Well, I won't won't be talking about clean notes in this article; on the contrary, I went looking for the dirtiest, nastiest, filthiest guitar licks from that greatest era of rock that straddled the 60's and the 70's. Some of these riffs have been known to induce convulsions in the timorous and weak. Nuns have become promiscuous and given up their calling, in essence kicking the habit, after hearing some of these songs. Upon hearing just one of these chord progressions, classically trained young musicians have been known to drop the bassoon, stop shaving and bathing, and end up living in dilapidated upper flats playing gnarly notes on scratched and abused Telecasters. One doesn't get that type of reaction with "clean tone".
But what exactly am I referring to when I say "dirtiest, nastiest, filthiest guitar licks?" And in answer to my internal monologue, I would reply, "Actually, my precious, I have an example...."
The example:
Funk #49 - The James Gang (Joe Walsh)
Perhaps the single, sleaziest riff ever concocted. You feel dirty just listening to it. It repeats at about 2:12 and is even sleazier than the intro, if that's possible.
So, using a riff from Joe Walsh, one of rock's unsung guitar heroes, as an exemplar of the sound I am seeking (I would also mention Walsh's filthy use of a talk box halfway through Rocky Mountain Way), let us peruse the 50 plus tunes I have compiled off the top of my head that fit the raison d'être of this musically naughty exposition. I am sure I have missed many lascivious licks, but drop a line and jar my memory. After all, I lost most of my mind in the 70's (the rest is pickled in a jar in the fridge). Oh, and the lead guitarist for each song is listed in parentheses.
THE 1960s
Voodoo Chile - Jimi Hendrix (Hendrix)
This is about as violent as you're going to get as far as 1960s guitar playing. Due to the Hendrix family keep such a tight lid on YouTube videos (which I don't think Hendrix himself would think much of), I can't really share some of the more incendiary tracks by Jimi, but Machine Gun gets quite dark in both content and ominous guitar licks as the song progresses.
Midnight Rambler - The Rolling Stones (Keith Richards)
The shambling, just-rolled-out-of-bed shuffle Keith Richards instigates is magnified on the Get Yer Ya Ya's Out live version with the addition of Mick Taylor on lead (the best guitarist the Stones ever had). The fuzzy, sloppy style is evident in nearly every great Stones tune, and is exemplified in the great guitar trade-offs between Richards and Taylor on Can't You Hear Me Knocking.
SWLABR - Cream (Eric Clapton)
Sure, the heaviest riff that critics will refer to regarding Cream is from Sunshine of Your Love, but the unpronounceably-titled song "SWLABR" (actually an acronym for "She Walks Like a Bearded Rainbow" - yeah, don't do drugs and try to title songs) features the crazily processed guitar of Eric Clapton, run simultaneously through a wah-wah and fuzz-box so it almost sounds like a distorted kazoo.
Misirlou - Dick Dale and the Dell Tones (Dick Dale)
My favorite Lebanese surf tune. Amazing stuff for 1964, even with the later filmic misfortune of John Travolta dancing to the song.
Interstellar Overdrive - Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett)
The only album you're going to get Syd Barrett with a semblance of full faculties, and a memorable trippy riff here. Really, this song one-ups nearly every other band in the psychedelic era, as well as influencing and informing later Floyd songs like Careful With that Axe Eugene and Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, and additionally other acid rock; for instance, listen to Alice Cooper's early albums Pretties for You (Levity Ball) and particularly Easy Action (Lay Down and Die Goodbye).
The Pusher - Steppenwolf (Michael Monarch)
Prototypical heavy psychedelic guitar and subject matter for 60s outrage, emphasized by John Kay growling out "God damn the Pusher!" Interestingly enough, the song was written by Hoyt Axton, later known for being the dad/crazy inventor of smokeless ash trays in the movie Gremlins.
Highway 61 - Johnny Winter (Winter)
Winter's fiery slide version of this song pretty much erases all memory of the original Bob Dylan version. What were we talking about again?
You Really Got Me - The Kinks (Dave Davies)
There were no fancy guitar pedals back in 1964, no overdrives and distortion boxes. Dave Davies got the ragged, distorted sound he was looking for by slashing the cone of his amp speaker with a razor and picking holes in it with a pin. Kids, don't try this at home. Mom and dad won't buy you another amp.
Helter Skelter - The Beatles (McCartney, Harrison and Lennon)
One more can you say about a song so incendiary that it set Charles Manson off on the path of mass murder? This is as violent as McCartney ever got. Ever. The Beatles (White Album) was the revolt against the niceties of Sgt. Peppers. It is brimming with more organic, less produced, heavier material like the filthy, nasty guitar work on Happiness is a Warm Gun and Yer Blues. That's John Lennon on five string bass, by the way. And counter to the myth, Ringo is actually the one bellowing "I got blisters on my fingers!"
Eight Miles High - The Byrds (Roger McGuinn)
The song is not about drug use, the Byrd's band members maintained strenuously (while rolling their eyes and popping a few more pills). Ravi Shankar's influence is readily discernible in Roger McGuinns glimmering, droning 12 string guitar repeating riff and solo.
The Lemon Song - Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page)
Yes, yes, yes...Whole Lotta Love has the dirty riff that made Zeppelin famous, but "The Lemon Song", also from Led Zeppelin II, has an actually filthier, slinkier progression that really fits the analogous obscenities filling that song ("Squeeze me babe, till the juice runs down my leg -- the way you squeeze my lemon, I'm gonna fall right out of bed"). There's also an extremely heavy riff on Moby Dick that people tend to forget about, considering it as just the basis for a John Bonham drum solo.
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida - Iron Butterfly (Erik Brann)
People are often apt to discuss the Phantom of the Opera organ intro, or the sinister bass line, but it's the acid guitar attack of Erik Brann droning on for 17 or 18 minutes that is the most memorable aspect of this epic bit of psychedelia.
I Ain't Superstitious - Jeff Beck
You forget this is a Howlin' Wolf Song. You forget this is 1968. You even forget that Rod Stewart is singing. When Beck's guitar starts wailing and shrieking and making tortured sounds that a wah-wah pedal was not designed for, you simply don't pay attention to anything else.
Spirit in the Sky - Norman Greenbaum (Greenbaum)
Greenbaum translated the success of this distorted single into a goat farm in Petaluma, California. He then retired from music for decades.
Moonlight on Vermont - Captain Beefheart (Bill Harkleroad and Jeff Cotton)
I'm not going to try to explain it. Yes, the vocals are demented, but so are the guitars. Which is the point, I suppose.
Pictures of Matchstick Men - Status Quo
A song guaranteed to drive adults crazy, with its repetitious, chiming single note progression.
I'm not going to try to explain it. Yes, the vocals are demented, but so are the guitars. Which is the point, I suppose.
Pictures of Matchstick Men - Status Quo
A song guaranteed to drive adults crazy, with its repetitious, chiming single note progression.
THE 1970s
Cosmik Debris - Frank Zappa (Zappa)
There are any number of sleazy Zappa solos. I could point to the solo starting at around 1:13 of Dirty Love for instance, or any number off the fusion-rock album Hot Rats, but perhaps because "Cosmik Debris" is a fairly standard 4/4 blues composition (albeit with extremely warped lyrics and zany asides), the raunchiest blues lead ever starting at 2:03 packs such a gut punch. In fact, the guitar work throughout the song is warped.
Going Down - The Jeff Beck Group (Beck)
Jeff Beck is on his own planet when discussing how he manages to warp the nature of a guitar into soundscapes that really no one else has managed to emit.
In My Time of Dying - Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page)
The sleazy slide Page offers on this song is amplified on the lead kicking in at 4:57. Physical Graffiti has always been my favorite Led Zep album, filled with gargantuan riffs like on The Rover and The Wanton Song.
One of these Days - Pink Floyd (David Gilmour)
For the uninitiated, the actual full line spoken by Nick Mason on this instrumental is "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces," which is quite apt for the sinister quality of this piece. When the mayhem kicks in after a long Roger Waters bass intro, you get one of the craziest uses of a pedal steel guitar ever rendered, compliments of David Gilmour. The sounds Gilmour makes would give nightmares to any country-western practitioner of the pedal steel. For flagrant violation of the ethical use of a talk box, listen to Pigs (Three Different Ones), in which Gilmour offers porcine torture on an epic scale.
Country Mile - Rory Gallagher (Gallagher)
There's always something about Rory and the slide guitar. The driving beat of this song is infectious.
Into the Void - Black Sabbath (Tony Iommi)
I remember being a teenager sitting around listening to the Master of Reality album. Naturally, we were all stoned out of our gourds, and I recall one of the wide-eyed (or perhaps dilated) girls in the group being aghast and saying, "This is the sound of sin." And I think that is the best description of one of the most evil chord progressions on record. There are so many monster Iommi riffs it would require a separate article unto itself, but listen in to The Thrill of It All at 1:02 or the start of Supernaut for a few slices of Devil's Food.
Birds of Fire - Mahavishu Orchestra (John McLaughlin)
And now, a moment of sophistication in our distortive deconstructions. Mahavishnu's album Birds of Fire is not necessarily categorized as fusion jazz; ergo, as many sites note its prog rock leanings, we can add this incendiary bit of fusion rock into the mix. Get past the brief intro including Jan Hammer on keys, Billy Cobham on drums and Jerry Goodman on violin, John McLaughlin kicks in with some sick leads. This ain't your dad's jazz.
Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll - Blue Oyster Cult (Buck Dharma)
One of the great riffs in all rock and roll. Forget the rest of the song. The first 20 seconds is all you need to raise your blood pressure.
Speed King - Deep Purple (Ritchie Blackmore)
Hey, the 50 second intro is all you need to get the gist of Deep Purple's Blackmore at this point in the early '70s. Loved the sound of his guitar during that period.
Brighton Rock - Queen (Brian May)
A crazy clinic held by Brian May in which he coaxes the most demented sounds from his Red Special guitar (designed by May and his father in the 60s after seeing Jeff Beck doing obscene things with his guitar). This is one of the spaziest compositions Queen ever played, this side of Ogre Battle.
Pibroch (Cap in Hand) - Jethro Tull (Martin Barre)
So, your first listen to the album Songs from the Wood lulls you into a pastoral mood populated by forest scenes, country lanes and heather on the highlands, when all of a sudden Martin Barre slaps you upside the head with the monstrous intro "Pibroch". Where the hell did that come from? Anyway, there's even more weirdness with a backward tracked Barre lead (starting at about 2:20) on Play in Time from Benefit.
Cracked Actor - David Bowie (Mick Ronson)
I don't think Mick Ronson ever got his due as cutting-edge guitarist, and I think "cutting-edge" is the proper description for Ronson's style: cutting, sharp as a razor. Whether he was jamming with David Bowie or later with Ian Hunter, you always knew Ronson was on the recording. Listen to the outro of Panic in Detroit (about 3:37 onward) for a downright vicious lead.
Starless - King Crimson (Robert Fripp)
The song is 12:30 in length, and there is an extended soft intro. But don't let that fool you. At about 4:30 there is a bass-driven build-up where Robert Fripp's guitar becomes more and more intense with each passing moment and eventually sounds more like an electric drill biting through metal. Following a crazed sax solo by the great Mel Collins, It descends into utter chaos again. Post-metal's progenitor.
Hey Hey, My My (Out of the Black) - Neil Young and Crazy (Young)
The sound of impure, alduterated distortion. There is no tone, no grace, no airs of perfection, just high decibel feedback. Glorious!
Hocus Pocus - Focus (Jan Akkerman)
The sound an 8 ball of coke makes during inhalation. Or so I've heard. A few times.
Movin' Out - Aerosmith (Joe Perry)
I liked Aerosmith's first two albums. I really did. Then their next two albums were okay. I haven't listened to any of their albums since. I don't feel I'm missing anything. But Liv Tyler was hot. Which has nothing to do with the first few licks of "Movin' Out". Which brings us around to their first album again. I saw them in the civic hockey rink of my hometown in 1974 (which is hilarious if you knew the town). The album Get Your Wings had just come out. I think I paid $5.00 to see them. That cost me a month's worth of cigarettes back then. Damn that Aerosmith!
Bridge of Sighs - Robin Trower (Trower)
A masters course on the use of sustain, chorus, wah-wah and distortion. From what I've read, Trower's effects chain in the 1970s included a custom preamp and clean booster pedals, a Dan Armstrong Red Ranger treble booster, a Tychobrahe wah-wah, an octave/fuzz Fender Blender, a Uni-Vibe chorus/vibrato, Mutron II phase shifter, and two Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistresses fed through a pair of 100-watt Marshall JMP-100 Mark II heads. So you have some shopping to do to sound like that.
L.A. Blues - The Stooges (Ron Asheton)
Well, I am not necessarily sure you can actually categorize this as a song. Perhaps retitle it "Sax and Violence", because all you get are waves of aggression in the form of tortured feedback and distortion. There are two advantages to this sort of composition: 1) you don't need to tune your guitar, and 2) you needn't memorize lyrics.
Eruption - Van Halen (Eddie Van Halen)
I never really cared for Van Halen, but Eddie's hammer-on, two-handed tapping technique was unique for the time and instigated a herd of 80s big-haired geetar wannabes. It's still a damn good solo. For an acoustic version of this lead, you can always refer to Spanish Fly from VH's second album.
1 comment:
John Fogerty's guitar on Suzie Q and Walk on the Water from CCR's album deserves consideration for this list.
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