The scene in Back to the Future where Michael J. Fox plays a high school prom in 1955 and stuns the crowd into baffled silence with a Van Halen type of fugue-state guitar solo has its origins in a way with this singular rave-up instrumental by Johnny “Guitar” Watson, later a disco man. “Space Guitar” seemed to come from nowhere in 1954 and it was promptly sent back there, never getting close to any charts. "This could break a few eardrums if it's played too loud,” said the now-famous befuddled Billboard review. “It's unusual, has a sound, and, in a way, it moves.” That’s one way to put it. Watson’s piercing, shredding guitar is on the attack from the jump here, spinning off into the outer space realms promised in the title, stalking the record with heavy reverb cutting in and out, lyrical talking-guitar passages, and a random quote from the well-known theme of the show Dragnet, because why not? Watson’s playing positively throbs and is mostly barely connected to the more conventional R&B band trying to keep up. The alto sax also gets the random reverb-on / reverb-off treatment from producer Ralph Bass but it’s not particularly in the same galaxy as Watson. “Space Guitar” may have sunk out of the market like the proverbial lead balloon, but it did not take long for such luminaries (per Wikipedia) as Bo Diddley, Ike Turner, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and Frank Zappa to take notice, advancing the cause for a certain thundering liberation of the electric guitar. It should be noted that, as original as it all is, Watson hardly sprang out of nothing—Texas-born, he sought to emulate the showmanship of T-Bone Walker, perhaps the first to pick an electric guitar with his teeth. “Space Guitar” is now recognized for its wide influence, but it’s still somehow surprising to hear how positively crazy it sounds.
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