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scottfraserphotography · 5 years

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“The Road to Rock n’ Roll - Guitars” Date: March 14, 2019 © Scott Fraser Photography

Dedicated to Rod Coulter. The first guitarist in my life.

In 1971 legendary guitar player and song writer Alvin Lee wrote the song “I’d Love to Change the World”. I was born in 1970, so it’s before my time. But I did grow up listening to it, thanks to three amazing uncles. In 1994, the Sunset Strip based band, L.A. Guns released a cover of it on their album Vicious Circles. With all respect to Alvin Lee, I prefer Tracii Guns’ version of the song. It’s got an edge to it. It touches my soul. Tracii’s chops, his notes, pure, clean, defined, at times ethereal, and delivered with a punch - I can’t help myself, but smile. I end up air guitaring to it every time. In my head I see his fingers on the fretboard, and his other hand as he strums and picks. I see the body of the guitar, the pick-ups, the dials. In my head while I am listening, Tracii is playing live on stage, and I am front-row right in front of him, soaking up with every sense, the moment.

But let’s back up a bit.

1975 was a seminal year for me. It was the year I decided I wanted to play drums, and it was the year I took an active interest in photography. I was five at the time. Thanks to the music of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, and a couple of photographers named Linda McCartney and L.A. based photographer Greg Papazian.

Uncle Art was cool enough to allow this little kid, hang out with him and his friends. CHOM FM would play in the background while Art and his friends would flip through rock magazines. Here I was this five year old kid hanging out with a bunch of fifteen to twenty year olds, while they chilled, played cards and listening to music. I loved it, it was my sanctuary. I would sit quietly out of the way, and just listen as they talked about the music playing, and the photographs in the magazines. They would discuss for hours on end the merit of this song, or that song. Who played it better? The meaning of the lyrics, how “deep” a note went, the crunch of the electric guitar. How cool so and so looked in that shot. And they would ask me what I thought, including me in the conversations. They were teens in the mid seventies in Montreal, had long hair, and cool clothes. Leather jackets and denim, like their heroes in the bands they listened to. That bedroom in that little house on the east end of Montreal is where my rock n’ roll journey began.

In the fall of 1975 I would buy my first albums at a local record store. I knew I wanted a Beach Boy album, and I had enough money saved up to buy a second album. I had hoped that Art would come along to advise me as to what to buy because I wanted something that wasn’t my mom and dad’s music. I wanted something like the music I heard on the FM station and like what Art and his friends listened to. I ended up purchasing a K-Tel album with a bunch of different bands playing songs on it. I figured it was the best way to own new music.The first song I fell i love with on that record was “Smoking’ In The Boys Room” by Brownsville Station. I had hoped when I bought the album that I would have new songs to play my drums along to. But it was the guitar playing that caught my attention. The twang, the rhythm and the way it sounded. Yeah, I loved the drums in it as well, but it really did catch my attention because of the guitar. It’s a balls out blues tune done rock n’ roll.

The music photography of the early seventies until the late1980’s would show case some of the best photography ever done. Before the internet and modern social media, bands and musicians used photographs in magazines to define their image and look. The record labels had long ago realized you could sell more records if your band was being showcased in a music magazine. It was also the era of the fanzine as independent writers, journalists and photographers documented the local scene. It was the era as a teen that you hung posters of the bands you loved on your bedroom walls. And many went a step further, like myself, cutting photos out of magazines to pin to on our walls. Punk and Metal came of age, and Generation X grew into teens and young adults. Raised on the photographs, posters and the FM waves we grew into young adults as we searched for our own identities. Static images had been our visual medium of consumption, that is until video came along and killed a radio star.

As a teenager I got five dollars a week allowance, so it would take me three weeks of saving to buy a new album which was anywhere from ten to fifteen dollars. Birthday, christmas or any gift money went towards music. In a month I could save and buy one album and one to two rock magazines. Babysitting and odd jobs were a means to an end. It was an era where a lot of the time that meant I bought an album without hearing more than one song on it. Other times you bought because you had liked the artwork, or photos on the album cover. Or maybe your friends had talked about it, or you had read about it in Circus or Hit Parader magazine.

My friends and I would make agreements as to who bought what album so that we could get together and share them. I’d buy Metallica, Rod would buy Ozzy Osbourne, Jay would buy Def Leppard. My friends and I would trade albums with one another so that each of us, could get a chance to hear new music. You went out and bought the albums for yourself so that you could look at the photos, the artwork, and the credits and if you were lucky, the lyrics while listening to the album play. You went to concerts and bought T-shirts, posters, back patches and tour books and when you got home from the concert, you’d share it all with your friends the following day.

Back to the guitar…

I’m a Randy Rhoads guy. Yes, I appreciate what Jimi Hendrix did. But I prefer the sound, the tones and the classical influence of Randy’s playing. Randy was a metal/hard-rock/classical guitarist. Those iconic photos of him with his Les Paul and Jackson V are forever burned into my memory. That first time I heard Crazy Train by Ozzy off of the Blizzard of Ozz album, I was blown away. In that moment I knew I would never ever play that good, and I was okay with that. I didn’t have to. I knew right then and there, I wanted to either play in bands and with people who could play like that, or somehow be part of the scene. Maybe I would be a roadie, maybe a guitar tech, maybe a lighting guy. I didn’t care what I did, as long as I was part of it. Over the years I played in bands, worked as a lighting tech, help promote shows and gigs, created gig posters, designed album covers and T-shirts, and have done roadie more than I care to admit.

To this day I can’t play guitar to save my life. That is on me. I have owned some beautiful guitars over the years including a 1986 USA made Kramer, but I never put the time and effort in to really learn. There was always something else I wanted to do, and I liked singing, so I would work on vocals. I did however fill my life with guitar players. Starting with Rod Coulter who had been a childhood friend and it has continued to players like Benny Kemp who plays in a rising speed metal band Roadrash. They are my friends, they are people I call Brother and Sister, they are my Rock n’ Roll Family. They have been my mentors and others have been my protege. We’re a family and I am so grateful for that.

At fourty-eight years of age, I still love my music loud. I love my punk more than ever, and am still listening to my metal. I still air guitar along to the songs I love. If I know the words odds are I am going to be singing along. I still think of putting a band together form time to time and recording album, maybe one day I will. These days though, I am happy to be the Photographer. I love photographing musicians and their instruments. I am an editorial music photographer. I’m there to document the moment and in the process make the musicians look good. I am shooting first and foremost for the musicians. I am also an artist, so i want to have something that means something to myself as well as the musician in question.

At this stage in my life my photographs have been published in music magazines, used as album covers, album art work, promo posters and T-shirts. I’d like to think I have my own style, and I thank my mentors for taking the time to teach me how to do what I now do so well. Thank you Mike, Scott, Greg and Frank - my shots wouldn’t be what they are without your tutelage.

Guitars the photographic series, is my tribute to the instruments first created by Leo Fender and Les Paul all those years ago. It’s about the players and the instruments that define rock music. The photographs within the series is for the musicians who play the notes. It may just be “a piece of wood, with six metal strings” but in the hands of a musician who knows how to play, it is tool of magic. It’s my attempt as an artist to create a visual representation of the moment, the energy, the sound being played. To capture in colour and monochrome, the feel of it all, at that moment the music is playing. The use of noise and grain to match the distortion and saturation of the Marshall amps. It is my humble attempt as an artist to say Thank You.

You can look at the photographs without music playing, but it’s better if you have the song turned up.

Playlist: L.A. Guns - I’d Love to Change The World https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSog8WmD6uQ

Brownsville Station - Smoking’ In The Boys Room https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K59EMGgrUA

Kiss - Detroit Rock City https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZq3i94mSsQ

Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vy1V5LHXWbg

Ozzy Osbourne - Mr. Crowley (live 1981) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3LvhdFEOqs

April Wine - Don’t Push Me Around https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWiU8rkA_yU

Alvin Lee - Detroit Diesel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXedZ_EsI_4

Savage - Handful of Rain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7EeM2AK1gA

Toccata - Carpimus Noctem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOANxP5ZvuY

Megadeth - Tornado of Souls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lcm9qqo_qB0

Joe Satriani - Always With Me, Always With You https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI57QHL6ge0

Social Distortion - Prison Bound (live) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIWHlIhvt3Y

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