RIP Vic Flick, the amazing British session guitarist who played the iconic lick on the James Bond theme (he was the session guitarist on lots of other iconic hits, as well, like Tom Jones’s “It’s Not Unusual” and “What’s New Pussycat,” Petula Clark’s “Downtown,” etc. etc.)
This delightful video about Vic and the Bond theme shows him playing the guitar he used on the theme, a 1939 Clifford Essex Paragon De Luxe (a British archtop guitar). It’s amazing that he got such a trebly and twangy tone out of this guitar, but he did. You can see his pick attack demonstrated.
Ten years ago, Vic lived in Las Vegas and was trying to sell the guitar through a Las Vegas store called Cowtown Guitars. They advertised the guitar for $250,000 (not sure what it sold for, eventually it sold for much less). I was in Vegas shortly thereafter playing the Viva Las Vegas festival, and decided to go over to Cowtown Guitars on a Sunday afternoon, when I had a little free time.
I went into the store and a bored employee was behind the counter, staring at his phone. I wandered around and found a second room with guitars on the wall. I was alone in the store, except for the lone employee. In the second room, there was a guitar case laying on a coffee table. I noticed there was an ID tag on the guitar case that said “VIC FLICK.” I thought to myself, no, it can’t be. Without drawing attention to myself, being as silent as I could as to not disturb the employee in the other room, I cracked open the case.
There it was. Vic Flick’s 1939 Clifford Essex Paragon De Luxe. The James Bond Theme guitar. It was such a funky old British instrument, and it was so odd to be alone with it there in a Las Vegas guitar store, of all places. Vegas always feels so hot and dusty, with quite possibly the least organic balance of man and nature of any place I’ve visited in the world. I felt like this majestic old guitar belonged in a British basement club, plugged into a tan (fawn) Vox AC30 with Vic’s original group, the John Barry Seven, playing moody and rocking instrumentals to a packed, sweaty audience of young and energetic mod kids, dancing to every song. It felt like my own little Indiana Jones moment. For a minute, I was alone with THAT guitar, daydreaming.
Inspired by seeing the guitar, I chased down Vic Flick and emailed with him a few times, begging him to play the Guitar Geek Festival in Vegas. He politely declined, but I had a very nice back-and-forth conversation with a very charming seasoned veteran of the British recording session elite. I’ll hold that memory, as we raise a glass to Mr. Flick on his journey to the party upstairs.
