I'm not sure if this was talked about already but Alive came in at 50 on spinner.com.

50'Alive'
Pearl Jam (1991)Stone Gossard came up with the opening riff for grunge's biggest anthem while he was in Seattle's legendary Mother Love Bone with fellow future Pearl Jam member Jeff Ament. The demo, originally called 'Dollar Short,' eventually made its way into the hands of a part-time gas station attendant named Eddie Vedder. The rest, as they say, is history.
Read 'Alive' Lyrics

thats pretty cool

FWIW, it's a pretty awful list. Based on some other stuff on there, i think "Alive" could have at least been in the #40s.

#33, Smells Like Teen Spirit ... #33? Higher than Slayer's "Raining Blood". I like Slayer just like everyone else, but the two just aren't in the same company. And Sorry, no "Stairway" ... at all. You can't ignore that riff. if that riff were English, it would have been knighted.

ive got no problems w/ teen spirits being high. regardless of how easy it is to play, it was influential and important.

id probably put rvm ahead of alive, but im glad pj got recognition

what was #1? warehouse? lol

I wouldn't classify the Stairway intro as a riff. There are a lot of fantastic Led Zep riffs, but Stairway probably just falls into the category of iconic intro.

Yea, i was going to say the same thing. I dont consider it a guitar riff at all.

I see, that's a fair point. Feels like one of those quizzes your teacher gives you as a trick where the instructions say "do nothing and put your pencils down". i just didn't read the directions.

I'll just quote Down's "A Bustle In Your Hedgrow" (yes, that's ironic re: Stairway)

If?

And I won't claim that Alive is one of the 50 best songs ever, because it's probably not (even tho I might claim it to be), but that opening riff is fucking gold and probably deserves to be higher. I don't disagree that Smells Like Teen Spirit should be where it is, but Alive is the better riff.

I'd probably put Even Flow's up there ahead of Alive.

yeah, that's a monster of a riff and it fits better the idea i have of what a riff is.