I've asked this at many a message board, with mixed results. I believe Roy is the greatest guitarist that ever lived. He could play rock, blues, country, & soul equally as well. He could make you feel happy or sad with a guitar solo, or turn old songs like Don Gibson's "Sweet Dreams" or Doris Day's "Secret Love" into brand new songs. Those fuzz-tone & pedal effects you started hearing in the '70's? Roy was doing 'em in small clubs & bars way back in the 50's, & without the aid of pedals.

Sadly, many of his studio albums don't reveal his greatness---too many record company types that wanted to turn Roy into something that we wasn't, combined with Roy's unwillingness to assert himself. You had to see Roy live, which I was lucky enough to do 3 times, including once a couple of months before his death.

Last year, a better recorded legacy started to emerge, with the release of American Axe: Live in 1974 & the reissue of 1978's Live in Japan, previously available only in Japan. These show Roy at his very best, with the line-up that came to be known as The Roy Buchanan Band, for my money one of the top 5 bands in the history of rock (that is, Roy: guitar, Malcolm Lukens: organ, John Harrison: bass, & Byrd Foster: drums).

These were probably made possible with the earlier release of the bio Roy Buchanan, American Axe by Phil Carson, quite simply the best rock-n-roll book I ever read in my life. Even if you're not a fan or don't know who Roy is, you'll be fascinated by the stories of the wild life on the road & the portrayal of this complex, likable man with a burning desire to make music combined with a fear of both success & failure.

Anyways...that's kinda long-winded. To repeat the question, any Roy fans out there?

Lord, yes. I was lucky enough to live in Washington DC during the Roy Buchanan era. He refused to play much farther away from Bailey's Crossroads than that.

Ever lucky enough to hear his "Malaguena"? If not, you've got a major treat to look forward to if you ever find it.

Hey, Muffy, when Star sees that somebody has posted to this, she'll say, "Oh, no! There's 2 of 'em!!"

Never heard Roy do "Malaguena" live, but I read in the book that it drove audiences to a frenzy. It is now the title track on a Roy CD I discovered, looks like sort of an "official bootleg," so I'm probably gonna get it some day thru Barnes & Nobel.

I knew Roy lived in VA & did most of his shows in DC, but for about a 5-year period in the '70's, Roy was playing here a couple times a year. Byrd Foster & John Harrison were from Pittsburgh, & as I found out in the following amusing story, Roy's management was here during that period as well.

As I mentioned here elsewhere, I saw Dylan for the 1st time in the summer of '80 when I was 22. Back then, I had a summer job as a walking messenger, making pick-ups & deliveries to commercial artists.

The Mon. after I saw Dylan, I was working & walked into the offices of Jay Reich Advertising to make a pick-up & was telling the receptionist about the concert while I waited. A guy comes walking out of his office briskly, introduces himself as Jay Reich, Jr., the boss's son, & asks what I thought about the Dylan show.

I thought, this guy looks old---why he's almost 30! I talked to him about the show, & on the elevator going down I realized that altho' I meant nothing malicious, I idin't let him say much & may have "talked down" to the old guy a bit.

Got home from work that very night & decided to listen to some Roy while I changed clothes. There, on the back of the album cover, read the following words:

"ROY BUCHANAN IS MANAGED BY JAY REICH, JR."

ROFL <img src="http://www.arlo.net/ubb/smilies/laugh.gif" width=15 height=15> It was a good lesson to learn, that one -- and the younger one figures it out, the better. (I can, of course, still remember when 27 was impossibly old, out of touch, and over-the-hill -- and also remember Mick Jagger's assertion that he'd retire by that age, as once nothing seemed sadder to him than a 30 year old still trying to hang on to being a performer/musician.)

Roy's <u>Malaguena</u> bears no resemblance whatsoever to the Spanish folk tune BTW, but it's totally awesome.

I don't claim any special knowledge about R.B. or his travels. (The chances of me knowing anything about the private lives of public people are close to nil -- unless it's unavoidable in the news, or unless a particular individual is a part of my own personal private life.) During a specific, if fairly short time frame, some former roomates of mine would travel down to Bailey's Crossroads almost every weekend,just to hear R.B. play. They claimed they urged him to travel farther afield, but that he wasn't interested in doing so at the time -- hence my earlier assertion. Apparently he changed his mind ... as people are wont to do.

Always glad to hear about another Roy fan. IMHO, He was another great, shining talent whose life was destroyed by this mess our society and its prevailing values are in these days. Thank goodness that at least some of his music is being preserved for future generations. (It makes me shudder to think of all those lives and works destined to be lost forever -- swallowed up by indifference, envy, arrogance and/or ignorance.)