Auburn "Pat" Hare was a

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

electric blues Electric blues refers to any type of blues music distinguished by the use of electric amplification for musical instruments. The guitar was the first instrument to be popularly amplified and used by early pioneers T-Bone Walker in the late 1930 ...

guitarist and singer. His heavily distorted,

power chord A power chord (also fifth chord) is a colloquial name for a chord in guitar music, especially electric guitar, that consists of the root note and the fifth, as well as possibly octaves of those notes. Power chords are commonly played on ...

–driven electric guitar performances in the early 1950s is considered an important precursor of heavy metal music. Palmer, Robert (1992). "Church of the Sonic Guitar". pp. 13–38 in Anthony DeCurtis, ''Present Tense'',

Duke University Press Duke University Press is an academic publisher and university press affiliated with Duke University. It was founded in 1921 by William T. Laprade as The Trinity College Press. (Duke University was initially called Trinity College). In 1926 D ...

. pp. 24–27. . His guitar work with Little Junior's Blue Flames had a major influence on the

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western musical styles such as country with that of rhythm and blu ...

style, and his guitar playing on blues records by artists such as

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago ...

was influential among 1960s

British Invasion The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States and significant to the rising "counterculture" on ...

blues rock bands such as the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds.

Biography

Hare, who was

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

, was born in

Cherry Valley, Arkansas Cherry Valley is a city in Cross County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 651 at the 2010 census. Geography Cherry Valley is located in northern Cross County at (35.403666, -90.752742), at the western edge of Crowleys Ridge. Arkansa ...

. He recorded at the

Sun Studio Sun Studio is a recording studio opened by rock-and-roll pioneer Sam Phillips at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee, on January 3, 1950. It was originally called Memphis Recording Service, sharing the same building with the Sun Records label ...

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, serving as a sideman for

Howlin' Wolf Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910January 10, 1976), better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer and guitarist. He is regarded as one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. Over a four-decade care ...

James Cotton James Henry Cotton (July 1, 1935 – March 16, 2017) was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, who performed and recorded with many fellow blues artists and with his own band. He also played drums early in his career. ...

Bobby Bland Robert Calvin Bland (born Robert Calvin Brooks; January 27, 1930 – June 23, 2013), known professionally as Bobby "Blue" Bland, was an American blues singer. Bland developed a sound that mixed gospel with the blues and R&B. He was descr ...

and other artists. Hare was one of the first guitarists to purposely use the effects of

distortion In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signa ...

in his playing. In 1951, he joined a blues band formed by

Junior Parker Herman "Junior" Parker (March 27, 1932November 18, 1971) Li ...

, called Little Junior's Blue Flames. He played the electric guitar solo on " Love My Baby" (1953), which later inspired the

style. One of their biggest hits was "

Next Time You See Me "Next Time You See Me" is a blues song written by Earl Forest and Bill Harvey, originally recorded in 1956 by Junior Parker (as "Little Junior Parker" as he was then known). The song was Parker's first record chart appearance after joining Duke ...

", which in 1957 reached number 5 on the Billboard R&B chart and number 74 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 pop chart. His guitar solo on James Cotton's

record "Cotton Crop Blues" (1954) was the first recorded use of heavily distorted

s, later an element of heavy metal music. According to Robert Palmer, "Rarely has a grittier, nastier, more ferocious electric guitar sound been captured on record, before or since, and Hare's repeated use of a rapid series of two downward-modulating power chords, the second of which is allowed to hang menacingly in the air, is a kind of hook or structural glue. ..The first heavy metal record? I'd say yes, with tongue only slightly in cheek." The other side of the single was "Hold Me in Your Arms"; both songs "featured a guitar sound so overdriven that with the historical distance of several decades, it now sounds like a direct line to the coarse, distorted tones favored by modern

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

players." According to Allmusic, "what is now easily attainable by 16-year-old kids on modern-day

effects pedals An effects unit or effects pedal is an electronic device that alters the sound of a musical instrument or other audio source through audio signal processing. Common effects include distortion/overdrive, often used with electric guitar in ele ...

just by stomping on a switch, Hare was accomplishing with his fingers and turning the volume knob on his Sears & Roebuck cereal-box-sized

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all the way to the right until the speaker was screaming." Hare was reported to have been introverted when sober (once married to Dorothy Mae Good, with whom he had a son and two daughters), but he had a serious problem with alcohol abuse. Shortly after the "Cotton Crop Blues" recording, he recorded a version of the early 1940s

Doctor Clayton Doctor Clayton (born Peter Joe Clayton; April 19, 1898 – January 7, 1947) was an American blues singer and songwriter. Biography Clayton was born in Georgia (though he claimed he had been born in Africa) and moved to St. Louis as a child with ...

song "I'm Gonna Murder My Baby" on May 14, 1954, which has since been released on the 1990

Rhino Records A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species ...

compilation album ''Blue Flames: A Sun Blues Collection''. The record also features power chords, which remains "most fundamental in modern rock" as "the basic structure for riff-building in heavy metal bands." According to Robert Palmer, the song is "as heavy metal as it gets." According to the album liner notes, "I'm Gonna Murder My Baby" is "doubly morbid because he did just that". In December 1963, Hare shot his girlfriend dead in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

and also shot a policeman who came to investigate. At the time of his arrest, he was playing in the blues band of

. He was replaced in the band by the guitarist

James "Pee Wee" Madison James "Pee Wee" Madison (May 4, 1935 – January 7, 2008) was an American blues guitar player. Early life Born in Osceola, Arkansas, he moved to Chicago in the late 1950s, molding his musicianship on that of Little Walter. His big chance came ...

. Hare pleaded guilty to murder and spent the last 16 years of his life in prison, where he formed a band named Sounds Incarcerated. He developed lung cancer in prison and died in 1980 in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

References

External links

Illustrated Pat Hare discography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hare, Pat 1930 births 1980 deaths American blues singers American blues guitarists American male guitarists Deaths from cancer in Minnesota Deaths from lung cancer Memphis blues musicians Electric blues musicians Sun Records artists People from Cherry Valley, Arkansas African-American guitarists 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century African-American male singers