NOS News•today, 10:53
American guitarist Duane Eddy has died of cancer at the age of 86. With its characteristic twangy way of playing, he brought a completely new sound to rock ‘n’ roll and inspired generations of colleagues, from George Harrison and The Shadows to Bruce Springsteen.
Eddy can rightly be called the most important rock ‘n’ roll instrumentalist ever. Or: King of Twang, because of the distinctive reverb of his guitar. He was a white raven in music with instrumental hits such as Rebel Rouser, Peter Gunn, Cannonball and Forty Miles of Bad Road.
“Not singing was my most important contribution to the music industry,” he once jokingly summed up his influence.
Eddy plays some of his hits:
“Instrumentalists usually never become famous, but Duane Eddy’s electric guitar was a voice unto itself,” the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum said in response to his death. “His sound will forever be in the DNA of country and rock ‘n’ roll.”
“Duane inspired a generation of guitarists with his unmistakable twangsound,” his family said in a statement. “He was rock ‘n’ roll’s first guitar god and a truly humble and wonderful human being. We’ll miss him.”
Singing cowboys
Eddy started playing the guitar as a toddler. Inspired by singing cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rodgers, it wasn’t long before he was allowed to perform for local radio stations. At the age of nineteen he had a recording contract and a modest hit with Moovin’ and Groovin’.
Already in that first sample the twangy playing style that he liked best: loose, lazy notes on the low strings with a lot of resonance. He also turned out to have an immediate influence: his producer later used the sounds for Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots Are Made for Walkin’. Surf bands from California also picked up the sound: the Beach Boys clearly adopted his opening riff Surfin’ USA. By the way, Eddy had the opening of Moovin’ and Groovin’ borrowed from Chuck Berry again.
Although Eddy was not directly involved in all of this, he had sixteen top 40 hits in the US between 1958 and 1963, although he did not reach number 1. His sound did not catch on in the Netherlands: only later in his career did he narrowly reach the charts here Play Me Like You Play Your Guitar (1975) and Because they’re young (1980).
Hollywood
When American artists moved through the British Invasion were pushed aside, Eddy worked in the 70s and 80s, living off his royalties, mainly behind the scenes. He was the producer of Waylon Jennings, Phil Everly and BJ Thomas. How popular he remained among musicians became clear in 1987, when his new album was produced by Paul McCartney, Jeff Lynne and Ry Cooder, with contributions from George Harrison and John Fogerty.
One of the songs from that album, The Tremblerwas used in Oliver Stone’s film Natural Born Killers. It was the same year Rebel Rouser used for the movie Forrest Gump, where the uplifting tune plays as the main character is chased by bullies in a pickup truck. Even the gaming industry appreciated him: in 2018 Eddy contributed to the soundtrack of the Wild West game Red Dead Redemption II.
Eddy once analyzed that he owed it all to his childhood style choice: “I’m certainly not the best player technically, I just sell the best,” he admitted. “I chose a signature sound and stuck with it.”
