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Hopefully, probably, there are versions of the riff not included here and there will undoubtedly be versions to follow.

Somewhat stripped down from the U2 version, the simple determined strength of the drums and solid 2nd guitar still retains the musical weight of Bullet the Blue Sky and the clean ambitious 70s rock sound. Fittingly, their biggest hit, Fever Dog, is based on a riff which had its heyday in that decade. Then, finally, the riff ended up in Almost Famous, a 2000 film about Stillwater, a fictitious band in the 70s. The riff is here adapted to a more expressive, drum-based form. Bono had just visited guerillas in El Salvador and wanted both to portray the horrors of war and to criticise the US involvement in the El Salvador civil war. The fourth track of U2's The Joshua Tree, Bullet the Blue Sky, is a brutal political commentary. Notice how the base has become more prominent. The title track from his album Stranglehold would become an instant hit and bring Nugent to the attention of guitar fans. Three years later, Ted Nugent had left the Amboy Dukes. The base and steady drum of this song was later to be emphasised and expanded by a number of bands and artists.

Even though the band was in decline, they touched on one of the catchiest riffs of modern rock. In 1972, Savoy Brown released Hellbound Train. This post will trace the career of one particular riff. Everything is deduced from something else literature, films, thoughts and of course music. As the film and its tell-tale title suggests, there isn't. In the 2002 film Adaptation, Nicholas Cage's character asks himself 'is there a single original thought in my mind?'.

Bullet the blue sky drums