Yesterday, I mistakenly set out to write a post about Paul Robeson’s birthday, which isn’t for eight months. I had the good sense (if I do say so myself) of posting the clip I had selected before I discovered my mistake. Today, though, I got it right. I found out (through a posting at DailyKos) that it is the 103rd birthday of Clarence Leonidas “Leo” Fender, the inventor of the Telecaster and the Stratocaster. He, along with Les Paul, essentially made rock-and-roll possible.
Here is a terrific and suitably adoring profile of the Telecaster. There is a lot of great guitar squeezed into the clip, which seems to be part of a longer video. This clip features Albert Lee, Steve Cropper, James Burton, Keith Richards, Sue Foley, Redd Volkaert, Jerry Donahue, Chantel McGregor, John 5 (who I guess is a better guitarist than John 4 but not quite as good as John 6), Deborah Coleman, Wilko Johnson, Jeff Beck, GE Smith and Greg Koch. The video has the URL www.stratmasters.com superimposed on top, but the domain is vacant.
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