The Greatest Guitar Riff Ever: 1979

The last year of the '70s brings about even more punk riffs and the birth of hardcore, all while phasing out the holdovers from the prior decade. What riff comes out on top?

AC/DC - Highway to Hell

Malcolm Young you will literally live forever. A perfect riff to listen to while you’re six beers deep watching your football team lose by a trillion. I can’t stand AC/DC with Brian Johnson so this is probably the last AC/DC riff that will appear for a song I enjoy but boy do I enjoy this song.

Black Flag - Nervous Breakdown

The first great hardcore riff? The little part between Keith Morris shouting “I’m crazy and I’m hurt” and “head on my shoulders” feels like it shouldn’t work and almost literally sounds like a mistake but that is about 98% of what makes it sound so cool (the other 2% is the sickest garbage disposal guitar tone you can imagine). A perfectly flawed riff to birth a perfect and flawed genre.

The Clash - The Guns of Brixton

This is a tough one in that there are about 12 riffs I could choose from this album that could potentially win any other week. That’s just the side-effect of having a 19-track album, I suppose. I had to shoot from the hip, here. Maybe not my favorite song on the album (I don’t love Paul’s singing, you literally have two of the best punk singers ever in this band, let them sing lol) but Paul Simonon’s bass groove in this song is the definitive instrumental line of this album so it takes it here.

Crass - Big Man, Big Man

Kinda post-punk-influenced hardcore with one of the better bass grooves I can think of in the punk space on any given day.

Germs - Lexicon Devil

Pat Smear deserves so much better than being attached at the hip to Dave Grohl for 25 years now or whatever, literal punk royalty. One of the best guitar sounds you can make is the guitar's sound on this song.

The Jam - The Eton Rifles

God, I love The Jam so much. Probably the best of the early British punk bands. I know most would say the Clash and I understand why but I am not saying that. Bruce Foxton’s bass riff here just fucking moves and I love it. Side note, I saw Paul Weller tonight acting in a World War II movie and I spent about twenty minutes doing a slow-motion version of the Leo pointing at the screen meme whenever he popped on screen.

Joy Divison - Shadowplay

Peter Hook you and your bass playing on this record will literally live forever. Where would Interpol be without you?

The Knack - My Sharona

Every time I hear the bass playing in the intro of this song, I turn into Steve Zahn in Reality Bites. Just one of the most effortlessly fun bass riffs you can imagine.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)

Maybe the best guitar has ever sounded is the way it sounds in this song. Disagree with someone who cares. The best guitar sound you can have is a guitar that sounds like it’s about to break. Neil knew.

Pink Floyd - Run Like Hell

Counterpoint to what I just said about Neil: no one has ever sounded less like their guitar is going to break than David Gilmour. Maybe the most pristine a guitar has sounded is his guitar on The Wall. I don’t really care for The Wall as an album but you can hear The Edge plotting out his entire schtick in this one song.

The Police - Message in a Bottle

There’s a scene in that Kumail Nanjiani movie The Big Sick where Ray Romano is like “you go online and people hate Forrest Gump now” or whatever. That’s how I feel about the Police. ACAB except when it’s literally The Police. The guitar is so fucking good man what are y’all talking about.

Prince - Sexy Dancer

I know shockingly little Prince and I can tell already that I’m going to be excited to dive into his stuff, much like I was with P-Funk in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s newsletters. Just an absolutely insane out-of-this-world bass riff. Prince played everything on this song? That’s insane? Do people know about the musician Prince?? Please tap in and let me know more.

Talking Heads - Life During Wartime

Both the main riffs here - Tina Weymouth’s main bass groove and David Byrne’s funky/slinky guitar part - are just timelessly cool. I prefer Remain in Light to Fear of Music (we’ll get there) but this is absolutely one of the best band’s best songs and it’s on the back of these two riffs.

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Refugee

One of my GOATs and one of his best songs. Mike Campbell has gotta be one of the more underrated guitarists of this era. Not his flashiest song but maybe the best interplay between his guitar style and Tom’s. Gainesville, forever.

Tubeway Army - Are Friends Electric

I love Gary Numan but so much of his shit is synth-driven and we cover stringed instruments around these parts. But Paul Gardiner’s bass carries its own against the main synth motif here that I am choosing to count it.

Van Halen - Dance the Night Away

Doesn’t really hold a candle to the previous Eddie Van Halen riff but still pretty fun in its own right. God, I so very deeply hate David Lee Roth’s voice lol.

What is the Best Riff of 1979?

Okay so like. I had written this whole thing here about how there were a lot of riffs it would be fun to give it to this week but that it really came down to AC/DC vs. Talking Heads and that I wanted to Be Me and pick the Talking Heads. I then started writing the part below and was like “okay so it was crazy I picked Talking Heads over AC/DC right? AC/DC might beat Van Halen but Talking Heads vs. Van Halen is a real David vs. Goliath scenario.” I finished typing that and opened up Wikipedia tabs for “Highway to Hell” and for “Life During Wartime” and did a Control+F for “riff” in both and you’ll never guess which one had like six results and which had zero. I can’t give this one to Talking Heads. It’s AC/DC. Like, it’s literally “Highway to Hell.”

Does it top the previous Best Riff?

Best Riff of 1979: AC/DC - Highway to Hell

Best Riff Previous Champion: Van Halen - Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love

This is a much more even matchup. I like “Highway to Hell” as a song more than “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love.” However, while I prefer Angus and Malcolm’s simplicity over the whole Van Halen thing, one of these riffs is definitely More Riffy than the other. Eddie is Riffing his ass off. I think Van Halen keeps it. If I was going to pick Van Halen over AC/DC this whole time anyways why the fuck didn’t I just stick with Talking Heads, oh well, moving on. See ya next week.