Much of the early backlash that followed the Strokes’ meteoric rise had to do with the idea that a ’00s punk revival couldn’t be spearheaded by a band of moneyed prep-school twerps — as if boarding school and rock stars didn’t go together like marmalade and scones. Whether we’re talking about Julian Casablancas meeting several future Strokes at Switzerland’s Institut Le Rosey or a young John Mellor (later Joe Strummer) plotting his assault on the bourgeoisie at the prestigious Freemen’s School in Surrey, a number of rock’s most potent powder kegs have started off in crested blazers. Here are just a few of the preppiest insurrectionists:
FREDDIE MERCURY OF QUEEN | The young Farrokh Bulsara blossomed as a musical prodigy when he left the family nest in Zanzibar to study at St. Peter’s boarding school in Mumbai. It was here that he started his first band (the Hectics) and began calling himself Freddie, planting the seeds for the persona that would front one of the most successful (and flamboyantly awesome) acts of all time.
BRUCE DICKINSON OF IRON MAIDEN | At heart, boarding schools are about escape — which in young Master Bruce’s case meant goodbye to Nottinghamshire and hello to Northamptonshire’s Oundle, as well as to the school war-games society that he co-founded. A fitting pursuit for the future belter of “Die with Your Boots On” and “The Trooper.”
TIM AND NEIL FINN OF SPLIT ENZ/CROWDED HOUSE | Boarding school can be as brutal as it is posh — in his native New Zealand, at Auckland’s Sacred Heart College, Tim Finn set a school record by receiving 35 canings in one year. He passed on his defiant spirit to his younger brother, Neil, and the two would go on to form two of NZ’s most exciting bands. Both have spent decades using their musical careers to benefit various social causes — no doubt in large part because Tim understands what it means to be at the other end of the lash.
TYCOBRAHE WAH PARAPEDAL | Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath on “Paranoid” | Iommi’s wah took on a bizarre edge with this beyond-obscure artifact, and that gave his “Paranoid” solo a baby-thrown-down-a-well feel that has made it the stuff of legend.
FOXX TONE MACHINE | John Wetton of King Crimson on “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic Pt. 1” | The perfect foil to the pinned-down anal-retentiveness of Robert Fripp, future Asia frontman John Wetton’s contribution to this early-’70s prog powerhouse owes a lot to this rare hunk of fuzzy metal and the Jurassic sludge it produces when engaged.
DALLAS ARBITER FUZZ FACE & ROGER MEYER OCTAVIA | Jimi Hendrix on “Purple Haze” | The guitar tone on both the verse and the solo break of “PH” were groundbreaking: the Fuzz Face created a sound previously unheard on the radio of the day, and the Octavia helped transform the tune’s lead break into sheer bloody lunacy.
INTERFAX HARMONIC PERCOLATOR | Steve Albini of Shellac on “Mama Gina” | Albini’s shrill, trebly bird squawk of a guitar tone is memorable without effects, but when run through the sine-wave insanity of this rare piece of transistor history, it becomes a synapse-frying jolt.
ELECTRO-HARMONIX ELECTRIC MISTRESS | Keith Levene of Public Image Limited on “Careering” | The Mistress was the sound of late-’70s/early-’80s postpunk. Its off-kilter filtered chorus is key to Levene’s eerie shimmer, which inverted the norm of the guitar as the beefy riff-generator.
THE ECHOPLEX | Brian May of Queen on “Brighton Rock” | So many of rock’s greats in the ’70s mastered the Echoplex, but how many could run two or three in series like Mr. May to reach the dizzying heights of the guitar-army breakdown of “Brighton Rock”? For a brief time, Echoplexes threatened to make the rest of the band obsolete.
HEIL SOUND TALK BOX | Peter Frampton on “Show Me the Way” | It must have seemed like the future of rock, as singer and guitarist were merged into one bizarre instrument. The thing was also prominent on Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion,” the James Gang’s “Rocky Mountain Way,” and, uh, Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer,” but it was Frampton’s Talk Box solo on Frampton Comes Alive that really got the Bics flicked.
ELECTRO HARMONIX BIG MUFF π | David Gilmour of Pink Floyd on “Brain Damage” | Decades later, the nascent early-’90s “grunge” scene would popularize and normalize this particular brand of sustain-rich distortion, but prior to its resuscitation, E-H’s Big Muff was the go-to pedal for stadium rockers when they were looking for just the right tone for that dramatically creamy lead, like the emotional climax of “Dark Side.”
DAN ARMSTRONG ORANGE SQUEEZER | Jeff “Skunk” Baxter on Steely Dan’s “My Old School” | Even polished sesh dudes know when to use a well-placed effect, and that certainly includes the Dan. As any major dude will tell you, nothing makes a solo pop while still flowing off the press frictionlessly clean like a good compressor — and Skunk’s effortless frippery here is made a gazillion times greasier by this little orange box.
