Your favorite recorded guitar part ever?

[w_]

Not an entire song, I mean one riff or sequence of chords.

Can't decide on just one but my favs would be

1) Opening riff on MBV's Loveless ("Only Shallow")

or 2) opening riff of Shellac's At Action Park ("My Black Ass")

[cgarges]

The two guitar parts on James Brown's "Superbad."

Although the opening of that last tune on "1000 Hurts" is prettty bad-ass, too.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[goldenarmes]

im not convinced it s 2 guitars...its catfish and he's a bad muthafucker.

[soundguy]

Are we talking about the sound of the recording, or the performance captured on the recording?

the closing segment of the A side of groundhogs "split" for me shines as one of the brightest moment a guitar performance has ever had in the history of rock and roll.

dave

[w_]

Haven't heard that. I mean Both- the combination of the two together. How the performance and actual recording work together.

[Rick Hunter]

solo on weezers Good Life

and

Duster's 'me and the birds'


By the way Duster is my favorite band right now

[cgarges]

J,
Shut your mouth! (At which point, you say, "I'm just talkin' 'bout Catfish," and I say, "We can dig it.") Yeah, I had always assumed that that other part kept going in the bridge, but what a nice surprise. Catfish's bro ain't no slouch, either. Johnny Griggs (if I'm not mistaken) tears it up on that tune, too.

Incidentally, I used to work at the studio where "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" and a few other tunes were cut (the former Arthur Smith Studio). I've heard some great stories. Thanks for pointing out just how bad-ass THAT tune is.

CG

[psychicoctopus]

Anyone ever go thru a King Crimson phase? Fripp's guitar(s) at the end of "sailor's tale" on Islands... whoosh! indescribable. unless you're this writer:

In terms of harmonic support there is a transformation: the riff is, at one point, transposed to D, and D becomes important at the end. At the climax the guitar tremolando is picked up from the solo of Section 3 and this time descends in first inversion minor triads, glissandi, first to D minor and then to a first inversion D major chord (Tierce de Picardie) which gradually ralls. to a slower, spread D major first inversion chord. It is Fourth-related, making a long-term connection with the intervals of the opening. In this way, the Aeolian harmony (A) can be seen as a long dominant prolongation cadencing only at the very end on D (A=V : D=I);

but whatever. its glorious.

[stillafool]

Mick Taylor, Can't you hear me knockin' , off of the Stones' sticky fingers Other than that, rock guitar tones have been getting worse for 30 years, starting with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, culminating in the sansamp produced shit you hear today.

[bobbydj]

Oooohh. Thread!

So yeah. Well definitely up there for me is the solo in Sparklehorse's 'Some Day I Will Treat You Good'. It's not twiddly, or virtuoso and fits the song perfectly. It's quite clean, with a cool trem setting. Is it a 335 thru a Twin? I dunno but it shreds. MASSIVE! Brilliant part in a brilliant tune.

For other-worldliness 'wtf is going ON here-ness' I think Mouldy Bob's guitar on the intro Du's version of 8 Miles high is pretty amazing. It's sound, the part and what it does to the mind - it has to be mentioned really.

From classic big punk crap I'd nominate Hugh Cornwell's part in the middle 8 (a punk song with a middle 8?!?!) of Hanging Around (The Stranglers). Although this is a bit reliant on the lead's meshing with the keyboard line - both parts hit into a great series of call and reply kinda deals. Awesome. Also Cornwell in their version of Walk on By.

I really like that solo in the Suzanne Vega song Marlene on the Wall.

So yeah.

[wardshorsehead]

Hmmm...

This changes for me at different times (I guess I'm too damn indecisive to have much of a favorite anything).

Right now I'm still thinking that my favorite electric riff is the classic, dirty, bendy bridge part of Happiness is a Warm Gun on the White Album...though the drums on the Breeders cover are how I always wanted to hear them.

For acoustic tracks, I've really been loving the guitar all over Neutral Milk Hotel's ...Aeroplane...

Some great tones.

Frank

[djslayerissick]

"This changes for me at different times (I guess I'm too damn indecisive to have much of a favorite anything). "

i hear ya on that.

at the *moment*, my favorite guitar moment would be:

IOMMI (recent solo album by Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath fame)
track1 - "Laughing Man in the Devil's Mask" feat. Henry Rollins

about 2 thirds in the drums become very minimal and the riff builds up, then WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA wa mee mee wa wa waH WAH wAH meme

(the first 3 notes of that solo floor me everytime. i'm gonna go listen to it again right now.)

[PatrickBrown]

My fave solo of all time. Sounds are good, and playing is, to me, beyond time and space.
Frank Zappa's guitar solo in Muffin Man, on the Bongo Fury album,,Live at the Armadillo in Austin in early mid 70's. There are many high points in guitardom,,but this one still send shivers up my spine. Seeing as it was recorded live, I don't know if it falls under the aegis of this thread, but it's my favorite.

I read Steve Vai said when he first heard it, his jaw hit the floor, so I'm not the only one who feels this way. I first heard it back in the 70's. I'm 52.

[blm15]

Anyone ever go thru a King Crimson phase? Fripp's guitar(s) at the end of "sailor's tale" on Islands... whoosh!

Yeah..... and the phase has lasted thirty years! Robert Fripp has had so many of these "moments" over the years, it's hard to site them all. And the moments always paint a chilling picture.

Michael Landau: car crash solos in "Sex Kills" by Joni Mitchell
Allan Holdsworth: solo on "Expresso" by Gong {the tone rips my face off}
Gary Green/Gentle Giant/Free Hand: the four bar 7/4 guitar riff about halfway thru the tune.
Gee, I could write a book here
blm15

[provide86]

that gorgeous... confused... THING that appears halfway through pavement's "rattled by the rush" has to be the most awesome guitar part i've ever heard on record. no one could do it quite the way they could. any guitar part by them, actually, would have to be my favorite. and of course the thing that occurs at the end of Paranoid Android through the mutator. maybe i just hate "conventional" guitar solos a la Mars Volta and such.