TOP 50 Guitar RIFFS of ALL-TiME.. did your make the cut???

knapplc said:
walksalone said:
Rattle & Hum/Joshua Tree were kind of the death knell for U2, for my dollar.
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Agreed. U2's best stuff was pre-Joshua Tree. I like Joshua Tree, and I find many of the songs quite sing-able. I sing 'Running To Stand Still' to my daughter as a lullaby. I wonder how she's gonna feel about that when she grows up and finds out daddy was singing her a bedtime song about heroin addiction? :)
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The Rattle & Hum version of Bullet the Blue Sky may be my favorite all time U2 song...

 
I have a question. I'd do a new thread and a poll but I think the poll options would be too numerous. We're talking about U2 and I was thinking how they just fell off a cliff, and my iPod is playing Pearl Jam from their one tolerable album (Ten), and I was thinking - which band has fallen off the cliff worse, U2 or Pearl Jam? For my money it's Pearl Jam, because they only had one good album but they linger on and on and on, while U2 at least had a few good albums before turning into pop crap.

Who else fell off the cliff, jumped the shark, sold out, whatever? And have any of them been worse than Pearl Jam?

 
knapplc said:
I have a question. I'd do a new thread and a poll but I think the poll options would be too numerous. We're talking about U2 and I was thinking how they just fell off a cliff, and my iPod is playing Pearl Jam from their one tolerable album (Ten), and I was thinking - which band has fallen off the cliff worse, U2 or Pearl Jam? For my money it's Pearl Jam, because they only had one good album but they linger on and on and on, while U2 at least had a few good albums before turning into pop crap.

Who else fell off the cliff, jumped the shark, sold out, whatever? And have any of them been worse than Pearl Jam?
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Pearl Jam lost it when they strayed from the media and being "mainstream". They wanted to be the "anti-rockstars" and succeeded(sort of) Still have a huge live following, but have really cared less about their music the last 12-15 years, Vitalogy was their last good CD imo, and agree Knapp, Ten is good and will still be good 20 years from now. U2 I could care less and less about, the edgy (no pun intended) euro rockers were innovative in the 80's but Bono as a world ambassador makes me puke, and not want to listen to them at all. I am sure die hard fans of both would disagree, but I could really care less about these bands anymore. I think the critics and media (Rolling Stone) love both these band, so they stay pretty current that way, but musically there is nothing out of them that would make me listen to them more.

 
I tend to like individual songs more than whole albums or artists. That being said U2 from 80-92 had probably 20 or more songs that i liked, and only 1(vertigo) that i have liked since. Pearl jam had one album with 5 songs that i like, then nothing. IMO Alice In chains, STP, and even the hated Nirvana all did the same. 3-5 solid songs then nothing i liked. Lots of groups lose me by changing pace way too many times within their songs too. (tool, avenged sevenfold, etc.) Doesnt need to be that fancy for me .Get a good riff/rythmn going go to chorus/guitar solo,go back to good riff then done.To me the song makes all the difference.

 
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50 or so of my faves not in order

1.Tesla - heavens trail

2.Nazareth/Guns N Roses - hair of the dog

3.Iron maiden - Trooper - 2 minutes to midnight

4.Guns n Roses - U could be mine - Rocket queen

5. Fastway - Say what you will

6.AC DC - Highway to hell - You shook me - For those about 2 rock

7.Judas priest - Livin after Midnight - You got another thing Comin

8.Ozzy - Crazy train

9.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

10.Metallica - Master of puppets

11.Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water

12.Ted nugent - Cat scratch Fever - Stranglehold

13.Scorpions - Rock you like a Hurricane

14.Rush - Workin man - Limelight - Fly By night + more

15.Jimmi hendricks - Purple haze

18.Blue Oyster Cult - Dont Fear the Reaper - Godzilla

19.Boston - More than a Feeling - Smokin

20.Eric Clapton - Cocaine

21.Santana - All i ever wanted

22.George Thorogood - Bad to the bone

23.Megadeth - Symphony of Destruction

24.Joan Jett - I love Rock n Roll

25.Todd Rungren - Bang on the Drum

26.Joe walsh - Rocky Mountain Way

27.The Knack - my sharona

28.ZZ Topp - Tush

29.Neil Young - Cinnamin Girl

30.Steppenwolf - born to be Wild

31.Heart - Barracuda

32.Lynrd Skynrd - sweet home Alabama

33.Reo Speedwagon - Time for me to Fly

34.Motley Crue - Helter Skelter

35.Motley Crue - Kickstart my heart - Girls Girls Girls - Wild Side and many more

36.Rolling Stones - Gimmie shelter

37.Aerosmith - Sweet Emotion

38.Red hot Chili Peppers - higher ground

39.Doobie brothers - China grove

40.Styx - Miss America

41.The Who - Emminence Front

42.Dire Straits - Money for Nuthin

43.Alice n Chains - Man in the Box

44.Green day - American Idiot and quite a few others

45.Van Halen - Unchained - Mean Streets - Panama Etc..

46.T rex - 20th century boy

47.Rage against the Machine - Renegades of Funk - Testify etc..

48.Bon Jovi - You give love a bad name

49.Black Crowes - Kickin my heart around

50.Dokken - Its not love

IMO these songs all have good guitar riffs in them. Could have come up with many more.

 
Looking at mmmtodd's defintion of "riff" made me think also of "hooks". Perhaps some people think they are the same, but I tend to separate them. By "hook" I mean the catchy, initial opening of a song. One band that seems to consistently come up with great hooks is AC/DC. The openings for so many of their songs just "hook" you.

So - what other bands or artists come to mind? One that does for me (and probably a surprise to some and a "WHO???" to the younger set) is the Don Barnes-version of .38 Special.

Any others you can think of?

 
knapplc said:
I have a question. I'd do a new thread and a poll but I think the poll options would be too numerous. We're talking about U2 and I was thinking how they just fell off a cliff, and my iPod is playing Pearl Jam from their one tolerable album (Ten), and I was thinking - which band has fallen off the cliff worse, U2 or Pearl Jam? For my money it's Pearl Jam, because they only had one good album but they linger on and on and on, while U2 at least had a few good albums before turning into pop crap.

Who else fell off the cliff, jumped the shark, sold out, whatever? And have any of them been worse than Pearl Jam?
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In a way, I think U2's fall was greater because their earlier work before Joshua was so well received.

Pearl Jam was no "One Hit Wonder" but they also had similar bands to help "carry the torch".

Pearl Jam/Nirvana/Soundgarden/AIC seemed maybe better than they really were mainly because of the way music had been going down the tubes prior to that point..I still don't know how Rap outlasted Disco.

Another band that maybe accellerated my wearieness of Pearl Jam was Creed..I innitially had trouble telling the difference between Scott Stapp's and Eddie Vedder's voices and the over abundance of radio play sorta killed both bands.

More Recently..The scary thing Chris Cornell did with Justin Timberlake? or whatever his/her name was..I sure hope Chris goes back to the stuff Soundgarden was known for and stays miles away from that aweful pop sheit.

I'm all for experimenting in other generas (like Todd Rundgren doing some of his songs in a Bossa Nova style?) but leave the tranny rock to Lady Gagme.

 
Are these rifs?

I could listen to these riffs all day...and usually had to by myself as my friends would leave the room screaming...


 
I think another band that can be lumped in with the U2/Pearl Jam shark jumping, is R.E.M.

I really liked about everything they did, up to that whole "losing my religon" whinefest. Fables of the Reconstruction is probably my favorite album from them.

Two bands that get so overlooked are Husker Du and the Replacements. Those are two of my favorite all time bands.

 
My interest in R.E.M. pretty much ended with Losing My Religion. It's one of my favorite songs and one of their more rockin' songs, but after that.... I couldn't tell you what they've done, or name a song off the top of my head. Fables is their best album, I agree.

I have never listened to Husker Du to my knowledge.

 
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knapplc said:
My interest in R.E.M. pretty much ended with Losing My Religion. It's one of my favorite songs and one of their more rockin' songs, but after that.... I couldn't tell you what they've done, or name a song off the top of my head. Fables is their best album, I agree.

I have never listened to Husker Du to my knowledge.
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Without Husker Du, and the Replacements, there wouldn't be alternative in the 90's....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtCL1xq6hNU


 
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GMoose said:
No one's mentioned Du hasst by Rammstein yet...
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Agree on that one, i like some Buch Dich? By Rammstein too. Fun to drive around with the German version cranked up too. People look at you like WTH. :o

 
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