Steve Howe: The Soundtrack Of My Life
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Via high-profile spells with Yes (in four eras), supergroups Asia and GTR, Yes spin-off Anderson Bruford Wakeman & Howe, the Steve Howe Trio and also as a prolific solo artist, London-born guitarist, songwriter and producer Steve Howe has played a key role in the British music scene across six decades. Here are some of the things that make him tick.
Steve Howe’s latest solo album, Guitarscape, is out now via HoweSound.
The first music I remember hearing
When I was young my parents had many records. They had Les Paul & Mary Ford and quite a lot of dance band music. I’m going to take a shot in the dark that my first experience of music probably would have been something by [light-orchestra conductor] Mantovani.
The first song I performed live
Again, I can’t say this with certainty, but it’s likely to have been something by The Shadows. It was a band formed by a bunch of kids out of Barnsbury Boys School, kids like me, who thought they could play that repertoire. We went up and played Apache.
The greatest album of all time
One of the greatest albums I can think of today, is Teensville by Chet Atkins [1960]. It’s the single most influential guitar record I ever heard. The Shadows were pretty damned good, and they really stirred me up, but Chet was in another league. Teensville had such great sounds and texture and so many great songs, but it was his guitar playing that meant so much to me.
The songwriter
Bob Dylan. The Beatles were great writers too, but as an individual Bob came out with Blowin’ In The Wind [1962] and that impressed me greatly. I followed him all the way along to Street-Legal [1978]. There were a lot of rough edges, but that’s what he kinda liked with his songs, I guess. Bob had a much bigger repertoire than The Beatles, and both became incredibly influential, but I still find Dylan incredibly marvellous.
The guitar hero
I was sixteen years old when I saw Wes Montgomery play. He’s a wonderful guitarist to get to know. Wes played with his thumb, which was unusual. He also played octaves at speeds that were unheard of before, sometimes in a chordal method. That’s been a part of my own playing for many, many years. He was wonderful.
The singer
There have been so many singers that I liked during the last forty years, from Tony Bennett to Seal, and Jon Davison in Yes, but I think it has to be Elvis Presley, particularly his Sun Records years [1953 to ’55]. To a degree, compared to what came later some of those early songs were a little drab, but the way he came into the scene, the way that he sang and the things he did with his voice made Elvis remarkable.
The best record I’ve made
I’m going to say Close To The Edge [Yes’s fifth album, from 1972], I’m not even going to think about it. That is a hell of a record. When you hear that piece of guitar at the beginning of And You And I, I mean… this is a record with a lot of atmosphere. It also had a lot of attitude. We weren’t fiddling around and wondering what to do, we were going to nail this sucker. At that point we were a really lively band.
The worst record I’ve made
Can I have a few? [laughs]. Let me see if I can think of one. [Giggling] There are a few movements I played on Tormato [Yes, 1978] that I regret. It makes life difficult when I try to listen to that album, so I’ve only got myself to blame for that. But I did manage to get a few right along the way, didn’t I?
The most underrated band ever
The Big Three were a band from Liverpool. They had a song called Some Other Guy [1963], and whenever you heard it the guitar solo made everybody ask: “Who is that guy?” Well, he was named Brian Griffith. He lives in Australia now. I used to have some contact with him. Played a Hofner Colorama, which was not an instrument I’d like to wrestle with.
The best live album
Weather Report made several very intense and exciting live albums. They stood there playing and made you think: “This is unbelievable.” They were a band that really stirred things up.
The cult hero
My Saturday night party song
If I’m about to go out I’ve been known to stick on Rock Around The Clock by Bill Haley & The Comets. That always makes my Saturday night. It’s a song that’s really stood the test of time.
My guilty pleasure
Back in the 1970s, before it became hip to admit to the fact, it was ABBA. I used to love those ABBA singles. And when The Libertines came out I really liked that band. Their grunginess was great. I loved the way they really rocked, and also that they almost fell apart but didn’t quite do so.
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