On Guitar - Lenny Kaye!

Lenny Kaye (pictured), Patti Smith’s long time guitarist and co-conspirator, celebrates the quest for new guitar sounds via technology that has driven pop music, track by track, over the last 70 years and provides the sound track to the constantly-changing society.

From Les Paul’s early home recordings of speeded-up, multi-tracked ‘alien’ guitars, to KT Tunstall and Ed Sheeran’s adaptation of a Looper pedal to transform voice and acoustic guitar into a multi-faceted one-person band, this is an essential guide to the guitar for any music-lover.

Elsewhere: Bo Diddley’s pioneering use of the Tremolo pedal over a jungle beat, Duane Eddy’s use of the Tremolo arm to turbo-charge TV show Peter Gunn, Keith Richards’ use of the first Fuzz Box on Satisfaction, Roger McGuinn’s coining The Byrds’ Jjingle-Jangle electric 12-string sound, Pete Townshend’s use of feedback on My Generation, Jimi Hendrix’s extraordinary use of the Wah-Wah pedal and other effects to create sounds beyond music on his Star Spangled Banner, The Scorpions’ Uli Roth fathering Heavy Metal Shredding, Peter Frampton’s Talk Box, The Edge’s dynamic use of Digital Delay echo on The Joshua Tree, Ry Cooder and Bonnie Raitt’s reinvention of Bottleneck Slide in the 80s on the Paris, Texas soundtrack, and Nick Of Time albums through to Grunge’s trademark Loud, Quiet, Loud.

Contributors include: The Edge, Duane Eddy, Roger McGuinn, Bonnie Raitt, KT Tunstall, Peter Frampton, Uli Roth, The Who’s producer Shel Talmy, Albert Lee, Nancy Wilson (Heart), Lita Ford (Runaways) and Vernon Reid (Living Colour).

This is the third episode in a new three-part series from BBC Four which takes an in-depth look at guitar, drums and bass with acclaimed artists and major contributors.

A BBC Studios production for BBC Four.

Executive Producer: Mark Cooper

Producer / Director: Matt O’Casey

Publicity contact: AH2