12 Best Ever Hard Rock Riffs

At the beginning of the 90's, Stone Gossard's musical career had seemed to hit a gigantic brick wall. When his new band Mother Love Bone seemed to be taking off, Gossard's rock ambitions seem to dwindle with the death of the band's star frontman Andy Wood. After contemplating his future, Gossard was even more determined to grow as a musician; if he could do it once, he could do it again.

In going through some of his demos from his earlier band, Gossard hit upon a riff that didn't make it onto Mother Love Bone's debut entitled "Dollar Short." Gossard relearned the tune and started shopping the demo around the Northwest looking for potential singers. Though many people were interested in working with the guitarist, something about the song hit a primal nerve with Californian surfer Eddie Vedder. Once he relocated to Seattle, Vedder met up with Stone and fleshed out "Alive," which would become an all-time classic of rock and roll once it was unleashed on Pearl Jam's debut Ten.

The riff has a unique character by having a classic rock sound while still being firmly rooted in the present day. As it fills stadiums to this day, "Alive" has not lost that sonic sheen that Vedder latched onto all those years ago.