Matt Ryan: Plays Pretty For Baby was a mind-blower for teenage me. On this song in particular, almost everything about Tim Green’s guitar is an enigma. First, a blast of feedback that ends with deep ...

You’ll notice classics like “Smoke on the Water,” “Iron Man,” and “Enter Sandman” missing. And don’t forget the sweet ones: “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” “Sweet Home Alabama,” and “Sweet Emotion.” One could ...

Sometimes, glaring similarities between two songs will hide in plain sight from a songwriter, as was the case for guitarist Ace Frehley when he pulled a “note for note” solo from the Doors to write ...

The guitar riff isn’t the only thing powering this dance-floor classic, but it’s as knife-edged and clean as a karate chop. Guitarist Phelps “Catfish” Collins was eight years older than his baby ...

There are a number of factors that might make a song immediately recognizable—a whisper, a cough, a G note… But nothing gets our little black hearts racing quite as rapidly as a guitar riff we know ...

When asked about the riff that turned him on to rock, Windstein sheepishly responds, “I hate to say it. ‘Smoke on the Water,’ of course. That was the first riff I got into where it was like, ‘Oh my ...

Through his work with the Allman Brothers Band, Gov’t Mule and his solo group, Warren Haynes has established himself as one of blues rock’s finest electric guitar greats, assembling a bevy of records ...

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily. Sure, everybody loves a guitar show-off, melting picks and blistering fingers as they ...