The classic rock riff that Joe Bonamassa and John Petrucci agree is the greatest of all time
At the centre of every great piece of rock music is a solid riff, such that when you talk about your favourite guitarists, be it Slash, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Bonamassa or John Petrucci, all of them have good riffs at the heart of everything they do.
There’s nothing quite like it; they act in the same way that the glass smashing at the beginning of Stone Cold Steve Austin’s entrance music does. Just like you hear those shattering shards and know someone’s about to get the arse kicked, you hear the opening notes of a great piece of rock and feel something similar.
As the genre has changed over the decades, the power of a great riff hasn’t. Playing styles alter, the way musicians look changes, and the aim of rock music shifts, but the importance of a solid riff at the beginning of every track has never been understated. Whether you’re listening in the 1960s, ‘70s or ‘80s, that is a consistency which remains.
So, what makes a great riff? Well, if you were to ask Joe Bonamassa and John Petrucci, they would say a good introduction to a rock song needs two things: to be recognisable and to sound accessible. You need to be able to hear a great guitar riff and, within a few seconds, know exactly what you’re listening to, but you also need to identify it as something which you could probably play as well. What is a rockstar if not someone another budding artist can look up to?
When highlighting how important a riff being recognisable in the grand scheme of rock music is, Petrucci said, the first few notes are all someone should have to listen to before they know what they’re hearing. “Something that is immediately recognisable,” he said, “a riff where you play the first note or two and people react. That’s a big part of what makes a great guitar riff. You start playing it, and people go, ‘Wow!’”
It was this reasoning that made him pick Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke on the Water’ as his favourite rock riff of all time. “There’s so many, but the first one that comes to mind is ‘Smoke on the Water’,” he said, “It’s so simple, and everybody recognises it. There’s nothing technical about it, nothing like the modern riffs that are coming out nowadays. But that riff says it all. I wish I would’ve thought of it!”
While Patrucci touched upon the riffs’ simplicity, it was Bonamassa who used it as the primary reason behind his choice. He, too, said that he felt ‘Smoke on the Water’ is one of the greatest guitar lines ever committed to music, and it was because of how accessible it was that he found himself drawn to it.
Striking that balance between simple and effective is incredibly difficult, but it’s something Ritchie Blackmore absolutely nails on this rock classic. His winning combination of those two attributes is reflected in how this is the first riff that every wannabe rocker learns. Guitar shops had to ban the riff from being played, given the staff were going mad hearing it; now that’s influence.
“My favourite guitar riff of all time to me has to be ‘Smoke on the Water’. Why?” explained Bonamassa, “It’s a very obvious choice, because no matter what skill level you are as a guitar player, it’s still cool to play. A beginner, an intermediate or an expert can play that riff and get applause from an audience. That’s what makes it the best guitar riff of all time.”
