somebody." - One Size Fits All Interview.
