Stratoblather

"I've always come back to the Fender Stratocaster because there was already a lot of me in it. Fender gave me access to me, an instrument that I could put my personality into and it would stay there. The thing about [Strats] is that they're like blank canvases." -- Eric Clapton, in CURVES, CONTOURS AND BODY HORNS: THE HISTORY OF THE FENDER STRATOCASTER

It's difficult to ignore how thoroughly this British documentary [presumably a complement to the book of the same name] is dominated by footage of rock/blues/pop guitarists -- even archival footage of Frank Zappa -- playing nearly identical blues-rock cliches on their Strats. Clapton is one of many in the film who accurately praise the guitar for its versatility, which makes the blues-rockin' bungholiolioling all the more irritating.

The Strat is the instrument of choice for a wide range of guitarists, like Richard Thompson:



Eldon Shamblin:



Yngwie Malmsteen:



Dick Dale:



and Albert Lee:



Thompson aside, it's almost crazymaking to imagine any grouping of the above trying to find a song they all know, much less sharing a stage to jam with each other -- "Hey, Eldon, do you know any Deep Purple or Hendrix?" -- but to watch CURVES, CONTOURS AND BODY HORNS, you would think that the guitar only produced sound in pentatonic scales.