Cliffs of Dover - Full Cover by Peter C

Terrific cover and playing. really enjoyed it, and inspired by it!

All this talk of the equipment used, and the use of the LP in the video(!), led me to check out what EJ actually used for the recording.

According to Wikipedia*, he used a Strat for the intro and a ES-335 for most of the rest of the song, apart from the first part of the solo, which is the Strat again. The Strat part of the solo was done as he didn’t like the take he did with the 335. So the solo is actually two takes put together.

interesting anyway: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliffs_of_Dover_(composition)

(*I should add, full disclosure, that the relevant wikipedia section is lacking in citations…)

gonna look up some more of your stuff Peter C!

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Thank you StratRG-

This means a lot, but especially more after a long day of what I call musical shovelling.

Thanks to all for the feedback and kind words and it’s so nice to realize so many others appreciate great musicianship and playing (not me- EJ).

I last saw EJ up close (excuse the pun) in 2012 in NYC and that night- to say the least, is etched in pure memory. He along with the fantastic Andy McKee were the biggest men in the house. I don’t think I have more reverence for anything or anyone beyond Johnson- except perhaps his music.

Which brings me to the song…

I’ve always heard my favorite musicians say that in a way, they’re playing cover music as well; they’re just in the right place and time (in a figurative spiritual sense) to really open their ears to the melodies “in the air.” EJ has always remarked this about CoD, even though he took ages recording it and perfecting the live rendition of it. The basic skeleton was accomplished very quickly considering the dexterity of the song- even more impressive since he claims he wasn’t quite at a proficient level to pull it off technically. A real sign of genius if you ask me. Almost like quantum physics intuition- you can’t really teach that.

After playing through this song, I less pride in having played it and more jealousy and reverence that anyone was able to compose this, put this on record, at a time when he claims he wasn’t really capable of doing.

Now you asking for soures on your wikipedia link makes me think you won’t believe any of my words but that’s okay- it’s so refreshing to see a critical eye regarding sources and citation.

Rest assured though, that tidbit is entirely true and has been corroborated by EJ himself many times.

The irony is that I almost did everything backwards to how he did it. He took many takes I am told. For me it was two quick takes: one with the LP and one with the strat on the wall. I used logic to piece in the better parts. I was afraid the tonal discrepancy might be too large, but I guess I can make anything sound like a pig if I wanted to eh?

Specifically, the intro was the gibson whereas on the original it would have been a strat. All other parts (verse, chorus) were a strat (save for the solo and outro which was the gibson again). Again this is a polar opposite of EJ in which he used the 335 for the majority excluding the big solo which was a strat punched in.

The rest of the chain is a marshall 2061 on ten with an fet driver since I don’t know where to track down a bk butler tube driver.

Anyways, I guess that was overly long winded as I’ve been all over the place today. Ah Viacom is a masterpiece of course, but perhaps (in unpopular fashion) Venus Isle is perfection for me. If anyone came to me and said, “I want to hear some EJ,” that’s the first album I’m lending them.

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No, not at all! I’m not questioning your sources or anything you say. I just mentioned the wikipedia citation issue as I wasn’t sure whether to quote it as a fact. thanks for clearing it up though. it’s a good story.

Regarding his albums, I also feel Venus Isle is better, although it’s a hard choice when you look at the songs on Musicom! There are a lot more flashy songs on there but I think the musicianship is better on Venus Isle.

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Haha no- I didn’t mean it like that :slight_smile: My comment was a little more self-effacing because I’m too guilty of taking uncited wiki articles as gospel.

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That lick at 1.40 nearly blew my head off

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Good for you, dude! That was great!! :grinning: :+1: :+1: