Riffage: The History of Rock Through Its Greatest Riffs

By Huw Davies

Three notes can change the world. This is the story of how they did.

Riffage tells the story of rock music through its riffs: the short, repeated phrases that carry a song and that people know within a second of hearing them. Volume One starts in the blues clubs of Chicago in the 1950s and ends with Led Zeppelin, King Crimson and the Stooges at the close of the 1960s, the decade that turned the riff from a blues device into the engine of popular music.

Inside you will find:

- 112 riffs, from Bo Diddley and Link Wray to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Cream and Led Zeppelin
- A top ten for every year from 1960 to 1969, plus twelve roots records from before 1960
- A riff card for every entry: who really played it, the gear they used, release date, chart position and how hard it is to learn
- The story behind each record, why it matters and exactly what to listen for
- The Sound of each year and a Gear Box on the guitars, amplifiers, fuzz boxes and organs that shaped it
- The session players who never got the credit, from Nashville and Memphis to Los Angeles and London

Find out how a pencil through a speaker gave "Rumble" its menace, how a fuzz box sitting unsold in music shops became the sound of "Satisfaction", why Dave Davies took a razor blade to his amplifier, and how an amateur organist created the sound of "Like a Rolling Stone".

Written for music lovers, guitarists and anyone who has ever turned the volume up, Riffage is a book to read with the records playing.

Second edition, revised and greatly expanded. Volume One of a series that follows the riff through every decade to the present day.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0F37NG79D
• ISBN13: 9798316246700
• Release Date: March 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 266 Pages
• Weight: 0.79 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"