Johnny Guitar

"The fabulous Johnny's Guitar who started out in 1963 was the king of the string bands in Thailand. The band was led by the then 29 years old and almost six feet tall organist Nopartana Tipayaosot, who also used to be playing with "Bangkok Blue Band". The band also featured Prasert Sangkla from Surin on lead guitar, Kua Phan Ngarm also from Surin on drums. Nopartana composed, listen politely to what others had to say about his compositions and arrangements and then insisted that they record exactly what he wrote and arranged in the first place. He had definitive ideas of his own about almost everything. Johnny's Guitar's press release from 1965 states: "Johnny Guitar is the first band who gets wonderful new ideas in string music. They arranged Thai classical and Thai popular (a go-go fro dancing and listen) Johnny Guitar got a big succeed in string music. The biggest hits, biggest sell and biggest demand. The very best, greatest sound for stereo phonic and best for souvenirs." Supannahaong (Rosana Records EP) Which was Johnny's Guitar's first hit in 1965. A truly great example of how the Thai String bands developed their own style through mixing pop sounds with native Thai music. Supannahong is a traditional tune reserved for a boat procession on the mighty Chao Praya river. In Johnny's Guitar's hands the song turns into a haunting masterpiece that even pre-dates the coming of the psychedelic era." -Liner notes from Thai Beat A Go-Go Vol. 1, subcd11 Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.