A01451 - Auburn "Pat" Hare, a Memphis Electric Blues Guitarist and Heavy Metal Pioneer

Auburn "Pat" Hare (b. December 20, 1930, Cherry Valley, Arkansas - September 26, 1980, Saint Paul, Minnesota) was a Memphis electric blues guitarist and singer. His heavily distorted, power chord-driven electric guitar performances in the early 1950s are considered an important precursor of heavy metal music.  His guitar work with Little Junior's Blue Flames had a major influence on the rockabilly style, and his guitar playing on blues records by artists such as Muddy Waters was influential among 1960s British Invasion blues rock bands such as the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds.  

Hare, an African American, was born in Cherry Valley, Arkansas.  He recorded at the Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, serving as a sideman for Howlin' Wolf, James Cotton, Muddy Waters, Bobby Bland and other artists.   Hare was one of the first guitarists to purposely use the effects of distortion in his playing.

In 1951, Hare joined a blues band formed by Junior Parker, called Little Junior's Blue Flames. He played the electric guitar solo on "Love My Baby" (1953), which later inspired the rockabilly style. One of their biggest hits was "Next Time You See Me", which in 1957 reached number 5 on the Billboard R&B chart and number 74 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart.

Hare's guitar solo on James Cotton's electric blues record "Cotton Crop Blues" (1954) was the first recorded use of heavily distorted power chords, later an element of heavy metal music. The other side of the single was "Hold Me in Your Arms"; both songs featured a guitar sound so overdriven that with the historical distance of several decades, it now sounds like a direct line to the coarse, distorted tones favored by modern rock players.  

Hare was reported to have been introverted when sober (once married to Dorothy Mae Good, with whom he had a son and two daughters), but he had a serious problem with alcohol abuse.  Shortly after the "Cotton Crop Blues" recording, he recorded a version of the early 1940s Doctor Clayton song "I'm Gonna Murder My Baby" on May 14, 1954, which has since been released on the 1990 Rhino Records compilation album Blue Flames: A Sun Blues Collection. The record also features power chords, which remains most fundamental in modern rock as the basic structure for riff-building in heavy metal bands.

 According to the album liner notes, "I'm Gonna Murder My Baby" is "doubly morbid because he did just that". In December 1963, Hare shot his girlfriend dead in Minneapolis and also shot a policeman who came to investigate.  At the time of his arrest, he was playing in the blues band of Muddy Waters.  

Hare pleaded guilty to murder and spent the last 16 years of his life in prison, where he formed a band named Sounds Incarcerated. He developed lung cancer in prison and died in 1980 in Saint Paul, Minnesota.