Iommi
For this week, we take a departure at RiffZoo, away from focusing on one song and look instead at one player and his “lifetime achievement” contribution to riffage. The man is Tony Iommi, guitarist of Black Sabbath. One word. Iommi. Nuff said.
Eventually in the future, we’ll dissect each one of his masterpieces of riffs. But for the time being, I’ve decided that you can’t have a blog about riffs without owning up very early in the game to the seminal contributions of this man and his work.
With all due respect to Messrs. Page, Blackmore, Beck and others, Iommi single-handedly created heavy music, invented metal, and brought riff composition to a high art form. Interestingly enough, if it weren’t for a tragic accident with a drill press, we may not have modern metal music today as we know it.
Ya see, the guy lost the tips of his middle two fingers in that accident, the middle two fingers of his fingering hand no less! Determined not to let it stop him from playing, he contrived these leather fingertips with rubber on the end to put on the damaged digits. He put these prosthetic tips on, and so as to be able to still bend strings and still do all the other standard “things” in the rock playing vein, he dropped the tuning on all his strings (often way, way down) to reduce the string tension to make playing easier. So that droning, deep, full “metal” sound was actually born out of necessity.
My guess (and it’s only a guess on my part) is that playing common chord structures also proved to be a bit difficult for him, and perhaps this challenge caused him to lean on playing 5th’s instead with his index finger and possibly his pinky. Hence, the birth of the prominence of the playing of 5th’s in metal, and rock in general. Keep in mind; this is only a theory on my part, so humor me.
Betcha didn’t know this either. Prior to forming Earth, which eventually became Black Sabbath, he actually played guitar for Jethro Tull for a brief stint, preceding Martin Barre. Can you imagine Tull with Tony Iommi?
Products of Birmingham, England, Tony and Black Sabbath have given the world enough riffs to last a lifetime. The list is so long, that ultimately one is always prone to leave one (or more) out. Immediately popping into my mind right now is Into the Void and Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath. This is music to snarl by. Also, on Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath, a RiffZoo nod must also go to bassist Geezer Butler for that plodding bass riff. Go check it out.
On the subject of Birmingham, it really is a ground zero of sorts for heavy music. Not only did it produce Sabbath, but also Judas Priest as well. Robert Plant and John Bonham too. So any city that’s given us Robert Plant, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and John Bonham can easily lay claim to the mantle “Home of the Heavy”. Think about it, what a combination those four would have been.
Even to this day, Tony Iommi is still more than relevant with his music. You absolutely must check out his latest solo effort with Glenn Hughes called Fusion. Go listen to it now. You can thank me later.
For this week, we take a departure at RiffZoo, away from focusing on one song and look instead at one player and his “lifetime achievement” contribution to riffage. The man is Tony Iommi, guitarist of Black Sabbath. One word. Iommi. Nuff said.
Eventually in the future, we’ll dissect each one of his masterpieces of riffs. But for the time being, I’ve decided that you can’t have a blog about riffs without owning up very early in the game to the seminal contributions of this man and his work.
With all due respect to Messrs. Page, Blackmore, Beck and others, Iommi single-handedly created heavy music, invented metal, and brought riff composition to a high art form. Interestingly enough, if it weren’t for a tragic accident with a drill press, we may not have modern metal music today as we know it.
Ya see, the guy lost the tips of his middle two fingers in that accident, the middle two fingers of his fingering hand no less! Determined not to let it stop him from playing, he contrived these leather fingertips with rubber on the end to put on the damaged digits. He put these prosthetic tips on, and so as to be able to still bend strings and still do all the other standard “things” in the rock playing vein, he dropped the tuning on all his strings (often way, way down) to reduce the string tension to make playing easier. So that droning, deep, full “metal” sound was actually born out of necessity.
My guess (and it’s only a guess on my part) is that playing common chord structures also proved to be a bit difficult for him, and perhaps this challenge caused him to lean on playing 5th’s instead with his index finger and possibly his pinky. Hence, the birth of the prominence of the playing of 5th’s in metal, and rock in general. Keep in mind; this is only a theory on my part, so humor me.
Betcha didn’t know this either. Prior to forming Earth, which eventually became Black Sabbath, he actually played guitar for Jethro Tull for a brief stint, preceding Martin Barre. Can you imagine Tull with Tony Iommi?
Products of Birmingham, England, Tony and Black Sabbath have given the world enough riffs to last a lifetime. The list is so long, that ultimately one is always prone to leave one (or more) out. Immediately popping into my mind right now is Into the Void and Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath. This is music to snarl by. Also, on Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath, a RiffZoo nod must also go to bassist Geezer Butler for that plodding bass riff. Go check it out.
On the subject of Birmingham, it really is a ground zero of sorts for heavy music. Not only did it produce Sabbath, but also Judas Priest as well. Robert Plant and John Bonham too. So any city that’s given us Robert Plant, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and John Bonham can easily lay claim to the mantle “Home of the Heavy”. Think about it, what a combination those four would have been.
Even to this day, Tony Iommi is still more than relevant with his music. You absolutely must check out his latest solo effort with Glenn Hughes called Fusion. Go listen to it now. You can thank me later.
posted by Johnny Riffer at 8:15 PM
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