What's Your Favorite Guitar Riff

AC/DC: Back in Black
Great White: House of Broken Love

I think to me the ones that stick out, as a whole, are from Rage Against the Machine. Otherwise, specific songs are much more involved than I can think of right now.

stauf7 wrote:
Elysia wrote:

Van Morrison - "Baby Please Don't Go" - it's such a deliciously nasty guitar riff. Does that make sense?

Is this the same song that is performed by John Lennon (that also has a great live version with Frank Zappa and his band)?

"Baby Please Don't Go" is generally credited to Big Joe Williams, but appears to have been originally composed by Papa Harvey Hull and Long Cleeve Reid in the 1920's. It's been covered by Muddy Waters, Lightnin' Hopkins, Paul Revere & the Raiders, Amboy Dukes, AC/DC, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Ted Nugent, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Aerosmith, Taste and Budgie. I couldn't find a reference to Lennon or Zappa, but it's certainly a well-covered song - it could easily be true.

Van Morrison's band Them, recorded the version most people recognize first. Billy Harrison of Them says he was the guitarist who played the famous lick in "Baby, Please Don't Go". However, Jimmy Page was actually brought in as a session musician to play on that song as well as "Gloria". Who knows which one was really playing? Only Page, Harrison, and others who were there. (But if I had to guess, based on the rest of his resume, I'd go with Page.)

FREEEEEEEEEEEEEBIRD!

I'd agree with the OP that perhaps Crazy Train is my favorite. Can't help but play air guitar on that one.

A few others (with all due respect to many that have been named earlier, I'm trying for ones that generally haven't been mentioned already):

AC/CD - Back in black, You Shook Me All Night Long and (yes) Big Gun
Lenny Kravitz - Are you going to go my way
Joan Jett - I Love Rock 'n Roll (this one isn't hard, just fun)
Outlaws - Green Grass and High Tides
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground
Rush - too many to mention
Queen - ditto...Brian May is the man of catchy rifts
White Zombie - Astrocreep
Motley Crew - Wild Side

oldmanscene24 wrote:

Derek & the Dominoes: "Layla"

There. Close the thread. We're done. ;)

I actually LOL at this one. not the song, but your quote after it.

Vrikk wrote:

FREEEEEEEEEEEEEBIRD!

Yer fired!

Not enough Dream Theater/LTE love in this thread I'm afraid.

Liquid Tension Experiment: Acid Rain
Dream Theater: Erotomania
About To Crash
Symphony X: Evolution
Rush: Red Sector A
Joe Satriani: Secret Prayer
Rasberry Jam Delta V
Lamb of God: Laid to Rest

KaterinLHC wrote:

Guitar riffs are like Pringles. Some of my faves:

Rush - "Spirit of Radio" - instantly cheers me up whenever I hear it
Rush - "Dreamline" - My favorite song ever, my favorite opener ever and it's the first song (okay, fine, first ten notes) I learned to play on a guitar
Ozzy Osborne - "Perry Mason" - So badass, especially for a song referencing a TV lawyer
Blue Oyster Cult - "Don't Fear the Reaper" - Not particularly complex, but pretty darn catchy
Dire Straits - "Money For Nothing" - I like "Sultans of Swing" better, but this song has a better main melody
Led Zeppelin - "Rock and Roll" - that car commercial almost ruined this song for me, but not quite; always makes me think of summertime; speaking of which -
Tom Petty - "American Girl" - Triggers a Pavlovian reflex to change into something tiny, crack open a beer, and lounge on my balcony for hours. Perfect summer song.

I agree with everything on this list; especially American Girl. We used to have this bar on the river that we'd sail down to in the summer where this chick with a really throaty voice could just belt it out and everybody would sing along and generally make fools of themselves. Good God, that was over ten years ago now. The singer is dead, so is one of my buddies, and the bar was taken out by a hurricane. But I can hear that, "Cha!" at the beginning of the song and get right back into it.

Good list, Kat

Thanks, buzz! Can't say that I have quite the same caliber of memories attached to "American Girl" (most of mine involve trashy novels, cheesy jokes and copious quantities of sunscreen and warm beer) but, hey, at least we share the booze and belting at passers-by.

Vector wrote:

This one: roowwwrrr wah waha wah rrrrrkthkth

I clicked on this thread just to make this joke you bastard!

KaterinLHC wrote:

Thanks, buzz! Can't say that I have quite the same caliber of memories attached to "American Girl" (most of mine involve trashy novels, cheesy jokes and copious quantities of sunscreen and warm beer) but, hey, at least we share the booze and belting at passers-by. :)

Whenever I hear that song I think about Silence of the Lambs. An ill portent.

Podunk wrote:

Rush - Limelight, Natural Science, A Passage to Bangkok, Show Don't Tell
Metallica - Master of Puppets, Sad But True (already mentioned, but it bears repeating)
Led Zeppelin - The Ocean
Megadeth - Holy Wars, Symphony of Destruction, Train of Consequences
King's X - Dogman, Over My Head
Meshuggah - Rational Gaze
Devin Townsend - Seventh Wave
Queensryche - Damaged
Joe Satriani - Satch Boogie
Steve Vai - Bad Horsie
Dream Theater - Under a Glass Moon
Helmet - Unsung
Prong - Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck
Korn - Blind
(

I knew I'd like your taste.
A few personal favorites:

Illdisposed - Dark
Decapitated - The Empty Throne
Morbid Angel - Where the Slime Lives
Raunchy - Crack of Dawn
Exodus - Throwing Down
Metallica - Sad but True
Chimaira - Army of Me
Lamb of God - Ruin
Urkraft - Blessed Be the Human Beast
Napalm Death - Puritanical Punishment Beating
Coldworker - They Crawl Inside Me Uninvited
Iniquity - Poets of the Trench
Opeth - Beneath the Mire
Insomnium - Drawn to Black
Blind Guardian - Born in a Mourning Hall

Ralten wrote:
Player Hater wrote:

Kashmir by Led Zeppelin.

Bit OT:
Have you picked up the CD of Zep covers done by the London Philharmonic? They do Kashmir, and I like it better than the original. (the CD is, appropriately, titled Kashmir: The Symphonic Led Zeppelin)

The Song Retains the Name

and

Dread Zeppelin

Gotta be the Kitty Kat Dance.

KABONG!

IMAGE(http://www.range-o-dente.com/lib-blog/2005/ElKabong.jpg)

Seriously though, and this is embarrassing... One of the best ones I've heard is from F-Zero GX. It's the theme music for one of the characters, the one with the heart-shaped goggles that flies around in a shoe.

Also, Nightwish, particularly "End of All Hope."

Anything by Creed. They're so rawking and they love the Jebus.

Podunk, Kat and Chiggie took all the good famous ones. However, as cheesy as this is gonna sound, I could listen to the GWJ-CC theme for hours on end and not get tired of it.. Does that count?

No Stairway? Denied!

AnimeJ wrote:

Podunk, Kat and Chiggie took all the good famous ones. However, as cheesy as this is gonna sound, I could listen to the GWJ-CC theme for hours on end and not get tired of it.. Does that count?

I like the Podunk Stomp every time it airs on my show. I don't think I could get tired of it, and it fits perfectly.

Caffiene leads me to say, for now:
Type O Negative: In Praise of Bacchus, The Dream Is Dead
Pantera: Walk
Slayer: Raining Blood
Megadeth: Train of Consequence
Jane's Addiction: Mountain Song, Classic Girl
Pink Floyd: Run Like Hell
Tool: Jambi,

National Anthem - Radiohead

Cannot believe I forgot this one. I would love to play either the lead or rhythm on How Soon Is Now. What an amazing hook on that tune. Almost overshadows every other Smiths song and that is saying something as far as catchy guitar hooks go.