Pointless Listmaking: Guitar School Reveals "Top 25 Riffs Of All Time," Flatters Ghosts Of Jimi, Dimebag

pointless listmaking

Guitar School Reveals "Top 25 Riffs Of All Time," Flatters Ghosts Of Jimi, Dimebag

"Smoke On The Water" features the best guitar riff of all time, according to a poll conducted by the British music school Guitar X. As you'd expect from a list based on the opinions of young guitar students, you've got some Hendrix, some Angus, three from Slash in the Top 10. But two Frusciantes? A Dimebag? A Knopfler? The full 25 after the jump.

1. "Smoke On The Water" - Deep Purple
2. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" - Nirvana
3. "Walk This Way" - Aerosmith
4. "Purple Haze" - Jimi Hendrix
5. "Sweet Child O' Mine" - Guns'n'Roses
6. "Paradise City" - Guns'n'Roses
7. "Ace Of Spades" - Motorhead
8. "Enter Sandman" - Metallica
9. "Under The Bridge" - Red Hot Chili Peppers
10. "Welcome To The Jungle" - Guns'n'Roses
11. "Run To The Hills" - Iron Maiden
12. "Walk" - Pantera
13. "Johnny Be Goode" - Chuck Berry
14. "Back In Black" - AC/DC
15. "Immigrant Song" - Led Zeppelin
16. "Wake Up" - Rage Against The Machine
17. "Highway To Hell" - AC/DC
18. "My Generation" - The Who
19. "Seven Nation Army" - The White Stripes
20. "Born To Be Wild" - Steppenwolf
21. "Give It Away" - Red Hot Chili Peppers
22. "Paranoid" - Black Sabbath
23. "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)" - Jimi Hendrix
24. "Eye Of The Tiger" - Survivor
25. "Money For Nothing" - Dire Straits

Duuuuuuude, no "Stone Cold Crazy?" And if you're going to bother with Jack White, you have to go with "Icky Thump." Maybe it's just my patriotism talking, I think an American school would have made a much fiercer list. One with some Kerry King! Some John Petrucci! Some John Mayer!

Deep Purple top guitar heroes [The Sun]

2:45 PM on Wed Apr 2 2008
By Anthony Miccio
3,117 views
17 comments

Comments

by Jon Can Dance at 03:00 PM on 04/02/08
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How is My Sharona not on this list? Blasphemy I say!
by Chris N. at 03:13 PM on 04/02/08
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WTF? "Whole Lotta Love"! WHOLE. LOTTA. LOVE. The whole Top 25 could be Zeppelin, really.
by SuperUnison at 03:17 PM on 04/02/08
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Patzer list.
by Lou Banjawi at 03:29 PM on 04/02/08
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Uh, Kinks? Hello? "You Really Got Me", aka the birth of the riff? Kids today...
by FionaScrapple at 04:02 PM on 04/02/08
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3 GnR songs in the top ten? I call bullshit.
by PopIsNotDead at 04:26 PM on 04/02/08
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@Jon Can Dance: Well, does a riff get points deducted if it's on a bass guitar?
by LAKingsin2009 at 04:30 PM on 04/02/08
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@Chris N.: I agree. No way Eye of the Tiger bests Black Dog.

Also, while not an authority on what constitutes 'riffness', I have to object that some of these just aren't riffs. SLTS is a bunch of power chords. Or are they referring to the der-ding that occurs during the verses? I'm also not clear what the riff is in Under the Bridge; its just a couple of simple, cool, chord progesssions (with some added touches by JF).
by Thesemodernsocks at 04:38 PM on 04/02/08
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@LAKingsin2008: Seriously. I had to think for a second about the "riff" from Under the Bridge. Came up blank.

Its really not a good list, which makes the people who made it not good people. Shame on them.
by Jon Can Dance at 04:47 PM on 04/02/08
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@PopIsNotDead: I think it actually gets bonus points for being sampled by Run DMC, thereby exposing it to a whole other audience that may not hear it in the first place.

Or I'm just full of shit.

Personally, I'd go with the latter.
by GhostOfDuane at 04:55 PM on 04/02/08
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War Pigs > Paranoid
by mlackey at 05:14 PM on 04/02/08
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How is "Iron Man" missing from this list, let alone not topping it? I prefer "Paranoid", but come on! It's the king of riffs.
by Chris N. at 05:41 PM on 04/02/08
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"Sabbath Bloody Sabbath">all
by janine at 05:49 PM on 04/02/08
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I'm going to lobby for "Cult of Personality. "

@LAKingsin2008: Sure you can have chord riffs, like in "You Shook Me All Night Long" or "Flip Your Wig."
by Chris N. at 05:58 PM on 04/02/08
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I certainly shan't argue with the presence of "Back in Black" here. That's a riff that will cut your balls off and show them to you if you're not careful.
by Chris Barrus at 08:46 PM on 04/02/08
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Kids these days...

#1 through #25 is obviously Link Wray's "Rumble" in all twenty-five places.

Surprised to see no Van Halen on the list.
by Richaod at 09:49 PM on 04/02/08
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@Chris Barrus: Eddie Van Halen was always more of a wanky shredder/soloist (but a good one) than a riffer.

Idolator mentioning John Petrucci = win.

Oh, and number 1 should be Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath. Started the entire metal genre; a bigger achievement with three notes than any of the others.
by AcidReign at 05:58 PM on 04/03/08
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I've got to second the Led Zep comments. Pagey wrote better riffs than anyone. One of our favorite, drive the neighbors crazy college tricks was to first program the drum machine to an endless loop of Bonham-like pounding, then 4 or 5 guitarists would start playing "Moby Dick." Last person left playing would get free beer all night! Now THAT was a riff!