How Dimebag Darrell inspired a classic St Vincent riff: “I feel like I’m going to be sued”
I, along with millions of other music fans from my generation, saw the face of Marty Schwartz more than my own mother. Clutching the secondhand guitar my friend gave me, I will clunkily work my way through chord sequences to the sound of Schwartz’s encouragement.
If by some miracle, you have no idea who Mart Schwartz is, then allow me to enlighten you. He was the leading guitar teacher on YouTube. Better known as Marty Music, he wore a trilby appropriate for the job and was the blueprint that so many ‘Radio 6 Dads’ modelled themselves on. Sure, he’d thrust a devil horn in the air with one hand, but the other would be clad with a Casio watch, patiently waiting for a modest bedtime to strike the clock.
It was a safe space to learn what could be one of the most raucous instruments, and, in my experience, upon improvement, I was quite eager to move away from ‘(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay’ and get stuck into something like ‘War Pigs’. Because it was in songs like that, where the power of an electric guitar becomes immediately apparent and thus the endless magic that can be created upon playing it.
While I never made it to be one of the guitar-playing greats, I would say that was generally a path well trodden. Everyone from Keith Richards to a more modern master like St Vincent has moulded their skills on the discography of legends past. But while you may hear the art-rock worlds of The Velvet Underground and David Bowie in St Vincent’s music, it was another, more obscure influence that made an impression.
St Vincent, otherwise known as Annie Clark, spoke about Pantera’s Dimebag Darrell and his guitar playing, more specifically, how his technical proficiency made such an impact on her. “It reminds me of being 13, being in the guitar store and picking up the Dimebag signature guitar and trying to figure out how he gets that crazy sound from ‘Cowboys from Hell’. ‘What is that?’ I’d watch tutorials on YouTube.”
Perhaps where Clark made a real difference from the rest of us was her ability to then translate that into her own ideas. She took what she saw from Dimebag and, more specifically, YouTube, and crafted it into her own methodology that has ultimately made her one of the most unique artists in contemporary music. She is, however, keen to express that at least one of her songs is near enough a direct replica of her unlikely hero: “There’s a riff on my song ‘Bring Me Your Loves’ that’s so ‘Cowboys from Hell’ that I feel like I’m going to be sued… just in my mind”.
The fact is, there are so many corners you can turn with the limited amount of musical notes provided and sure, Clark’s riff could have been directly influenced by Pantera. But if you listen to the remaining arrangement of the song, they are absolutely worlds apart and continue to prove Clark’s ability to be deeply original.
