Following the stunning performance of his previous visit to Guitar Salon International, Eric was recently back at their showroom in Santa Monica for another performance. This time mixing things up with his classical guitar arrangement of the surf rock classic ‘Pipeline’ by The Chantays.
This time Eric picked out a 1968 Manuel Reyes flamenco guitar for this interpretation of a modern classic. ‘Pipeline’ was a hit for the Californian outfit in 1963 and has been covered by many artists since including Pat Metheny, Dick Dale and Stevie Ray Vaughn and even thrash metal act Anthrax.
For Eric’s arrangement he keeps the driving urgency and haunting undertone while adding flamenco flourishes worthy of the instrument he chose to perform on.
Talking about this choice of song Eric explained his history with it, “Pipeline was one of the first songs I learned when I started playing the guitar. When I was in the third grade some high school kids took me on as lead guitar player in their band. Surf music, or Surf Guitar, was constantly being played on the A.M. radio stations. Surf songs as well as Beatles’ and Stones‘ songs were required learning if you played in a band.”
He continued, “As I got older and focused on Classical Spanish Guitar, the influence of Flamenco music with its use of the Phrygian mode was obvious in surf songs such as Pipeline, which was always one of my favorites To be able to play the theme and bass line in a polyphonic manner was a goal that was very demanding and technically challenging for me. The cadenza in my arrangement comes from an improvised solo I used to play when jamming with bands.”
Not familiar with the original ‘Pipeline’? Listen to The Chantays classic below.