G.E. Smith

Most of the millions of people who saw pony-tailed Smith play scorching guitar during a 10-year stint in the Saturday Night Live Band know only a fraction of a brilliant, multi-faceted talent. Musicians are far more familiar with him. The list of world-class players he has performed with is staggering -- Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Tina Turner, Hall and Oates, Eric Clapton and David Bowie is only a good start. G.E. (George Edward) was born in suburban Stroudsburg, Pa., where he was playing guitar at four. He's hung on for years to his first electric axe, a 1952 Telecaster made the year he was born. He vividly remembers Peter, Paul and Mary and Dylan's first album in '63. Catching the legendary Odetta and Josh White at a taping of the TV show "Hootenanny" left a lasting impression. Not even shaving yet, he was supporting himself as a musician, playing high school dances and Poconos resorts, often with bandmates twice his age. G.E. gravitated to the New Haven, Conn., area and hooked up with the Scratch Band for some memorable club dates up and down the East Coast in the first half of the '70s. Dan Hartman gave Smith his first real break by hiring him to front his band for a lip-synch tour of Europe and the U.S. Back in the States, G.E. headed for Manhattan and became the guitarist for Gilda Radner's 1979 Broadway show Gilda Live. Smith's life also changed in 1979 when he began a six-year stint as lead guitarist with Hall and Oates. The hits included "Kiss On My List," "Private Eyes" and "Man Eater," and they toured incessantly. Smith recalls how they once toured in the summer in the northern hemisphere followed by a summer tour in the southern hemisphere, avoiding the New York winter. The fantasy part of his career began in early 1985 at the Live Aid and Farm Aid concerts....