Biography of billy squire pictures
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Here, he uses the clash between personal conviction and public perception in the lives of Cezanne and Picasso (who knew a lot of ugly women) as a vehicle to carry his own fears, doubts and uncertainties. Squier, on the other hand, wrote and helped produce everything, played lead guitar and sang awesomely without studio-sweetening. They were LOUD and sounded soooooo good.
Billy Squier had five: “The Stroke,” “My Kinda Lover,” “Lonely Is The Night,” “Everybody Wants You,” and “Emotions In Motion.” Perhaps you need to spread the hits out (Squier’s best are all from ’82 and ’83). After leaving the show (and once our hearing started to slightly return), I asked him if he was impressed.
People do have a tendency to exaggerate, but who am I to correct them (laughs)?
After touring behind Don’t Say No, you released Emotions In Motion in 1982. All my other guitars have stock pickups.
I also have a ‘56 Les Paul Special, which has been in my collection the longest—I’ve had that since 1974.
I had my chin on the stage at Billy’s feet. With many iterations and ideas back and forth…and new products seeming to come weekly, I didn’t think it could get any better. and got heavily into the scene. You don’t have to sing as hard, and you have more control. It’s very intimate, and as such can be a bit scary at times, but that’s also the payoff – there’s nothing between you and the audience.
Less sticky.
Billy, I was right there with you man. Is that the case with you and Tale?
Yes, it was a major milestone for me. I don’t consider myself a collector – I have a player’s collection. The catch was I didn’t want to alter any of the original knobs or introduce anything new that would disturb the integrity of the instrument.
So when that happens, you feel a lot more at ease.”
For a Squier-penned history of Signs Of Life (the latest reissue), plus the above discussed downloads, please visit http://www.billysquier.com
Billy Squier
Recollections, Guitar Collection
Ward Meeker (for Vintage Guitar)
Much has been written and said about Billy Squier and how his 1981 album, Don’t Say No, provided the spark in the gap between 1970s hard rock and ’80s heavy metal.
Indeed, when he rose to fame in the early 1980s on the strength of “The Stroke,” his mega-hit ode to glad-handing record executives, Squier had something for every fan of hard-edged melodic rock and roll; girls dug his hair and sensitive-guy balladry, while guys were into his badass guitar tones and the heavy rock riffs that garnered comparisons to acts like Led Zeppelin.
Squier emerged from the East Coast pop music scene in the late 1960s carrying all the tools to become a star, from his knowledge of rock and roll to the influences shared by so many guitarists at the time and ever since – Clapton, Hendrix, Page, et al.
Its themes are the proper concerns of a newly-minted American male: drinking with your buddies (“went to see a friend just the other day / had a drink or two and we blew the night away”), taking home a paycheck then blowing it downtown (“spend all my money tryin’ to have a good time”), and, of course, chasing tail (“you got me runnin’ baby–you give me something way beyond revenue.”)
The ten songs of Don’t Say No comprise a catalogue of a young man’s moods and modes:
- Euphoria and Self-reflection: “I may get around, I may laugh a lot, now you’d think that I’d be happy with the life I got, / Nobody knows, nobody sees, ain’t nobody really knows the inner side of me….”
- Swagger: “There’s danger out tonight, the man is on the prowl….”
- Doubt: “Never knew it could take so long–never knew it could feel so wrong without you.”
- Highs and Hangovers: “Takes the morning after to forget the night before” and “I can’t remember the things that we said / Now all I got is this achin’ in my head.”
- And being dealt those first retina-searing sexual experiences, those lapidary moments of lust and love: just listen to “My Kinda Lover.”
Side 1 crashes on your ears with “In the Dark” and its first line sets the tone: “Life isn’t easy on the singular side.” The album’s most signature song (and maybe its most Zeppelin-esque), “Lonely is the Night,” chases that theme to its essence:
Lonely is the night
when you find yourself alone,
Your demons come to light
and your mind is not your own.
Lonely is the night
when there’s no one left to call,
You feel the time is right–
say the writin’s on the wall.
I spent my early 20s in the Army as an infantry officer assigned to the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks….
The 1992 charts were dominated by country artists like Billy Ray Cyrus and grunge rockers Pearl Jam and Nirvana; Squire’s sounds were out of fashion. He did this many times for many people. I think the song that did me in was when he played “More Than Words Can Say” with a dedication to his God children.
We played it pretty much straight through, along with a couple of other crowd favorites.