Ranking the songs in the original Guitar Hero
If you were lucky enough to be gaming around 2005 then you already know the cultural phenomenon that took over the gaming industry. Guitar Hero swept the nation and turned ordinary households into rock venues overnight with its innovative guitar shaped controller and killer soundtrack.
The developer, Harmonix modeled the game after Konami’s, Guitar Freaks which was an arcade game that also featured a guitar shaped controller but at the time had very little market share in North America.
Before the franchise became a billion dollar success, the developers had a hard time securing rights to the master copies of the songs they featured. Thus, the first Guitar Hero is made up completely of perfect cover versions of its respective songs.
Ahead, is my complete bullshit and biased rank of the songs featured in the game. Most of you will probably disagree with this entire list. That’s happened before but fuck it, why not. Be sure to comment and let me know what your favorite tracks were off the original Guitar Hero as well!
Face Melters: My best of the best:
“No One Knows” Queens of The Stone Age
“Cochise” Audioslave
“Take Me Out” Franz Ferdinand
“Infected” Bad Religion
“Spanish Castle Magic” Jimi Hendrix Experience
“Thunder Kiss 65’” White Zombie
Fret Burners:
“Killer Queen” Queen
“Cowboys From Hell” Pantera
“Ziggy Stardust” David Bowie
“Texas Flood” Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
“Unsung” Helmet
“Heart Full of Black” Burning Brides
Return of the Shred
“Fat Lip” Sum 41
“Crossroads” Cream
“Higher Ground” Red Hot Chili Peppers
“Ace of Spades” – Motorhead
“Take it Off” The Donnas
“Hey You” The Exies
Axe Grinders
“Stellar” Incubus
“More Than A Feeling” Boston
“Frankenstein” The Edgar Winter Group
“Godzilla” Blue Oyster Cult
“Symphony of Destruction” Megadeath
“You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’” Judas Priest
Opening Licks: The worst of the worst:
“Iron Man” Black Sabbath
“Sharp Dressed Man” ZZ Top
“Smoke on the Water” Deep Purple
“I Wanna Be Sedated” The Ramones
“Bark at the Moon” Ozzy Osbourne
“I Love Rock n’ Roll” Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
Yes, I realize I put Joan Jett at the very bottom but unfortunately it’s just how I feel about her. Overrated. I know she can kick my ass. But that’s a risk I’m willing to take. What are your favorite Guitar Hero tracks?
Yay Franz Ferdinand and Cowboys from hell . I liked GH3 with Knights of Cydonia and Raining Blood .
Knights of Cydonia is a badass tune. I am not a big Slayer fan. I even saw them and still didn’t do it for me. Mastodon and Killswitch were on that tour too.
I don’t really like them that much either , they’re overplayed , but I liked Raining Blood’s build up . You know Guitar Hero never had a Mastodon song ? Unless it was a download pack.
Which is a shame because they are nasty guitarists. One is semi local. I remember being super proud of hometown heroes, Every Time I Die being a bonus song on GH2 (I believe)
Oh nice ! Didn’t you say you played a show with Mastodon ? Or was it Baroness ?
Baroness. Mastodon would have been sweet though 😂
I like Baroness too . The art for their albums are amazing . I think it’s the guitarist who does the art , for Skeletonwitch , Black Tusk and even a Metallica poster .
Franz Ferdinand, on the other hand, was my first apartment jam. Lots of booze, cigarettes and underwear dancing to their first album 😂
I have it somewhere .
This one really rocks! 🎸🎶🎼🎧
Thank you, Filipa! ❤️