(Gibson) Gibson SG legend Robby Krieger turns 65 this Saturday, January 8, and he is still making dynamic music at an age when most mortals are ready for retirement. His 2010 album Singularity is proof that Krieger's wizardry a textural approach that straddles jazz, rock, blues and world music in a seemingly effortless manner, blending finger picking and plectrum playing and boasting a slide style as instantly recognizable as Duane Allman's is not just intact but as spectacular as ever.For slide guitarists in particular, Krieger is a beacon for expanding a blues-based vocabulary. He drew mostly on open tunings in his Doors days: primarily open D, dropped D and open E. "The first slide guys I heard were the classic blues guys like Blind Willie Johnson, Robert Johnson
all the Johnsons," he related in an interview with Gibson.com last August. "I didn't want to play like those guys. I wanted to take it somewhere else, like on 'Moonlight Drive.' There are elements of blues in my playing, but I wanted the slide to make a different kind of sound rather than try to play blue notes with it."
Krieger etched his place in rock history with his classic early recordings with The Doors. They include "Light My Fire," "Love Me Two Times," "Touch Me" and "Love Her Madly," all written by Krieger. And many of those chestnuts were popped with the 1967 SG Standard that's still his main axe and has been immortalized by the Gibson Custom Shop as the Robby Krieger SG.
In celebration of Krieger's birthday and one of the greatest bands in rock history, check out an entirely subjective compilation of his 10 best riffs with The Doors here
