It’s strange to think a rock band like the Kinks were the genesis of one of the most influential jazz fusion songs ever written. But Al Di Meola has confessed to being inspired by the Brit’s 1964 hit “You Really Got Me” to write a song that has become untouchable in fusion circles.
The song is “Race With Devil on Spanish Highway,” a cut from the New Jersey–born guitarist’s second solo album, 1977’s Elegant Gypsy. The tune has captured the hearts of many guitar players, but few would know from listening to it that the song’s origins can be traced back to Di Meola’s childhood love for that Kinks cut, which was famously covered by Van Halen in 1978.
“This might surprise some people, but when I wrote this song, I was thinking of the Kinks’ ‘You Really Got Me,’” De Meola told Guitar Player in 2020, giving the game away. “That was the first song I ever attempted to play when I was eight or nine years old.
“I played it with my thumb. Imagine playing an open E, but with the thumb of your left hand, you reach over the neck and play the F#. That’s what popped into my mind when I started to write this one.”
By ‘77, the guitarist had already established himself in guitar circles thanks to his three albums with Return to Forever, the illustrious jazz act featuring keyboardist Chick Corea, bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White. Di Meola’s solo work would build on that reputation thanks to “Race With Devil on Spanish Highway,” a song that become one of his most celebrated, despite (or perhaps due to) its lack of complexity.
“It was very simplistic compared to my later compositions,” Di Meola says. “But really, the whole basis of the song is that riff, which was inspired by the Kinks. I was still living with my parents at the time and I was making demos on a Teac four-channel reel-to-reel.
“I was hearing congas in my head, so now we’re taking it out of the Kinks’ world. I’m very percussion-oriented, so I heard congas and drums that just explode like fire.”
His focus on the F# Phrygian dominant scale also helped give his composition a different tonality and take it deeper into the genre-blurring world Di Meola was carving out for himself.
“The sections where I’m accused of being a shredder were all improvised,” he says of the song, which was cut live at New York City’s Electric Lady Studios, formerly owned by Jimi Hendrix.
“I was using my ’71 Les Paul Custom and a Marshall 50-watt half stack,” he explains. “I didn’t use any effects — you lose so much punch that way. On my amp, I just turned the bass and midrange to 10, and I dialed the treble down to zero. I remember Larry DiMarzio came to the studio. He looked at my amp and said, ‘It’s funny that you use that setting. That’s how Leslie West sets his amp.’”
As Di Meola says, his percussion-first approach to guitar has helped define the characteristics of his playing. Speaking to Rick Beato recently, he emphasized the importance of a guitar player’s feet when it comes to performing with feel. Di Meola believes that by tapping along to the rhythm of a track with his foot, he can find “where the drama is”.
The guitarist has been busy since he suffered a heart attack onstage at an acoustic trio concert in 2023. His self-described “second chance” at life has seen him revisiting older cuts from his ’70s days in recent years, especially so when he feared “this might be it for me,” on that near-fateful night.
Di Meola also revealed Paco de Lucia’s secret recording trick that he used to full effect on “Mediterranean Sundance,” with Di Meola by his side.
Alongside John Mclaughlin, Marty Friedman, and Yngwie Malmsteen, Di Meola has come to rely on the flavors of exotic, non-Western scales, with “Egyptian Danza” another superlative example. Unlock more from your lead playing with Guitar Player‘s Guide to Exotic Scales.
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