This 1981 classic is so stirring that nearly 30 years later you’re still unlikely see a football stadium not use it to psych their fans up for a kickoff. Twelve years after “Honky Tonk Women,” Keith Richards could still conjure an open-tuned gem like no one else. The churning, sinister opening section hurls the song forward and creates a momentum that never lets up, even as Ozzy takes it off the rails. In the 1980s, you couldn’t throw a dead cat in a music store without hitting some kid playing this Randy Rhoads warhorse. Ozzy Osbourne (featuring Randy Rhoads), “Crazy Train” Case in point: I defy you to attend an air show and not hear this song 10 times! 03. Maybe the heaviest combination of simple power chords ever, Rudolf Schenker’s five-chord opening on this Love at First Sting track is instantly memorable – the key to any great riff. It proved to be a memorable entrance for Phil Collen into the band, just as their career was about to kick into overdrive. There’s a bit of alchemy on this one, not unlike the opening chord of The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night.” There are actually two guitar parts interwoven on this seemingly simple blast from Pyromania. Kinda makes you want to rob a bank with your guitar, doesn’t it? Priest fans might argue that “Livin’ after Midnight” or “Heading Out To The Highway” are more deserving – fair play, I actually prefer “Highway” – but it’s hard to deny the brutal simplicity of this British Steel classic. Yes, it had that insane guitar solo by Eddie Van Halen, but the engine driving the song was a weighty bounce by session whiz Steve Lukather. Michael Jackson (featuring Steve Lukather), “Beat It”Įven metal dudes had to cop to the fact that this Michael Jackson track freakin’ rocked. Beginners, if you need a showpiece for that school talent show but only know a handful of chords (no pun intended), you could do a lot worse. Sometimes you only need two chords to kick an audience in the teeth, and certainly Mick Jones and Joe Strummer did just that with this Combat Rock fave. The Clash, “Should I Stay or Should I Go” Kudos to Slash, Izzy and company for finding a way to wrap a love song around this torturous hand exercise. Brownstone,” it was the ballad of the set that had the most unique and memorable riff. And while the album was stacked with heavy hitters like “Welcome To The Jungle” and “Mr. Guns N’ Roses, “Sweet Child o’ Mine”Īppetite for Destruction ushered in a new age of stripped down, rip-out-your-throat rock and roll. Blessed (or cursed) with sharing trio space with one of the best bass players on the planet and probably the best drummer on Earth, Lifeson still manages to stand out with imaginative solos and, in the case of this Moving Pictures tour de force, major league riffage – his best since “Passage to Bangkok.” 09. It’s tough narrowing down the decade of Reagan and Rubik’s Cubes – and when all-stars like Eddie Van Halen, Tony Iommi and the boys from Iron Maiden don’t make the cut, you know you’ve got a tough list – but here are the 10 we deem the most totally awesome of the 1980s. You couldn’t throw a pet rock without hitting some axeman coming up with his own “Iron Man” or “Sweet Home Alabama.” The ’80s kept the tradition running, with guitarists from decades past, like Keith Richards and Tony Iommi, still flexing their muscles, along with a new breed of riffmasters like Slash and Vivian Campbell. In the ’70s, it was part and parcel with “classic” rock. There were a handful of great riffs in the ’50s (“Susie Q” comes to mind), but the form really began to flourish in the ’60s, at the hands of Dave Davies, Pete Townshend, Keith Richards and other, predominantly British, guitar heroes.
Somewhere deep in the primordial ooze of rock and roll there exists a phenomenon known as the “ riff,” with the power to make a decent song great, and a great song an all-time classic. Tell us your top 10 guitar riffs of the 80s. Review these top 10 guitar riffs of the 1980s and decide if you agree.
Top 10 Guitar riffs by - I would have ‘Sweet Child o’ Mine’ up further and Rush, ‘Limelight’ removed in favor of Metallica’s cover versions of Diamond Head’s ‘Am I Evil?’.
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