"Deep Purple in Rock" from 1970 -absolutely one my all time favorite early metal albums.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'live, deep purple, classic rock, stoner rock, highway star, awesome' to 'live, deep purple, classic rock, acid rock, highway star, awesome' - edited by marinara

upvote for the new arrangement of this adhoc Japanese orchestra, and for Deep Purple's song.

"From the 250th anniversary celebration of the Great Fire of Edo (Edo is
the traditional name of Tokyo) (Ooedo No Hikeshi) … one of many, but the most
destructive, held along with the Great Eruption of Fuji-san 300th
Anniversary. This is the Kabuki-za orchestra and readers along with
part of the Suntory Hall Orchestra, which occasionally features the
Crown Prince on viola (but not in this one)."

Also see Queen's
"We will rock you"
http://www.videosift.com/video/We-Will-Rock-You-on-Japanese-Instruments

*bravo *livemusic *rocknroll

upvote for the new arrangement of this adhoc Japanese orchestra, not for Queen.

"From the 250th anniversary celebration of the Great Fire of Edo (Edo is
the traditional name of Tokyo) (Ooedo No Hikeshi) … one of many, but the most
destructive, held along with the Great Eruption of Fuji-san 300th
Anniversary. This is the Kabuki-za orchestra and readers along with
part of the Suntory Hall Orchestra, which occasionally features the
Crown Prince on viola (but not in this one)."

Also see Deep Purple's
"Smoke on the water"
http://www.videosift.com/video/Smoke-on-the-water-Japanese-Version

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Orchestra, deep purple, cover version, asia, smoke on the water' to 'japan, Orchestra, deep purple, cover, classical japanese instruments' - edited by JAPR

Very few of this are riffs and most of them certainly ain't cool.
So here's my list of the coolest guitar riffs.

1. Led Zeppelin - Whole lotta Love (Coolest riff ever, end of story forever and ever amen)

2. Jimi Hendrix - Foxy Lady (just plain damn cool)

3. The Troggs - Wild Thing (The Definition of cool guitar)

4. Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze

5. Metallica - Enter Sandman

6. The Doors - Peace Frog (Rage against the Machine ripped this off for bulls on Parade)

7. The Beatles - Come Together (More a bass guitar riff but still damn cool)

8. Black Sabbath - Paranoid

9. Collective Soul - Where the river flows

10. Cream - Sunshine of your love

11. Creedence Clearwater Revival - I heard it through the grapevine

12. Fleetwood Mac - Oh Well

13. Kasabian - Club Foot

14. Oasis - Wonderwall

15. Queen - Now I'm Here (Who knew Queens could be cool?)

16. Radiohead - Paranoid Android (The best piece of music Radiohead ever made)

17. U2 - One

18. Led Zeppelin - Moby Dick

19. Metallica - Whisky in the Jar (I prefer it to the Thin Lizzy Version)

20. Deep Purple - Smoke on the water

ok, the list is about half right in my opinion. The first thing that struck me was the shameless lack of metal songs. Come on, you have Green Day and Smashing Pumpkins but no Metallica, Motorhead or Slayer? Whats up with that? You could do a top 20 list on those three alone.
Here's a few:
Slayer- Raining Blood
Metallica- Master of Puppets
Van Halen- Unchained(now thats a cool riff)
Black Sabbath- Black Sabbath(the darkest riff ever written and root to all metal. I swear that riff envokes the devil himself. Iron Mans cool but...)
AC/DC- I think Highway to Hell is a beter riff
Motorhead- Ace of Spades(bass riff)
Judas Priest- Electric Eye
Rush-YYZ or Limelight
Ted Nugent- Cat Scratch Fever of Stranglehold
Boston-Piece of Mind
Doobie Brothers- China Groove
Kanasas- Carry On....
I also agree with the Cream and Jethro Tull additions as well as Dire Straits, Deep Purple(though Highway Star is better), GnR, Layla, RATM, Skynard, Stones and Zep(and a dozen other Zep songs) from the original list. But I feel Stairway To Heaven is a tired worn out, overrated, boring song. GASP! There I said it, now let the angry posts begin!

Seriously? Jimi has no soul? are you retarded?

I think Bill Hicks said it best

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCbVkX7jdAM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRkA6zugNMQ

Oh and considered by who exactly? Well lets take a look at the top 100 guitarists as voted for by the readers of rolling stone

The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time and the number one spot goes to...??? Jimi? oh no that can't be right. Now who is this eric johnson noob? Is he even on the list? oh yea that's right...he's not.

1Jimi Hendrix
2 Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band
3 B.B. King
4 Eric Clapton
5 Robert Johnson
6 Chuck Berry
7 Stevie Ray Vaughan
8 Ry Cooder
9 Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin
10 Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones
11Kirk Hammett of Metallica
12 Kurt Cobain of Nirvana
13 Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead
14 Jeff Beck
15 Carlos Santana
16 Johnny Ramone of the Ramones
17 Jack White of the White Stripes
18 John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers
19 Richard Thompson
20 James Burton
21 George Harrison
22 Mike Bloomfield
23 Warren Haynes
24 The Edge of U2
25 Freddy King
26 Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave
27 Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits
28 Stephen Stills
29 Ron Asheton of the Stooges
30 Buddy Guy
31 Dick Dale
32 John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service
33 & 34 Lee Ranaldo, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth
35 John Fahey
36 Steve Cropper of Booker T. and the MG's
37 Bo Diddley
38 Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac
39 Brian May of Queen
40 John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival
41 Clarence White of the Byrds
42 Robert Fripp of King Crimson
43 Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic
44 Scotty Moore
45 Frank Zappa
46 Les Paul
47 T-Bone Walker
48 Joe Perry of Aerosmith
49 John McLaughlin
50 Pete Townshend
51 Paul Kossoff of Free
52 Lou Reed
53 Mickey Baker
54 Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane
55 Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple
56 Tom Verlaine of Television
57 Roy Buchanan
58 Dickey Betts
59 & 60 Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien of Radiohead
61 Ike Turner
62 Zoot Horn Rollo of the Magic Band
63 Danny Gatton
64 Mick Ronson
65 Hubert Sumlin
66 Vernon Reid of Living Colour
67 Link Wray
68 Jerry Miller of Moby Grape
69 Steve Howe of Yes
70 Eddie Van Halen
71 Lightnin' Hopkins
72 Joni Mitchell
73 Trey Anastasio of Phish
74 Johnny Winter
75 Adam Jones of Tool
76 Ali Farka Toure
77 Henry Vestine of Canned Heat
78 Robbie Robertson of the Band
79 Cliff Gallup of the Blue Caps (1997)
80 Robert Quine of the Voidoids
81 Derek Trucks
82 David Gilmour of Pink Floyd
83 Neil Young
84 Eddie Cochran
85 Randy Rhoads
86 Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath
87 Joan Jett
88 Dave Davies of the Kinks
89 D. Boon of the Minutemen
90 Glen Buxton of Alice Cooper
91 Robby Krieger of the Doors
92 & 93 Fred "Sonic" Smith, Wayne Kramer of the MC5
94 Bert Jansch
95 Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine
96 Angus Young of AC/DC
97 Robert Randolph
98 Leigh Stephens of Blue Cheer
99 Greg Ginn of Black Flag
100 Kim Thayil of Soundgarden

Pre-Ian Gillan they barely sound like the Deep Purple most people think of. Very groovy though. I was just reading that this song was written as a country music song.

rod evans. ROD evans. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Evans He was on the first 3 Deep Purple albums. I guess my opinion is completely unpopular.

Reminded me of ian paice the drummer in deep purple