It was producer Mike Clink who provided the delay via the Roland SRV-2000 Digital Reverb. There was his “Appetite ‘Burst” 1959 Les Paul Standard replica built by Kris Derrig, complete with a Seymour Duncan Alnico II humbucker at the bridge going into a non master volume Marshall Super Lead modded by Frank Levi and a Marshall 4x12. Primitive rock animal that he is, Slash was using a simple rig. “Abandon all hope ye who enter here, now, have a glass of room temperature Night Train Express and try to enjoy yourself…” If Appetite was the acme of ‘80s rock hedonism – sleazy, nasty, dangerous – then the stabbed repeats here suggested the fracturing of morality and social decorum. It is the perfect intro to the perfect album. Hearing this for the first time was to rock ’n’ roll what seeing Robert Patrick turn into liquid metal was in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. This really is the delay as an effect, a pinch-hitting moment of audio-engineered voodoo to give the audience chills. Eric Johnson's Ah Via Musicom is available now via Capitol.Greatest delay moments? Oh, shoot and heck! Let’s start with something that really is just a moment, an intro that stopped the clock for thousands of young players as Slash pulled us into the hedonistic nihilism of Guns N’ Roses’ incomparable debut, Appetite For Destruction.“And wouldn’t you know it – that’s the only time I won! It’s kind of funny. I figured, All these other people are better known than me. “I had been nominated a few times before and never won,” he says, “so when ‘Cliffs of Dover’ was nominated, I didn’t go to the show. Johnson took his newfound fame and Grammy nomination in stride. Shane’s work paid off when “Cliffs of Dover” became one of the most-played rock instrumentals of its day, hitting No. He wanted people to hear the song, and he did everything he could to make it a hit.” “They Really Like Me” “They didn’t think the record would do anything.” However, one of the label’s promo men, Jeffrey Shane, loved Ah Via Musicom and thought “Cliffs of Dover” was a single. “They were like, ‘Whatever,’” he remembers. Johnson was ecstatic with the job mastering engineer Bernie Grundman did on the EQ (“He really got the track to sound perfect”), but he was dismayed at Capitol’s initial reaction. Guitar effects were minimal: “It’s just an Echoplex into a Tube Driver, and that went into a 100-watt Marshall with a 4x12 cabinet.” I played it all the way through with my Strat, but the solo didn’t sound as clear and elegant as I wanted, so I punched in an ES-335 for the main solo You can hear the tone difference, but that’s okay – the spirit is there.”
Then it goes back to the Strat for the end. “In the studio, I tried a few versions until I got something that sounded right.” His band blazed through two or three takes of the track before arriving at a keeper, but Johnson was unhappy with his guitar sound.Īs he explains, “I played it all the way through with my Strat, but the solo didn’t sound as clear and elegant as I wanted, so I punched in an ES-335 for the main solo. “It varied every time I played it live,” he says. Before the main song, he included a freeform improv section that he had always played live. After signing with Capitol Records in 1989, Johnson decided to finally record “Cliffs of Dover” in a studio.