“ROCK AND ROLL NEVER FORGETS”
Bob Seger
SILVER BULLET BAND guitarist Drew Abbott kicks off this spirited, uptempo rock and roll song with a bright-toned, punchy single-note riff in E, for which he alternates between notes fretted on the G and B strings and uses decorative finger slides to add flair to the part (see bars 1-3). Due to the continual string crossing here, with only one note being played on each string before switching to the other, the riff is most easily and efficiently picked using downstrokes on the G string and upstrokes on the B string. You’re essentially alternate picking, except during the occasional tied notes and legato finger slides, for which the pick passes over the string with a “phantom” downstroke or upstroke that doesn’t actually strike it.
Abbott crafted a tasty guitar solo for this song (see section F), using country-rock-style
F# oblique double-stop bends over the chords in bars 37 and 41, which sweetly outline the
# chord’s major tonality before it changes to F m. To play the initial bend in bar 37, barre your pinkie (4) across the top two strings at the 14th fret and use your ring finger (3) to bend the G string at the 13th fret, assisted one fret below by the middle finger (2), as you hook your thumb around the top side of the fretboard for anchorage. Take great care not to overshoot or undershoot the pitch of the whole-step bend
G# A#
— from up to — as you’re targeting the
F# major 3rd of the underlying chord. In this specific situation, pitch accuracy and bending perfectly in tune, like a country pedal steel player would, is more important than sounding bluesy and taking liberties with the pitch of the bend, which can be totally fine and cool sounding to do in some cases, but not here.
Abbott similarly employs this same oblique double-stop bend technique in his outro guitar solo (see section I), only here he does it a whole step and two frets lower, in 9th position, over an E tonal center. Interestingly, notice that some of the bends are only a half
F# step, from up to G, and others are a whole
# G#. step, from F to The harmonic openness of the underlying E5 chord allows the soloist to utilize both the major and minor 3rd to color his licks in bluesy, rock and roll fashion.