[Vision2020] Ventures Lead Guitarist Dies at 75

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (June 17, 2009) Spokesman Review.

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Ventures guitarist dead at 75
Bob Bogle co-founded legendary band in Tacoma

TACOMA – Bob Bogle, lead guitarist and co-founder of the rock band the
Ventures, known for 1960s instrumental hits including “Walk, Don’t Run,”
has died at age 75.

Don Wilson, the band’s other co-founder, told the News Tribune of Tacoma
that Bogle became ill over the weekend and died Sunday.

The band sold millions of albums and heavily influenced other rock
guitarists. It was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.
The hall’s Web site hailed the Ventures as “the most successful
instrumental combo in rock and roll history.”

“Walk, Don’t Run” reached No. 2 on the Billboard chart in 1960, and a
revised version, “Walk, Don’t Run ’64,” reached No. 8 in 1964. Among the
band’s other hits were “Perfidia” and the theme from “Hawaii Five-O.”

The band got its start in 1958 in Tacoma. Bogle initially played lead and
bass and Wilson played rhythm guitar. They were soon joined by Nokie
Edwards, another guitarist, and drummer Howie Johnson, later replaced by
Mel Taylor.

“Our aspirations were to pick up nothing heavier than a guitar,” Wilson
said last year. “But it just mushroomed into something where we became
internationally known.”

The Ventures were particularly popular in Japan, where Wilson and Bogle
played as a duo during their first tour in 1962 because the promoter
couldn’t afford to pay the other two band members.

The two Americans made such an impression, Wilson recalled last year, that
when the band came back in 1964, “there were 6,000 people at the airport.”

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"Walk Don't Run"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ11y7pYl-8

"Perfidia"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyUcnoracMM

"Wipe Out"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8__EwAT8VM

"Pipeline"
http://www.tomandrodna.com/Songs/Pipeline_Ventures.mp3

"Hawaii Five-O"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj4rer2VPmw

Rest well, Bob.

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown