See the previous entries here:
Last week, we spoke of distortion and how that was achieved – by cramming a thumb through a speaker to recreate their crappy regular equipment. Well, that wasn’t the only way. The Kinks’ guitarist would cut his speakers, the Who would have a go at it, and even Led Zeppelin would take distortion to new levels.
Along the way, a man named Tony Iommi lost some fingers in an industrial accident and that changed his playing style – and he added distortion to it.
Who is he? Just some guy. You might know him from Black Sabbath? Why not give this a listen:
That’s Black Sabbath doing their title track, Black Sabbath. What’s the riff in that one? Well, it starts right off with it. Those very first notes are really the start of the Heavy Metal genre as we know it today.
They had, for the most part, mastered the art of distortion and studio executives and producers no longer feared the sound. Previously, they had tried (usually) tried to get a clean tone from the guitar, with just a few exceptions such as those mentioned above.
This song came out in the mid-1960s and became a bit of a rebel song. It wasn’t one of the rebel songs that you’d hear from people who stayed home and protested the war, this was the song that went into battle with the Vietcong, and did so on fairly new devices that had been made smaller by the invention of the transistor.
This was a song for the angry youth. This was the song that sparked imaginations – both good and bad. A goodly portion of the populace felt that it was Satan incarnate and, as we listen to the song, it’s probably easy to see why – and the band’s name doesn’t really help change minds. Other people felt that this was the soundtrack to their lives. Just those few notes are often referred to as, “The Satanic notes!” Adults were not amused!
This music inspired and gave angst-filled teens something to latch onto during a very confusing era. Though the song originally came from over the water, it was quite appreciated by Americans and would inspire many of them to become musicians as well.
At the same time, people were legitimately frightened to meet the band and actually thought that the notes were satanic and were a way of casting spells on people. It is, however, one of the hallmark guitar riffs and has influenced a great deal of other music.
By now, our fourth installment, you should be able to recognize the riff. It’s those few simple notes. They’re simple, rhythmic, compelling, and are what you take with you when you listen to the song again in your head. As you can see, they change with the times. Sometimes, they even change within the same song!
I’d not go so far as to say that the music makes the changes to society, but I’d say there’s strong correlation between the guitar riff and history. Let’s examine some more next week?
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