DIRTY LITTLE SECRET
Where would we be today without distortion? Much cleaner? For sure. Much less rock ’n’ roll? Maybe. But how did the sound of dirty guitars first invade the grooves of early pop records? A small troop of guitarists led the field, discovering the attraction of filthy tones primarily through accidents, mishaps and serendipity.
Back in the early days of recording, engineers were studiously trained to avoid distortion, so when these pioneers came along and started making an overdriven guitar racket, many of the chaps in charge of the knobs were horrified. Slowly, of course, it dawned on recording personnel that this was a new effect, a new colour to add to the tones available to artists of many and varied stripes. Join us now as we conjure up six significant scenes of ancient audio dirt.
MEMPHIS RECORDING SERVICE
MEMPHIS, TENNESSE, 1951
Sam Phillips’ Memphis studio became a laboratory for distorted guitar sounds, and, a track that musicologists have since deemed a contender for the title of the first-ever rock ’n’ roll record.
