RiffZoo

Album of the Day: Derek and the Dominoes - Live at the Fillmore

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 23:15:00 +0000

Clapton on his own, post-Cream, rockin'. I especially like the slower version of Crossroads. What a vibe, I once called it his "voodoo" version of the track after seeing him do it in November 1986 at the Ritz,; he opened with it - great stuff. You just get into this trance listening to it.

While arguably shaky in some parts, this CD nevertheless contains some of his best post-Cream live performance.

Don't miss "Blues Power" either. The blues performances are astounding, especially "Have You Ever Loved a Woman". For you players, this is a great one to jam along with.

I'm Back!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 22:23:00 +0000

Hello everyone, after a long hiatus, I'm back. You see, I came to a point where I felt that I said what I had to say about the state of guitar playing, but that's now over a year ago. Over the past few months, more than ever I've felt myself contemplating the days of yore, and specifically the guitar music of yore....reaching for something I guess, for the days when people played.

OK, I may be living in the past, but that was great stuff - 70's classic guitar. Found myself listening to Pat Travers Heat in the Street the other day, specifically the playing of Pat Thrall. A real shredder, you have to check out the stuff he did with Glenn Hughes in Hughes/Thrall, especially the track Muscle and Blood.

And picture this scene, a 47 year old guy (yeah, me) driving around with Robin Trower Live blasting in my car. Few have a better vibrato.

Checked out Paul Kossoff again too... talk about vibrato.

So, let's get the discussion going again, and talk guitar. Any takers?

Chime in guys...

RiffZoo Weekend 5 - September 29, 2006

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 22:32:00 +0000

Some songs with some cool, long solos for the weekend...

1) Peter Frampton - Do You Feel Like We Do - Frampton Comes Alive (One of the greats)
2) Funkadelic - Maggot Brain - Maggot Brain (Eddie Hazel on guitar- Did you ever hear this guy? You should have.)
3) Deep Purple - Child in Time - In Rock (Ritchie Blackmore, of course - I really like the studio version of this one)
4) Robin Trower - Too Rolling Stoned - Bridge of Sighs (Maybe one of my favorite solos of all time)
5) Thin Lizzy - Still in Love With You - Live and Dangerous (You get two for the price of one on this on - Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 18:50:00 +0000

RiffZoo Weekend 5 - September 23, 2006

Check out the main riffs in each of these riff classics...

1) Black Dog - Led Zeppelin
2) Riff Raff - AC/DC
3) Rat Bat Blue - Deep Purple
4) Rock Bottom - UFO
5) Frankenstein - Edgar Winter

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 01:19:00 +0000

RiffZoo Weekend 5 - September 15, 2006

This weekend we'll mellow it out a bit. The album's cited are where the songs are available on Rhapsody, which is a very convenient way to explore music. Enjoy...

1) Slow Blues - Mick Taylor: Mick Taylor (From his first solo album in 1979; top notch playing)
2) Black Magic Woman - Fleetwood Mac: Jumping at Shadows - The Blues Year (Peter Green, one of the best...)
3) Mr. Big (Live) - Free: Molten Gold - The Anthology Box Set (Paul Kossoff, king of the vibrato... and early Paul Rodgers ain't bad either)
4) Hey Baby (New Rising Sun) - Jimi Hendrix: First Rays of the New Rising Sun (Say no more)
5) Night Meets Light - Dixie Dregs: What If (Early Steve Morse; this one's one of my favorites)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 23:25:00 +0000

Jeff Beck - The Master of His Craft

Having caught Jeff Beck at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York last evening (9/12), I remain convinced that his guitar playing may be the closest any player has come to replicating the communicative timbre and expressive cadence of the human voice. He has an innate sense of melody. His playing has a tone, soul, touch and total control that is incomparable, and ultimately musical in its lyricism.

In my opinion, he is now the lone and conquering survivor of a peer group including Hendrix, Page and Clapton. Yes, I'm sure many would argue that these next words will be blasphemous to utter, but Jimi is dead, and has been for 36 years this coming Monday. We will never know what he would have achieved with his playing, so it is a somewhat fruitless exercise pondering. Jimmy Page's best playing is now 30 years gone and for Eric, well the Cream reunion last year can't nearly compare to what I saw last night. My apologies to Eric's fans, he is not Jeff Beck -- and Eric even said as much over 20 years ago. Jeff is here and very now.

Not only is he still relevant, but he's at the peak of his already considerable powers. He has energy, attitude, aggression and sensitivity, all wrapped into one six string package. Simply put, he is the master (and many would argue the inventor) of his craft. To me, there is none better.

So, not to sound too sappy, many who saw him last night may agree with what I'm about to say. Upon hearing his last notes of the evening, I was hit with a wave of waxing melancholy that did not go quickly away into the night -- a feeling that I had just seen an old friend for the last time waving his farewell. Ya see, he just celebrated his 62nd birthday. His music has brought me profound joy for decades. There will not be that many more, if any, opportunities to see him and hear his playing again. We are all mortal. Our lives are so enriched by his mastery.

You must see him on this tour if you have the chance. He is an icon - our icon, our last remaining "guitar hero".

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 16:32:00 +0000

RiffZoo Weekend 5 - September 8 2006

Some high octane listening for the weekend. Be sure to check this site out every Friday night for a new RiffZoo Weekend 5 playlist. Ya gotta turn this stuff way up and play it loud, especially for your neighbor's musical education!

1. Another Piece of Meat - Scorpions: Lovedrive
2. Kill the King - Rainbow: Long Live Rock and Roll
3. Race with Devil on Spanish Highway - Al DiMeola: Elegant Gypsy
4. Rock the Nation - Montrose: Montrose
5. Led Boots - Jeff Beck: Wired

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 02:08:00 +0000

Hootchie Koo

I was recently watching CNBC (of all things), when to my astonishment I saw this online trading commercial featuring none other than Rick Derringer belting out Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo in a paid command performance to some guy sitting behind a desk. What is the world coming to! But then again, it’s pretty cool that this guy is still getting recognition. It got me thinking – how can I pass this up – a real RiffZoo classic.

Probably the best track off of 1973’s All American Boy debut solo album by Rick, Hootchie Koo is true rock and roll, guaranteed to make you crack open a Budweiser and raise your fist. “Lawdie mama, light my fuse”! The single-note line in between the vocal lines gives it almost a slide-like delta blues feel. For you air guitarists, it may very well be one of the top five of all time. Even guitarists play air guitar to it. It’s that good of a riff song.

The tune was also covered by Johnny Winter, for a real howling treatment. Be sure to listen to both versions. In reality Rick and Johnny were kind of joined at the hip in the late 60's. What many people forget is that Rick was actually a star at the age of 15 in 1965 as the front man and guitar player with the McCoys and their hit Hang On Sloopy. He then went on to be the second lead player for Johnny Winter And, one of the quintessential bands in rock history. Be sure to look up Johnny Winter And Live in your listening. Keep in mind that Johnny Winter is the real deal. Rick also played with Winter brother Edgar on Shock Treatment in 1974.

He had a pretty successful solo career, highlighted by Hootchie Koo. In the mid 70’s he formed a band called Derringer which was a GREAT band if you had a chance to hear them live in the 70’s (it was my first concert). Although they’re very hard to find now, the albums Derringer and Sweet Evil both feature some really great guitar work, as well as with second lead player Marc Cunningham. Both collections are well worth the effort to find. Wait till you hear Beyond the Universe.

In 1978, Derringer changed lineup with Lawyers, Guns and Money. Guess who he had in this band? Neal Geraldo, Kenny Aaronson on bass and Myron Grombacher on drums. Neal and Myron went on a year later to become Pat Benatar’s band for her breakthrough debut album, and Neal also wrote all of the seminal guitar work featured over Pat’s career.

Rick still tours regularly. Listen to whatever you can get your hands on of his music. Real high energy, boogie playing. A "must listen" guitar player.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 00:15:00 +0000

Iommi

For this week, we take a departure at RiffZoo, away from focusing on one song and look instead at one player and his “lifetime achievement” contribution to riffage. The man is Tony Iommi, guitarist of Black Sabbath. One word. Iommi. Nuff said.

Eventually in the future, we’ll dissect each one of his masterpieces of riffs. But for the time being, I’ve decided that you can’t have a blog about riffs without owning up very early in the game to the seminal contributions of this man and his work.

With all due respect to Messrs. Page, Blackmore, Beck and others, Iommi single-handedly created heavy music, invented metal, and brought riff composition to a high art form. Interestingly enough, if it weren’t for a tragic accident with a drill press, we may not have modern metal music today as we know it.

Ya see, the guy lost the tips of his middle two fingers in that accident, the middle two fingers of his fingering hand no less! Determined not to let it stop him from playing, he contrived these leather fingertips with rubber on the end to put on the damaged digits. He put these prosthetic tips on, and so as to be able to still bend strings and still do all the other standard “things” in the rock playing vein, he dropped the tuning on all his strings (often way, way down) to reduce the string tension to make playing easier. So that droning, deep, full “metal” sound was actually born out of necessity.

My guess (and it’s only a guess on my part) is that playing common chord structures also proved to be a bit difficult for him, and perhaps this challenge caused him to lean on playing 5th’s instead with his index finger and possibly his pinky. Hence, the birth of the prominence of the playing of 5th’s in metal, and rock in general. Keep in mind; this is only a theory on my part, so humor me.

Betcha didn’t know this either. Prior to forming Earth, which eventually became Black Sabbath, he actually played guitar for Jethro Tull for a brief stint, preceding Martin Barre. Can you imagine Tull with Tony Iommi?

Products of Birmingham, England, Tony and Black Sabbath have given the world enough riffs to last a lifetime. The list is so long, that ultimately one is always prone to leave one (or more) out. Immediately popping into my mind right now is Into the Void and Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath. This is music to snarl by. Also, on Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath, a RiffZoo nod must also go to bassist Geezer Butler for that plodding bass riff. Go check it out.

On the subject of Birmingham, it really is a ground zero of sorts for heavy music. Not only did it produce Sabbath, but also Judas Priest as well. Robert Plant and John Bonham too. So any city that’s given us Robert Plant, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and John Bonham can easily lay claim to the mantle “Home of the Heavy”. Think about it, what a combination those four would have been.

Even to this day, Tony Iommi is still more than relevant with his music. You absolutely must check out his latest solo effort with Glenn Hughes called Fusion. Go listen to it now. You can thank me later.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 00:57:00 +0000

Seattle Flow

OK, I’ll admit it; my age puts me into official “Freedom Rocker” status. So, picture this scene if you will. The early 90’s come around; I’m coming out of a great 80’s decade for guitar music, straight out of the hair band metal sunset strip ethos, and then along comes this “grunge” thing I start hearing about from Seattle of all places.

Seemed like “the look” and glam were definitely out the door and, my deepest fear of all, real guitar playing. Think about how surprised I was when I had the radio on one day in late 1991, and I hear this RIFF…. one that just makes you just want to sway, rock your head, and play guitar (air or real). This riff is really cool I’m thinking, then I find out it’s this band called Pearl Jam from Seattle. Oh no, a "grunge" band! But hold on, lose your blinders and listen, because this is a very, very good groove. Almost, well, “metal-like”.

The song is Evenflow from Pearl Jam’s debut album Ten. This song is so un-grunge, featuring that machine gun-like twin guitar riff, with these screaming Hendrix-esque lead fills in between the vocals. Wha pedals, whammy bars and that chugging riff. Jimi came from Seattle too - must be in the rain or something.

Guitarists Mike McCready and Stone Gossard taught me a lesson that day. They transformed big arena guitar rock down to the power and intensity level of a club. You feel as though you’re in a packed club when you listen to it. And that San Diego surfer dude Mr. Vedder. Nothing more to say.

Open your ears and close your eyes. Hearing Evenflow for the first time gave me solace that the 90’s were going to be alright. Very different, but alright. And I hadn’t even heard Jerry Cantrell or Tom Morello yet.

Ten really set the table for the 90’s. Mike and Stone, welcome to the Zoo.

Tour note everyone, take notice. Jeff Beck is coming to your town in September. Do NOT miss this show. He is the master.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 00:42:00 +0000

Blacking Out

For those of you who thought that RiffZoo would be a fossilized time capsule flashback stuck in the 70’s, glorifying some old classic guitar rock, well, guess again. We’ll be jumping around to the 80’s and 90’s eventually too – I promise we’ll get to Tom Morello – and even the 50’s and 60’s.

But this week takes us to 1982, to one of the best pop metal bands of all time, Scorpions. And not their radio hit either, No One Like You (at least not this week), but rather the title track on that breakout album, Blackout.

Hailing from Hanover, Germany (West Germany at the time), the Scorps had been around for about a decade by the time of Blackout. This album started their journey into the big time mainstream charts in the U.S., landing them huge success and an opening slot on a U.S. arena tour with Rainbow as well. Arguably, they have produced two of the greatest lead guitarists of all time, Uli Roth and Michael Schenker. Yet we mustn’t overlook the significant talents of Mats Jabs on lead guitar, who joined the band in 1979 and is the lead guitarist on Blackout, a role he has maintained ever since. This album is his statement, “I’m here”.

No matter how you look at it, the guy is a monster guitar player, and while others may expend endless energy debating that he isn’t Uli or Michael, it is a fact that Matthias has produced some of the most memorable pop metal riffs and solos of all time. How would you like to follow in the footsteps of Uli Roth and Michael Schenker in your gig? Let’s face it, Mats is one of the greats too, and I’ll bet you can remember and sing in your head more of his stuff than that of the other two (Doctor Doctor notwithstanding), even two decades later.

Hold on though, this opine is not solely about Matthias Jabs. We can’t possibly forget “the other” Schenker, Rudolph with his Flying V. Guitar-wise, Rudy is the Scorpions, and is the indispensable part of their trademark sound. This guy is a heavy rock songwriting master, able to achieve so much with his no-frills rhythm (and lead) playing. I definitely put him up there (nearly) with Malcolm Young of AC/DC. What gets me is that he often is able to pack all that drive and power into just one chord, which brings us to Blackout.

It’s Rudy’s opening, repetitive, penetrating E chord at the 7th fret that pulverizes me every time. It literally hammers rhythmically through your skull. Then Mats comes in with that other overlaying riff that simply makes you want to run around smashing all the windows in your house. Both of them used what now seems to be that signature Deutsche Metal sound of humbucker through fixed-positioned wah into the 50watt Marshall (Michael used it too). Know what I mean? It hits you in your fillings until they rattle. Klaus wails with his vocals, with Herman and Francis thundering away on the bottom. Combine it all, and you have supreme bombastic rock.

Believe it or not, Rudy’s inspiration and prime influence apparently was The Beatles. So he was into the songwriting first. No doubt it’s this sensibility that has made Scorpions so accessible to wider audiences.

Sure, mention Scorpions, and invariably people will revert to Rock You Like a Hurricane. Yup, that’s a great song too, but Blackout still floors me to this day, hence it’s entry into the Zoo. Sure, the album Love at First Sting solidified them into the pantheon of worldwide headliner status, but Blackout (the album) has that raw, in-your-face, non-stop and endlessly listenable power that has truly stood the test of time.

Blackout is recorded Red Bull, packed with energy. Check it out. Buy the whole album too – definitely a “deserted island” choice in my book. Every song is great. Enjoy it and play it LOUD!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 21:51:00 +0000

Smoke That Rocked the World

Welcome to our first installment of RiffZoo’s weekly opinion page on guitar riffage; power music that has rocked the world. Each week, we’ll take a look at guitar passages from the past that have inspired all of us over the years – those sonic clusters and busters that we can’t ever seem to get out of our heads.

A note of warning though to the world at large, riff lovers like us are lurking amongst you and come in all shapes and sizes, young and old. We’re on the loading docks, in the boardrooms, on construction sites and trading floors. We are the musical (albeit perhaps middle-aged) underground. Start talkin’ guitar and riffs, and we quickly drop whatever we’re doing, or whomever we’re talking to at that moment and enter into another world of endless musical debate and conversation, no matter the setting.

Have you ever been in a business meeting, at a party with your significant other, on the job site, or just about anywhere else and gotten into a conversation about guitar and great guitar moments with someone just like you and not be able to shut up, launching into a non-ending conversation, the importance of which made no sense whatsoever to anyone around you (spouse, significant other or colleague) but made perfect sense to you and your newly found riffage friend? In your mind, was Jack Black’s curriculum in School of Rock a message of social and artistic importance that HAD to be taught? Well then, you are now home amongst your brethren.

Even though I myself have been playing for 30 years, this blog is not exclusively for players; it’s not solely focused on gear and notes, but rather the spirit and impact of the music. Air guitar players and headbangers young and old are welcome.

So, for our first entry into the RiffZoo, we’re going to look at the much maligned, often mocked and ridiculed, yet ultimately seminal event in riffage – Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple, the performance of guitarist Ritchie Blackmore specifically.

Recorded in the late fall of 1971 when Ritchie was only 26 years old, few other songs in history have so instinctively driven people to reflexively revert to playing air guitar. Few other songs have inspired as many people to pick up a guitar in the first place. Show of hands now…. for how many of you was this the first song you learned to play? I know it as mine.

With all due respect to Ian Gillan, Ian Paice, Jon Lord and Roger Glover, magnificent performances all, this is Ritchie’s moment. The guitar work here is a classic exercise in minimalist guitar playing. Coming off the heals of Fireball, with classics like Strange Kind of Woman, Machine Head (the album which Smoke is on) brought the band to a completely different level. Fireball was a great rock album. Machine Head however was a classic for the ages, and specifically a guitar performance by Ritchie Blackmore that compositionally could not have been foreseen at the time of Fireball. It’s the moment in my opinion, when he went from being a great guitar player, to one of the greats of all time.

To conjure up and being willing to put onto (at the time) vinyl such a simple, yet powerful chord progression like Smoke was musical risk taking. The power was in what he wasn’t playing.

In interviews, he claims they’re double stops he’s playing on the intro riff (no root note), simultaneously plucked with the thumb and index finger. The full, dominating sound of that stock Strat through that big ole Marshall (Major 200watt I believe), rattling through the halls of that hotel corridor with its natural reverb is otherworldly. Combined with the Hammond B3 organ of Jon Lord banging out the same, and it’s an aggressive, sonic assault.

The solo is pure genius. It is a composition in itself, which to me tells the whole story of “the fire” - it speaks to you. Then, playing the whole solo on the neck pickup and finally, just at the right time, the perfect moment of tension, he flicks to the bridge pickup with that twangy, gradually descending staccato released bend! What drama. Yet it’s such a simple solo, but so effective and memorable. I’ll bet any of you can sing it right now, a mark of a true classic.

Our flashback to this classic, and all classic riffage we will discuss in the future, requires that we must go back and revisit these songs, and play them LOUD, but……. it can be highly embarrassing to be caught listening to this music in 2006, especially if you are in your Brooks Brothers best on the commuter train to the floor, trying to keep up appearances as solid citizens, which we all must do. This then is our ultimate, stress-releasing, yet private guilty pleasure.

So, we connoisseurs of riffage owe a great debt to our friends at Apple for the iPod (and other personal music devices), which allow us to blast these classics into our drums and mind without incurring the astonished, snickering wrath from others regarding our surprising, adolescent they would argue, taste in music. Throw on the buds for this one, turn it up, and open-mindedly lose yourself in what a truly great and influential moment this song is in reality, and not what others may think about it.

Approach Smoke at its own merit. Laugh if you will, but I believe it stands the test of time, and as such is a logical first entry into the Zoo. I’m not saying it’s the best, just a great place to start our journey back in time.

As curator of the Zoo, it’s our mission to educate the younger generations of guitar players and music lovers about the roots of the music they now play and listen to. After all, it is very important stuff, isn’t it?

See you next week!