The Guitar Hero with the Gretsch White Falcon

I remember the first time I heard William Henry (Billy) Duffy.
It was 23 years ago on a San Francisco alternative music radio station, and the song was "Spiritwalker" by The Cult.
I remember thinking Duffy's guitar playing was quite good.
The next time I really listened to Duffy, it was later that year and the song was The Cult's "Resurrection Joe."
I remember thinking Duffy's guitar playing was very good indeed.
The next time I really listened to Duffy, it was 1985 and I was hearing the opening strains of "She Sells Sanctuary."
I have never been the same.
I remember thinking Duffy's guitar playing was the best of my generation -- on a par with his boyhood mate Johnny Marr of The Smiths.
I am listening to an iPod playlist of singles by The Cult on my day off and the songs remind me of the greatness of Duffy.
Duffy has explained in an interview on the Roland amplifier Web site about the origin of the "She Sells Sanctuary" sound, and it provides a link between two of Britain's greatest guitarists:
"We were recording "She Sells Sanctuary" in a studio in London called Olympic, where Led Zeppelin used to record. I found a violin bow, and I started to play the guitar with the bow like Jimmy Page," Duffy said. "I did it to amuse (Cult lead singer Ian) Astbury, who was in the control room, and in order to make it sound weirder, I just hit every (effects) pedal I had on the pedal board. Then, once I stopped banging the strings and doing all that, I played the middle section of the song, which was kind of a pick thing with all the BOSS pedals on, and that (distinctive "She Sells Sanctuary") sound just leaped out."
The producer and the band decided the "Eastern"-sounding mystical guitar part should open the song. The single went to No. 15 in the United Kingdom, and a GUITAR HERO was born.