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    Number One with an Axe! A Look at the Guitar’s Role in America’s #1 Hits, Volume 5, 1975-79
    Number One with an Axe! A Look at the Guitar’s Role in America’s #1 Hits, Volume 5, 1975-79
    Number One with an Axe! A Look at the Guitar’s Role in America’s #1 Hits, Volume 5, 1975-79
    Ebook71 pages47 minutes

    Number One with an Axe! A Look at the Guitar’s Role in America’s #1 Hits, Volume 5, 1975-79

    By Michael Rays

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    About this ebook

    Disco Time! Guitar nut Michael Rays puts on his boogie shoes and chronicles the guitar's role in all 131 U.S. Billboard #1 hits from 1975-79, starting with "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by Elton John and ending with "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" by Rupert Holmes. There are a lot of surprisingly strong guitar tracks in these five years!

    Once again, Rays scores each song from 1-10 based on four guitar-centric criteria: Riffage, Rhythm Playing, Fills and Solos. He also writes brief commentaries on each song, and provides links so you can read, listen and enjoy!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMichael Rays
    Release dateMar 15, 2019
    ISBN9780463637135
    Number One with an Axe! A Look at the Guitar’s Role in America’s #1 Hits, Volume 5, 1975-79
    Author

    Michael Rays

    Michael Rays grew up in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He graduated from Northwestern University and served nine years in the Navy, flying the SH-60B Seahawk helicopter. Michael lives in Billings, Montana with his wife and daughter.

    Read more from Michael Rays

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      Book preview

      Number One with an Axe! A Look at the Guitar’s Role in America’s #1 Hits, Volume 5, 1975-79 - Michael Rays

      Number One with an AXE!

      A Look at the Guitar’s Role in America’s #1 Hits

      Volume Five: 1975-79

      By Michael Rays

      Published by Michael Rays at Smashwords

      Copyright 2019 Michael Rays

      Also by Michael Rays, published at Smashwords:

      Number One with an AXE! The Fifties

      Number One with an AXE! Volume 2: 1960-64

      Number One with an AXE! Volume 3: 1965-69

      Number One with an AXE! Volume 4: 1970-74

      Number One with an AXE! Volume 6: 1980-84

      Number One with an AXE! Volume 7: 1985-89

      Guitar Odyssey: A Journal of Musical Growth

      Guitar Odyssey 2: Talkin’ Dirty

      Six-String Sleuth: A Guitar Player’s Guide to Figuring Out Song Chords

      Headers: Scores & Headlines from Brazil 2014

      Number One with an AXE! is a look at the role of the guitar in America’s #1 Billboard hits. Guitar gadfly Michael Rays listens to, comments on and scores each #1 hit in terms of four guitar-centric criteria: riffage, rhythm, fills and solos. The result is an exploratory history of the guitar at the pinnacle of American pop music.

      The Disco Era is upon us... forward we boogie!

      Table of Contents

      Riffs on Guitar Odyssey

      Ode to Guitar Players

      Methodology Used

      1975

      1976

      1977

      1978

      1979

      Facts & Statistics

      About the Author

      Riffs on Guitar Odyssey

      Back to Table of Contents

      …you quickly get into the spirit of the project and it becomes great fun to read.

      - darkerthanblue.wordpress.com (Deep Purple blog)

      Rays creates a chronicle of growth that will immerse and inspire fellow guitar players who have their own 'impossible' playing goals and aspirations…

      - D. Donovan, Senior eBook Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

      …a surprisingly entertaining read.

      - Last Best News

      …Michael Rays has crafted a literate, interesting, funny and, oddly, moving account of his six-string journey…

      - Missoula Independent

      You learn, as Rays did in real time, that the journey towards achieving something, even if it seems simple at first blush, can be trying, surprising, and fulfilling with ample happy accidents in between.

      - Guitarkadia.com

      Ode to Guitar Players by Michael Rays

      Back to Table of Contents

      What meaneth one who says ‘I play guitar’?

      A batch of basic chords strummed ‘round the fire

      An introverted teen who’d be a star

      woodshedding endless blues licks on a Squier?

      A young gal voicing jazz chords warm and pure

      An old man finger-picking on the porch

      A classicist, with tones that long endure

      or metal shredders carrying the torch?

      A drunken punker, fast and out of tune

      an aging rocker holding onto youth

      a bold flamenco player ‘neath the moon

      a studious composer seeking truth?

      Thus meaneth one who says ‘I play guitar’:

      ‘I’ve joined the journey infinitely far.’

      Methodology Used (aka Are my methods unsound?)

      Back to Table of Contents

      My methodology was pretty straightforward: I got a list of all the #1 songs on the Billboard pop charts and I listened to each one. Some songs entered the #1 spot, fell out and then re-entered; for those songs, I only list the date of the song’s first entry at #1.

      I scored each song, using a scale of 0-10, on the following four criteria: Riffage, Rhythm Playing, Fills and Solos. A score of zero indicates that the element didn’t exist (as far as I could tell). A score of 5 indicates an average effort, and a score of 10 indicates a supreme musical accomplishment. The ultimate guitar #1 song would score 10 in all four categories for a total of 40 points.

      Scores are based solely on my judgment and are therefore subjective. The mixing on some of the songs made it difficult or impossible for me to tell if there was any guitar on the track. When such doubts arose, I gave a score of 1 or 2 for rhythm playing—I

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