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clark colborn
Description
Clarc Colborn:
Christmas, 1966
My parents gave me an inexpensive AM radio (with a clock & loud alarm) for Christmas that year. It was not the main gift, and I really don't remember what it was I had hoped to find under the tree. I do remember that the radio had probably the most profound impact on my life of any gift I ever received. I would listen to WLS from Chicago at night as I was supposed to be going to sleep. I would hear these magnificent sounds that were totally new to me (okay, so my life was a bit sheltered in certain areas!), these awesome guitar driven songs by the Yardbirds, the Beatles, the Ventures, and the Rolling Stones. Within a week I knew that somehow, someday, I was going to play guitar. My parents, on the other hand, were quite certain that I should not become a guitarist, and this is illustrated by what happened the following Christmas.
Christmas, 1967
After nearly a solid year of talking about playing guitar, I was sure I would get some kind of guitar for a gift. My parents had alluded to "music" being part of the holiday, and would wink at one another whenever I began my daily tirade. Christmas morning came, and the musical gift turned out to be a rather bizarre little "chord organ." As an adult, I can now appreciate the gesture; I'm sure the cost of that thing put a strain on their very limited budget. But back then, I reacted in true teenager fashion: a graceless, ungrateful display of whining and moaning peppered with pouting and anger. On the "up" side, I did begin learning to play keyboards with it, as well as starting to learn to read music. It also increased my determination to be a guitarist at least tenfold. So for the next 6 months I saved what I could from my allowance, I shoveled snow from neighbors' walks, and I even took a paper route which required me to get up at (gasp!) 5:00 A.M., so that I could buy myself a guitar.
Summer, 1968
At least it looked like a guitar... I'm not really sure that the thing I bought deserved to be called a guitar. This thing was a huge, crude acoustic, and I paid about $25 for it, new. It was spray painted red, with a "simulated" pickguard that was painted on with black spray paint. The frets were the size of wooden matchsticks, and the high E string was .020 gauge. (For you non-guitarists, that is really fat, too fat for any normal human to play!) You could not play a fretted note without discomfort. Up to the 3rd fret the discomfort was minor, at the 4th fret it was significant. Only a burly masochist could actually finger a note at the 5th fret. By the 10th or 11th fret you could literally drop a pencil between the strings and the neck! (I am not exaggerating... this is true!) It was quickly dubbed The Beast. But it was mine, and I began to learn. Within a few weeks I realized that I could not go on with The Beast for long. So I scrimped, continued the paper route, scrounged for "deposit" pop bottles, did whatever I could until I accumulated another $25. This fortune was used to buy a red sparkle electric, with 3 pick-ups, 3 rocker switches, and 4 knobs! Wow. But this one was playable up to about the 15th fret, and I began formal lessons using this marvel of modern technology. By now Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Iron Butterfly, Blue Cheer, and Jefferson Airplane were part of my musical diet, and I could actually imitate a few notes from their songs here and there, thanks to the playability of the red glitter guitar. I knew I was meant to go on …
Christmas, 1966
My parents gave me an inexpensive AM radio (with a clock & loud alarm) for Christmas that year. It was not the main gift, and I really don't remember what it was I had hoped to find under the tree. I do remember that the radio had probably the most profound impact on my life of any gift I ever received. I would listen to WLS from Chicago at night as I was supposed to be going to sleep. I would hear these magnificent sounds that were totally new to me (okay, so my life was a bit sheltered in certain areas!), these awesome guitar driven songs by the Yardbirds, the Beatles, the Ventures, and the Rolling Stones. Within a week I knew that somehow, someday, I was going to play guitar. My parents, on the other hand, were quite certain that I should not become a guitarist, and this is illustrated by what happened the following Christmas.
Christmas, 1967
After nearly a solid year of talking about playing guitar, I was sure I would get some kind of guitar for a gift. My parents had alluded to "music" being part of the holiday, and would wink at one another whenever I began my daily tirade. Christmas morning came, and the musical gift turned out to be a rather bizarre little "chord organ." As an adult, I can now appreciate the gesture; I'm sure the cost of that thing put a strain on their very limited budget. But back then, I reacted in true teenager fashion: a graceless, ungrateful display of whining and moaning peppered with pouting and anger. On the "up" side, I did begin learning to play keyboards with it, as well as starting to learn to read music. It also increased my determination to be a guitarist at least tenfold. So for the next 6 months I saved what I could from my allowance, I shoveled snow from neighbors' walks, and I even took a paper route which required me to get up at (gasp!) 5:00 A.M., so that I could buy myself a guitar.
Summer, 1968
At least it looked like a guitar... I'm not really sure that the thing I bought deserved to be called a guitar. This thing was a huge, crude acoustic, and I paid about $25 for it, new. It was spray painted red, with a "simulated" pickguard that was painted on with black spray paint. The frets were the size of wooden matchsticks, and the high E string was .020 gauge. (For you non-guitarists, that is really fat, too fat for any normal human to play!) You could not play a fretted note without discomfort. Up to the 3rd fret the discomfort was minor, at the 4th fret it was significant. Only a burly masochist could actually finger a note at the 5th fret. By the 10th or 11th fret you could literally drop a pencil between the strings and the neck! (I am not exaggerating... this is true!) It was quickly dubbed The Beast. But it was mine, and I began to learn. Within a few weeks I realized that I could not go on with The Beast for long. So I scrimped, continued the paper route, scrounged for "deposit" pop bottles, did whatever I could until I accumulated another $25. This fortune was used to buy a red sparkle electric, with 3 pick-ups, 3 rocker switches, and 4 knobs! Wow. But this one was playable up to about the 15th fret, and I began formal lessons using this marvel of modern technology. By now Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Iron Butterfly, Blue Cheer, and Jefferson Airplane were part of my musical diet, and I could actually imitate a few notes from their songs here and there, thanks to the playability of the red glitter guitar. I knew I was meant to go on …
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Dec 24, 2005
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