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I’m a big fan of Rick Beato’s YouTube videos where he interviews musicians in detail about their set-up, history and technique and how they achieved tracks we all love. He talks to people like Peter Frampton, Warren Haynes, Nuno Bettencourt, Yngwie, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Dave Gilmour, Paul Gilbert, Derek Trucks and Michael McDonald. It’s really fascinating for a rock nerd like myself who is about the same age as Rick, and grew up on the same stuff.
It strikes me, watching it, that it’s incredibly niche. Normal people possibly aren't interested in how the backing vocals were recorded on Aja and yet the videos get millions of views. Nor hearing Michael McDonald saying how in the 70s, bands and labels wanted to show off the breadth of their influences but by the 80s were telling bands to record only one style of music. Perhaps it reflects a hidden passion, not picked up by regular television. Rock has long not been taken seriously as a cultural force in Britain and certainly not almost academically. I suspect that is the case in America too, though to a lesser extent, perhaps. The musicians, with a few exceptions, have never been given detailed and analytic analysis.
You’d think by now, as the classic rock generation reaches old age it might be, but no. Yet I’d love to know the minutiae of, say, how a live gig was recorded in 1973. How you’d set up a back line in 1968. These are the details that collectively made our lives.
I could listen to how an album was recorded all day. Hearing Michael McDonald talk about how the Doobies had broken up when Minute By Minute went #1 in singles and album charts, is an amazing rock and roll story, as is the origin of Peter Frampton’s black Les Paul.
There are so many musicians from the glory days with a thousand stories to tell, it’s inexhaustible for Rick Beato. It’s so nice to see the music you have been passionate about for all your life, given due respect and analysis.
If you’ve not seen his videos and you love peering under the hood of rock n roll’s tour bus, you’ll absolutely love them. They combine real insight and knowledge with a love of the music.
