10 Classic Guitar Riffs That Were Created By Accident

After the Beatles lost their moptops, there was no real limit to where they could go from a stylistic perspective. From Rubber Soul onward, the Fab Four almost made it their mission to go through every single recording technique that suited them, from deliberately distorting the voice on Tomorrow Never Knows to eventually splicing two bits of songs together to create the final version of Strawberry Fields Forever. Hell, if they weren't careful, they almost found themselves shattering our eardrums with Revolution.

Given that the A-side of their single from this time was Hey Jude, it was a welcome change of pace to hear a guitar that abrasive opening of the flipside, as John Lennon talks about rallying against corrupted politicians the world over. So did Lennon take a few cues from bands like the Who and Led Zeppelin to get this kind of sound? Actually, the entire thing wasn't really done through an amp at all.

When recording his guitar part, Lennon decided that the only way to get the sound he wanted was to plug his guitar directly into the recording console, which made his riffs sound as forceful as they do when you play it back. Granted, if you're talking about something as culturally significant as Revolution, it certainly helps that you have a riff like this that will make people stand up and take notice.