What are the best anti-riffs in rock?
BBC Radio 2 listeners have picked their top riffs from of a list of 100 options drawn up by a panel of Radio 2 and 6 Music DJs, critics and producers. Topped rather predictably by Led Zeppelin and their 1969 hit Whole Lotta Love, the rest of the top 10 features the likes of Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns N’ Roses, AC/DC’s Back In Black, Money For Nothing by Dire Straits and Deep Purple’s Smoke On The Water.
Aside from How Soon Is Now perhaps, the list is largely made up of the burly titans of veteran rock. But what of those fretboard-bothering underdogs? Those with less swagger and pomp who play their guitars the wrong way?
Most of the innovators in music use unconventional methods to wield their axes, such as Kurt Cobain and his rusty, spidery riff on Nirvana’s Hairspray Queen, or Tool’s alien-sounding Schism, or the math-rock brigade and their perplexing, pernickety performance style. Then there’s those who are a little less abrupt with their skills – like Graham Coxon’s gawky grunge on Coffee and TV or anything Stephen Malkmus or St Vincent have put their spindly fingers to.
Below is the BBC’s top 10, published today. But what are your favourite anti-riffs in rock? Let us know in the comments below.
Top 10 best riffs of all time
Whole Lotta Love – Led Zeppelin
Sweet Child O’Mine – Guns N’ Roses
Back in Black – AC/DC
Smoke On The Water – Deep Purple
Layla – Derek and The Dominoes
How Soon Is Now? – The Smiths
Down Down – Status Quo
Money For Nothing – Dire Straits
You Really Got Me – The Kinks
Money – Pink Floyd