UKC

Anyone listen to this?

Here's the countdown

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/chart/guitar-riffs

Top ten very 70s rock dinosaur heavy. it might be sacrilege, but I got bored listening to the number 1.

The right riff nearly won though, made it to number 2 in the end

No smells like teen spirit or ziggy stardust, in the top 10, and no house of the rising sun or all along the watchtower at all.

But the quo and deep purple are in there. A lot of people with cloth ears listen to radio 2 it would seem...

Cheers

gregor

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

True, but don't forget also that there is big difference between "listeners" and "listeners who actually think there's some merit in voting on these things"

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

Good grief, these people have a slightly skewed idea of what a "riff" is. Either that, or I do!

Patronisingly good(*) to see an inclusion of one female guitarist in 100.

* I was being sarcastic

In reply to Blue Straggler:

That's undeniably true.

But why should fans of the dreariest of plodding 70s rock be so much more likely to vote than anyone that actually *likes* music?



And what *should* the top 10 have included, on the safe assumption that status quo wouldn't be part of it...?

Cheers

Gregor

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:



Time on their hands



Oh don't ask me, I'll just nominate a load of token chick lesbo rock and be shot down by everyone for picking stuff that any blokey session musician hack could play with oven gloves on

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

Just glad that Smoke on the Water didn't win. It's overshadowed so many vastly superior Deep Purple songs.

In reply to Blue Straggler:


Totally agree. It seemed that a lot of the voting was just for songs that people liked, wether they had riff's or not. There were some great songs with no riff's. The Radiohead song No Surprises. I love that song but there's no riff.

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:



People who actually like music have moved on to radio 6

In reply to wynaptomos:
No such thing as Radio 6

In reply to Blue Straggler:


Pedantic

In reply to aln:


There is nothing pedantic about plain facts.

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:



Ah, back to the days of quality music, not the unoriginal dross of today


Not really a riff though is it, more a guitar doodle.

In reply to Blue Straggler:




No transgender guitarists, nor any gay ones either!! Hell's teeth, we should have an affirmative action chart for non-heterosexual white male guitarists...

In reply to stroppygob:


you might need to do some homework

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Oh ok, tokenism evident

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

1 Sabs riff in the whole lot, when they dug one of the deepest, heaviest, chunkiest riffing veins of all?

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

I thought paranoid was an option, but virtually any other early Sabbath song has a better riff. Lots of songs without riffs in there (Living on a Prayer)! DJs knowledge of riffs and guitar setup, amps etc reading off a card was hilarious.

Out of the choices I went for Back in Black which kind of defines a good rock riff for me, but then you only get one choice. From my youth I'd have to go with something from Soundgarden or Rage Against the Machine. Were there any Iron Maiden options? Maybe I need to have a rethink to get it down to a top 5. Still it wasn't a bad way of getting some rock music on FM radio for my drive home.

In reply to Trevers:


Speaking of which, I heard "Highway Star" in my local Tesco at the weekend, blaring out of some demo speakers.

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:


It may be a good riff but the rest of the song is dire - the lyrics and accompanying groaning are pathetic. Given how many of their fellow sex-offenders are now unpersons I'm amazed that this particular track gets played at all.



They are scraping the barrel with these charts now - next up will be the 100 best drum rolls. Top 100 lyrics - now there was a proper survey, particularly as Otways "Beware of the Flowers" made the top 10.

In reply to felt:


You would have thought there would be some mention of Iron Man, according to my guitar shop friend it is the riff played by plenty of mini-metallers in to buy their first proper guitar. Mind you mini-metallers don't listen to BBC Radio these days.

In reply to Clarence:
one riff per band does not make a list of greatest riffs
i'd have at least 10 of these in my top 100..
youtube.com/watch?v=IudUWGqxyiI&

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

Glad to see 'Oh Well' made it in there

In reply to Clarence:

Ha, great post. Reminded me of my youth. As a budding metal head in late 80's wasting shop owners time in Denmark Street, trying out a few guitars and trying to impress. Early days were Iron Man and Highway to Hell. then as I improved 5150 and Ain't talkin' 'bout Love or Lay It Down (Ratt). I was blissfully unaware that most guitar aficionados couldn't give two hoots for hair metal riffs, but I was young and an idiot. Happy days

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

No Diddley?

In reply to Blue Straggler:
Bo's in there, number 83....

The one I can't believe isn't there is the Animals' 'house of the rising sun'... Not just top 100, but surely top 5...

The one per artist rule a bit daft too, and leads to some odd choices- REM's 'the one I love' is at 91, when it should surely have been 'losing my religion' and much higher (ok it was a mandolin and this is a guitar anthems list, but its close enough to count surely...)

And queen's representative was the tedious late-career soundtrack for hire phase 'one vision'- surely Brian may came up with better than that...?

Cheers
Gregor

In reply to philipivan:

Living on a prayer has got a riff.

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:


Thanks, I only skimmed it last night and then didn't recheck before posting.

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:





Problem is that the stronger stuff divides the votes amongst itself so if you have 100 people voting for two great songs and one not-so-great, you end up with the better stuff getting 30% of the vote each and the not-so-great gets 40% and wins, even though most people wanted to vote for BOTH great ones.

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

I thought that the 100 were decided by a panel of the great and wise, with joe public voting for the top 20 to avoid any "killing in the name of" type vote rigging. So you got a radio 2 friendly top 20 guaranteed.

Ps what's the difference between a riff and a hook? Semi serious question!

In reply to Blue Straggler:


Squat.

In reply to toad:

A hook can be the riff. The hook can be a vocal, melody, chorus or any instrumental musical phrase that catches the ear. Basically, the catchiest and most stand out part of a tune, usually the one that circles round your head for hours later.

In reply to Sebastian Fontleroy:

Do you remember when Total Guitar subscribers were up in arms over Oasis' "Don't Look Back in Anger" getting #1 in a poll, above yer usual fretwankery from Satriani et al?

Where I say "poll" I mean "readers' poll" so maybe these people should have actually bothered to vote for their RATM / Led Zep / Iron Butterfly etc

In reply to Blue Straggler:

True. And I didn't vote in this one, so I've no-one to blame but myself for how it turned out...

You've had a few days to mull it over, any thoughts about what your top 5 would look like...?

Cheers

Gregor

In reply to toad:

we have a winner

me n the missis did vote, and it was pick your best out of this bunch

I don't think any artist got two tracks and I thought many of them were not that bands best "riff song"

for what it's worth I voted for Dire Straits

In reply to toad:

I've always thought a riff was a short, repeated guitar motif, usually used in the introduction and sometimes running throughout but at least reappearing in the chorus... so, nothing like the majority of the choices in the list!

How Soon is Now? Great song with brilliant and unusual guitar effects, but a riff?

As for Daft Punk...

My current favourite would be Porno by the Lanskies.

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:



I always thought that was a Hammond organ!

Yours

Cloth Eared Andy

In reply to Dave Garnett:


I did spend a lot of time driving home shouting "that's not a Riff!!" at the radio

In reply to 999thAndy:

is it? the opening bars? i know that there is a hammond organ involved later...

but then, you could be right...

<skulks off in shame>

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

youtube.com/watch?v=hRXb7K7k7bQ& - looks like its me who's doing the walk of shame ...

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

It's more of an arpeggio really.

In reply to toad:


You weren't the only one.

In reply to Blue Straggler:



Fret wankery lol. Unfortunately I'm quite partial go bit of fret wankery.

In reply to Sebastian Fontleroy:


Oh it has its place, it was just a bit sad that the Total Guitar nerds measure EVERYTHING in such technical and clinical terms.

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:




Who, me?

Oh.

Er...I am not really a rocker. I'd probably just put too much Electrelane and maybe a bit of later-period Lou Reed in there And then get picked on for them not being riffs....

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

Right load of toss, Surely Louie Louie should be in there somewhere, even the Kinks covered that. No Stooges either or Hey Hey My My. What about He's My Thing by Babes in Toyland (be careful if you google that one) for female representation.