ron(11779) | ‘Unchained’ Vs. ‘Barracuda’ — March Riff Madness
by Matthew Wilkening March 3, 2014 2:17 AM 
Van Halen’s ‘Unchained’ is lined up against Heart’s ‘Barracuda’ in round one of Ultimate Classic Rock’s March Riff Madness competition. With much difficulty, we selected 32 of classic rock’s most iconic riffs and paired them off in 16 first-round duels. Over the next five weeks the field will be repeatedly cut in half by your votes, until we theoretically arrive at the most awesome riff in all of rock history. As you can imagine, choosing just one Eddie Van Halen riff from his vast catalog was one of the hardest parts of this process. Ultimately, we went with this hard-charging, flanger-utilizing scorcher from 1981′s ‘Fair Warning,’ which the group frequently uses to open their shows. They’ll be up against some fierce, sharp-toothed competition in the form of Heart’s ‘Barracuda,’ a hard charging riff that kicks off the group’s beloved 1977 album ‘Little Queen.’ (If you were wondering — yes, a good portion of the office lobbied hard for ‘Crazy on You’ to represent the Wilson sisters instead.) So which of these rock legends do you think deserves to move on? You can vote once per hour until round one of our March Riff Madness voting closes on Sunday, March 9 at 11:59PM ET. The ultimate winner will be revealed on April 7. VOTE: http://ultimateclassicrock.com/unchained-vs-barracuda-march-riff-madness/
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guitard(7354) | ron: (If you were wondering — yes, a good portion of the office lobbied hard for ‘Crazy on You’ to represent the Wilson sisters instead.)
They must not be aware that the riff is played by Roger Fisher – not Nancy Wilson.
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ron(11779) | Van Halen = Loser (of this matchup)
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ron(11779) | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/march-riff-madness-winner/ Heart’s ‘Barracuda’ Wins March Riff Madness
by Matthew Wilkening April 8, 2014 9:34 AM Congratulations to Heart, whose 1977 anthem ‘Barracuda’ defeated 31 other amazing songs to win our first-ever March Riff Madness readers poll. Nearly half a million votes were cast during the five rounds of this competition, as we used a bracket system to cut the field of competitors in half each week. You certainly can’t say the Wilson sister-fronted group benefited from an easy draw. Look at the monster groups and riffs they defeated on their way to the finals: Van Halen‘s ‘Unchained,’ Guns N’ Roses‘ ‘Welcome to the Jungle,’ Motley Crue‘s ‘Kickstart My Heart,’ and Aerosmith‘s ‘Walk This Way.’ Once in the finals Heart squared off against another sibling act, the Kinks, and 1964′s almighty ‘You Really Got Me’ — which, terrifyingly, more than one reader identified as a cover of a Van Halen song in our Facebook comments pages. The two riffs battled neck and neck all week, but in the final hours Heart pulled away for a convincing 53 percent to 47 percent victory. Thanks to everybody who voted and shared these polls with their friends. We had a blast and are looking forward to doing something similar next year!
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Gilligan(1518) | |
Dave(2308) | Not so shocking when you consider Heart borrowed the riff from Led Zeppelin’s “Achilles Last Stand.” Then again, Jimmy Page borrowed a lot from others, so what goes around comes around. And isn’t the riff to “Kickstart My Heart” just “Whole Lotta Love” speeded up?
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VAiN(2777) | That’s just ridiculous.. Unchained is an actual Riff. Barracude, while a great tune, is an open string and a few power chords.
Resident dickhead. I will hurt your delicate feelings.
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