A Sign Your Guitar Solo Is Good
Jock Bartley of Firefall: We went down to Criteria Studios in Miami to make our first couple of records. The Bee Gees were down the hall. Stephen Stills was down the hall.
I knew on that first album that my song to really show what I could do as a lead guitar player was on “Mexico.”
So I'm warming up out in the studio. People are in and out of the control room.
The producer goes, “You ready?”
“Yeah, I'm ready.”
So I'm playing. It's going good. What's interesting is, the day before I cut the solo and the licks on “Mexico,” we had the mariachi horn section come in and play that part in the middle of my solo, which I'd never had to contend with before as the soloist.
I finished the song off. It ended up being a one-take performance.
The producer, Jim Mason, pushes the button and said, “That was fantastic. Come on in.”
I said, “You know, Jim. I had no idea where the horns were going to play. Let me see if I can just play that section again and see if I can beat it.”
He said, “No.”
I went, “No, really, Jim. I think I could play that section a little better.”
He pushed the button and said, “No! Come on in.”
“No?”
I take my guitar off. I walk in the control room to give him a piece of my mind.
And the first person I see is my guitar hero, Eric Clapton, who's been watching me play that one take solo.
He stood up, shook my hand, and said, “Keen playing, man.”
And he left. The only time I ever met Eric Clapton.
And the producer goes, “Now. What did you want to do over again?”
“Nothing.”