Good Song, Worthless Solo

[timbertrout]

How about this list starter: Worthy Pop/Rock Songs that feature a totally de-railing guitar solo (or whatever-instrument-solo)

Here's my first few nominations:

Big Shot - Billy Joel. Slag BJ all you want, but he made some craftily exciting up-tempo numbers like this one. But the guitar solo totally bites and deflates the song...

You're So Vain - Carly Simon. One of the spookiest-yet-catchy pop productions of all time. The Jagger backing vox actually rank as his greatest accomplisment (IMO). But with the incredible mood and soundscape created, that guitar solo could have been a grand slam...instead, it was a sac. bunt (to use a Carl Wilson analogy). I mean it's a decent melody, but the tone and feel are so... ASS.

Dream On - Aerosmith. another great mood created, sabotaged by the tinny sounding, wooden feeling out-of-tune guitar solo. Like with "YSV", categorized as decent idea/poor execution in my book.

[whatchamachicken]

Well I don't know if I'd go so far as to call it a good song, but Picture or whatever it's called by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow is my nominee. The song is so so. I can listen to it once every couple weeks if I hear it on the radio. I hate that goddamn guitar solo. It does not even come close to fitting within that song. Like I said, the song isn't even that great but man that solo just totally destroys it. Actually the production in general is quite awful all around on it, but somewhere in the underlying song there is something that I kind of like about it. Maybe I just like it because Sheryl Crow is hot, because I kind of want to puke whenever I hear anything else done by Kid Rock. Allthough, I do think he's got quite a lot of talent. He plays some rediculous number of instruments from what I've heard. I'm not sure how well he plays all of them, but a lot nontheless.

[curtiswyant]

Van Halen


oh wait you said good songs!

[PeterAuslan]

Except for a few heavy metal tracks, I dont think I have heard a great guitar solo that was recorded after 1980. So my vote is any hit song with a guitar solo in it recorded after 1980.