It was 1999 a horrible year for music. The charts were dominated by boy bands and girl groups. The rock charts were filled with nu-metal and creed. Then Rowland S. Howard came and dropped this bomb of true rock n roll. Raw, gritty, emotional, brutal, sexy, and dark. It was my saving grace.
I was riding on a bus the day he died and I cried my eyes out, hiding my face as much as possible to not draw attention. Such an amazing human. Thank you for this video.
This was FANTASTIC. Thank you for uploading. As a guitar player and Guitar Maker (PureSalem Guitars) I have been a huge Roland fan since first hearing him in The Birthday Party. He has his own style and sound ... he is an original. Anyone complaining about his guitar tone or technique is either a musically uneducated child or a narrow minded player who worships at the house of John Mayer. Closed minded classic rock blues purists. His use of just two pedals the MXR blue Box and Distortion + never fail to amaze me. REUSS EFFECTS released a signature Roland S. Howard pedal and it’s fantastic. Long May his music play !!!! -Rick Sell / PureSalem Guitars
I´m fairly certain that " ´Musical proficiency` per se " comes right at the bottom of Rowland´s priorities when he is coming up with these songs . Same with Keith Levene , same with John McGeoch for that matter .
Given your expertise, what can you tell us about how Rowland got his sound. I mean, he doesn’t use a slide and yet on some sounds there’s a keening sound like a slide, and he doesn’t seem to be pedal crazy but he gets this remarkable range of sounds.
@@written12 Without researching it, I'd say this particular guitar sound simply comes from the combination of 1. his Jaguar guitar and whatever single coils he's running 2. whatever "distortion" or overdrive he's using (a RAT maybe?) 3. his amp, which I believe was a Fender. Anyone else care to chip in/shed more light? I love Howard and regret that I never saw him live in any capacity. I love his sound, lyrics, songwriting, the whole damn thing.
Yes, and let’s not forget Del Shannon wrote this song. Even the original, lyrically and musically, has this mournful quality. I mean, the lyric has the man recounting his leaving this woman with a sense of of the mystery and power of love and how one person can hurt another, even when it’s unintentional. Rowland was drawn to songs like this, wrote them himself of course. He loved Lee Hazelwood. No surprise there.
Roland Solo Howard does these fabulous breaks and tempo changes,,,,,he constructs everything around his guitar....no theatrics, no stage persona..just his brilliant guitar playing-masterclass.... and he's so unassuming and polite!!
Thanx Stanislav...there is not a piece of visual material that I have watched as many times as this live performance.....great listening to Roland, but even greater seeing him in action....but cheers to Mick Harvey, Brian Hooper and Harry Howard.....GREATEST PERFORMANCE I'VE EVER SEEN....and I have been to live concerts(i.e. Muse....brilliant band)
Just saw a film called the beach the guy in it said he bought a jacket a cowboy style embroidered jacket in Melbourne he said he got back to his hotel room and thought what did i buy a dumb jacket like that for he thought ill never wear it he had a few drinks and thought he’d put the jacket on and went to a pub and some guy said thats the greatest jacket i ever seen he bought him a drink the guys name was rowland s Howard
I upoladed it back in 2013 and since then the video has gathered almost 50k views but in 2018 it was taken down with a strike on my channel. Now it is back for good I hope. Thanks for watching
Thank you again Stanislav....it is with great sorrow that I'm quitting my all-time favorite musician......not because he offended me...or at least his music, what with him not really being here anymore.......it's personal...became a bit of an addiction.....Yes I get addicted to my kind of music....thank you for providing me with so much fun!!!!!
Great comment, thanks for pointing that out. I haven’t listened to a lot of out-and-out new guitar based music for the past 15 years all the post punk rehashes bore me. They may appeal to some fair enough but seem so safe to me. Appearing to be artsy in execution but don’t have the genuine bite, hunger or danger to them whatsoever.
Very good. Nice song. Eddie Van Halen said if it was not for drugs and alchohol he would never had produced the music that he did. Part of the population has to be sacrificed to save all the population. Brett Whitely, an artist said similar.
@@louisreeve6830 Well I dunno about that. I dunno what world you were living in but it was all over the radio in Melbourne in 99 and everyone I knew bought the cd and loved it. I didn't even know it came out on vinyl back then, I thought everyone had chucked out their record players.
In the same league as Wilko Johnson and Andy Gill from the Gang of 4. There own distinct style. Much better than these posers who try to impress by playing boring riffs.
"Indie " ? We live in a " cult - of - death " society , thus I suppose that applies to pretty much everybody, every label etc ... I would love to know ( as one example ) what´s King Buzz of the band Melvins " swagger" for them to be such an appreciated band ... Captain Beefheart , Miles Davis , Jaco Pastorius , Coil ... I do get what you mean , in a way , I guess , yeah ... look at the cult of death around people like Morrison , Syd Barrett or Ian Curtis - it´s revolting , in some cases it even clouds my judgement of those person´s gifts, talents, work ... but yeah , I basically do not feel it here ... it´s all a question of what you´re looking for in music too , obviously ... few people out there would see PIL´s Keith Levene as one of the greatest rock guitarists but to me ( much like Rowland here ) any one of them strums a chord and I instantly know who it is , and that very peculiar sound is what brings me satisfaction .
@@saraivatoledo1842 Im a guitarist/singer and until recently performed ( more than 1000 shows) in various bands. Im not one to inellectualize music but i can easily draw a line in the sand and as to what is talent and what is not. All Rowland had was his crutch of alcoholism and heroin. Post modernists of course will find some romance in all of this pretentious, film noir lifestyle but in reality it only leads to a painful and miserable life....and death.