Top Classic Rock Albums Of All Time - Part 1

Interestingly; this is not the greatest selling Eagles album - ‘Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975’ sold 10 million more copies at 36 million certified sales. From a guitar angle; this was a real game-changer as the album was the first to feature new guitarist Joe Walsh who perfectly complimented the band’s new direction away from the Country sound of the previous 4 albums towards a Rock/Country crossover. Just take a listen to ‘Life In The Fast Lane’!

The hard rock connection doesn’t stop there - did you know that Jimmy Page’s ‘No.1’ 59 Les Paul was originally owned by Joe Walsh and sold to Page. He also donated a Gretsch 6120 to The Who’s Pete Townsend with which he recorded ‘Quadrophenia’.

Want to get the tone? Joe’s pass during that infamous solo from Hotel California was recorded using his 70’s Telecaster into a Fender Champ with a phaser and a modest amount of delay. Don’t be too disheartened if you can’t replicate the Hotel California magic; the original track was actually spliced together from 33 separate edits.

The studio in which the album was recorded stood dangerously close to the adjacent space where Black Sabbath was recording ‘Technical Ecstasy’. The residual noise was so loud that the track ‘Last Resort’ had to be re-recorded several times as Sabbath could be heard on the tracks.

Want to visit the real Hotel California? You still can - the hotel photographed on the cover is the ‘Beverly Hills Hotel’. The hotel threatened legal action after it emerged that the title track of the album was (in part) a nod to the hotel’s darker past.

Oddly the album doesn’t officially have a name or much in the way written information on the sleeve itself. This was due, according to Jimmy Page, as a response to media claims that the band was sold on its hype rather than musical talent.

The album is famed for its pioneering recording techniques which ultimately added to the band’s ‘heaviness’ on certain tracks. ‘When The Levee Breaks’ is a great example of this - all the instruments on the track (minus Robert Plant’s voice) were artificially slowed and the drums were recorded in the reception of a stately home via mics which were hung from the stairwells. This drum sound was actually the template (and directly sampled) for much of the emerging Hip Hop of the 1980s.

As for guitar tones; there are some surprises - everyone associates ‘Stairway to Heaven’ with Jimmy Page and his famous double neck SG. But, did you know that the solo was actually recorded on a Telecaster given to Jimmy Page by Jeff Beck? Also; the outro solos on Black Dog were recorded directly into the desk (no amp) - once more proving that tone and feel comes from the fingers!

Despite its mythical theme and mystery, the album isn’t as deep as you might think; the title of ‘Black Dog’ is very simply named after the black dog which hung around the studio during recording sessions. There are also, despite the urban legend, no hidden messages on ‘Stairway To Heaven’ (story to disappoint!).

The rock opera concept album about a jaded rockstar (named Pink) who isolates himself from society (symbolised by the wall) is the band’s 11th offering. The album became a film starring Bob Geldof as Pink and, in 2016, became a real-life opera!

From a guitar aspect, this is a very interesting recording. Despite Dave Gilmour’s notoriety for huge guitar sounds, much of the tones you hear on the ‘The Wall’ come from small combo amps such as a Fender Princeton and G&K combos. This was due to much of the guitar tracking taking place on Dave’s houseboat. One of the exceptions to this is the solo for ‘Comfortably Numb’ which was delivered through the favourite combination of Hiwatt head and Yamaha rotating speaker cabs.

Guitarists the world over have chased that famous tone heard of the outro solo of ‘Another Brick In The Wall’. You might be shocked to hear that this most defining of Gilmour sounds were recorded directly into the desk (again no amp)! Of course, he used a strat? Wrong again! That solo is actually a Les Paul loaded with P90 pickups in the neck position, and all done in one take! Thus, again, proving that a great player doesn’t need gear to get his sound! The ‘fatness’ you hear was achieved by running the recorded solo through two studio compressors (a trick you can do at home with two pedals) - firstly a limiter, which gives that ‘snap’ and ‘pop’ you can hear and them a compressor to add that full richness which we all associate with the Pink Floyd guitar sound.

More than simply a top-selling rock album, ‘Back In Black’ was a historically pivotal turning point for hard rock - some even speculate that the genre would have died without this album! It was the more commercial sound of the album which gave it mass appeal and brought hard rock back from the brink of obscurity to a new army of fans. This was also Brian Johnson’s first outing with the band and he rewrote Bon Scott’s exiting lyrics just before going into the studio.

The album was recorded in the Bahamas over only seven weeks. Sessions were famously plagued by intense tropical storms - the opening lyrics of ‘Hells Bells’ refer to the thunderstorms taking place outside at the time of the recording.

From a guitarist's point of view - the Young brothers are famed for keeping things simple by getting their tones directly from a combination of 50 & 100w Marshall heads. But, if you want that awesome rock tone, be prepared to lose your eardrums! As the album’s engineer Tony Platt said; you’ve got to turn it up ‘until it sings’. The guitars were recorded with two mics (U67 and u68) and panned left and right (something you can easily replicate at home!) with zero effects (save the occasional very subtle delay). There were very few overdubs too, with the majority of the parts being done live and in one take!

Did you know that the guitar used by Angus Young was his childhood 1971 SG loaded with PAF pickups?

So there we have it; some inspiration to get your ears and fingers in a playing frame of mind! Plus a few fun facts to impress your friends with!