Rolling off Zep’s ’69 Led Zeppelin II album, “Heartbreaker” opens up with a simple, yet captivating, walking bass line by monster player, Jimmy Page, who later launches into an unaccompanied lead solo that’s been ranked as the #16 greatest solo of all time by Guitar World. And, of course, it never hurt a group to have legendary engineer, Eddie Kramer, in the studio.
Heavy metal would not be the same without the iconic lads of Judas Priest. Conjoining guitar leads of guitar masters K. K. Downing and Glenn Tipton into the dark mix added a signature to the group’s sound that would weld heavy metal to the accelerator and “Breaking the Law” stages the guitar duo drive hard.
In the fall of 1966, Jimi Hendrix was in London making a name for himself among the elite of British rock, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, The Who and others. With bassist and backing vocalist, Noel Redding, and drummer, Mitch Mitchell, the three would startle the world with the bluesy, psychedelic rock of their group, The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
Before James Taylor’s breakaway hit “Fire and Rain,” the sensitive Taylor traveled a hard road, suffering from depression, drug abuse and fitful starts and stops to his life, let alone his musical ambitions. But, the magic of music kept pulling him forward and his talents propelled him to erratic success until “Fire and Rain” literally made him a household name.
Head out to an Iron Maiden’s gig and you’ll most likely still hear them play “Fear of the Dark,” from the 1992 album of the same name. It’s a crowd favorite and when released hit #5 on the U.K. charts. When Maiden played the song at the huge South American rock festival, Rock in Rio, their fans sang along, 250,000 fans strong – with the opening guitar duet, before joining in with arms raised and fists pumping.
Out of the box, sisters Nancy and Ann Wilson pushed the envelope with their debut single “Crazy on You,” off their 1976 first album, Dreamboat Annie. By coupling Nancy’s fine acoustic intro to a surge of hard rock, “Crazy on You” was a fire breather. Nancy has said that her fast track acoustic rhythm on the record was inspired by the Moody Blues 1970 song “Question,” from that group’s Question of Balance album.
Dave Grohl will always be a fixture in discussions about grunge band, Nirvana, but he’s moved beyond his drumming days with that group, as the lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter for the Foo Fighters. After Cobain’s suicide, Grohl would be sought after by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers and there were rumors that he might join Pearl Jam, But, in the end, Dave grabbed Pat Smear (guitar), William Goldsmith (drums) and Nate Mendel (bass) to form Foo Fighters, although, Dave had already recorded the album that would serve as the group’s self-titled debut CD.
Certainly, one of the favorite opening riffs of guitar players around the world is that of the country-rock track “Hotel California,” and a guitar feast at the end of the track, performed as a stringed duet by Don Felder and Joe Walsh is a nice surprise. The song continues to be an enormous favorite of Eagles fans and is listed on Rolling Stone magazine’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” at #49. The lyrics conjure up the decadence of the hotel with its “sweet summer sweat” and the girl whose mind is “Tiffany twisted, she got the Mercedes Benz.”
The Door’s bluesy album, L.A. Woman, was released in April 1971. Three months later the group’s iconic front man, Jim Morrison would be found dead, in what remain mysterious circumstances, in Paris. The dreamy and bluesy track “Riders on the Storm” is a haunting song with the atmospheric sounds of rain and thunder, and the trickling rain effects of from the keyboard of Ray Manzarek’s Fender Rhodes piano.
When the Dave Matthews Band hit the radio, there was no confusion that the group’s sound was unique to anything else consumed by music lovers. Eclectic, cacophonous, and drenched in superb musicianship, the Dave Matthews Band steamrolled on to the Billboard’s charts with their 1998 debut album, Remember Two Things, that was released on the Bama Rags label. By 2002, the album went platinum. But, it’s the DMB’s avid fans that pushed tapes of the group’s performances around that got the big buzz going for the group. But, it was there third album, that “Crash into Me” hit the charts reaching #7 on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart. And in 1998, the song “Crash into Me” was nominated for a Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals Grammy.
