Focus - Hocus Pocus

I'm not sure how this song became a hit in this country. I'm not convinced the band Focus is really sure how it became a hit. Thijs Van Leer tries to explain it, but perhaps it's best left up in the air. America is not known for being all that open-minded to diversity in music (or anything else, for that matter), even now. Instrumentals were a rare thing back in the early 1970's when "Hocus Pocus" and Edgar Winter's hit "Frankenstein" made the Billboard charts.

But "Hocus Pocus" did indeed make it to the assorted charts and into playlists at radio stations across the United States. Yodeling, a whistling solo over accordion backing and three great guitar solos...what is not to love? And it lit a much hotter fire under my ass to learn to play guitar.

Jan Akkerman was one of my first guitar heroes, and to this day, I haven't heard anyone else who plays like him. So blisteringly fast, and he played notes out of very exotic-sounding scales most guitarists didn't touch. He wasn't a blues-oriented guitarist from western-centric origins at all. His style was so very much his own, a lot like another master guitarist that I admire greatly, Ritchie Blackmore. He is very easily recognizable, and rarely duplicated.

There seem to be two types of guitar players readily visible on the musical horizon: the guitarists everyone tries to sound like, and the guitarists that few try to sound like.

Many guitar players have tried to sound like Eric Clapton, and they've been pretty good. Few have tried to sound like Mike Bloomfield, a sadly near-forgotten master of the instrument. Eric is good, but Mike interests me more.

Many guitar players have tried to sound like Jimmy Page, and some have gotten nicely close. Few have tried to sound like Robert Fripp. He is an enigmatic figure with a style that defies traditional boundaries. Jimmy is good, but Robert explores the boundaries that fascinate me. I'll follow his path.

Many guitar players have tried to sound like Jeff Beck. Okay, that's a lie. No one else sounds like Jeff Beck. My prejudice? Yeah, but few musicians have reinvented themselves so many times and succeeded as many times as Beck. He gets a shelf of his own.

I'll always love the greats, and I don't care if they inspire imitations or not. But the guitar players that defy easy explanations always get more of my attention. Bill Nelson fits easily into that category, but he is absolutely worth a post of his own that will come along later.

As for Akkerman...believe it or not, I can still play one of his prettiest songs, called "Sylvia" (very fitting...I had a huge high school crush on a girl named Sylvia, but shy guys like me tend to sit things out. Not a good thing), although I may need a little woodshedding before getting up on stage to play that piece.