Claus Boesser-Ferrari • The Wind Cries Mary

 "This guy at the ‘Beat Club’ in 1967, initially threw me for a loop. A guy who tunes the guitar in the midst of a deafening fuzz distortion sound and produces sounds from it with his meter-long tongue was just a taxing side-effect. I was fascinated and unnerved by this performance and, as a novice in a guitar band, I had the distinct feeling that this was about much more than just music.

The important, existential things were being discussed in the subtext, the approach! This was not merely a concert, this was a performance that reached several artistic levels. It hit you right in the guts – life itself.

A thought already dawned on me back then: If something is to fascinate me long-term in artistic expressions, it must be something I can lock horns with. Any approach needs time and involves endless roaming.
Then, I took a Schaller pick-up microphone (24 deutschmarks) and pinned it to my robust Höfner traveling guitar and killed off two old tube radios in a single afternoon (for the price of four trips to the movies! An insultingly low price to pay).
It’s without any regrets that I gave up looking for the downbeat in ‘All Along the Watchtower’ (when the solo kicks in!). 
I partially stripped the songs down to their DNA and struggled in my own way (respectfully) to find my own range of colors.