The “best guitar riff” in rock, according to Tony Banks: “I thought it was fantastic”
If all the different elements of a song had a personality, then the guitar riffs’ most noticeable quality would be their ability to show off.
Shoulder barging its more humble counterparts out of the way, it often steals the show, remaining in the heads of audiences for hours after. There’s little to no subtly in how it communicates with people and rightly struts around on stage with unbridled confidence.
Unlike the bassline, which peaks through its fingertips, avoiding eye contact during any form of communication or perhaps a drum fill which bounces around the room, from one conversation to the next. No, the guitar riff is charismatic, hypnotic and wholly memorable.
As a result, music can readily reel off a list of their favourite guitar riffs in a way they simply couldn’t in the realm of another instrument. Me? Well, with a metaphorical gun to my head, I can’t help but pick ‘Paranoid’ by Black Sabbath or perhaps Cream’s ‘Sunshine Of Your Love’.
But standing beside those two in the pantheon of history’s greatest ever riffs is undoubtedly The Kinks’ ‘You Really Got Me’. A perfect example of how simple musical construction played with unrelenting energy and, perhaps more importantly, intent, is the purest model of artistic excellence. If, as I suggest, guitar riffs are the most charismatic person in the room, then the soul representing ‘You Really Got Me’ charms its audience with nothing more than a warm handshake.
But while it now feels like a very fabric of musical history, making up the bedrock of what current musicians have built upon, at the time of its release in 1964, it was hugely radical. At that point, The Beatles were dominating the charts, and while their music was indeed groundbreaking, it was somewhat safe and palatable. But the standards set in that time, this track was raucous.
An entire generation of now-iconic musicians feasted on this song, as they further understood what it was to write a chart-topping rock song. Everyone from Oasis, The Jam and The White Stripes credits The Kinks as influences, while Genesis’ Tony Banks simply calls it the best guitar riff in music.
“I remember the first time I ever heard this song; I was on holiday with my parents. They wouldn’t normally listen to pop music, but they switched on the radio, and by mistake, it was pop. I heard this song. I thought it was fantastic. I still think it’s the best guitar riff.”
It’s an astounding track, really, for not only the impact it had in 1964, but the impact it continues to have today. Despite my initial inclination towards the previous two songs I mentioned, I find it simply hard to argue with Banks’ choice for a whole 60 years later, this song sounds as fresh and invigorating as any other.
It wholly captures the essence of a great live show, where you lose yourself in the spiralling delivery of multiple notes, in a song that, without the vocals, still gives you a melody to sing along to.
