![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/glover2.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/airey.jpg)
Yet another ‘greatest riff’ poll
BBC Radio is conducting an online poll of greatest guitar riffs. Smoke on the Water and Long Live Rock’n’Roll are in the running. The latter is quite a bit of a strange choice, but that’s a matter of taste.
Putting aside for the moment the meaningfulness of all such polls, online or offline, this one is only open for voters with kosher IP addresses UK residents. How open minded of the BBC!
Thanks to Marcus Streets for the info.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Burn > Smoke on the Water
July 17th, 2014 at 18:01Pictures Of Home
July 17th, 2014 at 18:53“This vote is not available outside of the United Kingdom.”
July 17th, 2014 at 19:08Many faults on the list…one example: “don’t fear the reaper” has not a riff, that one is an arpeggio…
July 17th, 2014 at 19:23Smoke On The Water all the way.
July 17th, 2014 at 19:40As usual, this will cause a RIFFt in fan and musical circles…..but seriously, who cares? Deep Purple rules in all categories!
July 17th, 2014 at 21:19In terms of songs, Burn definitely up there with Smoke, riff ain’t too shabby either. But how many music shops hung up a sign ‘No Burn’? Smoke is an iconic riff, simple, straight forward, and, am guessing, the lead in for So many of us. For that reason, for me, Smoke edges it 🙂
July 17th, 2014 at 22:21The riff of Smoke on the Water:
Take your cd/lp of the “Concerto for Group and Orchestra”
(first movement).
After the intro from the orchestra the band comes in and plays the first three notes of “smoke” backwards.
Have a nice Day!
July 18th, 2014 at 08:53Highway Star/Burn/Kill the King/Spotlight Kid…obviously, all Ritchie…as if should be…
July 18th, 2014 at 11:28Pity it’s U.K. only…(then again radio 2 are calling the shots !!!!)…………………worldwide vote would be more definitive………………Smoke for me followed by Burn
July 18th, 2014 at 13:05Definitely Smoke on The Water, Burn, Black Night, Space Trucking!!
July 18th, 2014 at 14:31and the non sense continues.
July 18th, 2014 at 21:21Smoke, burn, storm bringer -iconic riffs forever!
July 19th, 2014 at 12:21It has to be Smoke……even people who don’t really follow rock have heard of it and know it because it’s so simple, yet so effective. It is the band’s calling card in the world of music. For me as well, there’s also Burn, Pictures of Home, You Fool No One, Strange Kind of Woman, Rat Bat Blue, and many more!
July 19th, 2014 at 16:46Anyones Daughter……………….!!
July 19th, 2014 at 18:12On a much milder side, I think that “Sometimes I feel like screaming”is a great intro and a beautiful song.
July 21st, 2014 at 01:39Martin from Québec, Canada
there is NO question who SHOULD win this poll 🙂 … but IF you feel the urgent need to participate in the poll from outside the UK:
if you are using google chrome, for instance, just add the extension “zen mate” and choose “UK”. afterwards you may disable it again an re-enable with one mouseclick when needed. i guess other browsers offer similar options.
off to vote …
July 21st, 2014 at 04:56Well a “poll” like this has been going on for ages, obviously it depends on what we like on a personal level, if we are only i guess talking about Deep Purple my faves from D.P. are definitely “Smoke” & “Mistreated”. If i had to select
July 21st, 2014 at 12:41from other bands i would have to go for Jimi Hendrix “Voodoo Child” the 15 minute all time classic from Electric Ladyland, and Jethro Tull’s title track “Aqualung” just to name a couple.
“SOTW” hands down……
Nuff Said
July 23rd, 2014 at 13:44I just discovered this crazy video on youtube!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FZTxiEoWvY
Enjoy and have a nice Day!
July 24th, 2014 at 20:29Maybe I am a leo…out of hand…uncommon man…bodyline… Kill the king…
July 28th, 2014 at 11:28Long live DP, ritchie, and all the family…
The choice of riffs for Rainbow is somewhat puzzling…seems to me that Man on the Silver Mountain is much more immediately recognizable than LLRNR.
July 28th, 2014 at 17:43It is a bit like any of the ‘greatest’ whatever list or polls that someone decides to do, for whatever reason! This list is appalling & so is that recent Documentary ‘The Joy of The Guitar Riff’ from BBC4! An example, when Blackmore is mentioned for the proverbial Smoke riff, some no names from a ‘covers’ or ‘tribute’ band are the people talking about it & even worse, attempting to play it! Please! Spare me the drivel! I could only skip through it a little at youtube, it’s pathetic absolutely pathetic! Padded out with time wasting irrelevant material. At least Iommi, May & Fripp are on it, but that is predictable! I might do my own list or poll, I know what the best & most relevant riffs are in rock music! Sheeesh! Cheers!
August 1st, 2014 at 03:56So SOTW came fourth.
Led Zep Whole Lotta Love tops the poll, though I bet most British people know the CCS version better.
G’n’R and AC/DC complete the top three.
August 25th, 2014 at 17:22Yes, comical G’n’R being in it at all in my opinion, but these are what certain fans vote for, popularity doesn’t necessarily mean the best. Page is definitely one of the riff masters & the fact that Iommi isn’t in the top ten says it all really! Cheers.
August 26th, 2014 at 11:10Vote PURPLE:
http://www.rateitall.com/i-65052-deep-purple.aspx
October 18th, 2014 at 00:05