Bow guitar History: Eddie Phillips guitarist of the Creation
1960s mod rocker Who wielded a bow to his Gibson 335 pre-Jimmy Page
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Here is some fun bowed (electric) guitar history:
The bane of my existence: “Didn’t Jimmy page do that?“ (bow guitar). True, in my case it was not that simple! That was not my influence. My motivations for bowing guitar Spring from other places and a vision that would not leave me alone (for decades. Today however, I want to share with you (and remember) Eddie Phillips from the creation. The public may remember Jimmy Page bowing his Handpainted telecaster in the late 60s with The Yardbirds, and later, Led Zeppelin. However there was another guy on that scene passing through the same studios and grabbing a bow which a violinist may have left behind from a previous session. That would be Eddie Phillips.
I had the pleasure of interacting with Eddie back in the mid-2000s. He called me up one day from England and was appreciative that I acknowledged him (my website of the day) as perhaps pre-dating Jimmy page in taking a violin bow to an electric guitar. I cited Eddie, Jimmy page, Jonsi (Sigur Ros) and my dear friend Julio Revueltas from Mexico City as being known Electric guitar bowers; in these cases Bowing Instruments that were not designed for it. These days electric guitar bowing seems to be cliche hipster stuff and I even saw a young guy doing it in a Church worship band the other day.
Eddie Phillips Was a super sweet in humble guy. (I found out he passed away a couple of years ago) We talked for quite some time that day! It turns out that he was also approached to join the Who. (imagine that scenario!). He declined as the Creation was getting some traction with songs like “Painter man“ and “Making time“. Both of those numbers featured violin bow to a red ES 335 Gibson. In those days I thought it would be neat to build a nice red TogaMan and give it a go! Even back then, I was over committed to backlog with my fledgling instrument making firm; in those days part time. We stayed in touch and Eddie was kind enough to send me a copy of A creation CD (which he lovingly went and made a graphic insert copy to resemble and out of print commercial cover art.
Fond memories of interacting with Eddie and a couple of his contemporaries of the day! Back in the 1960s, The Queen Mary (ship) played an important (albeit lesser-known) role in facilitating the British rock invasion! In those days, African-American blues men from chess records Fame we’re often ship entertainment and would go into town and sit in at the clubs. This directly exposed many British musicians to blues which they became very obsessed with! The Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds/Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton and others come to mind! So how did not been for the Queen Mary, The story May have been different! The British obsession with Chess records created a fertile environment for the likes of Jimi Hendrix to invade! I’m not sure I have ALL the details right but it went something like that!
Your fun story for the day!
Stay Creative. Stay inspired!
Jonathan
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