The Riff

[caddyman]

There is an article in today’s Times about the importance of the guitar riff in rock music. They call it the cornerstone of rock. For those as is interested, the article can be found online here.

The online version of the article does not include the top ten riffs of all time as decided by, er… probably the Times. There is a link you can follow to listen and vote for your favourite, but I don’t think there’s a list as such. Here I have included the top ten list as it appears in the printed version (without the commentary), starting with number one and working down to ten:

1 Smoke on the Water: Deep Purple
2 Whole Lotta Love: Led Zeppelin
3 Satisfaction: Rolling Stones
4 There She Goes: The La’s
5 Come On Everybody: Eddie Cochran
6 Smells Like Teen Spirit: Nirvana
7 Seven Nation Army: White Stripes
8 I Love Rock’n’Roll: Joan Jett
9 Sweet Child O’Mine: Guns N’ Roses
10 I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor: Arctic Monkeys

So the question is, what’s on that list that shouldn’t be, and what’s missing that should?

Comments

[sack-boy.livejournal.com]

Comments from the chaps here in the office point out that "Ace of Spades" and "Teenage Kicks" are not included.

[ash1977law.livejournal.com]

If parts of the guitar performance count as a repeated chord progression in a pattern count as riff, scandalously missing is Voodoo Child / Voodoo Chile by Mr Hendrix.

[delvy.livejournal.com]

All along the watchtower and Teenage Kicks are the obvious missing ones for me...

[davidt3001.livejournal.com]

Paranoid by Blacck Sabbath, Problem Child, Highway to Hell or Back in Black by AC/DC and, of course Gay Bar by Electric Six. And while we're on the subject, why Satisfaction and not Brown Sugar?

[davidt3001.livejournal.com]

But how could I have forgotten Joe Walsh's Rocky Mountain Way?

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

Layla springs to mind immediately as shockingly omitted. As for shockingly included, I think that 4 should be somewhere down in the 80s, 5 should be excluded as I don't think it's really a riff, 6 is not enough of a distinctive riff to be that high up, and I don't even recall the riff in 10.

Where's AC/DC? And where's Tony Iommi? The latter is the riff master beyond compare in my view, and I'm not necessarily a huge Sabbath fan.

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

I agree with november_girlwhole-heartedly. Here She Comes is a lovely tune, and the guitars jangle pleasantly, but it's not one of the greatest riffs of all time.

Great riff writers certainly include K Richards, J Page and T Iommi. One riff that came to mind immediately when I read your text was the version of Mannish Boy that Muddy Waters recorded on his Hard Again album. Strident!

The monthly guitar mags write their own articles on this very subject quite often, with some interesting results. Smoke o/t Water may not be the best rock riff ever, but it's the most populist.

[littleonionz.livejournal.com]

nOooo to the Arctic Monkeys too soon,too now.
'The Chain' fleetwood Mac off top of mi head, I'm not a big fan or owt, I just think it's fairly iconic as is The Shadows erm 'Apache' is it?
Oh and Iron Maiden says Ghatanothoa not sure which track he thinks though.

[ghatanothoa.livejournal.com]

well every iron maiden guitar riff is the same... so surely you can just have one entry for all of them.

[fractalgeek.livejournal.com]

4, 8 & 10 don't really count for me. 5, maybe.

Guitarist Magazine lists include things like "Enter Sandman", and something meaty by AC/DC. Slash is always in there somewhere, usually Layla from the clapton world (mine though is "Sunshine of your Love"