10 Perfect Rock Guitar Riffs

For a short time in the late '80s, it looked like the era of great riff rock had started to go away. Although you had people on the fringes of the music world with great tunes, anyone else on the charts not named Guns N Roses were focusing a lot more on their looks than the actual hook of the song. Once Kurt Cobain announced the alternative revolution though, Pearl Jam brought everything back to the golden age of rock and roll.

While Smells Like Teen Spirit could have easily made this list for what it represented, Alive feels like the more mature version of alternative rock. Compared to the funk style riffs that Stone Gossard was writing back in the days of Mother Love Bone, this almost feels like something straight out of the Led Zeppelin playbook, when rock was focused on writing something meaningful rather than showing off for the hell of it.

It also fits perfectly under Eddie Vedder's baritone perfectly, which completely ties the song together as he talks about the complicated relationship that this man has with his estranged dad and lustful mother. Even though the other grunge acolytes had to grow into their legendary status, the riff to Alive practically had the word 'classic' prestamped on it.