:: Bluestarblog ::

:: Saturday, May 31, 2003 ::

A curious email:

'Boris the Spider' is the coolest bass riff of all time. Thanks for the bone.

No name, nothing else, but s/he's right - the bass rarely gets its due in the pop-rock world. I actually prefer writing songs on the bass since I find it easier to play with the tempo, and surprisingly the chord progressions, when trying to figure out where I want the song to go. If I had one I'd probably write a lot more songs. In honor of the most overlooked of the pop-rock ensemble, here are some of my all time favorite bass lines:

Temptations - My Girl and Papa Was a Rolling Stone
Spencer Davis Group - I'm a Man
The Who - Boris the Spider and Happy Jack
Tommy James - Draggin' the Line
Iron Butterfly - In a Gadda da Vida
Led Zeppelin - How Many More Times?
Jacksons - I Want You Back
Sly and the Family Stone - I Want to Take You Higher
The Band - Chest Fever
Stevie Wonder - Sir Duke
Frank Zappa - Catholic Girls
Black Oak Arkansas - Jim Dandy
Blues Brothers - Who's Making Love?
U2 - Sweetest Thing
Faith No More - Midlife Crisis
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground
Sonic Youth - My Friend Goo
Anthrax - Got the Time
Breeders - Cannonball
Mike Watt - Brave Captain and Intense Song For Madonna to Sing
Air - Sexy Boy
Jay-Z - I Just Wanna Love You
Low - Half Light

I also got another email wondering about the absence of Stevie Ray Vaughan - especially Cold Shot or Couldn't Stand the Weather - in my pile of guitar riffs.

:: Scot 9:47 PM [+] :: ::
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The the opinion section of my linkroll, the music page, and the reading room have been updated (don't miss Paul Buhle's The New Scholarship of Comics and Steven Strogatz's Who Cares About Fireflies?).

:: Scot 12:55 AM [+] :: ::
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Rock's Greatest Guitar Riff

(note: for users of Windows 2000 and up, the audio samples should open in your browser - others will likely see default media players open)

Next to Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry wields perhaps the greatest influence in rock and roll's history. The two had much in common; they were the best at fusing popular country and blues styles into a definition of rock and roll, and they had the showmanship and popularity that both resonated and defined American culture. They also influenced more musicians than any of their time.

Unlike other progenitors of the genre (Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and even Elvis), Chuck Berry played lead guitar - which would become rock music's A2 position. If Elvis showed the way singers would perform, Chuck Berry trademarked the way the guitar would be played. His signature licks and solos have become a staple of nearly every pop and rock guitarist that has followed. His high energy-style also popularized a unique feature of not only rock and roll, but also rock, country, pop, punk, and even rap - the guitar riff. From the opening lick of Johnny B. Goode, the guitar riff had established itself as the most popular sample of a song, a favorite of both players and listeners.

By definition, a riff is little more than 'a repeated melodic phrase.' In rock and pop, it can form the backbone of the song. Most often played by the guitar, it can be comprised of notes, chords, a combination of both, played on one or more guitars, or in synch with other instruments. Some can trick us into thinking or remembering we actually heard the song before. For the budding young guitarist, mastery of a few dozen riffs usually occurs somewhere between 'Yankee Doodle' and the first note-for-note guitar solo.

After the late 50's early 60's sounds of Chuck Berry, Scottie Moore, and James Burton, a new sound was ushered in with the next generation - the fuzz tone. By the mid 60's every band was experimenting with this new sound and in the process separating 'rock' from rock and roll. Roy Orbison's Pretty Woman, the Surfaris' Wipeout and the Chantays' Pipeline quickly turned into the Kinks' You Really Got Me and All Day and All of the Night, Tommy James and the Shondelles' Hanky Panky and the Yardbirds' Heart Full of Soul.

In no time this sound had progressed yet again into the Animals' Girl Named Sandoz, Cream's Sunshine of Your Love, Mountain's Mississippi Queen, and Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze and Manic Depression. These longer, fuzzier blues licks mixed with the mind-altering substances of the day gave a new dimension to guitar oriented rock. This heavier form of music was also responsible for a new concept - FM radio.

If the mid to late 50's was the golden age of rock and roll, then the late 60's to early 70's was the golden age of rock. This was the era that introduced concept albums, double albums, rock operas, and the five to ten minute 'epic' song - sometimes in movements. The guitar riff was kept alive and well with players like Neil Young (Cinnamon Girl), Free (All Right Now), Deep Purple (Smoke on the Water), and Black Sabbath (Iron Man) all contributing to the prime years of rock.

By the mid 70's, rock and the guitar scene had become a little stale and the cooler riffs a little sparser. The best bands of the 60's (Beatles, Rolling Stones) and early 70's (Zeppelin, The Who) had either broken up or peaked while FM radio was being challenged by other genres like punk and disco. There were a few gems - Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run, Eric Clapton's Cocaine, the Cars' Let the Good Times Roll, and Tom Petty's Refugee were natural FM anthems with terrific riffs, but hardly enough to fill rock's baring cupboard.

Guitar rock picked up in the late 70's with harder and louder bands like Van Halen, Kiss, and Judas Priest slowly gaining popularity. Pop music had now branched into an even harder form of rock - heavy metal. Along with this louder and often faster sound, guitar riffs became more aggressive - and sometimes more technical. Acts like Ozzy Osbourne (Crazy Train), AC/DC (Back in Black), Iron Maiden (Run to the Hills) and Rush (Tom Sawyer) brought a new excitement to guitar playing that had been waning the previous years.

By the mid 80's, not only were bands like Ratt (Round and Round), the Scorpions (Rock You Like a Hurricane) and Slade (Run Runaway) cashing in on great guitar riffs, but so was Michael Jackson (Beat It), Joan Jett (I Love Rock and Roll), Run DMC (Walk This Way), Yello (Si Senor the Hairy Grill), Ministry (Stigmata), Jesus and Mary Chain (Happy When it Rains), and INXS (Devil Inside). Rock guitar was in high demand across the pop spectrum.

As a result of this new popularity, the late 80's saw the guitarist as virtuoso. Unknown guitarists like Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, George Lynch, and Steve Vai inspired thousands of players into memorizing scales, studying music theory, and exploring more esoteric influences such as classical, jazz, and movie soundtracks. This trend resulted in teenage guitar wizards, breakneck guitar solos, and memorable riffs such as Joe Satriani's Surfing With the Alien, Living Colour's Cult of Personality, Anthrax's Got the Time, and Metallica's One.

The guitar scene of the early 90's took the aggression of heavy metal but without the speed and precision of 80's metal guitar. Instead, it combined the bluesier riffs and solos from 60's and 70's rock guitar with mid 50's and late 70's pop structures to give rise a new form of thick, brooding punk - grunge. Pearl Jam (Animal), Soundgarden (Jesus Christ Pose), Nirvana (Heart Shaped Box), and the Meat Puppets (Backwater) encapsulated the Seattle scene and added a terrific sub genre to FM radio and guitar rock.

During the mid 90's guitar rock went through another lull. The popularity of genres like hip-hop and electronica saw less (if any!) of the guitar and had little need for the flashy solos and riffs of genres past. Again, like the mid 70's, there were a few notables - Big Wreck's Oaf, Bush's Everything Zen, Ash's Jack Names the Planets, and Hum's Isle of the Cheetah ensured rock guitar still had a place.

Guitar oriented rock from the late 90's to early 00's, while nowhere near the popularity of the late 60's or mid 80's, has re-energized. Rap-rock (Limp Bizkit's Break Stuff, Linkin Park's In the End, and Papa Roach's Last Resort) and pop-punk (the Strokes' Last Nite, the Raveonettes' Attack of the Ghost Riders, Queens of the Stoneage's No One Knows) are dutifully carrying the tradition of rock guitar with clever fills and solos and some already classic riffs.

Picking out the best guitar riff of all time became difficult when scanning 50 years of popular music. Rock's greatest bands each have a catalogue to offer: the Beatles (Come Together, Birthday, Something) the Rolling Stones (Satisfaction, Jumping Jack Flash, Start Me Up), the Who (I Can't Explain, My Generation, and possibly rock's greatest bass riff in 'Boris the Spider') Led Zeppelin (Whole Lotta Love, Heartbreaker, Kashmir) and U2 (Sunday Bloody Sunday, Pride, Where the Streets Have No Name) all make fine picks. Add David Bowie (Rebel Rebel), Queen (Tie Your Mother Down), Alice Cooper (Muscle of Love), Pink Floyd (Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2), Van Halen (Runnin With the Devil), Guns and Roses (Sweet Child O' Mine), and REM (The One I Love) and your pool begins looking to large to manage. Each of these acts would have a few riffs that I would consider 'great' (though my vote goes to Zeppelin for the most). One difficult thing with these bands is that picking their one definitive riff was hard, with so many great samples to choose from. No different than trying to pick my favorite song from the same batch.

I had another problem since I was obviously going to look to my favorite bands: Sonic Youth (especially Kool Thing, Wish Fulfillment, and Androgynous Mind), Rheostatics (Soul Glue), Medicine (A Short Happy Life), Ween (Doctor Rock), the Smiths (How Soon is Now), the White Stripes (Fell in Love With a Girl), the Foo Fighters (My Hero), the Smashing Pumpkins (Here is No Why), the Pixies (Dead), the Cocteau Twins (Evangeline), Mike Watt (Piss Bottle Man), Dinosaur Jr (Loaded) and about a hundred others. The same problem occurred when I put together a list of my favorite guitarists. The 'A' list quickly expanded from Jimmy Page and Johnny Marr to Dave Navarro, Eddie Van Halen, Brian May, Jeff Beck, J. Mascis, Brad Laner, Kevin Shields, Billy Corgan, Frank Zappa, Reeves Gabrels, Kim Deal, Glenn Branca, Mick Ronson...well, you get the idea.

Instead of trying to find my favorite, I simply settled on finding the best (which you could argue is merely subjective, and therefore is my favorite - not so. My opinion is entirely objective). Ultimately I turned back to the middle page of rock music's best years: the late 60's - early 70's. Of all the guitar riffs I've hammered out over the years, this time period has by far grabbed the majority of them including the all time best - Derek and the Dominoes' Layla (it would figure that of all the samples I've used, this is the one that not only features no trace of the riff, but features instead the quiet denouement of slide guitars playing behind the piano during the second movement). To those who don't have it, get it. To those who play guitar, learn it - both parts.

If a great riff can make a good song sound better then a great song can also make a good riff sound better. Layla is a perfect example of both. A delicate balance of bright notes and subtle chords, the two guitarists (Eric Clapton and Duane Allman) play a beautiful call and response melody straight from page one of the blues. After two riffs the band kicks in and delivers one of rock's magic moments. The riff is later used throughout the chorus behind Clapton's "Laylas!" that begins each of his pleas.

My selection was further enhanced by the mystery of the band. A one-off project headed by Clapton, Derek and the Dominoes released only two albums; Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970) and the live In Concert (1973). The death of Duane Allman in 1971 and the drug-alcohol problems of at least two others (Clapton and drummer Jim Gordon) derailed any further works from the band. Despite the proven talent and reputation of the musicians involved, Derek and the Dominoes have gone down in history as rock's favorite one-trick pony - in album and in single. While Clapton would pursue a successful solo career, no other projects from him or his ex-bandmates would equal the chemistry that made Layla one of the best rock albums of all time, Layla one of the best songs of all time, and Clapton and Allman's two-part blues lick the best rock riff of all time.


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* audio samples are from the really cool entertainment site FYE Music

:: Scot 11:19 PM [+] :: ::
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Well, after a finely rested month, I'm back at it. For several reasons, I needed a holiday from all things academic (philosophy), geopolitical (the war), humor (the U.N.), or pity (Canada). I didn't completely disappear - the music page and the reading room have been updated (including this gem on America's worst intellectual - the anti-Semitic, pro-Pol Pot Noam Chomsky). Though I don't plan on neglecting my blog for such long time periods in the future, my postings will take on a slightly different - and less frequent - form than usual. I'll be using this site to post essays and longer pieces that will look slightly different from the linkings, fiskings, and one-liner rhetorical attacks we have come to know and love. Though I won't completely abandon my acerbity or sarcasm, longer pieces do merit a slightly different approach and if I hope to sell any of this crap in the future, I'll need to inject some seriousness and scholarship in my writings (umm, not including this post). I'll also continue to build up the music page and the reading room and post the updates here (as well as expanding the linkroll on the left). My visitor stats in the last month dipped only slightly, which tells me as many people come here for the food as they do the service. I use this site for a homebase when I want to read or research and it looks like others do too - and in the interest of gathering more information than I (and others) possibly have time to read, there's no reason to change.

Though still a newsjunkie, I did find it a little more difficult to post and comment on what hasn't really changed since I started this blog almost a year ago. The U.N. is still a self-serving joke (Cuba has just recently joined such distinguished nations as Algeria, Iran, Libya, Russia, Zimbabwe, Syria, China, and Saudi Arabia on the Human Rights Commission); Germany, France and Russia are actually bigger weasels than they were portrayed to be; the Palestinians are no closer to democracy and responsible statehood than are the Nimo or Lani tribes of New Guinea; North Korea is still crazy; Canada took a reactive and costly approach to two world-travelling epidemics - SARS and terrorism; and the Democrats are still on course to sacrifice a fringe candidate in 2004.

One thing did however change: the first shot heard through the Middle East. Since the Iraq 'quagmire' is the mere beginning of things to come, I won't bother speculating on the long term. As for the short term, things look pretty damn good. What went wrong? Next to nothing. A couple hundred allied deaths, our greatest concern, were just over half of what we lost during the Gulf War I - and there was no takeover of a country last time. Civilian casualties? Saddam was killing at a clip of 50 a day, which over a five week period, amounts to just under 2000 people. Allied caused deaths were less than ten percent of that. Looting of museums? I wish I cared - I don't. Iraqi looting of hospitals, lawlessness, and general anarchy? Considering their nation just crumbled under them, it's a wonder there weren't sprees of killings. They were bottled up for 30 years under a lunocracy and took their coming out party a little too far. Big deal. In past wars, the victors were the ones that did the pillaging - and least this time most of the loot stayed in the village. Syria? Scared white. Iran? Possibly next - and not liking it one bit. You won't hear this from CNN's Rym Brahimi and Christiane Amanpour, so allow me:

It was a CAKEWALK!

And how about the President's Top Gun display? Rockin! - what a way to end a war. It couldn't have been better unless he flew donuts over Baghdad. In backwoods dictum, he's a 'doin' president, and he done good. I hope he has a couple more flights in him yet...


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In light of the events from the past couple of months, I've written a quick memo to those across the political spectrum whose contrasted behavior has been nearly as entertaining as the actual war:

The Right - I'm not sure about the whole 'one nation under god and guns' thing, and you could certainly stand to be a lot more understanding of queers, women, potheads, and smut. But damn - can you ever lay a good asskicking. You really make the bald eagle look invincible.

Right-center/libertarian - If the right was the brawn, you were the brains. Center-right bloggers such as Instapundit, USS Clueless, Daimnation, Spot On, Volokh Conspiracy, Andrew Sullivan, and Samizdata were an absolute pleasure to read for their pro-war stance and their ability to responsibly criticize where they thought they saw the administration go wrong. As a centrist, I saw their political stances (on war and other things) very provocative and look forward to reading more from them.

Left-center/liberal - Some of you brought up relevant concerns and even laid down a good argument or two why invading Iraq would be a mistake (e.g. the occupation factor, fears of unilateralism). It was unfortunate your support for surgically removing a murderous, torture happy regime took so much time and effort, but it's better having you on board. Oh, and in the future, you will need to do a better job of quelling your far lunatic compadres if you want more people to listen to you.

The liberals' far lunatic compadres aka The Left - Left behind is more like is. To be blunt, if you find any kernel of wisdom in the political ramblings of Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Robert Fisk, Gore Vidal, Michael Moore, Barbra Streisand, Martin Sheen, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, or the Dixie Chicks, there is nothing short of an epiphany that will restore your field of cognition. You are misguided and sick.

I leave the gloating to those who actually hate you worse than I do -

David Horowitz
Ann Coulter
John Hawkins
Mark Steyn
Jonah Goldberg
Emmett Tyrrell

N.B. Don't get too comfy with the decrease in military activity - there's much more to come.

:: Scot 10:12 PM [+] :: ::
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