I’ve never cared about the history of the Cry Baby, but Joey Tosi does. And he tells a pretty compelling story about probably the most recognizable effect in the guitar world.1
Over the course of an hour, “The Pedal That Rocks The World” tells stories straight from the horses’ mouths about how the wah came to be and the impact it’s had on the music world.
Some highlights?
1) The fondness of various rock stars recalling the first time they heard the wah, recalling their childhood heroes.
2) There’s a lot of really arrogant people in this film. I’ll just leave it at that.
3) Everything about Charles Pitts
4) Everything about Paul Gilbert
5) Watching the scenes with Kirk Hammett and trying to convince yourself that he’s the same guy who played guitar on Master of Puppets.2
Give it a watch, if you haven’t seen it already. I’m late to the game on this one as it’s one of those docs that I saw, put on my “to watch” list and never got around to actually watching. It’s a quick hour, there’s enough nerdy stuff for guitarists to stay interested in and not so much that non-guitarists will be lost. Like 80% entertainment value and 20% history/information.
It’s a solid B- of a documentary.
Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks The World from Joey Tosi on Vimeo.