Westerly Wood
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Way I heard it is every great song from that era was penned with a Guild M20.
Nick Drake's Guild M20
- Thread starter wileypickett
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SFIV1967
Venerated Member
Quantum Strummer
Senior Member
The fellow who owns the M-20 Nick Drake was photographed with has recounted the story behind the photo session. There's a video version of this, recorded at a tribute concert of some sort, available on YouTube. The guitar itself makes an appearance too. The bottom line: it wasn't Nick's guitar. Furthermore there's no proper evidence Nick ever owned or recorded with an M-20. Just stories…and you know what happens to stories in the re-telling (and re-re-telling, etc.) of 'em. 
-Dave-
-Dave-
wileypickett
Senior Member
And this brings us right back to square one -- reread my first post.
Glenn
Glenn
A reverse veer! Nice!
walrus
walrus
I care! Neil used it a lot on the "Le Noise" album - several videos of him playing songs from that album with the M-20 are on the web.
walrus
walrus
adorshki
Reverential Member
Yeah but his M20 wasn't given to him by Eric Capton. Or Nick Drake.
Or even Tim Buckley. Oh waitaminnit, that was an F212.
Anyway it's not even Neil's, it's his producer's.
He liked it so much he asked to borrow it for the tour. (Or at least that's how I remember it)
Otherwise he's a Martin man through and through.
"Not that there's anything wrong with that"
:biggrin-new:
mavuser
Enlightened Member
I just saw Neil Young & Promise of the Real at Bethel Woods and Jones Beach. Those guys melted some serious faces! no M-20 sightings though. Puss N Boots opened. good times, good times (lookout Joe!)
Westerly Wood
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It looks like a toy guitar on Neil. I just took it off my gas list. It looks ridiculous.
SFIV1967
Venerated Member
Correct. I just re-post what I had posted in another thread:
"The M-20 that Neil Young borrowed is owned by Daniel Lanois and in the past it was equipped with a 80ies Bill Lawrence pickup but later he (Daniel Lanois) got a deal with L.R.Baggs and changed to the L.R. Baggs M1."
But it was nice Neil used it for quite some time:
[video=youtube;OR47-4UoLPg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=21&v=OR47-4UoLPg[/video]
Ralf
Last edited:
SFIV1967
Venerated Member
Right. The guy who took the photo for the album cover of Bryter Layter was Nigel Waymouth. He wrote later in 2002: "They weren't his shoes, they were mine. After I had asked him to take off his shoes, I put them there to add an optimistic note (blue suede shoes - dancing shoes), in an otherwise somber photograph, that would echo the title of the album, Bryter Layter. A few years later Nick came up to me at a party and said how much he liked the cover and that he now understood what it was about. The chair, by the way, once belonged to Charles Dickens, who sat in it to write, and the small Guild guitar was one that Eric Clapton gave to his friend and flat mate, Martin Sharp, the Australian artist and chief designer of Oz magazine. Oh, and the shoes were made to my design by the Chelsea Cobbler. Hope that covers it! Nigel Waymouth"
Martin Sharp sold the M-20 in 1973 to Nick Laird-Clowes wo still seems to be the current owner of it. (and that was all said already in post '1 of this thread...)
I found this video where he holds the M-20 and talks about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-aE4oPKSDQ&feature=youtu.be&t=4m11s
And one video where Nick Laird-Clowes plays it during a Marc Bolan show in 1977.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUTCdCcBJFY
Ralf
Last edited:
Neal
Senior Member
The M-20 that Neil Young plays in concert has all kinds of tone and presence, despite its wimpy size. Granted, the sound engineer has the bass boosted through the roof on that little thing.
Maybe Neil has the same sort of shoulder problem that many illustrious members of this forum are experiencing...
Neal
Maybe Neil has the same sort of shoulder problem that many illustrious members of this forum are experiencing...
Neal
Westerly Wood
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Like me
. Guess I am stoic dreadnought guild guy then afterall. Well, your wicked beat up F20 looks wicked cool so not sure what my problem is.Neal
Senior Member
I'm not as big as Neil Young. The F-20 looks a little larger in my hands.
Neal
Neal
mavuser
Enlightened Member
This is unlikely based on the recent tour he just wrapped up; slaying his old Les Paul and Martin dreads for about 3 hours every night (yes including Hank Williams' old Martin)
Quantum Strummer
Senior Member
Right you are.
I even own the Nick Drake book in question…but haven't read that particular piece. (The book is a multi-author compendium rather than a straight-through narrative.) After reading Rodney Drake's 1974 diary entries I had to put the book down. His account of Nick's decline is very sad. I'll get back to it later.-Dave-