Another kind of March madness: Bracketology on great guitar riffs
Music Land
by: Dan Rodricks, Baltimore Sun


Since it opened 45 years ago in Harford County, Music Land has sold thousands of guitars. (Music Land)




Riff Madness 2016: For fun (and a sweet Fender), some bracketology on guitar riffs

Here’s a twist on March Madness -- just for fun, and no purchase required: A music store in Bel Air has drawn brackets for the greatest guitar riffs of all time, challenging rock fans to pick the likely winner of 16 matchups -- Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” versus Green Day’s “Brain Stew;" Living Colour’s “Cult of Personality” versus Deep Purple’s “Smoke On The Water” -- over five weekly rounds paralleling the NCAA basketball playoffs.

Riff Madness 2016 is a retail promotion based on a barroom argument that will never be settled. Picking one guitar riff over another until you get to the greatest is a seriously subjective exercise, and Riff Madness recognizes that. The winners of each round are picked by online vote. So, in making picks, purists will have to allow for the visceral popularity of a riff versus its virtuosity.

The staff at Music Land, which opened in 1971 (the year of Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog,” one of the contenders), came up with the list of matchups, then recorded the riffs for a video that helps refresh memories. You can watch and listen here.

“I loved seeing the guys at the store finding the right guitar and the right amp to get the perfect sound,” says Larry Noto, former director of marketing for the National Aquarium who took over Music Land after his father, Joe Noto, the store’s founder, died last spring. Joe Noto, an accordion player, was personally responsible for putting guitars into the hands of thousands of Eric Clapton wannabes over years.

“The contest has created some awesome conversations in the store over which is the better riff and why,” Larry Noto says. “Is it the riff itself? Is it the role it plays in the song? Will the voting choices be different by generation?”

Noto says the staff picked 32 riffs for the contest, drawing from online “best of” lists and conversations in the store among customers and guitar students.

“There were a lot of ‘That’s not really a riff’ arguments,” he says.

For the record, the Oxford Dictionary defines a riff as “a short repeated phrase in popular music and jazz, typically used as an introduction or refrain in a song.”

Here’s how urbandictionary.com defines it: “A select tune or melody of a guitar tab in a song, like in AC/DC's ‘Back in Black’ the little tune that gets stuck in your head.” (In Riff Madness, “Back in Black” is matched against Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child.”)

Noto says anyone -- not only customers -- can submit brackets predicting the winners until 11:59 pm Wednesday, March 16. The championship matchup will be in early April. The grand prize is a sweet Fender standard Telecaster in sunburst with a maple neck.

My prediction for the Final Four: "Sweet Child O' Mine" (Guns N' Roses), "Sunshine of Your Love" (Cream), "Are You Gonna Go My Way" (Lenny Kravitz) and "Smoke On The Water."

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My (GoodOwl's) vote would be for Bowie's "Rebel, Rebel" to be the overall winner.

"Sweet Child 'O Mine" "Back In Black" and "Money For Nothing" would be up there as well in the Final Four. "Crazy Train" "Day Tripper" "Spirit of Radio" "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Satisfaction" would have just missed the final four cut for me.