Hi Tyler, and many thanks for this. I'm not certain how I stumbled across your page but glad I did. I'd like to add that it never ceases to amaze me that more folks don't know who Ernest is. When people of my gen talk about shredders they almost always mention the likes of Hendrix, Page, Clapton, King, Vaughn, Gilmore, Van Halen, et al. Never Ranglin. And yet to my ears he's at the top. With maybe King as the exception, all the others never seemed orginal to me. Yes, they could move their fingers but not to produce noise I'd call innovative like Ernest. I mark certain points in my life defined by the music I've heard, and I'll never forget when "Jamaican Rock" from the Dr. No soundtrack first hit my brain. To this day when Iisten to it, it's got the most inventive guitarwork I've ever heard. I compare it to the energy produced by some of the early Beatles material that feature John and Paul's screaming harmonies. Once you hear it, you can't unhear it. Same for "Twisting With James". While Monty Norman got publishing credit, those songs are Ranglin in and out. You wouldn't be able to find sheet music for "Jamaican Rock" because it was in Ernest's head. I was so influenced by it that I wrote to Ernest but never heard back -- so I studied closely as many photos as possible of him with the guitar he used in 1961-62 in an effort to buy the exact model Guild he used on that soundtrack, which I did.
Maybe because of the nature of the setup, given that Ernest was called in as a session player, or maybe it was due to his age at that time in his career, but to me this single album represents perhaps his best work -- and yet it's his least known.
Maybe you might have explored a bit more about Ernest's effort on the Dr. No album.
Thanks, Tyler, for your research and your writing. I didn't know about Ernest Ranglin, but I do love me some Jamaican music, particularly reggae and ska. I'm also a fan of the Connery Bond films. In fact, I found myself humming "Underneath the Mango Tree" the other day for no reason at all!
Hi Tyler, and many thanks for this. I'm not certain how I stumbled across your page but glad I did. I'd like to add that it never ceases to amaze me that more folks don't know who Ernest is. When people of my gen talk about shredders they almost always mention the likes of Hendrix, Page, Clapton, King, Vaughn, Gilmore, Van Halen, et al. Never Ranglin. And yet to my ears he's at the top. With maybe King as the exception, all the others never seemed orginal to me. Yes, they could move their fingers but not to produce noise I'd call innovative like Ernest. I mark certain points in my life defined by the music I've heard, and I'll never forget when "Jamaican Rock" from the Dr. No soundtrack first hit my brain. To this day when Iisten to it, it's got the most inventive guitarwork I've ever heard. I compare it to the energy produced by some of the early Beatles material that feature John and Paul's screaming harmonies. Once you hear it, you can't unhear it. Same for "Twisting With James". While Monty Norman got publishing credit, those songs are Ranglin in and out. You wouldn't be able to find sheet music for "Jamaican Rock" because it was in Ernest's head. I was so influenced by it that I wrote to Ernest but never heard back -- so I studied closely as many photos as possible of him with the guitar he used in 1961-62 in an effort to buy the exact model Guild he used on that soundtrack, which I did.
Maybe because of the nature of the setup, given that Ernest was called in as a session player, or maybe it was due to his age at that time in his career, but to me this single album represents perhaps his best work -- and yet it's his least known.
Maybe you might have explored a bit more about Ernest's effort on the Dr. No album.
Thanks, Tyler, for your research and your writing. I didn't know about Ernest Ranglin, but I do love me some Jamaican music, particularly reggae and ska. I'm also a fan of the Connery Bond films. In fact, I found myself humming "Underneath the Mango Tree" the other day for no reason at all!