“It’s the Kinks meets AC/DC. I had to play around with the riff because I didn’t want it to sound like You Really Got Me – you don’t wanna get sued”: Jim Babjak revisits 5 classic Smithereens riffs – and reveals the gear and stories behind them

The Smithereens are, without a doubt, one of the greatest guitar bands to come out of New Jersey, which – scientifically speaking! – means Smithereens guitarist Jim Babjak has recorded some of the greatest riffs to come out of New Jersey.

Below, Babjak goes to town on the roots and gear behind five of those riffs. And if you’re gonna try to play them yourself, remember to tune down half a step, à la Jimi Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughan.

A Girl Like You

“Pat came up with the opening riff, but I helped him out on some of the chords. There’s an F chord in there, but I don’t know what it’s called, and I do a sort of unorthodox thing with the E minor. The solo is all mine. I played it on the demo because the song was originally planned for Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything. In fact, that’s why Pat sings, ‘I’ll say anything’ at the end.

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“We were definitely going for a heavier sound, and I needed something even tougher than my SG. I said, ‘I gotta get a Les Paul.’ I’ve never been one of those guys who will go into a guitar store and start playing Stairway to Heaven. I was always kind of embarrassed by that sort of thing.

“We were recording in California, so I went with one of our assistant engineers to a used-guitar shop by the studio. I pointed to Les Paul and said, ‘Can you plug that in to see what it sounds like?’ He did, and I said, ‘Okay, I’ll take that one.’ It was 1975 Les Paul. I put it through my Marshall, and it sounded great. I still have it – I don’t want to give it up.”

Drown in My Own Tears

“There’s a chord with the pinky on the E and the B of the fourth fret – I don’t know what you call it. I was watching Del Shannon doing Runaway, and he was playing that chord. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s really cool. I’m going to start doing that.’ For the riff I play in the beginning of this song, I’m keeping my pinky on the E and the B while I move around with the other fingers.

“Around this time, I bought a new SG to get a heavier sound. It was a 1987 SG with regular humbuckers. Later on I put P90s in it. It was a good guitar and worked out fine, but I think an SG from 1967 or ’68 would have been better.”

Blues Before and After

“I used the same SG that I played on Drown in My Own Tears. Same Marshall, too. I never veered too much from a winning combination. It’s kind of funny, though; in the video, I play a Rickenbacker because we had an endorsement with them.

“The riff is pretty Kinks-ish, but heavier. It’s the Kinks meets AC/DC. I had to play around with the riff because I didn’t want it to sound like You Really Got Me – you don’t wanna get sued or anything. We worked everything out in rehearsals during pre-production. Mike came in with his basslines, so it all came together.”

Only a Memory

The Smithereens - Only A Memory - YouTube

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“I came up with that riff during a soundcheck in Madrid on our first tour. There’s always a lot of waiting and goofing around at soundcheck – people aren’t always ready at the same time. So it’s a good chance to play around with new ideas to see if anybody reacts. Back then, if you played something good, you had to play it over and over so you could remember it.

“The minute I played this riff, I was like, ‘I think there’s a song here.’ The other guys looked at me – ‘What was that?’ When we got back to the States, Pat put some chords to it and wrote the lyrics, which were different at the time.

“We went to a rehearsal studio before recording the album and worked out the parts. When we recorded the song, I used the SG for the rhythm, but I played the riff with a Strat. The Strat just sounded better with the part. Don Dixon put some sort of effect on it, and it sounded weird but good.”

Top of the Pops

“Capitol wanted another A Girl Like You. It was like the Kinks following up You Really Got Me with All Day and All of the Night. We were like, ‘All right, we gotta give the record company that type of song again.’ They told us that’s what they wanted; they even said we had to use a click track. I was like, ‘Are you fucking kidding me? That would stifle the drums.’ Dennis actually got really good at playing with a click, though I wasn’t a fan of it.

“We did the demo of it, but I don’t think Pat had all the lyrics yet. The song is in the key of A, just like A Girl Like You, and I thought, ‘How am I going to make it sound different?’ I don’t like to play solos on demos because I want them to be fresh in the studio. I just wait till we’re recording and then I do a few passes. Eventually, the producer will say, ‘Okay, we got it.’

“Sonically, I tried to make the song different from A Girl Like You in that I added an acoustic guitar under the electric on the opening riff. It added a little bit of texture and made it sound different. The electric was the ’75 Les Paul I bought in L.A. The acoustic was a big-body Guild D-50.”

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.