I see your semi obscure guitar solo opening song and raise you this utter exercise in choreographed musical masturbation.It gets overlooked bc it’s only instrumental, but I have to put Cliffs of Dover my Eric Johnson
I think some people are confusing riffs and solos.
I honestly don't know how I could limit or narrow it down to 10. There are bands that I certainly couldn't limit to 3.
Hendrix, The Kinks, Rush, ZZ Top, Zeppelin, Maiden, Clutch, Pantera, Sabbath, Priest, and others have so many great opening riffs.
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB
@receipt-keeper
Lou Reed
ROCK And Roll Animal
Steve Hunter
Intro Sweet Jane.
I'm going to start to put the list together tonight. So, yeah, some bands might be tough to limit to three, but just pick the best three and we will go from there.
And Hooky is right. This is not "best guitar solos". It's best riff.
I'm willing to take songs where the riff starts a certain amount of time in, but it still has to be a riff.
@squeakyclean Could always do an NIT tourney if we're thinking of bands like conferences. Of course, they'd all decline except for the emo shit nobody cares about.
Well, except for @snarlcakes He strikes me as possibly emo. Probable eyeliner
@squeakyclean Could always do an NIT tourney if we're thinking of bands like conferences. Of course, they'd all decline except for the emo shit nobody cares about.
Well, except for @snarlcakes He strikes me as possibly emo. Probable eyeliner
If @snarlcakes was my age, he would have dressed like Robert Smith and lived in Collins
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB
Just for clarification on the whole "what is a riff" thing.
This is Tesla's Love Song.
The opening 1:17 is guitar solo.
The section from 1:18 to 1:32 is guitar riff
It gets overlooked bc it’s only instrumental, but I have to put Cliffs of Dover my Eric Johnson
With all due respect to Eric Johnson, I don't know if this qualifies as a "guitar riff" song. The opening is more of a solo if anything, and maybe what starts around 35 seconds could be considered a riff, but it's not exactly memorable to the point where if I hear the guitar riff, I know exactly what song it is.
ChatGPT disagrees
Yes, "Cliffs of Dover" by Eric Johnson is famous for its iconic guitar riffs and solos—especially the opening guitar riff, which is widely regarded as one of the most recognizable and technically impressive in rock and instrumental guitar music.
It gets overlooked bc it’s only instrumental, but I have to put Cliffs of Dover my Eric Johnson
With all due respect to Eric Johnson, I don't know if this qualifies as a "guitar riff" song. The opening is more of a solo if anything, and maybe what starts around 35 seconds could be considered a riff, but it's not exactly memorable to the point where if I hear the guitar riff, I know exactly what song it is.
ChatGPT disagrees
Yes, "Cliffs of Dover" by Eric Johnson is famous for its iconic guitar riffs and solos—especially the opening guitar riff, which is widely regarded as one of the most recognizable and technically impressive in rock and instrumental guitar music.
The riff starts around the 25 second mark.
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB
It gets overlooked bc it’s only instrumental, but I have to put Cliffs of Dover my Eric Johnson
With all due respect to Eric Johnson, I don't know if this qualifies as a "guitar riff" song. The opening is more of a solo if anything, and maybe what starts around 35 seconds could be considered a riff, but it's not exactly memorable to the point where if I hear the guitar riff, I know exactly what song it is.
ChatGPT disagrees
Yes, "Cliffs of Dover" by Eric Johnson is famous for its iconic guitar riffs and solos—especially the opening guitar riff, which is widely regarded as one of the most recognizable and technically impressive in rock and instrumental guitar music.
The riff starts around the 25 second mark.
First of all, I could disqualify the song alone for trying to use ChatGPT as your basis of argument.
Second, the riff at 25 seconds is the least impressive part of the song.
I'll include it, but fair warning, it's getting a 12 or lower seed.
Refer to Rule #1. 
Jump
My City Is Gone
Pretty Woman
I am starting to gather the list. Unfortunately, upon review, Jump has to be disqualified as the riff is synthesizer based, not guitar.