August 13 marks Left Handers Day, where we (normal people) lay off mocking the freakish ten percent of the population that consulted with the devil at birth (citation: scientific fact from our grandmother).
Although Major League Baseball has the best reason to celebrate the day—around 29.5 percent of players bat left handed—music still has had its fair share of lefties. Music Times will take a break from celebrating the life of editor-in-chief and lefty Emily Wittmann to celebrate the lives of some of the most famous southpaws in music history:
11) Justin Bieber
Probably not the first performer you were expecting to see on this list but it's true: When Bieber isn't dancing and holding a microphone in his hand, he's been known to sit down onstage and perform an acoustic ballad solo. He generally strums with his left hand, a sign of his primary, but he will on occasion strum right-handed as well. So the next time you haters want to trash the pop star's musicality, at least recall that he's ambidextrous on the six-string.
10) The Electric Mayhem
The easily identified house band for The Muppet Show and all of its follow-ups is the first on this list to pack at least two lefties: Guitarist Janice and bassist Floyd Pepper both strum left-handed. If you NEED an explanation: All of the Muppeteers involved are right handed, meaning they use their primary hands to guide the head and faces, leaving the left to handle hands and arm movements, meaning the muppets are all left-handed technically, but its more noticeable with the musicians. It is noteworthy however that saxophonist Zoot holds his instrument as a righty would.
09) Drummers
A litany of big name drummers are lefties off the stage: Ringo Starr, Travis Barker and Chris Adler of Lamb of God are but a few. Claiming this minority status is tricky however as all the names above and many other lefty percussionists are perfectly comfortable using a "right-handed" setup. You know, because they're better at doing different things with different hands at the same time than we are.
08) Gerald Casale
The longtime Devo bassist is one of many that have carried on despite their hand orientation problems. What sets him apart is that he plays with his strings backwards. Many lefties simply flip a right-handed instrument and reorder the strings so that the order remains EADGBE, with the lowest string at the top. Casale left his the way they were, meaning he plays a EBGDAE with the low strings at the bottom. Hey man, whatever you're comfortable with. We'll see some more guitarists who use a similar style later down the line.
07) UB40
UB40 may not be known necessarily for highly-flying instrumental action, but the band did sell 70 million-plus records and win four Best Reggae Album Grammys. What makes this group interesting is that primary guitarist Robin Campbell and his brother, vocalist and occasional guitar player Duncan Campbell, are both lefties. Scientists have noted that left-handedness seems to run in families but no gene for the trait has yet been isolated.
06) Kurt Cobain
The impact of the Nirvana frontman's handedness on his guitar playing seems negligible, but he's perhaps the performer third most-noted for his southpaw tendencies (behind two others on this list). The trait seemed to to gel with a generation's desire to see him as a symbol for everything anti-conformist and hence lived on as party of his legacy.
05) Albert King
We've already joked about how left-handedness used to be seen as a sign of being devil-ridden so it probably helped sell Albert King sell a couple records during his heyday. Bluesmen made the devil (and their dealing withs him) a key part of many songs, so proof of the deal couldn't hurt. King's most famous album, Born Under A Bad Sign, only confirmed what others were already thinking. He also preferred his guitar string from bottom-to-top, like Casale.
04) Dick Dale
The king of the surf guitar was yet another performer who played his instrument strung from the bottom up, even after switching to instruments built for left-handed players. It made perfect sense for his trademark method however: Dale took staccato to the extreme to create his signature sound on tracks such as "Misirlou," and he needed help to avoid hurting himself. The reason why shredded solos are played on the "tiny strings," aside from pitch, is because those strings are located at the extent of the arm's length. Try playing a machine-gun riff like Dale's on the upper string versus the lower and your arm will hurt a lot more.
03) Tony Iommi
Tony Iommi is one of the greatest guitarists of all time and as such deserves to be near the top of this list. However, his signature heaviness isn't the product of his left hand so many forget that he's among this select few. In fact, the reason why his sound is so heavy is because he was forced to downtune his guitars and use light-gauge strings to make it easier to play after he lost the tips of his right ring and middle fingers in an industrial accident. So yes, metal was birthed of lopped-off fingers. As it should be.
02) Jimi Hendrix
Hendrix is not only the best left-handed guitarist, he's also the best guitarist in general. His experimentation with pedals and styles changed the game and his talent was virtuosic as well. He's also the key musician in the trend of flipping right-handed guitars and stringing them backwards, as his upside-down Stratocaster head is now iconic. It seems silly that his father would try to force him to switch hands during his youth, again citing the devil. Why would you mess with a talent like that? Hendrix also took on southpaw drummer Buddy Miles when he started the Band of Gypsys.
01) Paul McCartney
McCartney might not be at the same level of playing as Hendrix but he's still the most identifiable left-hander in music, thanks of course to being in the world's biggest band. And as a world class songwriter with a litany of new ideas, that means a lot of left-handed instruments to go with it. The most recognizable of course is his classic Höfner violin bass, plus he's got guitars, mandolins, ukuleles and even a left-handed trumpet (they exist).
