Favourite guitar solos...and why
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Favourite guitar solos...and why
Today I was thinking about guitar solos that i may have heard hundreds of times and still love. There are many different elements one could focus in on - tone, phrasing, melody, groove, difficulty, speed (or not), recording quality...what is important?
I think the ones that are closest to my heart (pardon the sensitive woo-woo crap) are simple, melodic solos that one can sing. George Harrison (and other Beatles) played some of the best...
Nowhere Man - chordal, generally desceding, singable
Something - sweet, unusual phrasing
And Your Bird Can Sing - fucking phenomenal
My Sweet Lord - simple, sweet, no waste
i am a big fan of Django, too. There's a version of Georgia where he plays all kinds of badass stuff in the intro but then winds down into the singing with three beautiful notes in his expressive vibrato. It seems as if he had to get all that other stuff out of the way to present those last notes.
But the song that got me fired up today was HIGHWAY STAR !
It is singable, expressive, it builds momentum, it fucking rocks.
it makes me want to crank my crappy car stereo until the speakers burst out of the doors and my head is through the windshield and inside Ritchie's Marshall!
Okay, I've got to calm down. Anybody else got something?
Johnny7
I think the ones that are closest to my heart (pardon the sensitive woo-woo crap) are simple, melodic solos that one can sing. George Harrison (and other Beatles) played some of the best...
Nowhere Man - chordal, generally desceding, singable
Something - sweet, unusual phrasing
And Your Bird Can Sing - fucking phenomenal
My Sweet Lord - simple, sweet, no waste
i am a big fan of Django, too. There's a version of Georgia where he plays all kinds of badass stuff in the intro but then winds down into the singing with three beautiful notes in his expressive vibrato. It seems as if he had to get all that other stuff out of the way to present those last notes.
But the song that got me fired up today was HIGHWAY STAR !
It is singable, expressive, it builds momentum, it fucking rocks.
it makes me want to crank my crappy car stereo until the speakers burst out of the doors and my head is through the windshield and inside Ritchie's Marshall!
Okay, I've got to calm down. Anybody else got something?
Johnny7
Marc Ribot's solo on the Tom Waits tune "Jockey Full of Bourbon." It's the only solo that I've taken the time to figure out note-for-note in the last ten years.
Why is it so great? Angular & funky lines (mostly a harmonic minor scale, so it's got that big jump between the 6th and 7th of the scale); ragged & raw in tone and attitude, fitting the vibe of the song perfectly and making it even more intense; bluesy, yet not the same-ole' blues you've heard a million tedious times before. And it's got direction - no meandering! It charges one way and then another - it takes command of its moment, and owns it completely.
Love it love it love it.
Why is it so great? Angular & funky lines (mostly a harmonic minor scale, so it's got that big jump between the 6th and 7th of the scale); ragged & raw in tone and attitude, fitting the vibe of the song perfectly and making it even more intense; bluesy, yet not the same-ole' blues you've heard a million tedious times before. And it's got direction - no meandering! It charges one way and then another - it takes command of its moment, and owns it completely.
Love it love it love it.
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EVH solo on Michael Jackson's "Beat It" - just a perfect little self-contained bit of shredding that actually fits the song perfectly. It also has that old schoolyard legend (at least it was a legend in my schoolyard) about the guitar "blowing up" at the end of the solo.
If I had two minutes to explain/demonstrate the concept of "guitar solo" to a visitor from outer space, I'd use "Beat It".
Ween's "Flies On My Dick"
"Badge" middle part is a guitar playing solo, and it's the most amazing thing ever (as we have all concurred here in the past) but I'm not sure it fits the parameters of this thread; likewise "What Is and What Should Never Be"
As to the philosophical questions about what's important: Of course, what's important is for it to serve the needs of the song. Whether that takes fast picking or lots of bends or a particular tone: it all depends on the song.
If I had two minutes to explain/demonstrate the concept of "guitar solo" to a visitor from outer space, I'd use "Beat It".
Ween's "Flies On My Dick"
"Badge" middle part is a guitar playing solo, and it's the most amazing thing ever (as we have all concurred here in the past) but I'm not sure it fits the parameters of this thread; likewise "What Is and What Should Never Be"
As to the philosophical questions about what's important: Of course, what's important is for it to serve the needs of the song. Whether that takes fast picking or lots of bends or a particular tone: it all depends on the song.
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The Leslie bit, right? I'm totally with you.Tatertot wrote:"Badge" middle part is a guitar playing solo, and it's the most amazing thing ever
Also, the guitar solo on "Cinnamon Girl" is near perfect.
I'm still a sucker for almost everything David Gilmour plays and I find the stuff on The Wall[i/] particularly inspired.
Can you bring up a thread like this and not mention "LaGrange" or Billy Gibbons in general?
I think what Andy Summers played on the live version of "So Lonely" from the '83 show in Atlanta is astounding.
So many good ones...
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There's a Stones version of "Suzy Q" with a burning bit of Brian Jones work in the middle and the end that kind of define what a '60's solo is to me.
There's that stuff in the middle of "Bambi" on the first Prince album. I've never been a huge Prince fan but that first record is stellar.
It's not really a solo in the traditional sense, but for a favorite I gotta choose "Watermellon in Easter Hay" by Mr. Zappa. The Joe's Garage version is o.k., but there's one on Zappa Plays Guitar (which is sort of vol. 4 and 5 of the "Shut up and Play" series) that is so beautiful from a melody and phrasing standpoint it almost makes my cry, and I've heard it countless times. Apparently, Frank told Gail that "Watermellon" was one of the few songs that she could never, under any circumstances, license to anyone after he passed away, because he liked it so much...
There's that stuff in the middle of "Bambi" on the first Prince album. I've never been a huge Prince fan but that first record is stellar.
It's not really a solo in the traditional sense, but for a favorite I gotta choose "Watermellon in Easter Hay" by Mr. Zappa. The Joe's Garage version is o.k., but there's one on Zappa Plays Guitar (which is sort of vol. 4 and 5 of the "Shut up and Play" series) that is so beautiful from a melody and phrasing standpoint it almost makes my cry, and I've heard it countless times. Apparently, Frank told Gail that "Watermellon" was one of the few songs that she could never, under any circumstances, license to anyone after he passed away, because he liked it so much...
I thought this club was for musicians. Who let the drummer in here??
Cinnamon Girl...the only guitar solo I can play note for note. I'll put Neil Young's guitar work on Ohio and Like a Hurricane right up there, too.
Jonny Greenwood does some amazing stuff on Paranoid Android. George Harrison on Real Love kills me. Pretty much any early Jane's Addiction / Dave Navarro thing is amazing. Same goes for anything J. Mascis has ever done on a guitar, solo or otherwise.
Oh, and the solo on Cherub Rock is pretty much it.
Jonny Greenwood does some amazing stuff on Paranoid Android. George Harrison on Real Love kills me. Pretty much any early Jane's Addiction / Dave Navarro thing is amazing. Same goes for anything J. Mascis has ever done on a guitar, solo or otherwise.
Oh, and the solo on Cherub Rock is pretty much it.
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Re: Favourite guitar solos...and why
Seared into my brain. And the little harmonic at the end? Lovely.johnny7 wrote: Nowhere Man - chordal, generally desceding, singable
I have a Benny Goodman record of a live radio broadcast where they play Stardust. Charlie Christian's solo on it is the most beautiful guitar playing I've ever heard.
Django's playing on Beyond the Sea gives me chicken skin.
Whoever solo'd on Rundgren's I Saw the Light deserves a pat on the back.
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amen to the "Cinnamon Girl" solo, and i'm not even a huge Neil Young fan (tho i do admire his work)!
i am sick to the back teeth of "Stairway to Heaven", but for some reason i love hearing that solo.
i also rate David Gilmour's solo on "Time" from DSOTM quite highly.
Neil Finn's solo on "Hole In The Ice" from his second solo album, uncharacteristically wanky yet somehow totally fitting and memorable.
i'd like to cite an Alex Lifeson solo but can't really narrow it down alot...maybe "Freewill"?
oh yeah, almost any solo George Harrison ever played.
i'm sure there's others, but that's all i can think of right now.
i am sick to the back teeth of "Stairway to Heaven", but for some reason i love hearing that solo.
i also rate David Gilmour's solo on "Time" from DSOTM quite highly.
Neil Finn's solo on "Hole In The Ice" from his second solo album, uncharacteristically wanky yet somehow totally fitting and memorable.
i'd like to cite an Alex Lifeson solo but can't really narrow it down alot...maybe "Freewill"?
oh yeah, almost any solo George Harrison ever played.
i'm sure there's others, but that's all i can think of right now.
?What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.? -- Seneca
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Steve Rothery's solos on Marillion's "Sugar Mice" and "Easter."
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Those various frantic Zappa solos on the album version of "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" are pretty fabulous. They certainly add to the theatrical mood of that song.
There is also some superb guitar solo in that Steely Dan "Back To the Old School" song (during the part with cowbell on the beats)
And what about Joe Walsh's mid-song solo in "Life's Been Good"?
I will be thinking of awesome guitar solos all day now.
There is also some superb guitar solo in that Steely Dan "Back To the Old School" song (during the part with cowbell on the beats)
And what about Joe Walsh's mid-song solo in "Life's Been Good"?
I will be thinking of awesome guitar solos all day now.
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