'Baby Please Don't' Go Riff Was My Work

So who really played one of the greatest riffs in rock 'n' roll?
Classic sound of Baby Please Don't Go was my work,
says Ulster guitarist

Friday, February 16, 2007

By Gary Grattan

An Ulster guitarist is fighting a battle in
cyberspace - to get recognition for recording a
classic rock riff over 40 years ago.

Billy Harrison, former player with Van Morrison's
old band Them, says it's one credit guitar legend
Jimmy Page can't include in his extensive
discography.

Billy, from Belfast, is angry that many internet
sites mistakenly give credit for the main lead
guitar line on Them's cover of Baby Please Don't Go
to Page, who went on to have phenomenal success
with Led Zeppelin.

Page, at the time one of London's brightest young
session guitarists, was brought in by management
and played some rhythm guitar.

"But I definitely recorded the lead riff," said
Billy. "I came up with the riff. I had been playing
it for a year before I recorded it. I had even
arranged the song.

"Yes, Page was at the session. In those days it was
all a case of 'time is money'. Management were very
strict and they had session players there to
augment the music in the hope of saving time in the
studio.

"Personally, I wasn't happy. We might not have been
the greatest musicians in the world, but we all
knew what we were doing.

"When I walked in, Jimmy Page and a session drummer
were sitting in the studio. In my best Belfast
vernacular I asked them what the **** they were
doing there.

"The credit for the recording has been mistakenly
posted on a lot of internet sites. Jimmy Page
himself is not crediting himself with this
recording. It's just a myth that has built up - so
I've started emailing people to put them straight.

"Why shouldn't a wee Belfast man stand up for
himself? Jimmy Page has enough credits - he doesn't
need this one," he joked.

Them formed in Belfast in April 1964. Along with
Morrison and Harrison, the other original band
members were Eric Wrixon (piano and keyboards),
Alan Henderson (bass) and Ronnie Millings on drums.

The group released its first - unsuccessful -
single, One Two Brown Eyes, in August 1964.

The band's managers and producers then hired
session musicians to contribute to recordings of
Baby Please Don't Go, written by Big Joe Williams.
The single, which featured on the now legendary
Gloria as a B-side, was a hit in the UK, reaching
No 10 in December 1964.

Another single, Here Comes the Night/All for
Myself, reached No 2 in Britain the following
February and No 24 in the US three months later.

The band released two albums on Decca, The Angry
Young Them and Them Again, both of which failed to
sell and, in mid- 1966, Morrison left to pursue his
solo career.

But Them's combination of garage rock and blues
proved a major influence on the next generation of
rock musicians, and the group's best-known singles
are known worldwide.