Robin Trower - Day of the Eagle - Guitar Lesson

Bridge Of Sighs (2007 Remaster)

1974 5:03

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About Day of the Eagle

Few album openers hit as hard as "Day of the Eagle," and playing it well means getting inside the slow, heavy grease that Robin Trower wrings out of every phrase. The song sits in E minor at 120 BPM in standard tuning, but the tempo can be deceptive: the feel is behind-the-beat and heavily swung, so even though the numbers look comfortable, locking into that particular pocket takes real attention. The signature riff is built on sustained, bent notes with thick vibrato, and that vibrato is the hardest thing to copy. Trower's vibrato is wide and controlled at the same time, and if yours is either too fast or too shallow the riff loses all its authority. Spend time in the Practice Toolbar looping the opening riff at a reduced speed, focusing purely on making each bent note speak before you move on. The blues-rock vocabulary here is not complicated in terms of notes, but the tone and phrasing demand patience.

• The riff centres on heavy string bends with wide, controlled vibrato in E minor, and nailing that vibrato is the core technical challenge of the song.
• At 120 BPM in E Standard tuning, the groove sits intentionally behind the beat, so use the Practice Toolbar slowed down to find the right pocket.
• Trower relied heavily on a Stratocaster through a Marshall for his tone, making single-coil pickups and amp gain the key ingredients to chase this sound.