Pete in French Guitar Exhibit

[L. Bird]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061012/music_nm/france_guitars_dc_1

French exhibition highlights guitar heroes By James Mackenzie
Thu Oct 12, 10:02 AM ET


PARIS, Oct 11 (Reuters Life!) - On display in a Paris exhibition tracing the 
development of the guitar, it is almost a surprise to see        Pete 
Townshend's Les Paul Deluxe intact and undamaged.

The fiery guitarist of British rock group The Who, the first to make an art 
of smashing his instrument on stage, is one of a host of famous names in the 
new exhibition which treats the guitar as a symbol as much as a musical 
instrument.

"For the 19th century Paris petit-bourgeoisie, working class heroes in 
English suburbs, the black population of Mississippi or the gypsies of 
Andalusia and for all teenagers since the 1950s, the guitar has been part of 
their desire for emancipation and dreams of freedom," the exhibition notes 
say.

Starting with footage of careening air guitarists, the show mixes film of 
famous performers from flamenco artist Paco de Lucia to        Eric Clapton 
with a display of instruments ranging from the tiny ukulele to the giant 
Mexican "guitarron."

Thunderous licks from Dick Dale, "the King of Surf Guitar" alternate with 
the jaunty rhythms of jazzman Django Reinhardt and Spanish classical guitar 
music over the speakers.

Most curiously, there is also an inflatable blue guitar designed in 1952 by 
the French inventors, the Baschet brothers, which, perhaps unsurprisingly, 
failed to take off as an idea.

Likely to interest the kind of person guitar shops once banned for sitting 
down to practice Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," the exhibition also 
contains an impressive number of guitars from some of rock's greatest 
Axemen.

Townshend, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Led Zeppelin's        Jimmy Page and   
      David Gilmour of Pink Floyd are all there, although the instruments on 
display contain few traces of the ordeals their owners put other guitars to.

In Hendrix's case, this occasionally included setting them on fire, but his 
guitar in Paris shows no scorch marks.

The exhibition does however contain a selection of clips that show great 
guitar moments from Townshend's famous "windmill" technique to Hendrix 
dissolving "The Star Spangled Banner" into a storm of electric noise.

It's not all rock, though.

Another room has a mellower selection of performances that include Blues 
legend John Lee Hooker, Brazilian samba star Baden Powell and classical 
master Andres Segovia.

The exhibition, at the Cite de la Musique in Paris, runs until Jan 14.

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