Why this riff is actually BRILLIANT! (BLUR)
There's a little more to this riff than I thought! Let me show you why Song 2 by Blur is definitely an EPIC RIFF!
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The solo over the slowed down Song 2 sounded almost like Pink Floyd was doing a cover of it. (Specifically David Gilmour.) I'd love to get a full cover.
it sounds completely awesome. does anyone know the trick how to set the delay? is there even a trick? tap tempo? i think i have never achieved such a nice tone yet.
@@BigEdWo I'm no expert... But, from what I've seen in the past, the dotted eighth note delay is king. lol As for how specifically to dial that in... Not super sure. lol
Was just about to comment this same thing when I saw your commend haha. Totally felt the Gilmour vibes.
@@BigEdWo Try the Andertons sound like Pink Floyd video. There may MAY be more than one. I'm not sure though. However, they could get you closer.
Haha that's exactly what I heard too!
Can we just stop to appreciate how brilliantly researched, written and edited Paul’s videos are? Masterful.
And then remember how shitty his titles are.
And so smooth.
I remember watching him way back when and have re-discovered him recently and so glad I have.
Just when you think Paul can't get any better, he does 🎸 I saw Blur play this in 1998 in Dublin and it was great but the crowd was weird full of young teenagers, the good thing was it was easy for me to walk through the crowd and see Graham with only 5 people in front of me, I think he noticed I was more into the few earlier songs than the kids who couldn't dance to anything that wasn't parklife! He digs into the older songs with more enthusiasm and looks real bored during parklife, he always uses a Rat for sure, it's not just for the song 2 video 😀
I sent his Top 80 video to my step-dad, his response, What a talent!
Graham Coxon has made so many off-the-wall unconventional, awesome riffs/solos/progressions. Awesome player and writer.
Loved that solo you threw in there! Incredible!
Oh hell yeah; it was a great mini-example of what you can do over a good riff/progression. Enjoyed it, would be happy to see more of it or like it.
He apologized; yet I was so disappointed he stopped.
I wish Paul would do a cover of Song 2 and add that solo at the end, it'd be epic.
Show off 🤣
nah it ruined the spirit of the joke and punk rock
Graham Coxon is one of the most underated genious of guitar: nothing as it seems with him, there's always a tricky, some spicy chords...
The riffs in "there's no other way" deserve a video all of their own.
Absolutely!!!!
Him and Johnny Marr are in my supergroup of weirdo genius guitarists.
Charmless man next please :). Actually, parklife is another example of a deceptively simple blur riff that almost nobody plays properly
Blur - this is a low and blur - chemical world have great guitar work
“Song 2’ was about the simplest thing we’ve ever done, and the quickest. Dave set up two drumkits and he and Graham played them both at the same time. The loud guitar in the chorus is actually a bass going through a home-made distortion box. The whole thing was done in about fifteen minutes.” "Bit of a Blur". Alex James
That's what I always thought it was. I know the guitar was still playing in the chorus, but I felt that most of what I was hearing was the bass. Paul's video was helpful to fill in a few subtle things going on with the guitar, though.
I had always heard about the bass as well but I have no idea where I had heard it.
Alex seems like he would be unbearable.
I KNEW IT WAS A BASS
I think I saw a recent interview with graham coxon where he said it was a bass through one of those battery powered marshall amps.
The biggest thing people miss is the distorted bass guitar which is a huge part of this track. As much as I love Graham, Alex is a very underrated bassist
Alex writes about this in his book too, There's No Other Way
When I used to play it with my band, 20 years ago, I just strummed an Ab chord (A shape with a bar at 11th fret) for the whole chorus, while the bass guitar did the distorted riff part. It sounded fine and close to the original.
There's two bass guitars on the recording, if I'm not mistaken
@benfoster1018 Yeah I think you're right. One for the lows and one distorted and eq'd like a guitar
Yeah i felt a heavy chest pain as a begginer bassist when he mentioned "playing the GUITAR one octave down with distortion" for the sound
Alex James's understated distorted bass underlining the riff that bridges the tune to the outro is what really puts this tune into the next level. For me Alex James is possibly one of the greatest bass player ever. Being able to make beautifully crafted melodies, while maintaining a stand out air tight rhythm section is a rarity for bass players in a 4 piece electric analogue music band. Only a few come to mind, and Alex James is one of them. Coxon is a fantastic guitarist too. Him, John Squires and Johnny Marr are the best of the late 80s and early 90s British popular music scene.
I completely agree with you!
Stephen Street was responsible for the bass effect.
Honestly, a lot what makes that riff hit so hard comes from the bass tone. The fuzz guitar mixes with the growly lows of the bass to make this giant wall of sound. It's one of those situations where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
For the recording, Blur also used a bass guitar with a miniature guitar amp to get that explosive sound on the chorus. the mini-amps literally kept blowing up when trying to get that sound.
Exactly my thoughts. Def a bass with distortion there…
Just wanted to write pretty much the same thing. You can try to get the riff to sound as massive as possible, and still, you'll never get there just with a guitar because the distorted bass drives the whole chorus and has the biggest part in the mix.
@@tomfrost2600 I believe that's referring to the Come As You Are-esque bass overdub, the main bass track sounds pretty standard in depth and fullness while the "lead" bass has a really nasal quality to it that def sounds like a tiny practice amp like a Marshall MS-2
@@Snandra66 no it’s definitely song 2. I literally used to play in a band with Graham’s nephew - he told me that’s what they did to get that sound. Had the pleasure of meeting Graham too, lovely bloke
The guitar part on Boys and Girls is great as well. The way it comes in halfway through the first verse is genius
man Blur is so underrated it's a shame most people can only think of this song when asked abt them
@@no-rq7fp Blur is underrated only in Usa
@@no-rq7fp I certainly don't think of 'Boys and Girls'!
I feel like Blur is such an underrated band, it’s not just song 2 their most amazing song, beetlebum, tender, girls and boys are absolutely bangers too
I adore tender and again its another one that the little flourishes on the guitar really make it and it becomes so much more fiddly to play but Im slowly getting there. I remember now why I used to listen to them constantly while I was at college.
How are they underrated? They’re one of the most celebrated UK bands, they just played Wembley
In the US maybe. In the rest world they been huge since early 90s. Same with Oasis Americans think everything started at wonderwall
@@gman5218 Not being successfull in the USA, that's more of a compliment, isn't it.
Not in the UK they weren't
Graham Coxon was a genius. I especially like the guitar part of 'There's No Other Way'.
such a cool song to play on guitar. Chemical World is another one
RIP Graham Coxon
@@warlockboyburnsGraham Coxon is still alive, dude
6:08 for everyone who wants to hear that amazing solo again
MVC for sure
Unpopular opinion, but anyone plays solos like that over a coxon riff should be thrown in jail
@@Superdelphinus You're absolutely right, that is unpopular!
loved it .
I wonder if it was improv. :)
The slow down solo version….MAN THAT SOUNDS AWESOME
I absolutely love Blur, I might not have picked up an electric guitar if it wasn't for Graham Coxon
Agree him and Adam Devlin made me learn guitar at uni
Paul, I've been following your Channel for a couple of years now. Those almost 3M... fokin well rocking deserved, man! Hat´s off! 👏 ✊
Such a sick song. The two note power chords played on the higher register of the guitar is so unique. Normally ppl don't play chords or riffs up high,more first or second position. My older brother use to rock this song on a fender twin and a squier, awesome memories
Post punk bands: *Am I a Killing Joke to you?*
@@boejudden9011 AHHH HAHAHAH! NICE 1!
Heaps of Post Punk, Gothrock and Datkwave bands do that. It is just usually with a lot of delay, reverb, flange and chorus.
Song 2 is a song that spoke to me instantaneously. It commanded my attention from the first moment I heard it. Sometimes a song comes along that just hits you like a crossbow bolt.
So much fun breaking down iconic songs like this. I've heard some of these parts but actually learning the chords with their appropriate names and the layering it all together it's so satisfying :) plus no need to apologize for that incredible solo on top of an iconic riff
Terrific video Paul. Your little solo sounded awesome.
A BOM comment here? Who let you two out of the shed?
6:09-6:33 was just beast!! Do some more looped soloing like that please!! Absolutely loved it!!
I listened to that solo like 10 times already. I would love if he did a cover of this song.
I read somewhere that Blur used a Lovetone Big Cheese fuzz pedal for a number of their tracks. Lovely pedals.
I've discovered your channel a few weeks ago and it's a blast. I kinda stopped playing during my PhD and now i'm trying to get back to it as a routine during the writing phase, and watching you take so much pleasure is really motivating. Your energy is amazing and it makes me excited for guitar once again, so thank you.
This is great! As a teenager in the late 90s we covered this and luckily had 2 guitar players. Distorted bass took care of the low end with one guitar playing the (inverted) power chords and the second guitar playing the A flat pedal note. It sounded epic! All the tabs missed this!
Lies 😂
Prove it buddy
Yeah, I tend to stay away from tabs unless there's some chord or part of the song that I can't figure out by ear. For solos I find that watching people play them is helpful if I can't figure them out.
@@LUR1FAX Yeah, some tabs are decent, but holy shit do they miss stuff at times, and some are just blatantly incorrect. Then there's also the lack of time signature, poor representation of various notes, etc. Then there are some who have actual music notation with tabs along with them, those are usually better. They can still be wildly incorrect, but at the very least provide more crucial details that basic tabs miss.
holy crap! the slowed down version sounds INCREDIBLE! And I already love Blur, but the slowed down version demands attention! So good! thank you for this!
Blur is a bunch of musical geniuses put together.
Damn! Not only was that an amazing breakdown, that slow version play at the end that you had the audacity to apologize for was incredible! I was sad that it ended so soon. Must. Have. More!
we really need a full version of that solo! love it
Sometimes less is more.
I also liked the chords in their song Coffee & TV. Very complex sound, very cool.
I thoroughly enjoy and appreciate your ability to pick apart so many different iconic and unappreciated
Your talent never ceases to amaze me. Loved the solo. Love what you do, keep up the outstanding work
Great video again Paul! I had honestly no idea there were so many layers in that awesome riff. Absolutely love the solo!!
Graham Coxon is an alien guitar genius. The licks for tracks like "Charmless Man" & "Chemical World" are puzzleboxes for your fingers.
Agreed. Love his style. I got a Blur song book years ago as a present and learnt Charmless Man, such a great song to play with all the tricky bends and hammer ons/pull offs.
Charmless Man is one of the "seems so simple but there's so much here" best guitar tracks ever...
Love his solo albums. So much little known greatness in there.
I really like Blur but often felt the musical style restricted him. He would have been great in an indie band.
@@FCB-ez4fl slightly disagree, "blur" and 13 were experimental, and with those two they got out of the britpop category and (at least for me) proved their worth as a band. And, seeing how think thank turned out, I think that shift in the musical direction was guided by Graham
That solo at the end 👌👌🔥🔥
Sweet analysis! Love it, Paul!
Grahm coxon is one of my favorite guitarists and literally is underrated. Parklife and song 2 aren't the only gold riffs.. "bang" - "there's no other way" & "shes so high" have some of the greatest riffs ever.. imo
Damon came up with the song 2 riff actually, but graham finished it
Beetlebum too
@@RayyanKhanRayyanKhan sweeet
@@isadoralindqvist7519 Not sure if Damon did it and Graham finished that, was replying to Lockheed above regarding great Blur riffs. Beetlebum isn't talked about enough.
@@RayyanKhanRayyanKhan damon wrote it as a dem
The distorted bass really thickens up the sound and the little bass slides Alex James does in the outro are fantastic too. Great breakdown of the guitars!
Not everyone picks those slides up too. When we used to play it as a warm-up when rehearsing I'd play the slides and the guitarist was like "I like what you did there" and I had to tell him that they were always there in the original. He just never noticed them.
This is why Graham Coxon is one of my favorite under rated guitarists. His noodly fingers made some weird chords I’d never heard before as a young guitar player that were exciting to decipher. I still don’t have several songs down cause he’d also layer in so much. 💗
Hugely informative as always Paul. A brilliant analysis! Thank you.
I remember being 18 and figuring all of this out in my bedroom in those early days. Ahh, memories. Never tuned down, stumbled on the inversion from watching them live. I was always able to appreciate the Aflat screaming in the background, but didn’t want to believe they’d use overdubs in the studio! Haha it was fun being so naïve.
the live videos are so hazy and a blurry (no pun) mess that I dont know how come people always talk about being able to figure out stuff from them.. for me most of the time things are indistinguishable
Great stuff. Graham also plays one (of two) drum kits on this track. Set up in the studio opposite each other and played together live, then a section of the drum track was looped. It’s a pretty clever bit of production all round.
I use to watch your videos whilst learning guitar for the first time as you were always engaging, a while later, I'm still here for these types of videos that are so intelligent and educational for the musicians mind! Keep it up Paul, spread your wisdom.
The most enjoyable music theory and breakdowns on the internet. I'm always smiling ear to ear. Lovely work
I really respect Rick Beato, as well.
Paul, that was a phenomenal video. Your content is always outstanding but something magical in this breakdown. And that solo at the end... more of these breakdowns!
Graham, Damon and the crew are brilliant. Thank you for the analysis...
I always heard something “more” than just the normal chords without tuning down and just played it like that so very cool to see you pick up on all the cool details of this “easy” looking but so much fun song!
Absolutely awesome!!! That constant pedal note is so inviting to hear the song even more!!! From Crete in Greece, a big applause!!!!!
graham in particular or blur in general are super underrated, i can't say more, they are geniuses
Blur may have lost the 90s British rock rivalry to Oasis but Damon Albarn got the last laugh with Gorillaz, genius musician all around
I can't respect anything written in 4 4
@@dootpooter4740 okay music elitist
@@dootpooter4740 well ok then buddy. Thank you Jewish people for 4/4 music. 😄
@@candlewickheart whatever. The avg person can't even count 3/9 because they are stuck in 4/4 and you're over here thanking the people responsible for limiting your human experience. OK GOODGOY!
Thanks for the vid! Billy Corgan used those inversions all the time to create those heavy chorus' (along with 1000 overdubs) I could always hear that high pedal note, but never the high F chord. Thanks again!
Another example for me would be Parklife. Played up after the 12th but with the high and low e kept as the open note. Rings so beautifully. Thanks for another great vid!
Figured this out quite recently and it changed everything ... I'm glad to see ppl noticing it !
I always liked the way Charmless Man by Blur was written. The whole song is the same kind of elaborate guitar part but played twice. So if you learn the guitar part and then play it twice, that's the whole song. Im sure theres more going on but thats the way I hear it.
Charmless Man is one of the best showcases of how Graham Coxon's brain works. Never in a million years would I have thought of that guitar part of the piano melody. He's extremely underrated in the guitar world, I gotta say.
Paul, I feel like you’d love to dissect Blur’s track ‘No Distance Left To Run’. Non-standard tuning, lovely bluesy chords, and some very Coxon licks.
That was amazing, I'm just starting my learning journey, but the additional perspective that your video gives is just melting my heart in a good way and makes me wanna play it.
Oh man, thank you so much!! This is such a great video really entertaining and soo much information passed on in such a natural fashion! As a fellow guitarist for me this really captures that feeling when u really understand a song and why it sounds in a particular way! These tabs more often than not miss just the most interesting parts of a song like this, but that’s okay imo cuz figuring out nuances like this in a song by ear really feel’s like u found that last ingredient that u just couldn’t leave out, and that honestly kinda feels like u wrote it, of course u didn’t but u feel like ur a part of it, and that is amazing to me when u started improvising I was smiling and thinking to myself “you couldn’t hold back” haha and u said sorry but that’s just what makes music such a next level form of communication, it’s a feeling! and once u feel it u just wanna celebrate and share the feeling and that’s exactly why ppl make covers and videos like this and I can’t appreciate it enough cuz theres no better way to teach and inspire ppl to learn music and what makes music great! :)
This is next level KZhead. Kudos Paul!
Graham Coxon used those 'inversions' on lots of blur songs, way back on the early albums, even on clean guitar sounds, he's a very talented musician.
Basic stuff man
@@Whiplashed But not really.
@@Whiplashed true, it's only rock n roll but we like it ....
Paul, I am watching your videos FOR YEARS now, never commented, but always liked them and enjoyed watching. I am nearly 30 now, playing the guitar for 23 years. You are leaving me mindblown and speechless so often, it's crazy and it's awesome. So I just want to say thank you for your awesome work, I learned A LOT and I am still learning a lot.
Sweet breakdown and analysis of that whole sound. Loved it! And your jam at the end...nice.
Yep, I could hear all these parts. The Blur guitarist is great. One of my the progressions is on "There's no other way".
I keep coming back to this video just to listen to that slowed down version solo, it gives me goosebumps, too bad you haven't decided to do a long version
This was so fun to watch. Thank you!
I have in fact picked up on the different chords that made such a layered sound, but never knew what they were til you broke it down!! Thank you so much
This is absolutely terrific! On a related note, would love to see you dissect the intro to Blur's There's No Other Way 😁 I'm 100% confident you'd find all the subtleties to make it sound perfect.
As a Smashing Pumpkins fan, I love listening to songs with different layers and try peel them back. There's something new to grab your ear when you re-listen the song. Great video as always. So much joy from music!!
dude man. we should be friends
Sure. You seem to be a gentleman of impeccable taste
Billy and his stage band.
Johnny Marrs layers in The Smiths is a great example of this too.
Man Billy Corgan…talk about a very underrated guitarist. I absolutely love the distorted and heavy guitar sounds in Mayonaise and Cherub Rock
amazing breakdown of that song, nice job!
Great, I'll be playing that in my head for days. It feels simple, but is one of the catchiest riffs ever.
Graham is an underrated guitar genius.
I'll never forget the first time I heard this "joke". It was as if someone reignited the powerful energy we lost when Cobain died. I loved it then and still do.
American, huh?
Thank you so much for breaking this epic song down! I’ve loved this song since the very first time I heard it, back in the 90’s. I knew it was special but you’ve just shown me why!
Always great to see someone praise the ever underrated blur. Interesting video!
Man turned a Blur joke into a Pink Floyd epic.
Turned a blur epic into a pink Floyd joke
Finally glad someone cleared this up. Cause I've always played it in standard tuning. However I was unaware of the F sharp and A at the end. Otherwise I was actually playing it right with the inverted chords. I seen them live in 1999-2000 and watched them from the 4th row.
That outro/solo you nailed just made me love this video. 🤟
would have loved to hear more of that solo Paul. You were in da eye of that storm man .
Wow, I came across this video as a recommended. I know bugger all about the technical terms but I love the sounds. And that last bit of slowed down Blur, with improv, was amazing. It explained to me, like I've not heard before, how different styles of alternative music come about. In that slowed down bit I first heard some of the shoegaze bands of the 90s, then I heard indie rock (I'll come to that) and then he moved into classic bands such as Zep, though I am sure that was just having fun. And what I said I'd come to is that I'm a huge fan of Sebadoh. They have a song called Gimme Indie Rock. In that song they sing "much slower, heavier". I heard that difference so clearly. Gonna watch more of this guy. And people will poss read what I said and go "pfft, what a layman" haha. I am.
Love those inverted 5th string power chords! I always called them weezer chords cause they use it in loads of their songs but I also found it to be a staple in punk/hardcode and doom/sludge genres
Yeah I was going to say this video could be 5 seconds long and just say they used Weezer chords. Or Bach...
This song informs my song writing so much to this day... pedal notes, buzz saws, inversions... things that I thought were compensations, that turned out to be techniques! love it!
It is such a fantastic riff. Such a pleasure hearing your breakdown of it!
Love your methodology of reverse engineering the composition. Love your solo at the end even more! 👏👏👏
Paul Davids = The ultimate “forensic” riff expert - genius ! Bravo Paul !
Him and Adrian on Anyone Can Play Guitar are the best for learning how stuff was really played.
Wow thank you for this! I’ve been a power chord player for years and never learned about such simple additions to make everything sound bigger.
Absolutely brilliant..so simple but so effective
I picked up on the 5th in the bass because when I was learning barre chords when I was 15, I struggled with moving from A shapes to E shapes, so I just barred across all the strings at all times and noticed that the low E string thickened up the A shaped barre chords so much! And so when it came to learning this song, it was just something I was already doing and didn’t think anything of it! I also noticed the pedal note, but not the F power chord! Pedals add so much complexity with very little effort, so it was a thing I really clung too from early on
This video is great because as a touring punk musician I feel like punk gets overlooked on any complexity but this type of riff is exactly what happens all the time. Thanks
You are so refreshing, thank you Paul.
You’re a gem Paul! Love your enthusiasm, love what you do. Thanks mate! 🤘🏻👍🏻
Coxon called the chorus "the Weezer chord" during an interview with That Pedal Show (I think!) Definitely some Buddy Holly vibes.
wait, there's a weezer signature chord?
Nice Paul! I wanted to add though, most of the real power on the chorus comes from a very heavy bass distortion driving the mids forward, but since we’re not used to hearing bass drive, our ears combine it with the guitar to imagine the guitars being even more crazy than they are!
Always loved how Alex plays it safe on the first chorus, then turns the bass into a revving engine with all of his slides on the second.
Thanks Adam! I actually played the bass for this vid through a cranked AC30 (it's not everwhere though) to get that gritty sound. We're reluctant, but all guitarists need to admit that we need the bass to sound heavy haha 🫶
@@PaulDavids gimme gimme fuzz bass
This video in itself is brilliant. A true masterpiece. I enjoyed it greatly!
Love the solo!!
I just love how this guy is totally vibing with what he's doing
The released song is also just the demo that they done. Graham Coxon is for sure a guitar hero, his guitar work sounds so simple but there is always more going on than you think.
Paul, you have a lot going for you. Your playing is stellar. You have a great down to earth personality. Someone that everyone likes personality. I've been watching your videos for years. Thanks.
Lovely dissection of this. Will appreciate this riff even more now. Thx
Power chord inversions sounding an octave lower is something I myself accidentally found while learning “It’s my Life” by Bon Jovi, and I remember thinking to myself, “huh, there’s gotta be a way to use that for a riff” and now here I find this video telling me I was right. Love your videos, they always cement and connect the stuff I already have in my brain in new and interesting ways.
Hey man, just so you know your comment about Bon Jovi is public. You might wanna edit that out. Looking out for a fellow bro is all. I ain't no hero.
It’s my life is so fire
Beetlebum and Charmless Man are the coolest Blur riffs. Just so unique. Coxon is a master
london loves!
@@pierovio7882 i also forgot "No distance left to run" tbf
@@XanderMohan ahah surely, we forgot many ahahah Im a big fan of blur eh eh e h
The slowed down version sounds perfect to soundtrack a pivotal scene in an epic movie, and then Paul drops an awesome solo in there as the icing on the cake! Awesome music and great to hear the breakdown of what is obviously quite a complex track
Wow just love how you got caught up in the moment and started soloing! AND KEPT IT in the video! I have played on repeat now haha