I've
searched the FAQ's and the other advisories and this is the only place I can
think of to post this. Apologies if it's the wrong spot. Have a heart, cause I
am new here. The information below is verified in several Prince biographies and
by several people who knew the person in this post:
In 1985 I got an invitation to shoot a short film about a guitar craftsman named
Charles Orr, who had a small shop on 42nd Street in Minneapolis.
When I got there I learned that I was in the shop of a unique artist who hand
built one of a kind instruments, and that one of his first customers was none
other than Prince.
I learned that Prince spent some of his formative years hanging out and jamming
in Charley Orr's back room.
An autographed 8 X 10 glossy headshot, the first ever signed by Prince, hung on
the wall with the words "To Chuck Orr, the greatest guitar maker in the world"
Prince had spent part of his formative years hanging out and jamming in the back
room of Charley Orr's tiny shop.
The short documentary made its way through a small number of cable public access
stations in the 1980's and then sat on the shelf until today, twenty-two years
later.
Turns out that Charley Orr went on to make guitars for the members of K.I.S.S.,
Peter Paul and Mary and several dozen more luminaries in the musical field.
Charley Orr is gone now, he passed away in April, 2005, but I think it would be
an even bigger tragedy if his contribution to the Twin Cities music scene was
forgotten.
I've posted a short clip from the documentary here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0NnwNOKgmA
and a shot of Prince's autographed glossy here:
http://deepfreezevideo.com/princeL.png
The documentary will be expanded with new HD interviews with Orr guitar owners,
freshened and updated this summer and presented on the festival circuit.
I am hoping to get as many well known artists as possible to participate in some
small way to honor the man who built the instruments that they love so well. I
realize that getting a nod from Prince is most likely a longshot, but I have to
try.
Although a crude and quickly thrown together effort for the time
being, the website about the film is at:
http://deepfreezevideo.com/orr.html
A Yahoo Group for the this upcoming film is here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/orrguitars
Charley Orr was the Stradivarius of his day, quietly revolutionizing the craft
of the luthier the way that Prince revolutionized music itself.
He deserves some recognition other than as an anonymous forgotten footnote on a
3 x 5 card in the Smithsonian next to the Yellow Cloud guitar
Prince autographed his first publicity photo for
Charles Orr. The Twin Cities music legend spent
part of his formative years jamming in the back
room of the Orr Guitar Shop.
An autographed 8 X 10 glossy headshot, the first ever signed by Prince, hung
on the wall with the words "To Chuck Orr, the greatest guitar maker in the
world"
