“In fact
it was through knowing Linda Ronstadt that I met musicians like
Ricky Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and in fact Kris said to me in
his early days in LA ‘ if everything goes good I’ll pay you a
lot more. Sure enough when he exploded a few years later he hired
me back and I did make a lot more. Everybody I worked with then
have remained good friends. We’ve all had a chance to play on
sessions with our childhood idols. I’ve been very lucky What a
cool job.”
Today in
times of the debate of what is country and what isn’t rages, the
Burritos won a Billboard Award for the Best Crossover Band from
pop to Country. John laughs loudly when recalling this.
“I didn’t
ever think we were pop” he laughs “but hey I’ll take any award
I can get , it’s still hanging at the door of my studio”. In those
days relations between LA and Nashville were a bit strained; even
in the 60s when Merle Haggard and Buck Owens recorded in LA the
old Nashville crew didn’t like it. A lot of country music stations
wouldn’t play any songs that weren’t recorded in Nashville. And
they didn’t like bands like the Burritos, the Eagles, Poco, and
so on. It wasn’t until recent years that the importance of these
bands was recognised.”
With so
many people espousing an opinion on what ís country, John has
firm thoughts on country’s origins.
“Blues music
is what influenced Hank Williams Snr. He was learning guitar and
singing from an old blues musician he knew. That’s how country
music evolved, a combination of blues, Irish music and bluegrass.
I was heavily influenced by blues. I grew up on the south side
of Chicago down Harlem Avenue playing clubs when I was a teenager.
A lot of country players would tell you that they could trace
their early influences to blues. You know the stock blues and
country riff are two different things though, but when they merge
you get a wonderful approach to playing guitar. Take Roy Buchanan,
Albert Lee they melt the styles together. My heroes were guys
like Lonnie Mack, James Burton on the old Ricky Nelson records,
Clarence White from the Byrds. And I love Eric Clapton’s playing.
John Beland
is well known for playing the legendary B Bender originally built
by Gene Parsons from an idea from The Byrd’s guitarist Clarence
White. “Gene Parsons was the drummer from The Byrds, but he was
also a machinist. Recounts Beland. “Clarence wanted to be able
to bend the B string, so Gene came up with this double bodied
Fender telecaster made up from bicycle parts and they devised
a way that you could pull down on your strap and bend the B String
up a full tone. There were four of us in LA who had one, Clarence,
Bob Worford, Bernie Leadon and myself. We were able to get a lot
of session work as a result and I’ve used it ever since.”
“I’d had
the B-Bender most of my music life. I’d borrowed it from Larry
Murray who owned the Troubadour and then one year he and his wife
gave it to me for a Christmas gift in the early 70s. I’d had one
of my 50s Telecasters stolen and they must have felt sorry for
me. Anyway I used it for years on all my sessions. Then in 1990
I made one of those decisions you know you’re gonna regret. I
was in Nashville, the Burritos had broken up, I was going on the
road with the Bellamy Brothers which I didn’t really relish and
I was pretty down on the whole Nashville scene, so I sold it through
a broker. I didn’t know who’d bought it, but I got great money
for it and was able to buy a number of vintage Fenders - they
were OK, but they were never the same. So last year when I knew
we were coming to Australia I made the decision to get it back.
I put an ad in a vintage guitar magazine and one day I got a fax
out of the blue from an attorney who said his client, a Pittsburgh
guitar dealer, had it on display in his shop. He was a Burritos
fan and offered to sell it back to me for what he had paid me
for it. Amazing! I’d never sell it again, I feel so lucky to have
got it back. The Australian tour is the first tour I’ve used it
on since I got it back”.
The conversation
about times past begged a question of the present, such as his
opinion on the newer instruments as compared to the old...
“I think
the wood is horrible, but the pick ups in the newer guitars totally
blow away the guitars of the 50s and 60s. The old Teles were notorious
for buzzing in rooms with a few fluorescent lights, but you can
get great pick ups these days. In fact I’m about to put a set
of Fender noiseless pick ups on my B-Bender. But the sound of
the Telecaster to me isn’t so much the pick ups but the sound
of the strings slapping the maple neck. I didn’t ever get that
playing anything new. And acoustics ...I use a 12 string primarily,
on hooks.
The first
thing John credits new technology with is the fact that it got
him his guitar back. But he feels the accessibility for musicians
to so much information as well as the interchange of information
between musicians is a great bonus.
“When I started
in 1962 as a guitar player our only access was to vinyl records,
you know there were no radio outlets for people like Lonnie Mack
or BB King, you really had to search for their stuff. Now everything’s
at your fingertips. Whether it’s the Internet or your equipment,
like the new FX stuff, it’s amazing what’s at your fingertips.”
John uses
an inexpensive Korg Toneworks FX unit on stage that he tapes to
the top of the amp.
“It saves
the back! It’s a good unit for getting great sounds. In the studio
you’ve got to use it with good quality compression, but it’s a
great little unit. On stage I use a Marshall. I’m totally wigged
out on them at the moment. I think Marshall is a great compliment
to the Telecaster. I used the combo amps, liked Clapton used on
the Bluesbreakers. Man it’s great. It’s a light little amp and
I crank it . It’s got a great sound gig after gig. I highly recommend
Marshall amps to Tele players. I went away from Twins because
I like meat on my sound, Marshall has given me that.”
On their
recent Australian tour the Burrito’s used the Marshall 4102 guitar
amp, the B150 bass amp and LR150 keyboard amp. The legend that
is the Flying Burrito Brothers continues with a new album ‘Honky
Tonkin’, which demonstrates a collection of music legends still
making great music, highlighting the importance of our music heritage
and the fact that it behoves musicians to ignore it at their own
musical development’s peril.
