Well, It Could Have Been Worse
1,683 guitarists came out to a Kansas City ballpark to try to shatter the Guinness Book world record for the most people playing the same song. They appear to have done so. The song? Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water.
Some came from as far away as California and Germany on Sunday to take part in a Kansas City radio station's effort to break a Guinness world record for the most people playing the same song simultaneously. The record had been 1,323 people playing the same song in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1994.
"It was cool to see little kids playing, people who had been playing for their whole lives, like older people, and then I'm sure there were people like me who just picked up the song a couple days before," said Autumn McPherson, of Winfield, a senior at the University of Kansas.
Preliminary numbers show 1,683 people played the popular early '70s guitar riff on Sunday at CommunityAmerica Ballpark.
"I thought it was going to be kind of cheesy," said Hannah Koch, of Prairie Village, who came clad in an elf costume. "But after I got here, I got caught up in the excitement of it."
A local DJ, Tanna Guthrie, came up with the idea. Now, frankly, Smoke on the Water is a very simple song to play - I think every beginning guitar player can learn how to do that song in a very short time. Heck, I did when I was learning. And the cardinal rule of beginning guitar players is also important: distortion makes everything sound better also applies. But we salute Ms. Guthrie for choosing the old Deep Purple song.
Because if it had been Stairway to Heaven, we would have tracked you down.
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Blue Crab Boulevard » Did Dinosaurs Die In Agony? — Saturday, 9 June , 2007 @ 3:36 pm
By BlogDog, Tuesday, 5 June , 2007 @ 7:50 am
Freebird!
PLAY FREEBIRD!
I’ve always thought the ultimate song request would be “Stairway to Freebird.”