What's Your Favourite Guitar Solo?

I don't have a favorite guitar solo because, in general, I hate guitar solos. They're useless and add nothing to the music 99.9% of the time, it's just the guitarist wanking off. The best "guitar solos" last for, at most, 30 seconds. This crap like Pink Floyd and Hendrix and Zepplin would all be vastly improved if they cut out every guitar solo, ever. And Pink Floyd even had to doctor their solos to make them into one long one! Good heavens...

Iron Maiden's Run To The Hills has a guitar solo which sounds like a charging horse which I have a soft spot for.

I was also going to say the solo on Born To Run - but then I realised that its a saxophone. What a fool I feel. And no comebacks.

Well, you're all wrong. The best solos are anything that can be recreated using the word "widdly" repeatedly. ("More Than A Feeling", "Sweet Child O' Mine" etc.). Other than this, only the likes of "Rocky Mountain Way" can compete.

Don't deny your love for the rock, Kortbein. I've seen you watching Wayne's World and wishing you could rock out like that.

Jane's Addiction - "Three Days" Heard this one again for the first time in almost a year. By the end of this song, when everything takes of and the guitar just FREAKS out, it's blissful.

The Cure - "From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea" Robert completely loses his mind near the end of this song and produces a guitar solo that sounds like it was ripped from a classic moment in 70's arena rock in the middle of an angsty pop song that has as its most distinctive feature a piano line that consists of one note. Genius.

Prince and the Revolution - "Purple Rain" Do I need to explain? It's gorgeous.

Prince and the Revolution - "Let's Go Crazy" Obviously, listing "Purple Rain" reminded me of this one. Not nearly as epic, but ooH! The false ending is awesome.

I'm sure there are others, but they aren't coming to mind now.

Less Indie Boy: The psychedelic soloing at the start of "Maggot Brain". The only Clinton stuff I like, actually.

Rock Boy: I'm seconding "Sweet Child Of Mine".

Velvet Underground -- 1) "What Goes On", 2) "I Heard Her Call My Name". Number one is solid, number two is the first rock I heard that made the modern avant-garde stuff Kronos played look tame (Kronos were an early musical touchpoint for me). Reed in some interview describes how he figured out which notes made the best feedback, and he just played those notes.

One note solo could be a category by itself. "Tommy Gun" by The Clash, or maybe "Little Honda" by YLT.

Finally, classic solo is "Bell Bottom Blues" by Clapton, with Derek and the Dominoes.

the solos on "i heard her call my name," "all tomorrow's parties," and "run run run" are also fabulous in that spinning-out-to-space way.

i don't consider sy instrumental breaks solos since they generally seem to be collective efforts.

current least favourite guitar solo: shellac -- "canaveral." a wonderful song absurdly pointlessly marred at the last minute.

Sometimes I wonder how his delicacy would fuse with the sound of Go- Kart Mozart ... :).

Don't ask me why I once found that album so ineffably affecting, and will still stand up for it if pushed (while hating their first joyfully), so mouldily 70s does it sound. It's my most unexpected affection, and there's something in those solos that still resonates with me. I'll go to the back of the class now ...

Martin Brahmah (Blue Orchids) : 'Dumb Magician' from 'The Greatest Hit' (Short 'n Wierd')

John Perry : 'Another Girl, Another Planet' (Eyes closed, foot on the monitor)

I just realized these are all from the late 70's! Shit! I'll try and think up something a bit more recent over a lunchtime pint or two.

Dr. C

Lots more but those five will do for now

Distant second: 'Son of Nothing' by The Wolfhounds.

Danielle Dax: "White Knuckle Ride." ^^^ Pete Farrugia's greatest 4 or so rock'n'roll minutes.

Violent Femmes: "Never Tell" ^^^ The guitar break after the lines: "I've had so much on my mind, I was so glad when I died."

1. What's all this piffle about Guns&Roses?

2. Hendrix deserves serious consideration - that has to be granted. Funnily enough, I like some of his bread&butter rhythm playing as much: eg the really basic *intro* to the BBC 'Drivin' South'. There's this odd pleasure in hearing a virtuoso do basic things. A bit like in the old days, watching Desmond Lynam presenting Grandstand.

3. I haven't heard most of the solos mentioned. Obviously 'Paint A Vulgar Picture' comes to mind. Yes, the solo is kind of fab. But it seems very odd to say that it sums up the Smiths, when the Smiths hardly ever had solos. I'm not trying to argue, just suggesting that this is at least paradoxical. Of course, if you go through the Smiths' work you can come across other kinds of lead playing and *guitar breaks* - does the break in 'Panic' count, for instance? Or how about the outro of 'The Queen Is Dead', which is among my fave guitar playing of all time? It's rhythm-but-lead (? cf also the Stones for this category), but isn't really a solo.

4. Could be an interesting subcategory there: solos by guitarists who don't normally play solos. Why don't they normally, and why do they at this point? It's odd. How about the Sundays? Are there any solos in their work? I suppose 'I Won' might qualify? I remember Chris Roberts raving about it as a 'guitar journey'. Do journeys not count as solos?

5. Here's an honourable mention: John Woo on 'All My Little Words', 69LS 1/3. It's, um, 'suspended tremolo' not 'vibrato', or something. Or the other way around. It knocked me sideways first time I heard it, and I still have to play air-guitar whenever I hear it. I imagine that's not a terribly common MFs experience.

6. Steady Mike is right, if you ask me.

7. Robert Quine, let's mention him - on Lloyd Cole's songs 'Don't look Back' he sounds like the Grand Canyon, cotton candy, the interstate, Baskin Robbins, Dunkin Donuts, a damn fine cup of coffee, state electrocutions - that kind of thing. Everywhere on that record he's outstanding. And cf. his stunning work on LC's 'Like Lovers Do' (1995) and 'Man On The Verge' (2000). I have a yen to nominate 'Man On The Verge', you know.

8. But also - the Edge on U2's 'Silver & Gold'. The live version is famed for Bono saying 'OK, Edge - play the blues'. Then he doesn't play the blues.

I'll have you all know, the best guitar solos are as follows:

5) Crossroads - Eric Clapton 4) Heartbreaker - Jimmy Page 3) Bohemian Rhapsody - Brian May 2) Sympathy For The Devil - Keith Richards

And of course, the only man deserving of two mentions: 1) Stairway To Heaven - Jimmy Page

Christ, you'd think you people had never read Guitar Player before...

>>> Guitar solos are the essence of cock-rock. How can you name indie band guitar solos?

Geezer, I know your tone is light, and perhaps the *entire* content of your mail was not merely a bit tongue-in-cheek but 100% ironic. But just in case, and for what it's worth, I totally disagree.

Didn't it seem suspect that I named four squirrely-looking British white guys trying to play the blues, and the biggest junkie among them twice?

No, seriously, if I had to choose, I'd say my favourite rock guitar solo would have to be the live "Isabella" from Jimi Hendrix's Woodstock set. It doesn't get much better than that.

Runner up: Slash on Lenny Kravitz's "Always On The Run".

Is that better?

It sure was a cunning 'trap'.

God, but it had me foxed.

All those *white* people and stuff.

I should have known better than to take white people seriously.

I won't do it again.

Surely this thread can't be over. It is practically the most interesting of all the fascinating questions that have been asked on the forum.

The Clash "Stay Free"

The Band "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)"

now you're talking

faust - it's a bit of a pain

maybe not absolute favorite, but a solid one i always love when it comes up on shuffle: "Bad Times" by the D-Coys

skids of one skin

"Time," Pink Floyd

I could name a million solos but the real answer will always be 'Maggot Brain', miles clear of the rest. It's like the Usain Bolt of guitar solos.

Marc Ribot's colo in Tom Waits's "Jockey Full of Bourbon."

Canyons of Your Mind seconded!

Sonny Sharrock - Many Mansions
He spends the first five minutes locking in with the bassist, laying down a huge riff and allowing Pharoah Sanders plenty of space to solo (and he solos beautifully), then in the last few minutes Sonny's slide guitar erupts in multiple directions, hot lava baby!

thats a good one

somewhat surprisingly, fripp sorta owns this for me with his collabos -- "ill come running" and "heavenly music corporation" w eno and "hammond song" w the roches

oh yeah wait and COWGIRL IN THE SAND and EFFIGY and RAMBLE TAMBLE

yeah those!

We need CCR solos poll.

Tommy Bolin on Billy Cobham's "Quadrant 4"

This

lock thread

end civilization

delete time and space

Probably the solo in Shatterhand by The Nightblooms, in that it's amazing both as a guitar solo and as a commentary on guitar solos. Uses a talkbox too, as any contendor for best guitar solo should.

At the moment, this is the solo at the end of Hotel Illness. The drumming, too. Hellfire.

Here are mine!

what a fun list, now I want to go listen to all those.

the violin in “out of the blue” is what kills me. like david laflamme or papa john creach careening through a trans dimensional portal or something

Oh I need to check this one out. You should make a spotify or youtube list of these.

For Velvet Underground I’d pick “pale blue eyes” and for Radiohead it’s gotta be Paranoid Android. “Go to sleep” isn’t as amazing on the album as on live performances.

Baby’s on Fire is top 10 material for sure.

“Born under punches” is TOO LOW. But happy it’s there.

Just commented on fb about one you missed, and probably my favorite guitar solo of all time. Jimmy Scott's solo in Pretenders' "Kid" is masterful without bragging, a self-contained composition without peer nestled inside an already brilliant song. From the arpeggiated chords that preface it to the final harmonic that puts the cherry on top, not to mention all the key bends and swerves, it's one I could hear 10,000 more times in my life and never tire of.

Robbie Robertson on "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" from the '66 Manchester show (aka Bootleg vol. 4) is most triumphant.

As brimstead said, that's an electric violin solo on "Out of the Blue". Let's not deny Edwin Jobson his greatest moment of triumph!
My Manzanera picks would be "Amazona" and "Still Falls the Rain" for Roxy. I don't know if it's him or Eno doing the multiple guitars at the end of "The True Wheel", and you could quibble whether that's a "solo".
Produced by Manzanera, utterly majestic, and completely underrated, I'd like to mention Phil Judd on "Time For a Change" by Split Enz.

Hmm, there are some debatable definitions of "solo" in that list, but there are definitely some cool guitar sounds. Speaking of which, the correct Phil Manzanera answer is John Cale's "Gun," which features Phil through an Eno box:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uURZiipri54

And btw, I do appreciate the inclusion of "The Fly," because not only is that actually one of the rare Edge solos, the Edge really isn't typically good enough to solo, but he sounds great on that one. Also, "Until the End of the World." And "Acrobat." That whole album is full of "guy who doesn't solo does a cool solo" tracks.

Mott the Hoople - "Hymn For the Dudes"
― Raymond Douglas Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, September 13, 2005 10:48 AM (fifteen years ago)

particularly the triumphant last note, fading into the angelic choir.

Seeing the picture of John Cale reminds me that I always stan for this solo by Ollie Halsall:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-q-GGiAt8Q

Top of my mind here’s some more I like and haven’t been mentioned yet:

Papas Fritas - way you walk
Ritchie Valens - La Bamba
Soda Stereo - en la ciudad de la furia (unplugged)
Wilco - Impossible Germany

Just commented on fb about one you missed, and probably my favorite guitar solo of all time. Jimmy Scott's solo in Pretenders' "Kid" is masterful without bragging, a self-contained composition without peer nestled inside an already brilliant song.

oh for sure! I would've mentioned it in another tie

*time

Seeing the picture of John Cale reminds me that I always stan for this solo by Ollie Halsall:

I've shared this coked-out glory many times over the years.

Popol Vuh - "Oh wie nah ist der Weg hinab" (closing section - goosebump time!)

― Raymond Douglas Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 10:54 (fifteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I think Werner Herzog agreed...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOF23dA7UJg

... solo by Daniel Secundus Fichelscher.

right now it's Roy Buchanan's "The Messiah will come again." Spookiest song ever, very heavy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgOLDAWu6OY

The solos in VHÖL's "Arising" hit all the spots I want hit in metal wankery, probably because they're really just overdriven surf/rockabilly licks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf-a1Fupras

Michael Sembello, "Maniac"

I must've listened to Mick Taylor's Spanish/A Minor a lot as a kid because I can still hum all of the extended solos. Decades later it still sounds fantastic.

Ollie Halsall in the live Cale clip is outstanding

Glad you like it.

Is there sections of songs with one guitarrist doing amazing runs like Buckingham’s live version of “big love” or Nils Lofgren doing “Keith don’t go” considered “solos”? Even instrumental guitar pieces like “entre dos aguas” by Paco de Lucia has what could count as a solo at the 2:41 mark.

And that’s one of the best Flamenco songs ever so if it counts I’m definitely considering in the best guitar solos of all time.

One solo that caught my ear on the radio a couple days ago in how it really does raise the tune is Neal Schon's on "Don't Stop Believing". It is pretty much played off the main melody line but how it sets up the title refrain at the end of the song is really some nice pop magic (nice touch with the overdubbed second line on the very end).

I have a soft spot for the big dumbrock solo that closes out Pearl Jam’s “Alive”

Dogs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRSxu2Xn-gk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MzDcsgnwZo