I’ve seen via Guitar MX an interesting list of top 25 greatest guitar riffs of all time! Man, this should have been one of my next posts, now I can’t write it anymore! So, what can I do about it? Well, join it and sustain the post! So, here’s my short thoughts on this:

I think that Metallica patented the dark clean guitar riff. I don’t understand why Enter sandman is there and One is not. I remember about 10 years ago we used to consider One as being the hymn of rock fans. I don’t know if this is something international or not, but, man, that riff identify Metallica and rock music IMO. Enter sandman has a great starting riff but, man, One is better!

Regarding Paradise city (GNR) I can’t tell what’s more easy to recognize: the fast picked/strummed chords in the beginning or the solo part on the same starting part.

Iron Maiden’s Run to the hills…well, I love’em but no! There are far better starting riffs like for ex Metallica’s One (does it start to become annoying, or what?) And if we’re speaking about Maiden. why not Fear of the dark? Man, how about Megadeth and Symphony of destruction, any decent metal head recognizes that part by one single note! Symphony of destruction is a rock hymn too!

No Satisfaction? Man, that song can be recognized by a non-rock fan on spot! I think that those notes are kind of the most famous in the history of rock (maybe I am overreacting, but you get my point). What’s that thing with The white stripes - Seven nation army? Why is that one of the greatest riffs? Don’t blame me, but I didn’t even know the song! Should I worry?! Please tell me if you didn’t know it either so I can chill!

The list has been actually started by The Telegraph and people there contest it also. The fact is that the list is called “greatest” which gives a subjective feeling to it. Greatest is like good, beautiful, something that stays in the eyes(ears in this case) of the judge. Greatest does not actually mean most famous, most recognizable or something similar.

Anyway, let me hear your opinions on this! And stumble me, baby!

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These last days, something keeps on running through my head: the most recognizable guitar sounds/tones (without really trying, I usually think about rock music, because this is my “business”, let’s say). Please keep in mind that I am not considering the style of each guitar player, but his tone only, even if when trying to identify a guitar player both are considered.

1. Brian May (Queen) ,the overdriven tone, has an electric guitar sound that in my opinion can be recognized in an instance. It is somehow a strange sound, and for sure I wouldn’t set my guitar this way, but it really defines him. I don’t think that his clean tone has anything special.
2. Slash (GNR), the overdriven and the clean tone. I am not a big fan of Slash, if you constantly read this blog you may already know this, but I really believe he belongs here. I think that the one thing that helps defining the tone of Slash is the fact that he is tuned one step down, thus using low tensioned guitar strings, which gives some kind of a “loose” and sweet relaxed sound. About the clean tone, I have asked myself what makes it particularly recognizable for ex in Don’t cry or Knocking on heavens door. I have added a delay on my rhythm clean picking tone and I was surprised to see how close I get to it when playing Knocking!
3. Joe Satriani’s overdriven and clean tone. How could you possibly miss Satriani? How could you miss the one that is called the master of tone?! Here I think that his Fred pickup (which gives him that beautiful feedback) helps a lot in getting the almost patented overdriven sound.
4. Metallica’s clean tone. Well, this is kind of funny! Metallica, which became famous for trash rock to be recognizable by the clean tone. Well, but for me, I think that the tone in One, Enter Sandman, Fade to black can never be mistaken!
5. Carlos Santana’s overdriven tone. In such cases it is difficult to say where recognizing the sound starts and where recognizing the licks end.  Santana’s style is unmistakable, but so is his guitar tone, in my opinion. And I know it is not rock, so don’t point your finger at me!

I would have said also Stevie Ray Vaughan, Mark Knopfler, Jimi Hendrix but I can’t tell where playing style ends to only speak about the sound. I think I would recognize a new Dire Straits song by the way Mark Knopfler plays, but I don’t know if only the guitar sound would be enough.

So, what’s your take on this?

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If you still ask yourself where are we going to, look here!

Are we going nuts or what?!! What really happened to those Manowar or Metallica t-shirts I used to wear?

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I was thinking about how many of us would be really able to grow old in this music business? You see these guys on stage, 55 years old and you say, man, these guys are great, what a life they had! And probably you are right, not many get to see what they have seen during their long rock and roll life. Booze parties, drugs, sex and a lot of money spent without one regret on their reckless life.
The sex, drugs and rock and roll model was maybe fit for the 70’s but if you look back, just count how many died along the way. I have seen somewhere some numbers, saying that the probability of a rock star to dye before his time is 3 times higher than for a regular person due to drug abuse. It gave me something to think about at that moment…

Did you think about great bands, like Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, Metallica, etc. Ask yourself if they still throw parties like they used to do long time ago. You will say that they are not that young anymore now and maybe you are right, that may be the reason. But I am sure it is something else: they took music seriously, they took it as a business. They are business people behind their rock and roll glamor. They all had their share of drugs and alcohol and reckless life, but now they look at the music business in a serious way. They know that in order to resist and beat time, they need to keep a steady pace, without the abuses they were used to while very young.

This is the model and the model is there, in front of our eyes, but how many would be able to follow it and take what’s best of it?

What do you think,am I right or not?

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A few days ago I was thinking about how Eric Clapton’s music evolved over time. I don’t say “evolved” as in “it was bad-now it is good”, far from me such an idea, just that Clapton’s music changed over time as the music business itself. I am not a big fan of Clapton,not in the way I could say about other artists or bands. I can not say that I know all his songs and everything he does or did, but Eric Clapton always had and always will have a special place in my heart.

My first contact with Eric Clapton’s music was when I bought 2 tapes, one with Metallica and one with Eric Clapton (as you may see, my taste in music was not quite oriented at that time as Clapton and Metallica had nothing to do one with the other). The tape was kind of a best of, at that time, so it offered me kind of Clapton’s best works. From that tape I remember Layla, the electric version, and Bell bottom blues. I kept this second song till now in my memories, without listening it again for a long time since I have lost that tape and I can say that it left a strong mark on my musical path.

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