The Best Riffs Ever

dmpoole said:
Not if you'd heard my guitarist play it tonight in front of 500 people.
I had to stop him, move his fingers up two frets and he started again :)
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LOL

One of my friends in a pub rock covers band is inclined to do that every so often. :p
 
OzZie said:
I guess defining a riff is difficult, because most comments here seem to be complete songs. [/pentantic] :p I class a riff as a 'repeated' progession of either chords or notes played as the basis of a song. :)
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Funny i was kind of thinking the same thing as i looked through the list. IMHO the riff is the 'hook' of the song, a phrasing that is an integral part of the song structure and can be heard throughout the song, examples of what i mean would be songs like

Aerosmith - Walk this Way
Pantera - Walk
Megadeth - Symphony of Destruction
Metallica - Sad but True
AC/DC - Back in Black
Def Leppard - Rock Rock til you drop

Having said that i'm not really quite sure were intro's ly. i.e. sweet child, crazy train, south of heaven, Seek & Destroy where the opening phrasing is sometimes what makes the song but is not recurrent throughout - perhaps some of you musos can comment.

Anything that happens in song but only once or twice i would tend to refer to as licks rather than riffs.

All my own opinion of course :D
 
Gaijin said:
Agreed with the Muse tracks mentioned.


But I must say:

Megadeth - Holy Wars - The Punishment Due

Which riff in particular? Pick one!
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Ha! All of them of course! ;) Seriously, I love the descending triplet riff, and Im a sucker for octave riffs (as you can probably tell from my list), so the main holy wars riff is a great one for me, but that song is full of great riffs. Probably the best thrash metal song ever!

But the same could be said for many of the dream theatre and L.T.E songs mentioned - they are far too full of great riffs to be identified by just one!
 
Deadly Ferret said:
Would you define it then please, as I have never been sure of exactly what it is. I've just thought of it as an unbroken piece of guitar playing within a tune.
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A riff can be thought of as a repeating "phrase" (or guitar melody), like a short string of notes (usually 4 or at most 8 bars long, and riffs don't usually consist chords, but power chord riffs are acceptable) that is easily identifiable. A riff is to guitar what a hook is to vocals.

For example, many people know the main riff from Layla (you know, the one that was on the peugeot car adverts ages ago) - that's a textbook riff. However, something like the main part of Yellow (Coldplay) I would not call a riff as it is a chord progression.

Its quite hard to define a riff! :eek:
 
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Best riff and best example of what a riff is:
Audioslave - Show Me How To Live

Otherwise there is probably some foo in there, some ratm, that slightly funkier rock.
 
Audioslave - Revelations
Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers
Rage Against The Machine - Guerilla Radio
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground
Rush - Tom Sawyer
The Clash - London Calling
The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary
THe Cure - Want
The Rolling Stones - Start Me Up
 
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Nitefly said:
Thats just the mission impossible theme :o
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loujm7.jpg
 
Metallica - Seek And Destroy (The main riff obviously)
Trivuim - Rain (just the intro, I love that riff)
Bring Me The Horizon - Medusa (the sweep picking in this song makes me smile)
The Black Dahlia Murder - The Blackest Incarnation
The Black Dahlia Murder - A Vulgar Picture (this song makes me want to punch stuff... innit)

Just off the top of my head
 
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For classic Metal or rock riffs, it has to be between Toni Iommi and Ritchie Blackmore.

I reckon Blackmore has the edge.
 
I like Bloc Party - Helicopter off the top of my head, there are more but I'm tired so that's all you're getting =D
 
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