Greatest Riff of the Millenium

[Jonathan Jarrett]

On Thu, 16 Dec 1999, flossbac wrote:

> > here's a fun game:
> > ask any guitarist you know to play you the riff  from 'smells like teen
> > spirit', then ask him to play you the riff from 'godzilla'. watch the fun
> > begin!
> > picking on a dead guy,
> > rmayo
>
> I'm not sure I follow what you're saying..... are you suggesting that these
> two riffs are similar or what?  Really I think they're pretty
> dissimilar--there are only 12 notes after all to choose from, so it's not
> surprsing that the same chord progression or similar chord progressions get
> used in dozens of songs (D C G anyone?).  After playing the two on my
> guitar, I think I see what you mean, but I don't think there's any reason to
> believe that Kurt Cobain was even thinking of Godzilla when he wrote Smells
> Like Teen Spirit.  Rather, he was admittedly attempting to rip off the
> Pixies.

        But it was Boston that sued... Any more contendors for
unrecognised `Smells Like Nirvana' contributors? Yours,
                                                        Jon (who, in those
days, entirely failed to spot the link between his then-favourite song,
`More Than a Feeling' [I got better, OK?] and this new one that people
kept playing)