Anyone out there, like me, driven completely insane by riffs (particularly guitar riffs) that lodge themselves deep in the cranium and – like guests who outstay their welcome – never leave?? For some months, maybe more than a year now, mine has been Zeppelin’s “The Ocean Song”… surely one of Pagey’s greatest, with its deep funk stonk and time-signature jolts, but maddening when it plays on endless repeat in the internal jukebox. (I’ve also been afflicted not by the obvious Zep selections – “Whole Lotta Love” et al – but by “The Lemon Song”, “Over the Hills and Far Away” and more…) Anyone out there currently suffering??
15 Responses to Riffs You Simply Can’t Get Out Of Your Head #1
“Running Down A Dream” by Tom Petty has been as constant noise in my head for 20 years now. “Price Of Love” by the Everly Brothers even longer.
I dare not revisit them… though perhaps they’d give me a break from “The Ocean Song”!
My current obsession with the mighty Free means I’ve got the intro to the live version of I’m A Mover on brain-loop. A not entirely unpleasant experience.
Sometime last month Blue Oyster Cult’s “Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll” (complete with one of their trademark twisted-stairsteps riffs) began playing regularly in my head. I couldn’t place the source of this programming, as the song was never really a hit, and as I probably hadn’t spun the album it’s on (BOC’s 1st) since sometime in the ’90s. After numerous neural repeats of the not-unpleasant-but-still-uninvited riff, I decided on immersion therapy, so dug out my ancient 1st BOC LP and played it through, which immediately erased “Cities on Flame” from my mental soundtrack. Nice and quiet upstairs now, though my relistening regimen also brought back BOC’s “She’s as Beautiful as a Foot” (which I’d forgotten about), and it’s possible I’ll be revisited by that Ghost of Christgau Past any day now. Riff me gently . . .
Oh Zep have a lot to answer for. ‘Misty Mountain Hop’ makes a regular appearance for me.
Funnily enough, “MM Hop” was a regular on my cerebral jukebox for years but doesn’t get a look-in now “The Ocean”‘s on perma-repeat. (Why did I call it “The Ocean Song” in the earlier posts – Lawd Knows.) Not sure the Cult ever got in there, though I’m a diehard fan. “Back in Black” often programs itself, and here’s one out of left-field: the guitar-solo passage on the Jayhawks’ “Nothin’ Left to Borrow”, from TOMORROW THE GREEN GRASS (a very overlooked album!)
I have two riffs that are definitely repeaters in my head. One is the opening horn salvo of Electric Flag’s version of Killing Floor followed by the first notes of Bloomfield’s piercing guitar solo. If I think about it, I can hear the entire solo. It just sort comes into my head in otherwise quiet moments, making a slice of toast, for example.
The other is Jonathan Richman’s spoken intro to their version of Chuck Berry’s Back In The USA. I hear it whenever I’m in a plane just before take off. “Back In the USA by Chuck Berry, as performed by The Modern Lovers.” Odlly, i don’t hear the song itslef. Just the spoken intro.
The guitar intro to Steely Dan’s Reeling in the Years always hits the magic spot…
I have a bout of “Don’t Fear The Reaper”-itis about twice a year. “Hazy Shade Of Winter” and “Rebel Rebel” too.
More Cult!! Hell, why not… mention of “Killing Floor” reminds me again that “Lemon Song” has been a big one: just the opening “I shoulda quit you, baby…” Page’s mutation/bastardization of the core riff is incredible, and Bonham’s drumming is out of this world…
Nothing much left to add about Mr Page’s consummate mastery of riffery – though I’d like to add, strictly by way of perversity, that jingle-jangle number he unearths from absolutely nowhere on “Battle of Evermore”.
Being a humungous Heartbreakers fan, and hence appreciative of the criminally underrated Mike Campbell, may I humbly add “Listen To Her Heart” (OK, so he blatantly ripped off the tinnier-if-superior intro to “When You Walk In The Room”, so well, in fact, that Roger McGuinn thought he’d written it), “The Waiting”, “Straight Into Darkness” and the best of the lot, “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”.
On another note, Mr Campbell was also responsible for my Favourite Outro Ever, on “American Girl”? Any other offers?
By far the worst/best/most insidious Jimmy Page riff is ‘Kashmir’.
It’s built to be an endless loop!
A flatmate in the early ’80s bought Metal Box by PIL. I probably only heared it a few times but the punchy bassline to Careering has been in my head ever since. I used to run half marathons to it! Can an addictive bassline be classed as a riff? Never felt the need to own it though.
THANK GOD I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE.
I have been driven insane by John Fogerty’s 1997 Blue Moon Swamp–which I LOVE and have virtually memorized. For a while there it took me to sleep and woke me up every day.
This is not an unusual occurrence; I seem to get stuck on whatever music I heard last before going to sleep…which sometimes means I have a TV commercial jingle running through my mind. Now THAT is torture. I’ll trade those for my favorite Led Zep clodhoppers any day.
Today’s brain-maddening riff: Delbert McClinton’s fabulously funky “Love Rustler”…