Tales Of Broken Guitar Amps

There are many tales of broken guitar amps that allegedly led to the “invention” of distortion. Let’s look at three of them more closely.

There’s “The Tale Of The Amplifier That Fell From The Top Of A Car”. The song involved in this tale is Rocket 88, recorded 1951 by Ike Turner. One version of the tale says, that the amplifier fell from the top of a car. Another version says, that the amplifier was in the trunk of a car and that it was damaged by rain. In both cases the damage to the amplifier allegedly led to the distorted sound.

Then there’s the “Tale Of The Speaker That Broke During Recording And Caused Distortion”. This tale is related to “Zip-A-Dee-Doo Dah” (1962) by Bobb B. Sox and the Blue Jeans. The distorted guitar was played by Billy Strange. And Billy Strange himself tells on his forum how he really created the distorted sound:

“The story has been told so many times that now it was a broken speaker cone. WRONG!!! (…) It was a 6-L-6 tube that I pulled out of my old Fender Twin amp to get that fuzz sound on ‘Zip-a-dee-doo-da’!!!.”

Most Perfect Sound From The Black Forest

Why did Oscar Peterson record several LPs in a small town in the Black Forest? Because Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer had a dream: He wanted to produce jazz records of chosen artists in the highest possible sound quality. To fulfill his dream he founded the label «Musik Produktion Schwarzwald MPS» («Music Production Black Forest»). In his studio in Villingen his sound engineers achieved an incredible good sound. The quality was so outstanding that jazz musicians all over the world nicknamed the MPS label «Most Perfect Sound». Musicians like George Duke, Jean-Luc Ponty, Hans Koller and Joe Pass traveled to the Black Forest to record legendary music.

If you want to know more about Brunner-Schwer and the sound engineers and musicians who were involved in the MPS records, I recommend the documentary MPS – Jazzin’ The Black Forest. It also shows rare footage of the late Oscar Peterson and a sound engineer tells how pleased Peterson was with the sound of his piano on the MPS records.

Related: MPS Reissues

Happy Birthday Marlene Dietrich

Maria Magdalena Dietrich was born in Berlin on December 27th in 1901. As Marlene Dietrich she became an icon of the movie screen. She was one of the most important sex symbols of the 20th century. Her charisma was sensual and self-confident. Singing was an important part of her career. Her voice had a breathy timbre and her style of singing was unique. Actually it’s more speaking then singing, a style that was developed in the cabarets of Berlin in the nineteen-twenties. Her dark voice was an important part of her image.

In her breakthrough movie «Der Blaue Engel» (1930) she played a singer. In the same year she made her Hollywood debut in «Morocco». The song «Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuss auf Liebe eingestellt» («Falling In Love Again») from «Der Blaue Engel» made her famous as a singer.

«Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuss auf Liebe eingestellt» was written by the great Friedrich Hollaender, composer of countless songs and film scores. Hollaender’s songs accompanied Marlene through her whole life. When her movie star was fading she had a very successful second career as a singer. 1992 Marlene Dietrich died in Paris, Friedrich Hollaender died 1976 in Munich.