Rock's Greatest Riff Revealed! Tedium Reigns!
I've just received a press release containing the following:
Award-winning DAB station Planet Rock and PURE, makers of the in-car DAB Radio "Highway" have conducted a poll to establish the top ten greatest rock riffs of all time.
Planet Rock listeners voted ****** to the number one spot with more than a third of the votes. ******'s ****** took second place and ******'s ****** came in at number three.
The reason for the asterisks is that we're not actually allowed to tell you the results: they've been embargoed for an entire week, as if this were the most exciting media event ever, as if editors the nation over require seven days to grasp the full enormity of the news and ditch other stories accordingly, as if this weren't actually the most predictable set of survey results in all of recorded history.
I mean, what do you think is number one? Are you sure? Really? Yes, of course you're right.
Later on in the Top Ten, amidst all the fanfare and hullabaloo, the PR company gets one of the song titles wrong. And one of the band names.
Genius all round.
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back in 2004
the powers what be said it was Guns N' Roses
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3677965.stm
has it changed much since then?
Planet Rock?!
Sounds like something from Harry Enfield's Smashey & Nicey - Radio FAB FM.
Well, judging by the station name it has to be "Smoke On The Water" straight in at a rocktastic Number 1!
My personal choices would be "Babylon's Burning" by The Ruts, the bass intro on "Nice & Sleazy" by The Stranglers and the guitar riff to "I Can't Explain" by The Who.
I couldn't
possibly say...
It is a proven scientific fact...
...that the greatest guitar riff is The Kinks "You Really Got Me". Bet it isn't there. Instead it'll be some over-processed piece of kitsch by a clown in leather trousers.
surely Louie Louie is tying neck and neck
and then there's satisfaction.....
A clown in leather trousers?
Something by Slipknot, then?
This very subject
was discussed over dinner on Saturday night. And The Kinks "You Really Got Me" was picked. Ergo, it's a fact.
Non-heavy metal/classic rock riff competition!
can't someone/somewhere be innovative (Word Magazine maybe?) and compile a list of the best riffs that do not involve hairy men in spandex trousers?
Mr Hepworth, unless you are sitting by a pool with a cold beer and a lap-top - do I take it you are back from holidays?
If so - do you think you could kindly do a Podcast this week, I've got terrible withdrawal symptoms and I don't feel at all well...
There she stood,
in the street, smiling from her head to her feet.
Can't imagine a riff-tastic competition that has that one anywhere outside the top five.
Bet they'll be...
(1) Smoke On The Water - Deep Purple
(2) Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses
(3) Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones
possibly Stairway To Heaven at No.3... can't make up my mind on that one.
It has to be
Smoke on the Water. It's just a great riff, classic and timeless.
Blue Oyster Cult
Don't Fear The Reaper.....maybe?
Sweet Home Alabama or Born To Run, but since it's Planet Rock, then maybe not.
Whole Lotta Love.....maybe?
In a sane world
it would be Jumpin' Jack Flash.
Smoke on the Water
Yep has to be number 1. it also the only great riff i can play on a Touch-Tone phone.Oh and the guitar.
My guess
1. Smoke on the Water
2. Sweet Child o' Mine
3. Layla
It was Layla
that came to my mind too, though funnily enough when I had my haircut last Thursday, my barber was talking about the beauty and simplicity of both Sweet Child o' Mine and Smoke on the Water.
If I listened to Planet Rock (hahahahaha) I'd have gone for Complete Control by the Clash, All the Young Dudes by Mott the Hoople and -maybe- Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes.
My sources can now reveal. . .
that one of the three is definitely a drop of well-aged Angus.
Hmmmm
read this thread in an internet cafe in France before a 9 hour drive home, so had plenty of time to think about it (and over complicate the whole thing). I think there is a need for definition here - a riff is a repeating phrase which is part of the whole underlying chassis of the song. So DH is right, "You really got me" is a near perfect example. So are "Smoke on the water" and "All right now". "Jumpin jack flash" and "Satisfaction" too. There is no riff in "Stairway". However "Sweet child of mine" and "Layla" (and "Alabama" and "Born to run" for that matter) could exist perfectly well without the little signature LICK which is certainly a key part of the arrangement, but the song could happily be played without them - in fact, Eric has done on the unplugged album. So far so analytical. With this in mind I agree with the 3 I mentioned above, and would chuck "Whole lotta love" into the pot too, but at 1.00 am this morning "I smell teen spirit" seemed about perfect to me.