Joe Bonamassa has a term for those albums that changed music’s landscape. He calls them “pre/post records.”
“Like Eric Johnson’s, or Van Halen’s — you know, one’s that make everybody play differently. It was the same thing when Albert King and Jimi Hendrix came along.”
Though Joe Bonamassa has been a linchpin of blues-rock for over two decades, he doesn’t consider himself a member of that club. “There hasn’t been something that came out where you go, ‘Oh, my God,’ ” he humbly tells Guitar Player. “I mean, in general there hasn’t been a pre/post record from anyone for a while.”
That said, Bonamassa knows he’s been influential to many guitarists today in the same way that players like B.B. King and Eric Clapton were to him. He gets his share of fans who tell him so — which only serves to remind him how long he’s been around.
“It’s odd to see 30-year-olds going, ‘I learned how to play guitar from your records.’ I’m like, ‘How old are you? Oh, shit… it’s happening to me.’ ” (laughs)
Like every guitarist, Bonamassa had to start somewhere — and his recognizable style, while rooted in the blues, is filled with touches of shred, classic rock and even folk. Don’t believe it? Check out these 10 record that changed his life to understand how and where his guitar journey began, and every point in between then and now.
Live at the Regal — B.B. King (1965)
“One of the first two albums I bought with my birthday or communion money, when I was seven or eight, was a copy of B.B. King’s Live at the Regal. I got it for eight dollars and bought it the same day I bought Steve Morse’s Introduction album. These were recommendations from my father, saying, ‘Okay, you like blues, but you also like to shred. Let’s get one of each.’ (laughs)
“As far as live albums are concerned, Live at the Regal… I love live albums that weren’t supposed to be live and just kind of happened, where somebody just happened to record it, and you catch the band right at the apex curve. This was the mid ’60s, when he really became B.B. King because the stuff in the ’50s was more influenced by T-Bone Walker and everything like that. Live at the Regal was like the archetype of the next 50 years of his career.
“You had the shuffle, the slow blues, and the way he would weave in and out of tunes and just hit a note. I did the deep dive, and the sound of Live at the Regal really felt like the vibe in the room was just amazing. It was apparently recorded with one or very few mics, and you can tell because, when he’d step up to the mic, the band would get lower, and when he’d pull away, the band would get louder. To me, this was just the perfect recording. It was just a life changer. To this day, it’s still my favorite B.B. King album. It denotes Chicago blues at its peak.”
The Introduction — Steve Morse (1984)
“And then there’s Steve Morse’s The Introduction… I’d never heard guitar playing that fast, and that accurate. It had that Dixie Dreggs swing on it, but it was his own stuff. The tone was just raw and ripping. This is just a really underrated record. It was released in ’84; to me, it’s just a cruise missile. The first two songs alone are worth the price of admission.
“You hear the first song, and it’s like, Oh, crap, this is burning. I really hold Steve Morse in such high regard, not only as a player but as a good, humble guy. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get named in the same sentences as a lot of other players of that era, like Eddie Van Halen, Allan Holdsworth and Bill Nelson. He’s the last to be named or not named at all.
“That guy, for someone like me who does not have a legato, he spoke all of my languages. I’m like, ‘Between him and Al Di Meola, I can just pick everything.’ So when I was eight years old, The Introduction and Live at the Regal were two diametrically opposed records in styles that really solidified what I wanted to do. I was like, ‘I want to play blues, but I want to play fast.’ I didn’t know I was breaking the rules. I still don’t know if I’m breaking the rules by playing fast over blues.”
Truth — Jeff Beck (1968)
“Jeff Beck’s Truth was my introduction to British blues. I was like, ‘I don’t know what this is, but it’s like blues with swagger—and it’s raw.’ It seemed like they just didn’t give a shit but still had something to prove at the same time. I really liked that. Jeff was fresh out of the Yardbirds and found his singer in Rod Stewart, his bass player in Ronnie Wood, Mick Waller on drums, and Nicky Hopkins on keyboards. It was a session for London Records, and, I mean, what a band! That original Jeff Beck Group from the first two albums changed the game—and pre-dated Zeppelin.
“Jeff Beck was doing heavy blues before Jimmy Page got the New Yardbirds together, and, what a record! It’s got one of the best versions of ‘Morning Dew’ of all time and ‘Ain’t Superstitious’ too. And the funny thing was that years ago, I asked the engineer, Ken Scott, who was there at Abbey Road when they did it. ‘Hey, how’d you get that guitar sound on “Let Me Love You”?’ and he said, ‘The amp was in a closet.’ I’m like, ‘Of course.’” (laughs)
Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton — John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers (1966)
“In the ’80s, if you were a suburban white kid interested in the blues, it was Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Texas Flood or it was John Mayall’s Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton album. Those were the two records. The Beano (so named because Clapton is reading a Beano comic book in its cover photo) record was just a snapshot of a band that was right, had been playing a lot of gigs, and just went into the studio and cut the damn thing.
“And John, rest in peace, I interviewed him, and he goes, ‘Man, Peter Green was a sub for Eric when he would kind of disappear, and then he’d come back, and Peter Green had to take a backseat because Clapton would draw more people.’ John was just trying to keep the band together, but that record and that tone changed the game. It’s like, how many fucking Les Pauls do you think that record sold? (laughs) That was Gibson’s come to Jesus moment, you know?”
Irish Tour ’74 — Rory Gallagher (1974)
“It doesn’t get ‘blue-collar, meat-and-potatoes’ rock and roll and blues than this. I have the huge challenge this year of doing some Rory stuff in Cork (Ireland), and it’s going to be great, but it’s going to be the challenge of a lifetime. Rory was such an underrated singer, writer, and guitar player. He was just amazing.
“When you hear Irish Tour ’74you hear rock coming out of the gate, and it’s just steaming. You’re like, ‘Who is that coming at me?’ There are just so many classics, but the thing about that record is when I got the group together to do the Rory tribute and we rehearsed, I figured we’d just figure it out as we went. But there are so many versions, and every single person in the band — including me — naturally defaulted to Irish Tour ’74. That was a sign right there.
“This year is the 30th anniversary since Rory passed away, and it’s tough. You go over to Ireland, and the reverence that Irish people have for him is still there. He was a folk hero more than a musician. He brought people together when the country was extremely divided in the ’70s. He played Belfast before curfew at 11 in the morning. He united people. There are so many stories of how he’d just drive somewhere, set up his gear, and people would show up.”
Texas Flood — Stevie Ray Vaughan (1983)
“I can’t do a top-1- album list without Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Texas Flood. This was a game changer. He came along in ’83 when everybody was writing the blues off, but every 10 years somebody comes along and just gives it a B12 shot, and Stevie gave the blues the biggest one. Next thing you know, everybody wants a Strat again, and everybody wants a (Fender) Vibroverb and a (Ibanez) Tube Screamer.
“In America, Stevie Ray Vaughan is probably the most copied guitar player of all time, even more than Hendrix, I think. Everybody defaults to those Stevie Ray Vaughan licks that they learned as a kid, you know? The tone, the vocals, the production and the songs… He bet everything on that. He left the Bowie gig and said, ‘I’m going to do my own thing.’ There were no guarantees. As far as something that shifted the tectonic plates, you absolutely go with Texas Flood.”
“Guitar Player magazine used to have these Flexidiscs in the middle of the magazine (EvaTone Soundsheets). They were like vinyl things that you had to stack eight dimes on the needle of the record player to get maybe three plays out of. (laughs) One of those was Eric Johnson live at Austin City Limits, and I went, ‘What the actual fuck is this? What is this sound?’
“And then, when Ah Via Musicom came out, you had ‘Desert Rose,’ ‘Cliffs of Dover’ and ‘High Landrons.’ I mean… it was just wonderful playing, production and sound, you know? Everybody was like, ‘What’s he using?’ When that album came out, and it had that tone, it was when people still had those big racks. But Eric was just slinging old shit that he daisy-chained together.
“He had three separate rigs: a clean tone, a dirty rhythm and a violin solo tone. Back then, nobody was using vintage anything, but he had a ’54 Strat, a Marshall ‘Plexi,’ a Dumble, old Fuzz Faces, Tube Screamers and Echoplexes. He was very particular about his sound, and you can’t argue with the results. He’s one of my heroes and such a nice guy. I always apologize to him for everything I stole. (laughs)
“Every time I see him, I laugh, and he says, ‘We all get it from somewhere,’ and I’m like, ‘Well, some people get it more from others,’ you know? And he’s still chasing it and plays daily. He’s still chasing tone, coming up with different things. He’s just one of those amazing, once-in-a-generation kinds of guys.”
Still Got the Blues — Gary Moore (1990)
“Without this record, I wouldn’t have a career in Europe. I’m convinced of that. Gary Moore was the one who figured out that there was a big market for blues and blues-rock in Europe. He pivoted. He was a rock guy, tried and true with Thin Lizzy and his solo work in the ’80s. And then, he came out with this blues record, and it just floored everybody.
“I remember hearing it on the radio when it first came out in ’90, and I’m like, ‘Wow, what’s he using? A Les Paul and a Soldano?’ I was sold on that. I was like, ‘I want that.’ (laughs) He was always super nice to me, and he was such a bull in a China shop. He had one speed: always on. He played so intensely, and so emotionally; there was no, ‘I’m gonna dial it back.’ There was no playing it safe for him. He just went for it, all the time.”
Déjà Vu — Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (1970)
“This is an oddball one that changed my life. I showed very little interest in acoustic guitar before this, but my father played me this record, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m but I’m doing electric guitar…’ Then I heard those sounds, and how the writing and vocal harmonies were all put together. And I read an article that said when this came out, people thought it was all fake studio magic. Songs like ‘Woodstock,’ ‘Teach Your Children’ and ‘Carry On’ are big songs. I just love that record. Those guys were the high-water mark for me.”
Led Zeppelin — Led Zeppelin (1969)
“The was a blues record with bad intentions, you know? When you listen to the last track, ‘How Many More Times,’ it feels like the studio must have been exploding. I still remember the first time I heard Zeppelin, and it’s definitely a game-changer. It changes your perspective on everything as far as rock and guitar, that’s for sure.
“And Jimmy Page — are you fucking kidding me? It’s like try to copy those parts. It’s impossible. People forget that Jimmy was a first-call session guy. People would not have called him if he was a ‘sloppy’ guitar player. Jimmy Page was as bad as he wanted to be. And what a producer, too!”
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