Guitar Riff

[Assasin]

A riff, when done right, can shape a song and often rule it. It’s a brief statement – sometime only a handful of notes or chords – that recurs throughout the arrangement and can become the song’s central hook. Many of the greatest songs of the rock era begin with a riff – The Rolling Stones’ (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water, Aerosmith’s Walk this Way, The Smiths’ How Soon is Now, Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, The Isley Brothers’ Who’s That Lady? And when done that spectacularly, the riff becomes the core of the tune, its most memorable feature when listeners play it back in their head. You can hum a riff or sing it like a melody, and best of all you can rock it on air guitar.

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/201...st-guitar-riff


Historian I know you like this one yah.

[Historian]

I Enjoyed Reading This!

Thank you for posting this, ‘Sass . I just read it through and it is indeed an excellent overview of the role of guitar riffs in music from the 1940s to now. I have heard many of the records the writer mentioned, with Keith Richard’s fantastic riff on the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” being probably my most memorable.

There are so many more that could be added to this list, from Slash’s superb guitar riff on Michael Jackson’s “Black Or White” to our own Willie Lindo’s guitar octave riff on “Love Has Found Its Way,” by Dennis Brown.

The arrival of the rap/hip-hop genre messed up so much that is creative in music!

By the way (since he was mentioned in the article), Pops Staples’ guitar solo in the Staple Singers’ “I’ll Take You There” was played on the original recording not by Pops, but rather by Eddie Hinton, Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section’s guitarist.

Thanks once again for this very useful post!

A riff, when done right, can shape a song and often rule it. It’s a brief statement – sometime only a handful of notes or chords – that recurs throughout the arrangement and can become the song’s central hook. Many of the greatest songs of the rock era begin with a riff – The Rolling Stones’ (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water, Aerosmith’s Walk this Way, The Smiths’ How Soon is Now, Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, The Isley Brothers’ Who’s That Lady? And when done that spectacularly, the riff becomes the core of the tune, its most memorable feature when listeners play it back in their head. You can hum a riff or sing it like a melody, and best of all you can rock it on air guitar.

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/201...st-guitar-riff

Historian I know you like this one yah.