"Right, after a lot of indecision and prevarication, the next challenge is out there. And it's the Riff. The guitar line (and it has to be the guitar line) that turns a good song into a classic. I want your top ten riffs. No more than two or three bars. Played to death by young boys in guitar shops. Long of hair, behatted and beaded, no doubt. I'm not talking solos here, I'm talking riffs. Ba-danga-danga-da-dang dang. Ba-danga-danga-da-dang dang. You know what I mean."
Firsly lets start with one that always tops riff charts and won't be in my list .... step forward Smoke on the Water. Sorry but I find this song so boring and if I ever hear the story behind the song again I think I will scream!!!
Now that I have that out of my system let's go! So in reverse order....
For a period at the start of the new century they were the hottest band around. A great first album that they have never been able to match. This is a great song and if you looking for riffs this certainly has one of the all time greats. Simple but so effective and drives the whole song.
Now I could have a top 10 of riffs just featuring UFO songs and the riff meister himself Michael Schenker. This is one of their best and still gets the crowd bouncing to this day.
Now strictly this is part bass and part guitar riff. But this cannot be left off the list as Jack White's riff drives the whole song, along with Meg White's wonderful minimal drumming and is a great example of how less can be more.
7. Paint it Black - Rolling Stones
Now most top 10 riff lists will include the Stones but it will be (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction. However I believe this another great example of how a riff interwoven with the drum track can really make a song move up to the next level. Always loved this song with it's Eastern flavoured riff.
6. House of The Rising Sun - The Animals
Now Paul's challenge suggested songs played by young boys in guitar shops and when I was a lad and all my friends picked the guitar for the first time this is the one that they all learnt to play first. The riff is basically the song and love the way that the Hammond organ comes in and follows the guitar part. Another example of simple is best and a timeless classic.
5. Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
Featuring the sadly missed and legendary Randy Rhoads. A song that features at least two classic riff lines - nothing quite matches the opening riff when the main part of the song kicks in - the Crazy Train is off and running!
4. Smells like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
The grunge riff classic. Had a whole generation of young boys in the early 90s learning Kurt Cobain's classic riff. Unfortunately led to bands like Bush so maybe not such a good thing!
3. Can't Stop - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Great riffs should have the ability to get under your skin and this one from sublime, and under rated, John Frusciante certainly does that. I think I couldn't get this out of my head for about two years!
2. Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses
One of the most memorable and famous riffs in the last 20+ years. Probably one of the greatest starts to any song ever and all thanks to the excellent guitar work from Slash. Their greatest song by far and the heights were never matched again.
1. Paranoid - Black Sabbath
This is the riff bar none from another of the masters of the riff Tony Iommi. A staple of every rock club in every town and never fails to get a floor full of blokes all pretending that they can play guitar. A true classic. Here it is in all its glory....
So there you have it! As ever a really difficult task of narrowing down my favourites and some narrowly missed out so I have to give a few honourable mentions to ones that nearly made it including Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix, Ever Fallen in Love - Buzzcocks, This Charming Man - The Smiths, Down Down - Status Quo, Spirit of Radio - Rush plus many more that I haven't got time to list here.
Over to you now Paul!
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