00:00But that riff, I mean, it's just one of my favorite riffs of all time, and it sounds dangerous, it
00:07sounds aggressive, but it's still fun.
00:13Hey, I'm Mark Morton, and this is Metal Hammer, and these are five of my favorite riffs.
00:18Led Zeppelin, Whole Lotta Love. This would probably be on anybody's list.
00:23I feel like when you think about a guitar riff, it's one of the first ones that pops into mind.
00:30And I think if someone asked me, what is a guitar riff, I would play this for them.
00:34It just does all the things. It's got a groove. It's simple. You remember how it goes as soon as
00:39you heard it.
00:40It's great, too, because if you're learning to play guitar, you can learn this riff pretty easily and rock along
00:45to Jimmy Page.
00:46Black Sabbath, Electric Funeral. It's just scary, man.
00:50And, you know, the whole song, it's kind of built on the cornerstone of that riff, and it's pretty impossible
00:57not to be drawn into that scary sound that Iommi's making there with this riff.
01:03You know, Black Sabbath, Legends, they pretty much invented the genre. I think it's hard to argue otherwise.
01:09And my band, Lamb of God, is fortunate enough to be playing their last show in Birmingham this summer.
01:15So that's a great honor, great thrill, and just so grateful to that whole camp for including us.
01:21ZZ Top, Waiting for the Bus. I don't remember the first time I heard ZZ Top.
01:28There's all this great blues rock and southern rock that was coming out in the 70s, and I'm old enough
01:36that I remember the end of the 70s.
01:38I had an older brother who was listening to lots of that great music of that era, so it was
01:42probably sometime around then.
01:44Billy Gibbons, I think, has so much character in his playing.
01:48To me, Billy makes me laugh a lot.
01:51When I listen to him play, I catch myself chuckling at some of the...
01:55There's just so much swagger in his playing that it has a jovial, kind of almost comical kind of feel
02:02to it.
02:03Dime does the same thing for me when Dime plays.
02:05I catch myself laughing. There's other players that I find myself crying.
02:09Stevie Ray Vaughan can make me cry.
02:11Dime and Billy make me laugh.
02:13The Rolling Stones, Can't You Hear Me Knockin'.
02:16It's just one of the coolest guitar performances I can think of, from probably the coolest rock and roll band
02:23I can think of.
02:25The song goes so many places, and all the performances are great.
02:29There's this great sax section in the middle, cool, like very meandering, sort of slinky guitar playing in and out
02:37of it.
02:37The whole thing feels super jammy, especially at the end.
02:40I read somewhere that it was actually a jam at the end.
02:42They didn't plan on having that whole back section of the song.
02:45It just kind of happened, which is cool.
02:48But that intro riff and the way Charlie Watts comes in with the drums at this, for me, has always
02:53been this very unexpected spot.
02:55But as soon as he sits down into it, there's this killer groove that's just, it's just undeniable.
03:01So it's probably my favorite Rolling Stones song and definitely an incredible riff.
03:06Van Halen, Unchained.
03:07There are so many great Van Halen riffs we could talk about.
03:11And the thing about Eddie is, still is, that as celebrated as he is as being like the great guitar
03:19hero and his tapping innovation there and how shreddy he was,
03:24Van Halen is full of great songwriting and great riffs.
03:27Unchained is a perfect example about that.
03:29The songwriting is, it's, it's pretty, pretty simple, but that riff, I mean, it's just one of my favorite riffs
03:38of all time.
03:39And it sounds dangerous.
03:41It sounds aggressive, but it's still fun.
03:44And, you know, Eddie was just my first guitar hero.
03:48He's just the first guy that ever made me feel like playing guitar is just about the coolest thing you
03:53can do.
04:02I'll see you next time.
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