Danny Wayne Gatton

Indeed!  I was lucky enough to get to see Danny several times, since he was always around back in the late '80s/early '90s...at least around here in the DC/MD/VA (and DE beach) area.  Most memorably, I got to hang with him once and just talk over a few bottles of beer, and it was amazing to me how many people passed him by without having the slightest idea who he was.  

Such an amazing talent, and there was nothing he couldn't play.

 
gtrdaddy said:
In many circles he was referred to as “The World’s Greatest Unknown Guitarist.” 
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As was Roy Buchanan. They were roomies for a time, iirc Roy was the one who got him into Teles(?). Both awesome guitsrists... never got to see DG, but I did see Roy a couple months before his death. Something always struck me as ‘off’ about the suicide claim.

 
Danny "Wayne" Gatton?  I've never heard him called that before, but I know the guy.  A friend of mine had one of his albums.  I just started playing guitar and I thought one day I'd be able to play like him.  I wasn't, and I won't ever be!  Didn't he use some kind of homemade effect called a Gizmotron?  No idea what it was supposed to do but I think it was mounted right on the body of the guitar.

 
0054 said:
Meds n alcohol, bad combo.
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Maybe. I obviously don’t have evidence, but always thought it might be more to do with police brutality(?). I mean, how the heck does a 300lb drunk man hang himself in a cell with a t-shirt?

 
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tommy p said:
Danny "Wayne" Gatton?  I've never heard him called that before, but I know the guy.  A friend of mine had one of his albums.  I just started playing guitar and I thought one day I'd be able to play like him.  I wasn't, and I won't ever be!  Didn't he use some kind of homemade effect called a Gizmotron?  No idea what it was supposed to do but I think it was mounted right on the body of the guitar.
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I think the Magic Dingus Box controlled an EchoPlex and a Leslie speaker. In the Redneck Jazz Explosion video, you can see it mounted behind the Les Paul bridge.

 
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The Humbler is so appropriate of a nick name for Danny Gatton. He is like Jeff Beck in that regard. It seems like he could make the guitar to whatever he wanted. No sound or lick was beyond him. My Musical collaborator AC got me into him and it is just so ridiculous how good he was.

 
Danny's Magic Dingus Box was his version of the Les Paulverizer...didn't do the same thing, but was a guitar-mounted, homemade effects device.  Danny was a known tinkerer, like Les.

 
AC says Danny was a huge hot  rod bufff...like Jeff Beck. Says he refused to go long tours cause he wanted to stay home and work on his rods....

He has such a magical sound... one of those where I don’t wanna learn how he did it. AC  can play some cool Danny licks....I never ask him how...cause I don’t want them to lose the magic....

 
Jakeboy said:
AC  can play some cool Danny licks....I never ask him how...cause I don’t want them to lose the magic....
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Oh, fer shit’s sake! Learn them and evolve.

“Magic...”

 
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Lol I am weird. About some songs..,.it will have some lick I have loved and never learned. Then I learn it and huh, the song is not what it was. 

‘Yeah, I do dig the magic of music. It is wonderful fairy dust. Made of powdered unicorn horn. It makes me happy sometimes.

Other fave songs I cannot learn quick enough note for note. 

‘Just the way I am on some songs. I evolve with all the others RobB ;)

 
I remember him on the Today show with Caity Couric.  He told her he remembered hearing music in his head in his crib as a baby.  I new he was a little outside the norm at that point.  Elmira St. is one of my favorite albums.  Play it for anyone and they'll instantly know his genius.

 
DaveH said:
As was Roy Buchanan. They were roomies for a time, iirc Roy was the one who got him into Teles(?). Both awesome guitsrists... never got to see DG, but I did see Roy a couple months before his death. Something always struck me as ‘off’ about the suicide claim.
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I gotta say, I lived in Fairfax County at the time, and that crossed my mind also.  I’m supportive of LEOs 99% of the time, but the Fairfax County cops that I had a dealing with were gigantic assholes.

 
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