Song/Riff of the Day: Heartbreaker (Led Zeppelin)

After a few years of not hearing this song at all (thanks to the lame-ass playlist on my local "rock" station), I've been hearing "Heartbreaker" a few times a week--and mentally hearing a pair of Rush songs that were strongly influenced by it.



Amazingly enough, I'd never heard--or at least paid attention to--"Heartbreaker" [Led Zep II, track 5] before listening to Number Two's copy of the Zep 4-disc Box Set. As soon as this track came up, I thought I was hearing the Rush song, "What You're Doing"--the riffs are very similar, both based on your basic Blues pentatonic.

The opening (verse) riff:

--|------|--------|-------|--------|
--|------|--------|-------|--------|
--|------|--------|-------|--------|
--|------|0-1-2---|-------|0-1-2---|
--|0--3--|--------|0000-3-|--------|
--|------|------3-|-------|------3-|

==|H==H==|Q.E=E=Q.|EEEE=H=|Q.E=E=Q.|

[I'm using the "=" marks as place-holders; for some reason Blogger's computers look at blanks and think, "We need to save some screen space here. I'll just take those out." I don't like having to clutter it up...but oh well]

And here's the opening/signature riff of "What You're Doing"

--|------|--------|------|--------|
--|------|--------|------|--------|
--|------|--------|------|----0---|
--|------|----0-2-|------|------2-|
--|-----0|1-2-----|-----0|1-2-----|
--|0--3--|--------|0--3--|--------|

==|H==Q.E|E=E=Q=H=|H==Q.E|E=E=Q=H=|

[...and while I was listening to the song, figuring out the TAB for it, I remembered that I wrote about it before, as one that depends on the "Immigrant Song" drum riff]




Nah, they're not an exact match, but the Zep influence was especially strong on this song.

The next bit--and the next Rush tune--comes in just after the first guitar solo, when the entire band goes off on a little jam:

--|-----------------------|
--|-2---3---5-/-7---5---3-|
--|-----------------------|
--|-2---4---5-/-7---5---4-|
--|-----------------------|
--|-----------------------|

==|=E.==E.==E.==E.==E===E=|


Jimmy Page leans on this progression for a few bars before going into the second solo.

Alex Lifeson plays it pretty close in "Beneath, Between and Behind," from the second Rush disc 'Fly By Night'. From the verses:

--|---------|------------|
--|-2--3--5-|------7--8--|
--|---------|------------|
--|-2--4--5___(5)--7--9-\|
--|---------|------------|
--|---------|------------|

==|=E.=E.=E_|_(S)==E.=Q==|





Faster tempo, but the feel is the same, even with the riff stretched over two bars.

This is how you do it, if you're going to rip off a riff! One riff, one song--not the same riff in four songs (see the "Immigrant Song" post).