Curves, Contours and Body Horns, by Ray Minhinnett

January 20, 2005

The Stratocaster's 50th Anniversary

Hi there. I'm Ray Minhinnett and this is the first of my columns for this great site. Tom Watson, one of the editors of Strat Collector News, and I discussed what should form the content of this first "historic" piece, and he said, "Just do what you feel."

No, you're not seeing double. They also published this first column on the News Desk to help spread the word that I'm here. From now on, my monthly contribution will appear at this location only.

I didn't think an awful lot of you would remember all the U.S. chart hits we had with Frankie Miller or Full House when I was the guitarist, or the endless schedules of concerts we did through the '70s, slogging from coast to coast. So, I suppose the best place to start is with my film, and the title I came up with for it which gives this writer's new column its name.

My film, "Curves, Contours and Body Horns - History of the Fender Stratocaster", was first screened in England on the ITV Network on Sunday, December 12, 1994, drawing record viewing figures for its time slot. Conceived by a musician/songwriter with no experience in film making (but who like many of you, had a life long passion for this amazing icon), I could never in my wildest dreams have predicted the worldwide success of my first foray into the world of television production. The book and a series of three one-hour specials for BBC Radio One (sharing the same title as the book), produced by myself and Bob Young, and narrated by Bob Harris, followed the success of the film, as did an Emmy "short" listing and coming runner-up, for a Golden Globe Award.

A decade on, as we all know, the Fender Stratocaster is fifty-years-old and once again, Bob and I have been at the cutting edge of the Strat's anniversary celebrations. An updated documentary will be out on DVD to accompany the concert we produced for Fender featuring David Gilmore, Joe Walsh, Hank Marvin, Theresa Anderson, Gary Moore, Albert Lee, Paul Rogers, Ronnie Wood and The Crickets, amongst others. The concert was filmed in high definition at London's Wembley Arena on September 24, 2004, and is entitled "The Strat Pack". We are currently in the process of the final edit and the film is scheduled for release in April, 2005 - at the end of the Stratocaster's anniversary year.

"Curves, Contours, and Body Horns" was a hell of a challenge, an arduous task to undertake considering I am more used to being on the other side of the camera. Everyone was saying, "You'll never get to him", or, "He'll never be in your film he's too busy." In the end, we got 'em all: Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Keith Richards, Rory Gallagher, Mark Knopfler, Bonnie Raitt, Richie Sambora, Jeff Lynne, Bryan Adams, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Iron Maiden, Chris Rea and David Gilmour, everyone that I'd had on my wish list. They were all there to talk about only one thing - no mention of a new album or plugging a tour, just the passion and the love they have for this incredible instrument - the Fender Stratocaster.

I've always thought that the reason Curves works so well as a film is that basically with each artist I interviewed what we got was simply a conversation between two guitar players about a mutual love - a shared passion for the Strat. When you have had a guitar for years and gig every day with it, you really do build a special relationship with that Instrument. It gets to be a real personal thing, like hanging with an old friend.

Like many of the guys I interviewed, I've been consumed with a passion for Strats since I was ten-years-old and first saw The Shadows. I got my first one when I joined Frankie Miller's Full House in 1975. It's a beauty, a beaten up old 1959 Sunburst maple neck that had belonged to Steve Marriott. A pal of mine, Rick Wills, had it at his house at the time, and I bought it from him for £250. It was always my main guitar live with Frankie, and I used it on a lot of the Full House records just re-released on CD on the Eagle Rock label, with "Ain't Got No Money", "Honky Tonk", "Sail Away", "Be Good to Yourself" and "Jealous Guy" probably being the most noticeable tracks. I also used it to record the music I wrote and performed for the Curves, Contours and Body Horns film - it sounds great and I was especially happy with the guitar's sound on "Leo's Song" - the solo from this track plays behind the credit roll at the end of the film.

It has been said that, "Genius has the capacity to see ten things where others see only one." Personally, I think this is absolutely true when talking about Leo Fender. As we now all know, a dirt farmer's son who was tone deaf and a non-musician, he built and marketed an instrument in 1954 the likes of which the world had never seen before.

The Stratocaster was designed for, and truly was the first real professional working guitarist's instrument, and as such, has often been hailed as a design concept equal to that of the Volkswagen Beetle amongst other things. In my interview with George Harrison, he constantly referred to its timeless design qualities and compared them to that of the Chrysler Building in New York City. Eric Clapton stated that, "This guitar is rock 'n' roll, and it's sexy. People lust after them," while the Rolling Stone's Keith Richards compares Leo Fender to Leonardo de Vinci: "It's perfection, it's perfect, and that's why we play them, they're the best guitars in the f***** world."

I suppose at the end of the day, even though he's been gone for over thirty years, the name that is still - and forever will be - synonymous with the Stratocaster is Jimi Hendrix. He created more significant "musical milestones" than any other Strat player in history.

Arriving in London as a little known "jobbing guitarist" from Seattle, James Marshall Hendrix blew the British music industry away, and equally astonished the British record buying public with his unbelievable Blues-based guitar playing at a time when "Clapton is God" graffiti was scrawled on walls all over Britain. Jimi was incomparable, with an incredible image, and all the stagecraft and histrionics that went with it. He did things to, and with his Strat that beggared belief. Head back, eyes closed, he coaxed every single note out of his guitar, with a passion rarely witnessed at that time, or indeed since. He made love to it, his tongue flailing at his audience as he writhed around the stage, he played it between his legs, behind his neck, and his back, or with his teeth. After this, he invariably smashed it into pieces in the finale of his act - it had given him its all!

A live show the likes of this, had never been witnessed before in Britain, or anywhere else for that matter - not on this planet! With the release of his first album, "Are you Experienced", sales of the Stratocaster rocketed through the Fender ceiling. Jimi had reinvented the Strat, and no one has ever come close in my mind to getting out of any guitar what Jimi Hendrix got out of his Stratocaster.

Interviewing the players who took part in Curves was a real joy for me. There I was, sitting and talking with Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Keith Richards, et al., about the passion of my life - it doesn't get much better I guess. Eric talked openly and enthusiastically about Jimi and their friendship and about the first time he saw Jimi in full flight at an art college in London when Chas Chandler brought Hendrix along to a Cream gig. Jimi had said to Chas before they had left New York, that he would come to London with him on condition that he was introduced to Eric. So now, here was Jimi blowing with Jack and Ginger, and Eric standing with his mouth touching the floor. Clapton remembers: "There was something about the way Jimi played the Strat that made it seem like it was off limits to me. I thought, I can't do that, I'm not even going to get involved in all that, it's just too crazy."

Another quote about Hendrix and his Strat that I thought was great came from Bill Carson (what a really nice man). I couldn't include the whole quote in the film, we had to cut the last part of his sentence, but I'm sure Bill won't mind me sharing it with you. What he actually said was, "When this kid cut that Experience album, the sales of the Stratocaster went sky high, he was so wild, and he made me so mad by smashing up all those beautiful Instruments. I'll never forgive that kid, even if he is dead." Go Bill!

Now the 50th Stratocaster anniversary year is almost behind us, a decade since I made Curves, and new exciting players and bands are emerging every day wielding Strats as their chosen instrument. We watched the rise through the '90s, and into the first few years of our new millennium, of many bands and artists, such as Blink 182, The Strokes, John Fruscianti (Red Hot Chili Peppers), John Mayer, Gomez and The Maroon Five, the incredible Eric Bibb, and Rooster, to name a few. Some, like The Chillies, and U2 have achieved great things, while others did not do quite so well, but that's rock 'n'; roll I suppose. But Leo's Stratocaster was never intended to be a flash in the pan - it was built to last, as Jimi Hendrix and Pete Townsend have proved on so many occasions. It has endured, and like any great icon will be recognized, cherished, and revered for decades to come. I know mine will!

A few extra quotes from "CURVES":

Bryan Adams: To me, owning a Stratocaster was the ultimate thing you could possibly have. The day I got my Strat, I had everything I'd ever wanted.

Paul Rodgers (Free & Bad Company): It's the ultimate '50s thing, Cadillacs, Harley-Davidsons, Wurlitzer Juke Boxes - it's a real classic look.

Sonny Curtis (Buddy Holly & the Crickets, The Everly Brothers): When you turn that thing up you can blow the back-end out of a building, and it will never feed back on you, and of course we loved that, 'cause we loved to play real loud.

Bonnie Raitt: They're for playing, play them, let the music live, don't put it in a storehouse somewhere in Tokyo 'cause it's worth thousands of dollars and say look what I've got and show it at parties. That's not what this is all about.

Jeff Lynne (E.L.O. and Beatles producer): The best guitar in the shop when I was a kid was always the Fender Strat, it was like a spaceship compared to all the others. I always wanted the guy to get it down off the wall for me to try it out, but he'd always say, "Hey, get your hands off, try one of them over there - the cheap and nasty ones."

Mark Knopfler: It was like, you know, nose pressed against the music shop window, Dad, Dad, I want a bike, please, Dad, please.

Keith Richards: It's as sturdy and strong as a mule, and at the same time it has the elegance of a racehorse. It's got everything that is needed and that's hard to find in anything - in people, in animals (ha, ha), in life.

Contact Information

Email: raym@stratcollector.com
Representation: ARM Agency, Alan Robinson. Tel. +44 (0) 208-949-8885, Email: arm5043@aol.com