[Alex Lifeson Picks Top Riffs of All Time]

Gibson.com recently conducted a poll to determine the top guitar riffs of all time and published the results to their website last week. They also asked Alex Lifeson for his opinion on the subject:

In a new, soon-to-be-published interview with Gibson.com, we asked Rush guitarist extraordinaire Alex Lifeson what he thought was the greatest guitar riff of all time. Having just published a brand new poll on the subject, we were curious to hear what topped the list of the fretboard genius behind such monster riffs as �Limelight,� �Working Man� and �Passage to Bangkok.�

�Well, I would say there are two that are enduring,� said Lifeson. �One would be �Satisfaction,� �cause that was the first time I heard anything on a guitar that just blew me away. You know, the distorted sound and a simple riff, but it had so much power and it was slick and it was sexy and it had all that stuff. And even when I hear it now, maybe it�s because I make that connection to my youth, it still does that to me.�

�And �Smoke on the Water,�� he continued. �My God, everybody in the world recognizes and knows that riff and knows how to play it. So, I�d have to say those two would be at the top of that list.�

It turns out Lifeson�s picks were spot-on with the final poll, which had The Rolling Stones� �(I Can�t Get No) Satisfaction� at #1 and Deep Purple�s �Smoke on the Water� at #2.

�Is it really?� he laughed. �OK, well, yeah, there you go! Ha ha!�

In a cruel twist of irony, Lifeson somehow just missed the cut, with several of his masterpieces canceling each other out in the voting - an oversight one of our editors took to task ...

Thanks to BW&BK for the heads up.