BRIAN "B.J." JONES:
Yeah, I got somethin' about Albert Collins. Well, it's more or less about his road tech that he had...Albert had this, like---you know, now they have the wireless shit that you go out, and all this stuff. There's a certain amount of signal that really gets lost from the amp to the guitar. So, you know---Albert had a cord...and this cord, it was like two miles long. And at the end of the night, when his roadie would be sittin' there rollin' it up, you could just imagine 'im sittin' there just cussin' him out---"Two hundred foot cord. Wh' the hell does he have to go so far anyway?" Just steadily rollin' up this cord. And this was every night. Y'know?
...I was on tour with Joanna Connor...sorta coinciding on the same tour, all the way up to, like, Telluride...He drove a bus. And I think they had to park that bus at the bottom o' the mountain and flew up or somethin', man, 'cause this mountain was , like, treacherous, boy. And th' locals were flyin' around this thing like---like it was straight 'head highway, y'know? And I'm, like, creepin', and Joanna's all on my shoulder and whatnot, and I was scared shitless, tryin' t'go to Telluride or wherever it was...
Debbie Davies was workin' with him at the time, and Joanna and Debbie would be playing and Albert'd just...go sit down and let them do their thing, and they would just go at it. It was nothing malicious. It was just good healthy competition and...both of 'em were just awesome...I woulda stood 'em up to any man, y'know? And Albert's band was there and our band was there and sometime we would all mix and just jam...but when Albert come up, man, I don't care who was up there...he would play one note, just one note, one note---one note---and just hold it. And the thing about it was, he put---I don't know if he put it in there or if he made it come out---but that one note had so much feeling in it. ..I'm not embellishing, it's just the way I perceived it...y'know, just hold that note. And the note was like crying. Y'know, and then he had like a sharp thing---tone---that would just, it would cut you...when it come through. But it wasn't piercing. It just...overwhelmed you.
I think he used a...was it a Fender? I'm not sure what kind o' amp it was...They played us this tape that Albert had did while he was recording---and what you hear on the CD is finished product. But they put a microphone inside his room. They were recording him being recorded on the thing. And guttural grunting and things that were exuding from his voice---I don't know where that tape is or who's got it anymore but---it was almost like something had taken over him. And the things that...he was doing to get certain sounds or to emulate certain feels that he was playing...it was weird! But it was awesome all at the same time. The feeling that he was puttin' into it---Ooom! Hrrruuh! Errh. Aawwghh! Y'know? And that's intense, man---that is intense. You are in your music...
Nobody but the people that were recording at that time heard that---in the group that I was with, and their names' not important, but we were all, like, just listening, you know? 'Cause y'didn't know what to say.
...I didn't really hear any stories about Albert Collins's bus other than it was big, and he drove it most o' th' time. And all the fellas were in there. (5/01 AE)
Yeah, I got somethin' about Albert Collins. Well, it's more or less about his road tech that he had...Albert had this, like---you know, now they have the wireless shit that you go out, and all this stuff. There's a certain amount of signal that really gets lost from the amp to the guitar. So, you know---Albert had a cord...and this cord, it was like two miles long. And at the end of the night, when his roadie would be sittin' there rollin' it up, you could just imagine 'im sittin' there just cussin' him out---"Two hundred foot cord. Wh' the hell does he have to go so far anyway?" Just steadily rollin' up this cord. And this was every night. Y'know?
...I was on tour with Joanna Connor...sorta coinciding on the same tour, all the way up to, like, Telluride...He drove a bus. And I think they had to park that bus at the bottom o' the mountain and flew up or somethin', man, 'cause this mountain was , like, treacherous, boy. And th' locals were flyin' around this thing like---like it was straight 'head highway, y'know? And I'm, like, creepin', and Joanna's all on my shoulder and whatnot, and I was scared shitless, tryin' t'go to Telluride or wherever it was...
Debbie Davies was workin' with him at the time, and Joanna and Debbie would be playing and Albert'd just...go sit down and let them do their thing, and they would just go at it. It was nothing malicious. It was just good healthy competition and...both of 'em were just awesome...I woulda stood 'em up to any man, y'know? And Albert's band was there and our band was there and sometime we would all mix and just jam...but when Albert come up, man, I don't care who was up there...he would play one note, just one note, one note---one note---and just hold it. And the thing about it was, he put---I don't know if he put it in there or if he made it come out---but that one note had so much feeling in it. ..I'm not embellishing, it's just the way I perceived it...y'know, just hold that note. And the note was like crying. Y'know, and then he had like a sharp thing---tone---that would just, it would cut you...when it come through. But it wasn't piercing. It just...overwhelmed you.
I think he used a...was it a Fender? I'm not sure what kind o' amp it was...They played us this tape that Albert had did while he was recording---and what you hear on the CD is finished product. But they put a microphone inside his room. They were recording him being recorded on the thing. And guttural grunting and things that were exuding from his voice---I don't know where that tape is or who's got it anymore but---it was almost like something had taken over him. And the things that...he was doing to get certain sounds or to emulate certain feels that he was playing...it was weird! But it was awesome all at the same time. The feeling that he was puttin' into it---Ooom! Hrrruuh! Errh. Aawwghh! Y'know? And that's intense, man---that is intense. You are in your music...
Nobody but the people that were recording at that time heard that---in the group that I was with, and their names' not important, but we were all, like, just listening, you know? 'Cause y'didn't know what to say.
...I didn't really hear any stories about Albert Collins's bus other than it was big, and he drove it most o' th' time. And all the fellas were in there. (5/01 AE)