The top 20 all-time, according to Total Guitar[/i]:

1. Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses
2. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
3. Whole Lotta Love - Led Zeppelin
4. Smoke On The Water - Deep Purple
5. Enter Sandman - Metallica
6. Layla - Derek & The Dominoes/Eric Clapton
7. Master Of Puppets - Metallica
8. Back In Black - AC/DC
9. Voodoo Child - Jimi Hendrix
10. Paranoid - Black Sabbath
11. Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
12. All Right Now - Free
13. Plug In Baby - Muse
14. Black Dog - Led Zeppelin
15. Aint Talkin' 'Bout Love - Van Halen
16. Walk This Way - Aerosmith
17. Sunshine Of Your Love - Cream
18. No-One Knows - Queens Of The Stone Age
19. Paradise City - Guns N` Roses
20. Killing In The Name - Rage Against The Machine.

Let's dispense with the 'That list sucks!' comments if at all possible, and name other kick-*** riffs

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The Massassi-Map
There is no spoon.

[This message has been edited by Spork (edited May 03, 2004).]

Yellow Ledbetter intro

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"Music is the universal language and the
dialect we speak in is Hip Hop!" - King Solomon

System of a Down - Johnny

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Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent.

-R.D. Laing

Hey, what? That list doesn't suck.

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Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.

Gargoyles, Angels of Darkness intro by Rhapsody.

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Our very existence is at stake

Layla!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just came across it at fark, I'm inclined to agree with some of what was said there - along the lines of "Sweet Child?! wtf?!" It does my head in personally.

Also a lack of chuck berry is notebale, and am bitter about little or no Brian May being mentioned, though Queen were never really noted for their riffs, more Brian's licks - but Hammer to Fall and Tie your mother Down have quality riffs...

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If at first you don't succeed, lower your standards.

meh, that list is okay, but I wouldnt say best riffs ever.

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*

If you've actually heard Sweet Child o' Mine, and aren't blinded with "omg lol guns n roses has beenz lololol" then you could actually see it's quite good. I can see it not being number one, but certainly is up there.

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Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.

Let's seem, other great riffs. Heartbreaker from Zeppelin, 25 or 6 to 4 from Chicago, Revolution from the Beatles, More than a Feeling, Boston. It's actually hard to pick some, because there are just so many.

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"This thread is still alive? Someone should kill it."

[This message has been edited by Nubs (edited May 03, 2004).]

Eh, I'm a fan of GNR and I don't particularly like the first few minutes of Sweet Child; that riff does nothing for me. But the ending is great. I would have chosen the ending of November Rain or something instead, personally. But I suppose that's not really a "riff", per se.

I would have replaced Master of Puppets with Blackened or Eye of the Beholder or something, instead.

But it's one of the first music related lists I've seen that isn't all that bad.

eh, it's allright, but it needs Iced Earth in there. at least Dante's Inferno.

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* Seb goes around singing "I'm too sexy for my body"
* Wolfy goes around singing "I'm too sexy for Seb's body"
* Cave_Demon steals Seb's underwear (underwear stolen: 39)

Aye, I quite like my Guns n Roses, especially the afformentioned November Rain (in fact, it's a running joke between me and some mates), and I love Paradise city, I just hate Sweet Child!

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If at first you don't succeed, lower your standards.

Well, that's odd then.

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Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.

No SRV? Unthinkable!
Personally, I think Mary Had A Little Lamb by Stevie has one of the best guitar riffs EVER.

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IMPORTANT NOTICE: If you are one of the hundreds of parachuting enthusiasts who bought out "Easy Sky Diving" book, please make the following correction: on page 8, line 7, the words "state zip code" should have read "pull rip cord."

if you dont think sweet child o mine should be number one, youd better listen from 3:30 seconds and on again.

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America, home of the free gift with purchase.

i think iron man should be where paranoid is... IMO

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LONG LIVE DREAMCAST!!!

drizz - a riff goes all the way through a song, and isn't just a solo (or a part of a song) - think Money for Nothing by Dire Straights.

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If at first you don't succeed, lower your standards.

I think "When the Night Falls" would be a better choice. Dante's only really has a killer riff right at the very end, and only for about 30 seconds or so...

This has got to be up there

http://forums.massassi.net/html/Forum22/HTML/000242.html

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Sweet irony...