My 5 (not your 5) Favorite Ratt Guitar Riffs!

Hey everybody – welcome back!

Today I am going to tackle some of my (not your) favourite RATT guitar riffs.

Recently two of the former band members of RATT (Stephen Pearcy and Warren Demartini) have been playing a few shows together, revitalizing some of our favourite 1980s music.

In response to this news, I decided to make this video in honor of this news.

These are not in any particular order, in fact, I find there are so many great riffs by Ratt that it was hard even choosing these as my “favorites.”

Hopefully this helps you hone your 80s rock rhythm guitar techniques while you have some fun doing so.

The tab and video are at the bottom of the blog.

Here goes:

My 5 (not your 5) Favorite Ratt Guitar Riffs!

Stephen Pearcy wrote this great riff which is the lead off track for Invasion of Your Privacy (1985).  It's one of Ratt's heaviest riffs and I just love the way it uses the 4ths in a different way from Smoke On the Water by Deep Purple.

2. You Think You’re Tough

   Originally the lead single from Ratt's 1983 self-titled EP (later reissued as their debut album), the song helped land them a major deal with Atlantic Records after catching airplay on KLOS's "Local Licks" show.  Stephen Pearcy mentioned recently that Robbin may have had a little help writing it ie he heard another unknown band in LA playing a similar riff and swiped it.

3. Lay It Down

The lead single from Invasion of Your Privacy, "Lay It Down" was demoed in Hawaii during a break from touring Out of the Cellar.  This tune uses a drop D tuning, i.e. tune standard tuning but drop the big E string down one whole step to D.

4. The Morning After

This one is straight from the Iron Maiden galloping rhythm type feel as heard on Run To The Hills, and a bunch of other Maiden songs.  An underrated track from Out Of The Cellar in the key of E.

5. Way Cool Junior

From the album Reach for the Sky, this tune came about when Warren Demartini went on vacation to Hawaii and forgot his guitar picks.  Being the clever creator he is, he improvised and came up with the bluesy intro fingerpicking piece.  The prechorus was actually snagged from a Frank Zappa song Warren was taught by Dweezil Zappa.