The 2000 Pound Bee Pt.2
The 2000 Pound Bee Pt.1
There's a lot written about early electric guitar fuzz. Tunes from Link Wray, Marty Robins and Ann Margret all get a mention. But when it comes to the first use of a specifically designed fuzzbox in a truly fuzzy song, the conversation generally settles on today's fuzzified selections.
The Ventures, a pioneering surf rock group from the Pacific Northwest, inspired many others and are still, impressively, the highest selling instrumental band of all time. On hearing the fuzz in Marty Robin's Don't Worry, they asked an electronically minded friend, Red Rhodes, to create a device which would make their guitars sound as fuzzy. He did and the result was 2000 Pound Bee. It was actually Part 2 which, only slightly, bothered the Billboard chart in 1962, reaching #91. I'm not surprised, although they're equal in their fuzziness, Part 2 is the one for me. Twenty years after its release, Dan Aykroyd fulfilled a promise by playing a tape of 2000 Pound Bee at John Belushi's funeral.
Labels: fuzz, instrumental, surf