BLACK GUITAR

Bix Beiderbecke 1924

'Black Guitar' is a song inspired by reading about the music of Bix Beiderbecke; an internet squabble about the nature of folkmusic, and the Eclipse range of Faith Guitars.

About two years ago I bought a couple of Faith Jupiter Eclipse guitars. They are beautiful, inspiring instruments with a vast orchestral tone, and a terrific set of electrics.

Faith Jupiter Eclipse Guitar

The series two model Faith Jupiter Eclipsehas benefitted from the input of guitar creator Patrick Eggle. Perhaps because of this - it has a real personality- not totally respectable - a real midnight man's axe.

The idea of a song called 'playing the blues on a black guitar' started off just as a resonant phrase, but as TS Eliot once remarked - sometimes the poetry arrives first and 'the meaning emerges at a deeper level'.

Thus it was with this song. Its about the isolation that true creativity imposes. The subject of Bix and my fascination with his life and music is too large for this page. I will write a separate page tracing my interest in him. But like a lot of musicians, who don't quite fit the stereotyped demands of the age they live in - he found himself in a manner of speaking fated to play the black guitar. Compelled and hypnotised by his vision of what the music could achieve.

Alan Whittle March 9th 2009

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Black Guitar

A star shoots cross the face of the midnight sky

An’ I was god for a moment, but I let it pass by

The feelings gone away, but it can’t run far

When I’m playing the blues on this black guitar

When I’m playing the blues on this black guitar

Sometimes the feelings‘ve gone, but they never run far

I tried to hold onto love, but now I’m alright

Just like singing the blues - on a Saturday night

I remember,remember the house I was born

How I grew further from heaven with every dawn

That heavenly feeling’s gone, but it can’t run far

From the blues that I play on my black guitar

An’ people say to me how I’m doing fine

You can handle that acoustic guitar, you can handle the wine

An’ when the feelings have gone – with you it never runs far

Just down to your fingers and that black guitar

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