{ Lick That Riff! }

Hello and welcome to another weekly riff where I look at a classic rock riff and show you guys how to play it. This weeks riff is a bit different from the last one I did which was a psyhcadelic 60s riff by Status Quo. Anyway I heard this riff the other day as many 15 and 16 year old’s across the UK are finishing school this summer. This song is played every year on some sort of Holiday, Summer, Job or other advertisement as soon as the schools break up for summer. I always thought this was an overplayed song and that the riff was often a hugely underrated guitar riff, so I thought I would try and reignite the magic that this track had for many youngsters back in 72′. So the band? Alice Cooper. The Guitarist? Glen Buxton. The Riff? None other than the legendary guitar lick School’s Out.

Alice Cooper formed in 1963 at a talent show between school friends under the name The Earwigs. The friends couldn’t play any instruments at the time so they all decided to don Beatles wigs and mime some of their songs. A few years later and the lead singer, Vincent Furnier, decided that the band needed a gimmick in order to advance in the music industry. After a few discussions in 1968 it was said that the band would call themselves Alice Cooper, and also that Furnier would use this as his stage name. School’s Out was the title track on their 5th Studio album and it was released in 1972. VH1 voted the song as the 35th Best Hard Rock Song of All Time in 2009. But how do you play this classic riff?

Here we go:

And here’s how it should sound:

So there it is for another weekly riff. I hope this has taken you back to the summer when you broke up from school forever. I remember it was the best summer of my life.

Want Regular Free Updates?

Just sign up below with an RSS Reader or by email for your free updates.

Subscribe in a reader

Popularity: 2% [?]