(Sorry, I meant to post this one last week!)
Jim Marshall, of Marshall amplifiers, died last week. He was 88. He’s the guy responsible for the walls of speaker cabinets that say “Marshall” on them behind every heavy metal band you’ve ever seen (like, for example, Iron Maiden), and the sound behind a lot of the better punk bands too. (Kanye West said he was “the voice of a generation”, but Jim Marshall actually was: for without him, there would be no punk rock or metal. Seriously! It might exist, but it wouldn’t sound the same at all!) I used to play punk and metal, and I’ve owned a lot of different guitar amps (some of them expensive boutique amplifiers), and I honestly think the best-sounding guitar amplifier by miles is a Marshall, especially the JCM 800 Series. I’ve wanted to say something about him since I heard of his passing, but I wasn’t sure exactly what to say. (Although some might be thinking “Turn down that racket!” would be most appropriate.) But after thinking about it, I thought Marshall amps people would understand the headline: “JCM 88”.
For most of my childhood, I liked music very much, but it never seriously excited me in a religious ecstasy kind of way until I first heard Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” on the radio in the 1970s: It was like a bolt from the blue! That got me wanting more distorted guitar sound. Then it was followed up by punk rock and then thrash metal, the best of which used Marshalls too. (Back then, the radio was mostly just crappy music. You know, kind of like now.) By then most people were using the JCM 800 Series amps, and they had an even more ferocious tone, but not quite as white-noisy as the later overdrive amps that followed in the 1990s from other companies.
But so much for me; I will allow Mr. Marshall to speak for himself about his own life’s work (That is, I will let his life’s work speak for him!):
Here’s the wikipedia page about this “businessman”, as they so disrespectfully refer to him (how about “electronics and sound wizard” who inspired so many classic musicians and whose amplifiers defined much of late 20th Century sound?):
And here’s the story about his life and death:
BTW: CBS Sunday Morning kept referring to him as “The Father of Loud” (The above article does, too.), but I always thought of him as the father of great tone! Plenty of amplifiers can play as loud as a Marshall nowadays, and some even louder, but for distorted guitar tone, for my money, there’s still no better-sounding amplifier than a Marshall! And I probably shouldn’t say it, but if Rock n’ Roll is “The Devil’s Music”, then Jim Marshall was probably his sound engineer. I only hope Jim doesn’t get too bored with all the choirs and Gregorian chants in heaven! (They could use some punk and metal up there! And maybe they’ll get some now! I just hope it doesn’t end up looking like those rock god-wannabe “White Gold” ads for milk from 2010, which are hilariously stupid! Remember these?):
The guys who got this campaign sold to the milkmen must have kidnapped their families first or something! How else would anyone have approved this stuff? It’s hilarious, and I thank them for approving this, but did it help sell milk? I doubt it! It was wonderfully silly though, and stoned people everywhere must have thought they had died and gone to munchy heaven. Or is that a pizza ad? In fact, I guess I really ought to write up this campaign as its own post. (BTW: I did, and it's here, if you care.):
http://unconditionedresponse.blogspot.com/2012/04/milk-white-gold-ads.html
http://unconditionedresponse.blogspot.com/2012/04/milk-white-gold-ads.html
