Today is Robin Trower’s 79th birthday. Happy Birthday!
He is unusual for a guitarist of his generation in that he hasn’t seemed to have lost a step at all. Most guys who are pushing 80 years old are not playing as well today as they did a couple of decades ago. Not Robin Trower. He’s as good, if not better, than he was 20 or 30 or even 40 years ago. I wonder what his secret is. Probably something lame like taking care of himself and practicing a lot.
I went down a YouTube rabbit hole a little and ended up here. A live recording of Procol Harum playing Whaling Stories not long before Robin Trower left the band and stopped playing Gibson guitars.
I’ve never heard this recording before, but the song is from a record called Home and I knew that album like the back of my hand. So did everyone in my house and most of my neighbors. Not only did I play it a lot, but I played my guitar along with it a lot too. Loudly.
I could fake my way through most of the songs, and even learned a couple of them (poorly) on piano. This one was a favorite to play along with. Those double bends Trower did… damn.
Inside the Red Head's Head 