"...this is the only guitar the band owns"

If you read my blog, you already know how excited I was to see "It Might Get Loud." I won't repost everything I've already posted - but I wanted to talk about a few of the cooler points of the movie.

-The movie starts out with Jack White on a farm, pounding two nails into a 2x4. He then nails a single guitar pickup to the wood. Then he wraps a piece of steel wire around the nails, making it taut. He inserts a glass bottle on one side to act as a bridge and then plugs the rig into one of his Silvertone amps sitting on the porch. Then starts ripping out a slide guitar riff on his homemade 'guitar.' The whole thing took about 4mins. No words. Ends with Jack taking a drag off a cigarette, "...ya know? Who says you need to buy a guitar?"

-Watching Jack White, The Edge, and Jimmy Page all sitting in THEIR music rooms, listening to THEIR records, talking about what THEIR influences were. It was a surreal experience to watch Jimmy Page listening to music. The guy on the top of most "Greatest Living Guitarist" lists, the guitarist for Led Zeppelin - even HE plays air guitar when listening to his favorite guitarists. Turns out its not just me. Really brought home the fact that these guys are just normal dudes.

-There's actually clips of the lutheire making the 2nd of Jack White's custom "Triple Jet" Gretsches. Not the copper one I blogged about 2 posts below, but the one with the Green Bullet microphone on the body. That was pretty sweet.

-The drastically different approaches of each player. Page was a session guitarist playing other people's music before deciding to go a completely different direction and change the way electric guitar was played forever. The Edge is very into effects processing and getting the most out of dozens of pedals and amps in his chain, getting the most precise sound to match whats in his head. Jack White is a minimalist guitarist - cheap plastic guitars, 3 effects, and straight blues riffs backed by as much energy and raw power as he can muster.

-There was a funny quote from The Edge talking about their first serious recording session w/ Steve Lillywhite. After they'd recorded all the main parts, Steve wanted to overdub different guitar parts on top of Edge's original riffs with a different guitar (to make the tone fuller, a common trick). This was so early in U2's career, The Edge looks at Bono, looks at his brown Explorer and says, "...this is all I have. This is the only guitar the band owns."

-There's a clip of Jack White talking about the blues and while he's talking there is a clip of him playing "Blue Veins" with the Raconteurs. He's playing so hard that his hand is bleeding all over his guitar body. He sets the Gretsch down, the camera zooms in, and there's red smears all over the finish.