RickLicks

Computer musician, James Phelps, commissioned the video for RickLicks. This proved to be one of the most challenging videos that I have ever edited. The music frequently transitions from the music of James Phelps, the music of John Lennon, and the sound of the Rickenbacker guitar. "No single influence has been greater in my musical life than the music of the BEATLES. More specifically, even at the ripe age of 9, when I first laid eyes on John Lennon playing his 325 Rickenbacker, I thought that just must be the perfect sound and the most perfect-looking guitar. Now in later years I know it wasn't just the guitar, the player or the 1960s production sound, but all of that, and perhaps more, rolled up into one musical package which I never "got over." Roughly forty years later I thought it must be time to pay homage, in some small way, to this influence which was largely responsible for my becoming a professional musician and, even, Music Professor." "After some discussion with a very good friend and award-winning artist, Bart Woodstrup, the project of such an homage began and culminated in RickLicks, for digital video, computer music and live guitar, the latter component being, of course, a reissue of Lennon's 1958 model 325 Rickenbacker electric guitar, humbly played by myself." "Now long completed and many times performed and recorded, the work resounds in glorification of this sonic energy which propelled me into music as a career and appears to offer, occasionally, an eerie quality. I never wanted to compose a requiem and this work is, in fact, not one. I suppose it's understandable, however, that such a loss as that of Lennon to the music world and to my own world would tint the piece with a distant, lost voice. The piece is, however, a celebration!" -Jim Phelps Jim Phelps is playing a Rickenbacker "Hamburg" 1958 reissue of John Lennon's favorite instrument in the late 50s and early 60s.

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YouTube | January 12, 2008

Tags:. .edited. .project. .artist. .quality. .eyes