The Stone Roses – ‘Love Spreads’

On a highly anticipated sophomore record that, for the most part, disappointed, ‘Love Spreads’ was the standout track. But not because it built on the successful product of the self-titled debut album that shimmered in its acid-house inspired indie, but because it actually proved that they could deliver a powerful new sound. 

This was The Stone Roses turning the rock dial up to ten and delivering a bluesy style sound that we weren’t accustomed to from the band. It was almost as if John Squire was harnessing the raw delta power of Jimmy Page and providing something fitting of Robert Plant’s soaring vocals.

Iggy Pop – ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’

A filthy riff doesn’t have to be complex, showering you in relentless notes that leave you wondering what the point of it even is. A filthy riff can be simple, no more than three chords, and yet absolutely be dripping in attitude, energy and distortion.

That was the case for The Stooges’ iconic track ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’, which was brutally simple in its arrangement yet wildly impactful in its outcome. Ultimately, it set the tone for Iggy’s vocal performance, which was just as primal in its delivery and lyrical content. 

Pop claimed that he was sitting in his room just trying to think of something good to sing over it, and the riffs’ dirtiness provoked the line, ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’. The original idea was to sing about something big, and Pop had an epiphany. “The biggest thing I knew about was God,” he said, “I wasn’t that into singing about God, but then one day I thought, ‘If you turn god backwards, what would you have?’”

Black Sabbath – ‘Sweet Leaf’

Sabbath knew how to lay down a riff with unbridled power. Both ‘Paranoid’ and ‘War Pigs’ feel like worthy suitors in the competition for their best riff, but neither of them possesses the sort of filthy doom sludge of ‘Sweet Leaf’.

The riff is part of rock and roll lineage, in fact, first taken from Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention’s ‘Hungry Freaks, Daddy’. But then, after Sabbath flipped it into their stoner metal anthem, the Red Hot Chili Peppers got involved, adding it to ‘Give It Away’ before The Beastie Boys made it the backbone of their song ‘Rhymin’ and Stealin’.

But it felt perfectly suited for this song, which Sabbath wrote as an ode to marijuana. Tony Iommi’s mid-tempo performance feels like a gateway into the sunken haze of an altered state, and keeps you submitted there with its filthy and hypnotic reverb.

The Rolling Stones – ‘Can’t You Hear Me Knocking’

The Stones were at their best when playing in front of stadium-sized crowds and capturing rock and roll essence with quick-fire, full-blooded tracks; think ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ and ‘Start Me Up’, whose riffs power Mick Jagger like a wind-up toy. 

‘Can’t You Hear Me Knocking’ is entirely different from that. It’s brooding and swampy, inspired by the humid sounds of America’s delta blues. Keith Richards somehow manages to package swagger, groove and power into one mesmerising opening riff that might just be his very best for the band.

“On that opening riff, I used enormous force on the strings,” he explained, “It’s not the force as much as it is a whip action. I’m almost releasing the power before my fingers actually meet the strings. I’m a big string-breaker since I like to whip them pretty hard.” You can feel that in every striking of a note, which feels like it’s channelling the demonic powers of old school rock.

Jimi Hendrix – ‘Voodoo Child’

Delta blues met psychedelic innovation on this truly seminal Hendrix track. In devising this list, there were several of his songs that could have made it, but none of them had the utter rock and roll filth of ‘Voodoo Child’, which prowls through the introduction with reverberated menace.

It’s almost as if you can feel the reverb dripping all over you as every note oozes effect from the wah-wah pedal. Before that, he builds tension with muted guitar strokes that tell you a psychedelic storm is certainly coming, only to unleash it ten seconds in with the pure isolated sound of the riff.

When the rest of the arrangement comes together, it feels like rock and roll thunder is raining down on the song, but instead of raindrops, it’s streams of colour. You feel totally immersed in the progressive ideas of Hendrix and allow the riff to be the driving force on that voyage.