guitar gods

MOTIVATION AND INSPIRATION: EDDIE COCHRAN 1938-1960 “SUMMERTIME BLUES” 1959

Those of you who know me will also know how big of a fan i am of the late, and truly great, Eddie Cochran.

There are many reasons why i am such a huge fan and, to outline them, here are some well known and, perhaps, some not all that well known facts about this great man:

  • Eddie Cochran began working as a professional session musician at the tender age of 16 drawing the admiration of many of his peers, the large majority of his recorded work is as an unnamed session guitarist.
  • After a very successful stint as a session guitarist Eddie performed as one half of the duo “The Cochran Brothers” with Hank Cochran. For many years people believed the two to be brothers….they were not!
  • Eddie was one of, if not THE, first guitarists to use a plain third string instead of a wound string by moving his treble strings up and replacing his top E with a banjo string. Since this time it has become common practice to fit plain third strings to almost all electric guitars.
  • Cochran wrote, arranged and produced almost every song he recorded as a solo artist, this was almost unheard of at the time. Being  such an able songwriter, technician and performer meant he could only trust his skill and his alone.
  • He only ever used the one electric guitar throughout his whole solo career, his beloved 1955 Gretsch G6120 Nashville which he later modified by adding a Gibson P90 pickup in place of the factory DeArmond neck pickup.
  • It is said that the only performer that Elvis Presley was fearful of was Eddie Cochran, many Cochran fans even believed the king to have been complicit in his demise….i think we can safely say this was not the case!
  • Eddie Cochran died tragically and way before his time at the shocking age of 21 in a high speed car crash during a tour of England in 1960 with Gene Vincent. Gene was also in the car but survived. It is widely believed that Gene never recovered from the incident physically or emotionally. Imagine what Eddie would have achieved if he had been given longer on this earth.

The world lost a great, great man on 17th of April 1960….RIP Eddie!