Into Nightworld

I'm surprised that I have got this quickly to the final book in "The Adversary Cycle" by F Paul Wilson, but the books are , for me , remarkably good reads. I am still surprised the the cycle is shown as six books as  "The Tomb" and "The Touch" are tangentially related in introducing characters Repairman Jack and Alan Bulmer who appear in the finale "Nightworld".

While I remember the overall plots of "The Keep" , "The Tomb" and "Nightworld" a reread is a bit like watching a TV or film prequel , there is no jeopardy , although I liked the way that "Gotham" tackled the Joker in a very unexpected twist..

I have not reread "The Touch" yet though I have started it on my Kindle fire , because I do not have a physical copy.

So into "Nightworld I go, while "The Tomb" feels a bit disconnected from "Reborn" (the real second Adversary Cycle book) , "Reborn" , "Reprisal" and "Nightworld" do flow into each other like a single entity, and I expect "Nightworld" to be as good this time round as the first time round.

In more personal news I am still suffering from a cough and cold , though it may be hay fever. As I write this before work I am listening to the soundtrack of the film "Dazed and Confused" which is packed with classic seventies rock although ironically not the Led Zeppelin song of the same name which you would expect.

It also contains the only song worth having by the abhorrent idiot Ted Nugent "Stranglehold" , which I first heard between bands when I saw The Rolling Stones at the first Knebworth concert in the mid seventies.

So I will share that with you this sunny Friday morning.

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Copy Wrong

Almost every day when I log on to social media Facebook and Instagram have blocked a couple of old music share videos. I was under the impression that 30 seconds of a song was fine to use if it's not for commercial purposes but I shared some excerpts from the reissue of Led Zeppelin III and that was blocked immediately. It contained three twenty second snippets. I got a similar notice just as quick from "One of These Nights" by The Eagles. This time I submitted a dispute , stating this wasn't commercial , or disrespectful and may result in more sales. The videos have been reinstated but the owner can still have them removed. I recently wrote on this whole thing here.

There is an article on how confusing copyright is here.

I understand that you can't share whole songs , or use them , or snippets commercially , but what I am doing , in my  opinion , could be beneficial to the artist.

Most of the video are over six months old , and to be quite honest, I am not too bothered about that because social media is generally in the "NOW" and while the odd person might see and listen to the videos it's not worth my effort to dispute them. Also often I then get notices saying that the video has been reinstated as my dispute was successful , when I did not submit a dispute!.

Although I have not been writing much on here , I've had 14K page views so far this month , but I'm not too sure who is reading what. I once had a run in with YouTube over a Christopher Lee slideshow sound tracked by his version of "My Way".

I'll share one of the songs that were immediately banned that is fully available on YouTube , and that is the wonderful "Journey of the Sorcerer" by The Eagles , as used for the them to Douglas Adams' "The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy".

2112

Actually this is post 2113, the last one here was 2112. I only realised as I was getting towards the end of it and it was all about my eye infection. 2112 was an album by Rush and was pretentious as hell but I always equated Rush with Abba, music generally awesome but lyrics were sometimes very iffy. Abba had the excuse of English being a second language but Rush didn't.

It didn't stop Rush producing some great music and when they reigned back their pretentious side everything was excellent, but even the pretentious stuff , the music still more than stands up. The first song I heard by them was "Finding My Way" from "Fly By Night" on the John Peel show and thought it was Led Zeppelin, they were that good. I must have heard their early albums because I didn't actually by them and generally they were patchy in my opinion, but  the live "All The World's A Stage" changed that which is a live tour-de-force and that was the first Rush album that I bought.

I actually sang "Spirit of Radio" with Spoon and always have difficulty singing rubbish lyrics, "Spirit of Radio" has excellent lyrics, but I don't think I have a recording anywhere of that to see how good or bad I was.

So I really have to included "2112" that took up side one of the album it named. Great music and dodgy lyrics for this Friday.

666

I've just passed page 666 in "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" and was expecting something apocalyptic or at least interesting , but barring Moses crossing the Red Sea there wasn't too much out of the ordinary barring a reanimated Nazi army rising from the bottom of a lake near a rock festival close to Ingolstadt which is fairly normal for that book.

I can only think of two other books that I've read have a page 666 that's "Imajica" and "Lord of The Rings"  and maybe of of Michael Moorcock's Corum collections. I suppose The Bible and Quran also have one.

666 is defined as "The Number of The Beast" and features in many biblical and occult writings and films. as well as being an upside down 999. Aleister Crowley modelled himself as The Great Beast and many metal bands such as Led Zeppelin and Iron Maiden , and jazz artists such as Graham Bond tapped into his legacy.

I remember visiting a youth club as a teenager and we brought records and one guy brought the "banned" "666" by Aphrodite's Child (featuring Vangelis and Demis Roussos" and I was well impressed with a lot of the album and have a copy in by collection. "Babylon" and "The Four Horsemen" are well worth tracking down. Click on the name for Youtube links. But we'll go with the more obvious Iron Maiden rampage on this Saturday morning.

Rock Samplers

I've been meaning to write this, as I discovered, or got access to a lot of great music from the loss leader rock samplers in the late sixties and early seventies. I have been looking on Discogs and a lot of them can be picked up at very reasonable prices.

While I am semi tempted by some of them , the reality is that I have all the music digitally and the reason that these albums were put out was to tempt you to actually buy the albums. THe prices were as little as 50p with some of the double albums maybe hitting £1.99.

Sometimes these albums contained previously unreleased songs such as "New Age of Atlantic" which contained "Hey,Hey, What Can I Do" a stunning Led Zeppelin non-album song (although it did appear on later compilations, and a take of Simon and Garfunkel's "America" by Yes, ten minutes of it.

I'm going to put up ten covers of some compilations that I either have or have had, I still have a copy of the Island compilation "Nice Enough To Eat" which I loved so much I put together my own CD compilation so I could listen to it digitally as well, but the vinyl copy is downstairs and that will always be part of my collection.


Another favourite was the United Artists double compilation "All Good Clean Fun" which also had a booklet with it, but I have forgotten what was in it so need to track that down at some pome point.

The were many double sets such as Island's "El Pea" and "Bumpers", Vertigo's "Suck It And See". Harvest's "Picnic:A Breath of Fresh Air" (containing the , at the time, Pink Floyd rarity "Embryo")

Many of these are now available digitally and there and now often free digital downloads available to tempt you to buy more, but these all hold a lot of fond memories for me. The images link to Amazon but you can probably track them down on Discogs.

These are just a very small sample and you will probably have your own favourites but delving into these can bring some wonderful music into your life.

#AprilSongs #6 Saturday Night Fish Fry

SIx days into this and this morning I'm on https://www.thechain.uk/The Chain with by suggestion to follow Bowie's "Warszawa", but today's choice for #AprilSongs is Louis Jordan's "Saturday Night Fish Fry".

I am not sure when I first discovered Louis Jordan, but was almost shocked when I heard "Ain't That Just Like A Woman" because the main riff (played in alternative versions by brass and piano) is the same note sequence as Chuck Berry's signature guitar riff. So Chuck didn't get it from Michael J Fox in "Back To The Future" but from Louis Jordan back in the forties. Musicians always "borrow" from others but it would be nice to see a little acknowledgement (Led Zeppelin I'm looking at you).

Also the brass section reminds me of Frank Zappa's take on  "Stairway To Heaven" (which was the subject of a copyright claim for it's similarity to Spirit's "Taurus") on "The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life" where the brass section play the guitar solo perfectly.

So I need to shower before I get my phone call from 6Music.

Chas and Dave

I've been woken up again by a coughing fit. I don't feel bad other than the coughing but it does give me the opportunity to pen my own  short remembrance of Chas Hodges who we sadly lost to Cancer yesterday. The older we get, the more this happens, it's the nature of life and time but it still affects us all.but I think thanks top the digital age we still have their filmed memories immortalising them for us.

I never saw Chas and Dave live but saw lots of them on TV and probably have several of their singles in my collection managing to span rock and roll, cockney knees up, music hall, pub sing-a-long music and Londay Folk in to their own unique brand of music call "Rockney".

Their Wiki page is here and there are more in depth tributes such as this one here.

They had worked in many sixties bands and formed in 1975 , opening for Led Zeppelin at Knebworth in 1979. They were loved by everybody regardless of your own musical tastes, if Chas and Dave came on the radio or on Top of The Pops, you never complained because it was a breath of fresh are and a fun interlude and they could also talk.

The had a TV series in 1983 set in an East End pub, but I don't think they ever appeared on EastEnders but it is sad that the duo is now split, but we do have a lot of lovely memories.

Hopefully now I have calmed down enough to try to get  back to sleep, but I'll leave you with their breakthru single "Gertcha" from 1979.

Sleep well.

Flexibly Free

Back in the sixties and seventies music was often promoted by giving away vinyl flexidiscs. These were'nt meant to last but were meant to give you a taster of something so you would buy the actual single or album and generate income for the artist and definitely the record company.

The thing is sometimes these flexidiscs contained exclusive music (at the time), I'm thinking Alice Cooper's "Slick Black Limousine" which was promoting "Billion Dollar Babies" and the interludes on the promo for the Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main Street". These were both NME freebies as it was my music mag of choice at the time. Both these were committed to cassette as soon as I got them, but were lost way back. They may be worth something now.

I recently bought a couple of flexidiscsfor Long Play Cafe / Empire Records in The Grainger Market and was surprised that the Adam and The Ants one had no track name on , but is their take on The Village People's "YMCA" called apparently "IMCA". Because the flexidiscs slip you need to put a couple of coins to stop the vinyl slipping.  The other was by Hazel O'Connor and you can see the details here. LAter sounds actually started giving away vinyl EPs.

But in the sixties we started getting loss leader compilations. At first I thought these would be very expensive, but they were very cheap and full of amazing music. Again these often contained music you couldn't get anywhere else, I'm thinking "America", Yes' ten minute take on the Siman and Garfunkel song and Led Zeppelin's "Hey,HeyWhat Can I Do" on the "Age of Atlantic" samplers.

The first one that I bought was Island's "Nice Enough To Eat" which introduced me to Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, King Crimson and many more.

In the disgital age Amazon used to give free downloads but that seems to have stopped but often artists make music available to download for free in exchange for an email address.

I suppose music is still effectively free to listen to on the radio and Youtube, but I do like to have the music and make sure the artist gets something from me.

Well I am looking out at the blue sky and sunshine and think its time to wake the neighbours by mowing my overgrown jungle of a lawn.

Today Fiona and Helen are doing a 26 Mile walk for MacMillan which you can track here and donate here.

Have a most enjoyable day

Walk On Gilded Splinters - #TenAlbumsInTenDays #3 - #9

I do find it amazing the amount of music that I have available to me, but I do keep going back to revisit old albums, but because they still sound incredible today. "Gris Gris" by Doctor John was something I missed in my teenage years but once I heard it's hypnotic gumbo voodoo tunery it's an album that has never left me.

I'm also doing  #TenAlbumsInTenDays which gives me another excuse to revisite enjoy and write about this stuff.

Similarly Captain Beefheart's "Trout Mask Replica" is another amazing epic piece that I did pick up as a teenager much to the chagrin on many of my Led Zeppelin / Bowie toting friends. This was several steps too far for them, as would have been "Gris Gris".

Rumour has it that Beefheart took the Magic Band into the desert and learned them to play from scratch. The album combines so many musical elements that if you don't approach it with an open mind you will not be able to appreciate the eclectic mix of brass, woodwind, free jazz, sea shanties, blues, garage rock and pure avant-garde. It is truly an experience and again, once you're in there you are truly in. You will never forget or fail to appreciate this masterpiece.

The back to the New Orleans Voodoo of Doctor John, The Night Tripper in full regalia for "Gris Gris". One song "I Walk On Gilded Splinters" has been widely covered by such luminaries as Cher, Marsha Hunt, Paul Weller and Humble Pie but that is just the grand finale of an album of seven amazing and hypnotic songs.

So really that has to be the song I leave you with but check out both these albums and the other versions of the song, you may love them.

Ideas

I love showering but always find drying myself a bind and was thinking what a great idea a full body air drier would be. No wet towels , afterwards, no picking up wet towels to dry yourself with if you are not first in and just the feeling of warm air on your body would almost be like a mediterranean holiday. I love warm water on my body and warm air would be just as good.

The thing is many years ago what would be the next step, Yellow Pages? Your local libriary? If you asked friends they may think you are some kind of deviant... warm air on your naked body.... you pervert sir ... how dare you. But we use hair driers (or is it dryers?) , we use hand driers , and I do like the Dyson Airblade, and we also have fans to keep us cool when the weather is hot , so all the bits are there.

However thanks to Berners-Lee and Arpanet we have the Internet, the worlds biggest reference library and if you search Google for "full body drier" this is what you get. There are a lot out there. You can get this fairly snazzy one by Valiryo on Amazon, though at £900 to replace my shower towels I am still tempted. I don't know of any friends who have one.

So I had a great idea but found that someone had got there first, though if someone were to offer me a free one I would take it straight away.

Anyway , although it's Monday it looks like a gorgeous day so I will probably be walking into work and no doubt looking for things to video and photograph. Also this post is keeping up the #August50 and if I do another one tonight then I should be starting to get towards the 50 that I am aiming for.

So the song has to be Polly Jean Harvey's "Dry" ... one of those songs that is not on the artists album of the same name like Led Zeppelin's "Houses of The Holy" , what else could it be ... have a great Monday everybody...

How Glastonbury Happened

Just continuing through "Electric Eden" and I came across a couple of snippets about how the Glastonbury Festival actually got started. Michael Eavis apparently snuck into the Bath Blues festival and caught Led Zeppelin's set. A couple of months later he put together The Pilton Festival on his farm with The Kinks headlining. Stackridge and Amazing Blondel were on the set and The Kinks dropped out and were replaced by Tyrannosaurus Rex. The festival was virtually free and lasted the weekend and for a pound you got entry and a weekend's ration of milk.

The following year it was rebranded as "Glastonbury Fayre" and was again virtually free, there was no alcohol allowed and only vegan food. Michael Eavis is a Methodist and local pastors were in the crowd dancing and socialising. The acts this time were big hitters such as The Grateful Dead, Hawkwind, Bowie and Bolan. The Pyramid Stage was constructed according to various mystical calculations and the festival was financed by a film made about it and the triple LP "Revelation"  (more here) that I bought at the time with a brilliant fold out cover. I just have a digital copy now but if you follow the links you can get your own.

The closeness of mystical sites like Stonehenge and Glastonbury Tor added magic to the festival , but after that it did nit reappear until 1978, when it began the transition to the advertising corp fest with cash machines and phone masts that it is today.

Michael Eavis makes lots of money but donates lots to many worthy causes. He doesn't drink or do drugs and still maintains his Methodist faith, and long may he continue and prosper.

So basically I will finish this with my favourite song which includes the Festival's name it it's title, "Glastonbury Revisited" by The Cosmic Rough Riders

I know it's a bit wet but have a great Saturday.

More Steps

Yesterday I needed to do 8750 steps and I did over 11,000 , but it was a Sunday and I didn't have work, so today's 9,500 will possibly be more of a challenge. I could walk to work, but if I take the bus it means I get there quicker and that gives me options for a earlier finish and longer lunch. I also work better in the morning so to maximise my work return I prefer to be in the office early, and it is nice to be able to finish earlier.

Incidentally I mentioned Bob Marley's "Is This Love" in my last post and it has been played by Chris Hawkins on 6Music this morning.

The sun is shining and it is actually perfect weather for walking in, so if I finish this quickly I may walk at least part of the way. The sky is looking very blue.

The piece of music that just slipped into mind is "Walkin'" by CCS (Collective Consciousness Society), Alexis Korner's pop jazz combo , who did the original theme to Top of the Pops, a jazz cover of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love", which I'll include as well.

I know it's monday, but put a smile on your face and have a good one.

Chicago Bound - #ALifeInNumbers #25

In Transit

When I first started this my mate Andy suggested I could kill three birds with one stone by using Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4" , well I always loved the song and though it could do for number 25 in the sequence. Before they became wimp rockers Chicago (originally Chicago Transit Authority) were purveyors of muscular jazz rock slabs and this was an absolutely prime example, heavy on the brass and sharing a descending riff ans heard in Led Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker". I don't know who ripped off who but we all know that Led Zeppelin were not averse to uncredited borrowing of other people's material.




I remember Chicago's albums were just numbered although they brought out a four disc live at Carnegie Hall album which will cost you £100 on CD or a tenner as a download here, when a double album as considered stretching it a bit. Also I believe guitarist Terry Kath lost his life playing Russian Roulette.

I was never a big fan of the band apart from this single and when they hit their wimp rock phase they were way past their sell by date for me.

I suggest you research what I've told because it has all just come from my head so maybe needs taking with a pinch of salt, but enjoy this and if you want to really check out Chicago check out their early stuff and expect some serious brass. I found an excellent live take from 1970, and yes I would have gone and seen they , plus you get a brilliant guitar solo from Terry Kath.

Enjoy your Sunday night my friends.

Tangerine

Blackpool , my most detested football club are called the Tangerines , but I have other words for them.

Tangerine , when I first allowed myself to listen to Led Zeppelin , was a song off III that I loved to death, an absolute beauty and although Jimmy Page's solo in the live version in a bit superfluously ropey , the song is still an absolute beauty.

A few weeks ago I went to see a film called Tangerine and later found it was filmed entirely on iPhones ... so there is a use for them. The film featured lots of transgender thespians , but the main thing was that it was well scripted , funny , lots of swearing and sexual encounters , and heartwarming. I really liked it.

Oh My Darling

And now in my kitchen bowls sit lots of tangerines, well clementines , cos they had boxes of them at Aldi , and my lovely neighbours offered me a lift home so I bought two boxes. Thing is whenever I eat one I am sure I feel better. Must be a fructose sugar ruse.

So I suggest you taste or do something sweet tonight. The snow is melting and it's Monday tomorrow. Prepare yourself for a brilliant week.

A Bejewelled Case of Regression or Progression

I don't know if you've noticed but the tendency for CDss these seems to be more and more shying away from the jewel case. The jewel case is actually a great idea in that the cover , CD and any other stuff fits in a standard size box. There were a few deviations , but essentially it means that if the box gets damaged you can easily replace it.

Now That's Thick

I don't know if it's due to vinyl's resurgence, but more and more CDs are now coming out in customer sleeves and boxes giving artists and designers free reign to be almost as inventive as they were with the 12" LP. Who remembers Jethro Tull's "Thick As A Brick" which came in a full broadsheet newspaper , a copy of the St Cleve Chronicle , and Hawkwind's "In Search of Space" and "Space Ritual" in their intricate Barney Bubbles fold out covers with booklets. They made you really want to get the album , and the packaging was a huge part of the experience.

Recent CDs that seem to echo that are David Bowie's "The Next Day" ,  the Led Zeppelin reissues and Prefab Sprout's Crimson / Red, all of which are gorgeously packaged although the do break the uniformity of your rows of CDs.

You also have the Rhino Originals which give you 5 CDs in beautifully renderd facsimiles of the original album covers and retrospective boxes look absolutely wonderful.

It may be that vinyl has given CD a kick up the arse giving the public the delight of interesting  music packaging to complement what you are buying. There's a few examples under here and maybe we should choose Tull's "Thick as a Brick for the music. Sleep well and have a great weekend my friends.

Tenuous Connections (Only Dogs and Water Horses)

All The World's A Stage

So Kelpies are water horses and Sheepdogs and I'm posting a seasonal song a day, and this is my most tenuous one so far , "By-Tor and The SNOW Dog" by Rush , the version is the one from the brilliant "All The Worlds A Stage" album. It has some wonderful guitar soundscapes by Alex Lifeson. It's today's tune. It's amazing what sort of connections our minds can make.

In the seventies I was listening to John Peel and a song came on called "Finding My Way". At first I thought it was a new Led Zeppelin offering, but no, it was by a Canadian power Trio called Rush, the singer Geddy Lee sounding like a cross between Zep's Robert Plant and Yes's Jon Anderson , a power falsetto.

I checked out the album "Fly By Night" but felt it was a bit wooden , barring "Finding My Way" , however when the live album "All The World's A Stage" was released that all changed and this was a real loud and impressive band.

I've always likened Rush to Abba , both have produced some of the greatest music ever, but often their lyrics let them down. While Abba have the excuse that they were Swedish writing in English, Rush are Canadian , and , unfortunately found inspiration in Ayn Rand. I think they've outgrown that now and are still touring and producing some wonderful music.

Anyway I hope your Christmas is still causing you lots of happiness and hope you have a brilliant weekend.

Why Vinyl?

Was just off to bed and this question sprang to mind. Why Vinyl . Audiophiles talk about the warmth missing from digital representations and the personalisation that scratches and worn grooves bring but therein lies my argument. Vinyl is one of the most self destuctive of all media. Once the needle hits the groobve both vinyl an ddiamond / sapphire begin to destroy each other. Dust gathers on the record , heat warps the discs (remember dynaflex? The bane of my Bowie and Lou Reed collections).

Jimmy Page worked out that the optimum length for a vinyl long player was 18 minutes . Gram hold of an original pressing of Led Zeppelin I or II and check that there's no shiny spare vinyl in the label run off.

Vinnyl did enable some interesting tricks. Brian Eno's Great Pretender on Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy ran into a closed groove that effectively never ended. You don't get that on the CD version. Monty Python had a three sided album because one side consisted of two separate spirals so you never knew what track you would get when you put it on.

Then on Todd Rundgren's Inititiation , the running time of that album clocked around 69 minutes with an instruction to only play with a brand new needle. I bought mine on cassette!

However we have seen a major vinyl revival , recently The Beatles and The Who's Studio Output have been boxed at £300 and £150 respectively , very impressive they are too . Nice to see the covers in their proper size , but it's still vinyl and very expensive. Black Sabbath have also had a box out

I am happy with CD and digital , for convenience sake , but I am also glad that vinyl is here to stay as well - though I wont be part of the buying public for vinyl , well maybe the odd seven incher .....

Electrospectacle .. a sort of History of Electronic Music

EMI are currently doing a promotion called "Electrospective" and Mojo Magazine this moth have the fifty (in their opinion) , most important electronic albums. This post is in no way definitive and may contain errors and disagreement , but it's really some observation on a lot of the way I saw much of it happening.

The starting point seems to be the soundtrack for the film "Forbidden Planet" by Louis and Bebe Barron around 1956 . Now there is no doubting the importance of this album , totally electronic resulting in eerie incredible sound textures for the film based on William Shakespeare's Tempest.

However none of this would have happened without Les Paul's electrification of the guitar and invention of the multi track tape recorder.

Joe Meek was my first pop introduction to "non normal" sounds , on records such as "Telstar" by The Tornadoes with int's organ treatment .

Around the same time Dr Who hit the screens and Delia Derbyshire and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop brought us Ron Grainer's incredible Dr Who theme , still amazing fifty years on. Delia was part of White Noise who provided us with the wonderful Electric Storm album.


With psychedelia we heard phasing being introduced on records such as Nirvana's Rainbow Chaser and by the time I was taking an interest in music bands such as Hawkwind and Tangerine Dream were the leading  electronic lights. My first introduction to Kraftwerk was the flute driven "Ruczuk" , which admittedly had a regimented rhythm and phasing , though with teh release of "Autobahn" they were truly an electronic band.

The Theramin came to the fore notably on Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" and the Beach Boys "Good Vibrations" , apparently the result of a failed endeavour to create a burglar alarm in Russia!

Mojo reckoned Queen were denigrating electronic options with the "No Synthesisers"  notices on their first couple of albums. Queen were just making out out clever they were. No Synthesisers but Brian May had plenty of electronic hardware backing him up.

Walter (Now Wendy) Carlos had been releasing albums such as Switched On Bach done entirely on the Moog Synthesiser and came to prominence with his soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange".

The us rockers were hit for six when Giorgio Moroder masterminded Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" . This was disco !! But it was good disco!!

Any I have missed lots out but I hope this makes you want to find out more. I've not mentioned Bowie , Jean Michel Jarre , Depeche Mode , Brian Eno , The Human League or Depeche Mode and I could fill another page or so with artists.


EMI's Electrospective here.

The Greatest Riff of All

Was just reading a review of the latest re-issue of Jethro Tull's Aqualung , which posited that the opening riff of the title track was the most arresting and best rock riff of the seventies , out riffing even Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water".

Once you start thinking of this lots of thinks start crawling out of the woodwork , such as "Layla" by Derek and the Dominoes , "Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin  , any number of Black Sabbath and Hawkwind songs.

Above is a carousel of albums and here is a Grooveshark playlist featuring ten great riffs (in my opinion).