Johnny Volume profile picture

Johnny Volume

Light from light.

My Interests

I'd like to meet:

Skater of the month: Nahuel Kirchoff

Music:

First and foremost, Keith Richards, then Chuck Berry, the New York Dolls, Johnny Thunders, Dick Dale, Scotty Moore (Elvis' early guitar player), Velvet Underground, T-Rex Shangri-Las, Ramones, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Phil Specter, Hank Williams, Gary US Bonds, Johnnie Johnson, Elvis, Blondie, The Clash, Blind Willie, John Lee Hooker, The Damned, David Bowie, David Johansen, Flema (Argentina), Janis Joplin, Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Rolling Stones, John Lennon, Blondie Chaplin, Waddy Wachtel, Robert Johnson, Skip James, Woody Guuthrie, the Smiths, the Stooges, Eddie Cochran. Clip of the Week - Fats Domino - I'm Ready

Movies:

Urban Struggle: the Battle of the Cuckoo's Nest. And I enjoy Westerns and Rock n' Roll documentaries. Iron Man was cool.

Books:

Reading is for nerds. But I'm working on Lowry and Schopenhauer.

Heroes:

Keith Richards. This is what Keith had to say about Chuck Berry: "To me, Chuck Berry always was the epitome of rhythm & blues playing, rock & roll playing. It was beautiful, effortless, and his timing was perfection. He is rhythm man supreme. He plays that lovely double-string stuff, which I got down a long time ago but I'm still getting the hang of. Later I realized why he played that way -- because of the sheer physical size of the guy. I mean, he makes one of those big Gibsons look like a ukulele!Everybody has to adapt their own physical possibilities to the instrument. Some guys have tiny little hands that can zip all over the thing. If you don't, you find another way. So given the size of his hands, it's not surprising that Chuck figured out a style where you didn't have to just nimbly pick one string at a time. He got harmonies down so that every note has another note behind it, which gives it that really strong, broad sound. It's fascinating. He's playing half-chords all the time.I mean, those records Chuck made in the Fifties still basically stand out as your rock & roll guitar playing to the max. Especially when you add it to the songwriting and the singing and everything else. There's your package.As for me, I've never picked a guitar up without learning something. Sometimes you're learning things you don't want to know, like you're not as good as you thought you were. But even that's a lesson. To me, it's a friend when there's nothing else around. Everybody else is asleep or gone, or your old lady's left you. Well, you've always got her. I mean, the shape alone . . . I sleep with the thing sometimes."

My Blog

Nikko

Nikko was my best friend from about kindergarten to fifth grade, and we remained close throughout middle school and high school. There is something special about having a best friend. As Jean-Paul Ga...
Posted by Johnny Volume on Sat, 13 Oct 2007 05:44:00 PST