(Favourite) guitar riffs

[Fox92]

We all love a great guitar riff, right??

... Well I do.

 

So what's peoples favourites on here then? And I don't want this to be a "this is better" or "I don't like that" or "that's overrated", just whack your riffs down because I want to be introduced to even more!

 

Some of my favourites as follows....

 

I'm seeing the Stones in the summer and looking to Satisfaction the most, hearing that riff live.

 

Probably my favourite Beatles riff. Take 1 is just the guitars. Also note Lennon's superb rhythm playing.

 

Goes without saying. A top favourite of mine. Probably one of the most recognisable of all time.

 

I'm a big Johnny Marr fan. Think he's underrated. And I think this is one of his best riffs.

[Fox92]

And... I love just listening to Hendrix play his favourites.

 

Originally Cream, of course. Shout out to the great Eric Clapton too.

 

And covering the Beatles again.

Edited 4 April 2018 by Fox92

[MrsJohnMurphy]

 

 

 

 

 

[Izzy]

 

 

 

[bovril]

 

Godlike.

[pSinatra]

 

[Guest]

 

[shen]

Some excellent ones already posted. As I'm mainly a rock/metal/prog fan, here are a few of my favourites from those genres

 

[SouthStandUpperTier]

 

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

 

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

 

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

 

[Trav Le Bleu]

 

 

And the best bass riff...

 

 

[Alf Bentley]

 

 

 

[Alf Bentley]

Even older stuff....

 

 

 

 

[ozleicester]

 

[KingsX]

 

[separator]

 

[shen]

Don't want to be a pedant @Alf Bentley but a good few of those are bass riffs I think. They're still great though

 

 

Edited 5 April 2018 by shen
A couple more classics

[Alf Bentley]

58 minutes ago, shen said:

Don't want to be a pedant @Alf Bentley but a good few of those are bass riffs I think. They're still great though

 

Several of them have prominent bass parts or bass intros (I have a base character), but most or all have strong lead guitar riffs, too.

Anyway, a bass is a bass guitar. The OP didn't ask for favourite "lead guitar riffs"..... Ha! Out-pedanted you! Glad you liked them, though. 

[Voll Blau]

 

 

[rico]

 

[Voll Blau]

How could I forget...

 

 

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

Men's Needs all DAY

[SpacedX]

I've noticed some of these aren't strictly riffs but passages and refrains - so I'll include both. I like the way that this thread is titled "favourite" guitar riffs as opposed to "best" - Musos can tiresomely debate the technicalities, but ultimately something like a guitar riff has subjective value and currency on occasions evoking the zeitgeist and defining the spirit of the age. That said, I did on another forum start a "worst guitar solos of all time" thread - which I may resurrect here. Often though, the most simplistic (ie Satisfaction) can become the most enduring. Not going to to embed You Tube - too many and it bogs the thread down. I'll try and keep it to twenty, no thirty. Also, way too easy to descend into abject cheesiness and obligatory predictability - "Smoke on the Water" need not apply.

 

Tired to keep it to reasonably well known, my own personal favourites are quite esoteric and that would be self indulgent. In no particular order then...

 

1/ 'Paperback Writer.' (The Beatles) Their first foray into overdrive proper. McCartney credits himself as playing the riff but from the rehearsal and early takes I have it's definitely Harrison. The other remarkable thing about this is the bass, marking the first recorded use of McCartney's Rickenbacker. It was a conscious effort to drive up the bass sound on Beatles recordings at the time, which Revolver is testament to and also showcases how melodic McCartney always had been as a bass player. This is a double A side with "Rain"- another great riff which and as a track, the template for practically every Oasis song ever written.

 

2/ 'Voodoo Chile' (Slight Return) Arguably his greatest riff off arguably his greatest album

 

3/ 'Sweet Leaf' (Black Sabbath) Grinding - remorseless. 

 

4/ 'Pleasant Valley Sunday' (The Monkees) Sounds ridiculous? Try playing it and getting the timing spot on. Very subtle time changes and accents makes it all the more catchy.

 

5/ 'Riff Raff' (AC/DC)  - Make that the whole of "Powerage" Contender for the greatest riff of all time.

 

6/ 'I Feel Fine' (The Beatles) ...Let's remind ourselves...nineteen sixty ****ing four. And it begins with bass feedback amplified by Lennon's pick up because his guitar was inadvertently left leaning against the amp. 

 

7/ 'And Your Bird Can Sing' (The Beatles) Lennon hated the song, I think it's one of Harrison's finest moments as a guitarist and it's his riff.

 

8/ 'Can't You Hear Me Knocking?' (The Rolling Stones) So many candidates from the Stones back catalogue - just go away and put this on and then anything else from Keef's songbook in open G. Ok, he learnt the tuning through jamming with Ry Cooder, but Cooder never wrote 'Tumblin' Dice', 'Brown Sugar', 'Honky Tonk Women', 'Midnight Rambler' 'Gimme Shelter' did he?...oh wait, that's a point -

 

9/ 'Gimmie Shelter' (The Rolling Stones) That build up.

 

10/ 'God Save The Queen' (The Sex Pistols) More the immediacy of the intro - An abiding memory of '77 was this dirty refrain sullying the street parties across the nation and to prevent it upsetting the nation's regal festivities further, the music chart was actually rigged. Then they heard 'Bodies'. 'EMI' is a monster riff too.

 

11/ 'I Can't Explain' (The Who) - Did it better than the Kinks. Whatever, this riff is so plagiarised.

 

12/ 'On the Hunt' (Lynyrd Skynyrd) For those who think Skynyrd were about "Alabama" (actually, most of them were from Florida), listen to this.

 

13/ 'Nobody's Fault But Mine' (Led Zeppelin) - No it's not 'Whole Lotta Love'. How can it be? when you have this, or 'Bring it on Home', 'When The Levee Breaks", 'Custard Pie', 'Heartbreaker', 'Trampled Underfoot' 'Kashmir' etc etc etc 

 

14/ 'Young Lust' (Pink Floyd) - Dirty.

 

15/ 'Wish You Were Here'  - (Pink Floyd) - Beautiful and simple opening acoustic refrain. 

 

16/ '5150' (Van Halen) - Although "Unchained" or "Dance the Night Away" are perhaps the most catchy. 

 

17/ 'Maid in Heaven' (Be Bop Deluxe) - No longer wonder why FIF keeps talking about them. 

 

18/ 'Spirit of Radio' (Rush) Not the best Rush lick - and there are so, so many - but the most memorable, which is the general idea of a hook. Listen to 'Working Man'.

 

19/ 'Complete Control' (The Clash) 

 

20/ 'Message in a Bottle' (The Police) When the cleverest and best riffs sound deceptively simple but it turns out are a bastard to play.

 

21/ 'The Boy with the Thorn in his Side' OR 'Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Loved Me' (The Smiths) Hauntingly beautiful (especially the latter).

 

22/ 'Seek and Destroy' (Metallica) To the point would be one way of describing it. 

 

23/ 'Even Flow' (Pearl Jam)

 

24/ 'Ziggy Stardust' (David Bowie) Mick Ronson was criminally underrated. Possibly the most memorable and instantly recognisable opening riffs ever along with with 'Satisfaction' and 'Pinball Wizard' 

 

25/ 'Aqualung' (Jethro Tull) - Are they still going? 

 

26/ 'Mayonaise' or '1979' (Smashing Pumpkins) 

 

27/ 'Letter to Memphis' (The Pixies) 

 

28/ Paint it Black (The Rolling Stones)

 

29/ 'Waterfall' (The Stone Roses) Dubious second coming and seahorses aside, I like John Squire. 

 

30/ 'Back in Black' (AC/DC) - of course.

 

Also mention to 'Crazy Horses' by the Osmonds. 70s Mormon nepotist boy band in proto-heavy rock shock. Whatever those session musicians were snorting that night you can bet your paper roses you wouldn't have been able to find it back in n Salt Lake City.