Rock and roll in the 1980s saw styles collide after two decades of unbridled innovation. Night Ranger’s melodic-metal arena rock epitomized the period, but never fit a stereotype. With catchy commercial songs and power ballads, guitar antics and heavy power chords made it a great guitar-rock band that incorporated keyboards, tight arrangements, and hooks aided by their image, charisma, and sound.
Night Ranger emerged from the San Francisco Bay area in 1979, when funk-rockers Rubicon ditched the horns and became a trio – bassist/vocalist Jack Blades, drummer/vocalist Kelly Keaggy, and guitarist Brad Gillis – then renamed themselves Stereo. The following year, they recruited keyboardist Alan “Fitz” Fitzgerald (Montrose, Sammy Hagar) and Jeff Watson and adopted a new musical style. At Fitz’s urging, they changed the name again to become Ranger. While recording their debut, Dawn Patrol, in November of ’82, they became Night Ranger (to avoid trademark infringement) and their first single “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me” became a favorite on the incipient MTV while reaching #40 on Billboard (#4 Mainstream Rock). Their second album, Midnight Madness, established their unique two-prong guitar attack with “Rock in America” and power-pop sensibilities with “Sister Christian,” which reached #5 in June of ’84. More hit singles followed over five albums that sold more than 17 million units.
Watson’s early music experiences differed from a typical rocker. Raised in a folk background, as a toddler, he was exposed to the genre through his banjo-playing father. Also, his parents ran the Folk Music Society of Sacramento, which included singers, banjoists, guitarists, pianists, and many players’ wives sang harmony. Jeff became interested in playing at age five and joined communal singalongs; at eight, he was playing in string bands with his kid-sized Stella, and later was given a Yamaha 12-string from a pawn shop. The instrument, set up with very heavy strings and high action, was indispensable in developing his strong hands and backward (but effective) plectrum technique. He taught himself notes and flat-picking patterns by ear.
“Don’t Tell Me You Love Me” showcased Watson’s fiery, precise fast-picking style. Following Gillis’ whammy-bar flutters in the first half of the solo, he flew out of the gate with a dizzying barrage of notes; his immaculate execution, effortless wide stretches, and rhythmic energy transformed a sequential series of tricky arpeggio-based shapes into rock virtuosity comparable to Yngwie and the Shrapnel school. Note his relentless 16th-note motor drive and the rhythmically displaced three-against-four grouping of the patterns while outlining the F#m-D-E-C# progression.
“I’m not a schooled musician,” he said in an interview for this column. “I liked the sound of arpeggiating chords, like in the Night Ranger songs ‘Goodbye’ and ‘Let Him Run.’ Those were exercises I created, and the picking patterns became songs.”
Watson’s ascent as a rock soloist started when he picked up the electric guitar in his final year of high school. Beginning on a flat-top Gibson with a P-90, he learned songs in his comfort zone before trading the guitar to a local guitar teacher for a single-pickup Gibson ES-330, after which he upgraded to a ’60 single-pickup Cherry Red Les Paul SG with wraparound tail, followed by a ’70s brown dual-humbucker SG.
He learned lead-guitar fundamentals from a school friend and his neighbor, Stef Burns, then gravitated to blues-based rock and taught himself tunes by Shuggie Otis, Spooky Tooth, the Rolling Stones, and Allman Brothers. Johnny Winter’s “Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo” was an important influence, as was David Sancious’ Forest of Feelings and Ritchie Blackmore’s work on Machine Head. Adapting his picking technique to suit, he started the Jeff Watson Band to play original music only. He briefly studied music in college before humbly beginning his professional career as a singing busboy/waiter at the Great Northern Food & Beverage Company. He also started recording his songs at a local 8-track studio, and his work attracted attention from local pros. After hiring on at Sunrise Music in Citrus Heights, he advanced from organizing cases and instruments to become assistant manager, where he pushed the store to carry Marshall, Peavey, and Ampeg amps and Gibson gear.
“I was gaining recognition as a guitarist,” he said. “And one day when Sammy Hagar was in the store, I got cocky; I asked about playing in his band, but he just asked for a deal on keyboard gear for Fitz!”
Undaunted, he pursued the position for weeks before Hagar finally agreed to an informal audition where the two ran through songs with Jeff on his Guild 12-string. That led to Watson playing with Hagar’s band (Chuck Ruff, Bill Church, and Fitz) at their rehearsal hall. He didn’t get the gig, and today admits he wasn’t ready for that level of professionalism.
He then focused on writing music, running his own band, recording (with Fitz producing), and continued to get considerable airplay on local radio. When Fitz resumed his busy touring schedule with Hagar, he put Jeff in the hands of Ronnie Montrose, who also acknowledged his potential. Through Montrose, he snagged a spot opening for Ted Nugent at Sacramento’s Memorial Hall, which led to better gigs and greater recognition. He struck a deal to open for Hagar and Heart at Day on the Green, and garnered interest from Peter Frampton’s management when he received a call from Fitz, who was leaving Hagar’s group and wanted to form a new band with him, Blades, Keaggy, and Gillis.
“(You Can Still) Rock in America” (from Midnight Madness) turned the heads of guitarists already reeling from the onslaught of Van Halen, Rhoads, and Malmsteen. Part of that attention-grabbing were Watson’s eight-finger tapping solo phrases. Following a formula similar to “Don’t Tell Me…,” the solo is divided between Gillis (first half) and Watson (second half, at 2:22). Jeff begins his solo with melodic rock phrases and faster picking, then pulls out all the stops. What follows (2:34) is a cascade of slippery legato runs (eight notes per string) that reconcile the sounds of Van Halen, Holdsworth, and classical piano/violin etudes. The complex lines pushed the envelope of tapping technique.
Called Ranger, it brought a two-guitar format bolstered by camaraderie and synergy despite quite different musical personalities.
Coming from a two-guitar band in which he was the dominant soloist, Watson assumed he would handle the solos.
“Brad had a rhythmic funk background and wasn’t an actionable soloist in the beginning,” he said. “His rhythm playing was really strong, plus he had way more knowledge of standard chord changes. In Ranger, I showed him some lead technique; he advanced very quickly and made the vibrato part of his personality, which worked out well. We chose solos not on complexity, but based on chord changes and the song. If it was moody, melodic, and favored whammy bar, it was Brad. If it was a ripping shredding thing, it was me. He uses harmonics and works the bar musically, while I like to play everything with just my hands.
“Doing harmony parts, we composed and played them together in the studio – they were the melodic glue that held the solos together. Occasionally, when we were slammed for time, I tracked some of the speedy harmonies that had odd intervals or technical stuff, like ‘Eddie’s Comin’ Out Tonight.’ I’d use Brad’s guitar or make my rig sound more like his.”
Watson’s picking is legendary in rock circles. The result of years practicing difficult plectrum exercises on 12-string, his attack and precision became identifiers of his tone and technique, and aspects of his persona in Night Ranger, beginning with their first single “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me,” which featured solos by both guys. To up the ante, he preferred heavy celluloid, plastic, and metal picks to articulate his aggressive-but-accurate lines. Being self-taught, he holds the pick with the front tip facing up, which he later learned evens the vibrations from pick attack.
For years, he started phrases with an up stroke, as heard in ‘Don’t Tell Me You Love Me,’ then later practiced with a metronome on mechanical alternate-picking patterns. He used long, heavy Howard Roberts picks, then discovered metal picks and the precision they offered; for grip, he punched holes in them with a screwdriver. He later switched to large ultra-heavy triangular Dunlops with beveled edges, and uses medium-gauge for acoustic six-string, thin for 12-string.
“Sing Me Away” (Night Ranger’s second single, April ’83) proved that Watson was more than an accomplished technician and two-trick pony. His solo in the pop-rock song is profoundly melodic and space-conscious, leaving room for expressiveness that reveals his tuneful side, akin to Schenker, Lukather, or Schon. He favors the warmer tone of the neck pickup and saves his faster passages for flurries between melody phrases. The more-prominent thematic lines find him milking soulful string bends and sustaining notes with singing vibrato and cultivating sweeter diatonic melody. The final passage is contrastingly blues-based, interjecting blues-scale melody and idiomatic string bending into the diatonic proceedings.
Watson’s eight-finger technique, first heard on “Rock in America,” was unprecedented. Unlike many colleagues, he had not previously played hammer-ons, and his was not an outgrowth of existing bi-dextral style, extension of the Van Halen approach, or a sound effect. Rather, it was more an emulation of keyboard passages that evolved to complement the song.
“When we were working on those parts, I heard these notes over a section but I couldn’t play them with my normal picking, and my left hand couldn’t reach them. I started fool ing with it in front of Fitz, and he suggested notes that seemed impossible over the changes. But, I woodshedded until I got it. Pat Thrall was in the studio when we were recording, and he convinced our producer, Pat Glasser, to put it on the song.”
Watson was one of the most-visible Les Paul players in an age of superstrats, and his ’56 goldtop became iconic after being heard on virtually every solo he played. He got it from the original owner, who brought it to consign at Sunrise Music. Montrose routed the body to install humbuckers and it became Watsons’ main guitar; by ’84, it had been fitted with Duncan Jeff Beck pickups, Dunlop jumbo frets, and Schaller tuners. Since retiring it from the road, he has used a ’69 goldtop and a reissue ’57 built by Tom Murphy. His other main Night Ranger guitar is a ’68 Guild F412 that also walked into Sunrise. Other guitars at the time included an early-’60s Les Paul Custom. His rack also housed a signature model Hamer Vector.
For amplification, he favored Hi-Watts and Mesa-Boogies for solos, and often used Glasser’s Marshall 100-watt for rhythm parts. Live, he relied on mid-’80s Boogie Mark II heads driving four 2×12 cabinets with Celestion and EV 12-M speakers.
His effects rig was designed to replicate his studio sound onstage. His main units were a Rocktron Hush IIC noise gate, Lexicon PCM60 digital reverb, ADA stereo-tap analog delay, and Korg nine-channel digital delay, all accessed by an EMB switching system with presets for effects selection and channel switching.
Following the departure of Fitz in early ’88, Night Ranger disbanded in ’89 as less-polished alternative, thrash, classic rock, Nu Metal, and grunge styles became predominant. Blades joined Damn Yankees (with Tommy Shaw and Ted Nugent), while Watson pursued a solo career and in ’92 released Lone Ranger with guests Gillis, Hagar, Steve Morse, Allan Holdsworth, Carmine Appice, and Steve Smith. He follows it with Around the Sun, which featured Kansas vocalist Steve Walsh and bassist Bob Daisley. He has performed on D-Metal Stars (“I See the Light”) and Disney’s Enchanted, appeared on recordings led by Tony Macalpine, Morse, Chris Isaak, Michael Schenker, and Eric Martin. In the ’90s, he recorded three albums with the supergroup Mother’s Army, featuring Daisley, Appice, and Joe Lynn Turner. He rejoined Night Ranger for Neverland (’97), Seven (’98), and Hole in the Sun (2007).
Wolf Marshall is the founder and original Editor-In-Chief of GuitarOne magazine. A respected author and columnist, he has been influential in contemporary music education since the early 1980s. His latest book is Jazz Guitar Course: Mastering the Jazz Language. Others include 101 Must-Know Rock Licks, B.B. King: the Definitive Collection, and Best of Jazz Guitar. A list credits can be found at wolfmarshall.com.
This article originally appeared in VG’s June 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
