Guitar Solos
Posted by kinkywolfgang on 30 January 2008 - 8:40am.
Have we done the best guitar solos yet? I was thinking of the most appropriate and eloquent solos rather than those that are merely displays of technical excellence.
Here's a few to start you off...
No Regrets - The Walker Brothers
Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) - Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
Whisky In The Jar - Thin Lizzy
Guitar Man - Bread
In The Thick Of It - Brenda Russell
Reelin' In The Years - Steely Dan
Country Home - Neil Young & Crazy Horse
I Heard Her Call My Name - The Velvet Underground
I do so hope that Stairway To Heaven and Freebird do not get too many nominations...
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A couple of obscure but goodies
My Way - Eddie Cochran. None more economical.
Ryan Adams' My Winding Wheel - is that David Rawlings? It's utterly perfect in every way imaginable.
DR
Pretty much everything DR does is excellent. The first Gillian Welch album is amazing!
Yes, I agree
It's a wonderful album.
Good call, Kinky
I have to include my 2 favourite guitarists, unchanged and unsurpassed since I came to that conclusion in 1975.
Richard Thompson: the solo in "Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman" (Fairport)
Neil Young: "Cortez the Killer"
Others that cut the mustard include, I agree, "Reeling in the Years". Always fond of the simplicity of the solo in "Baby, Baby"/Vibrators and "Time Waits for No-one"/Stones.
The most minimalist ever, arguably, is by Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias on "Kill", part of the estimable "Snuff Rock EP", if only to give the Albertos a long overdue mention.
Buzzcocks Boredom
Who needs more than two notes...
Well, not the Alberto's....
.......hence the mention!
Here goes, dipping into the furthest recesses of my collection..
Genesis- Firth Of Fifth, Ripples, The Battle Of Epping Forest, One For The Vine, Duke's Travels, Burning Rope
Steve Hackett- Everyday, Slogans, Jacuzzi
Mike Rutherford- Out Into The Daylight
Neil Young- Like A Hurricane
Focus- Tommy
Yes- Yours Is No Disgrace
Pink Floyd- Echoes, Dogs, Comfortably Numb, Time
Barclay James Harvest- Guitar Blues
Marillion- Easter, Neverland, Kayleigh
Uriah Heep- Paradise/The Spell
Deep Purple- Child In Time
The Yardbirds- I Ain't Got You, A Certain Girl, Got To Hurry
Quicksilver Messenger Service- Gold and Silver, The Fool
Camel- The Snow Goose
Frank Zappa- I Come From Nowhere
David Bowie- Fashion (think it was Robert Fripp, one of the most wonderfully bizarre guitar solos ever!)
Kid Charlemagne
....by Larry Carlton off "Pretzel Logic" by Steely Dan. In every way perfect. Notice how the track speeds up as the whole band get carried away by how fantastic it is it.
Otherwise, Amos Garrett on "Midnight at the Oasis" is hard to beat!
Albert Lee's "Country boy" is fun, though he cheated a bit using a delay pedal to create a load more notes than he actually plays!
Personally (though I recognise I'm in a minority here) I love Duane Allman on "You don't love me" of "At the Fillmore" - very long, loads of notes, loads of invention. Marvellous!
Where does one stop? David Lindley's lap steel solo on "Running on empty" is pretty perfect too...
Incidentally the solo which tends to win in guitar player mags is "Hotel California", which of course is not a solo at all - it's a duet.
Whoops - forgot "Throw down the sword" off "Argus" by Wishbone Ash - which is NOT a duet as many people think - Andy Powell did two takes of the solo and they liked them so much they used both - so it is two solos!
My Economical Guitar Solo Top 10
1. 'Something' by The Beatles (George Harrison)
2. 'Gimme Shelter' by The Rolling Stones (Keith Richards)
3. 'Kid' by The Pretenders (James Honeyman Scott)
4. 'Stormy Monday' by Bobby Bland (Wayne Bennett)
5. 'My Love' by Paul McCartney and Wings (Henry McCullough)
6. 'Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2' by Pink Floyd (David Gilmour)
7. 'Stranger In The Crowd' by Elvis Presley (James Burton)
8. 'The Thrill Is Gone' by B.B. King (B.B. King)
9. 'Haitian Divorce' by Steely Dan (Dean Parks)
10. 'I'll Take You There' by The Staple Singers (Pops Staples)
hats off
A fine effort, I've got my playlist for the morning (apart from the detestable 'floyd). Well done sir!
Brick
I must admit that I can live without Another Brick In The Wall, but for the purposes of this exercise it does contain a very tidy guitar solo indeed.
I just hate the bloody song itself, that's all.
Just thought of another suitably obscure addition to the list! You Went Away by Earth Wind & Fire from their early 80s double album Faces contains some of the most exquisite examples of plank-spanking on record (in this case by Steve Lukather, no less). His playing on this track is unbelievably nimble and fluid yet wholly melodic and tasteful. It near enough convinced me to give up learning how to play. Why bother? I could never get it as right as that.
So I bought a bass instead. But 25 years later, I can't play that, either.
A couple of acoustic solos...
How about the acoustic solos from BLUEBIRD (on the excellent New Age Of Atlantic sampler LP)
_OR_
that classic from Cockney Rebel's Make Me Smile (Come and See Me)
BTW, I saw Robert Plant play BLUEBIRD with THE PRIORY OF SION at the Ross-on-Wye International Festival about 4 years ago and the so-called guitar player wimped out on the acoustic solo - very disappointing, as I was winding myself up all through the first half of the number waiting for it!
Tararabit
Bluebird?
As in Buffalo Springfield? Thats the only Bluebird I know, and they were on Atco. Would that be Mr Stills? Doesn't sound clumsy enough for Mr Valparaisos nemesis.
It is the clumsiness of Neil Young that appeals to me, btw, all the notes from fingers and thumbs, seemingly hitting strings by glorious mistake: check out also Southern Man and Words (between the line of ages?) from, I think, Harvest.
Steve Hackett
Amidst all the mellotrons and synths of early, Gabriel-era Genesis, it was all too easy to overlook Steve Hackett's beautifully-constructed guitar solos. Always inventive, often beautifully lyrical, and never flashy. The best examples are the simple and emotional solo on "Firth of Fifth", from "Selling England By The Pound", and his concise rock-out on "The Knife" from "Genesis Live". Second only to Gabriel's departure, it was Hackett's exit that put the final nail in their coffin, as far as their musical soul was concerned.
Super-Saver Solo
I Want You - Costello.
Perfectly expressive on two discordant notes.
And from the more 'soulful' end of the spectrum...
...I offer the following:
That Lady by the Isleys (Ernie Isley)
Purple Rain and Gold by Prince
Any number of solos by Jimi - a thread in itself
Nile Rodgers on Diana Ross's 'I'm Coming Out' (and many other tunes)
Careful With That Axe Eugene
Solo at end of Forest Fire - Lloyd Cole and the Commotions
The guitar all the way through Kennedy - The Wedding Present
Mad solo in Paranoid Android - Radiohead
and on the keys;
Jools Hollands playout on the The The's Uncertain Smile, better than a million guitar solos.
Not only a great singer, writer and bloke
But Glenn Tillbrook does play a good guitar.
I'm putting up his solo on 'Some Fantastic Place' as The. Best. Ever.
It's warm, lyrical, uplifting, understated, soulful. I'll buy all of that I can get.
Top Of The Shop
The Eel has got it in one! Now that's what we're talking about. Poise, melody and elegance without having to use the guitar neck as a substitute penis.
By the way, did anybody ever hear Glenn doing an acoustic version of Voodoo Chile? I think that it might have been on Danny Baker or Chris Evans. It was sensational. James Marshall H himself would have been proud.
DVD
It's on the DVD of his American tour in a camper van - and you're right, it is excellent.
Good man!
You're so right about Mt Tillbrook. Corking good guitarist.
On the Squeeze angle, the John Bentley slightly wilderness pre 1st dissolution albums showed what a top bassist he was/is. (Gather he's back on board in the Squeeze tribute band currently about- sorry, guys, haven't the heart to face up to you again when all I hear are those ghastly Chris Difford "versions" that presumably persuaded Glenn Tillbrook that the only way to stop the mangling of the catalogue was to reform as a greatest hits combo.)
On the subject of top geezers once or whatever associated with Squeeze, Gilson Lavis, what a drummer!
Great song, great solo. Good
Great song, great solo. Good choice.
Another Tilbrookian example...
is the solo in "Another Nail In My Heart", because he eschews the traditional "keep going up and up until only Labradors, dolphins and bats can actually hear it" squalling nonsense, and stays with a low, mellow sort of tone.
Refreshingly tuneful.
Glenn Tilbrooks version
of Voodoo Chile is on his tour dvd One for the road which is well worth a punt as thy say.
other nominations would be:
Boddhisattva - Steely Dan
Moonlight shadow - Mike Oldfield
Shine on you crazy diamond - Pink Floyd
Feel like going home - Notting Hillbillies
SHoot out the lights - Richard Thompson
goodbye to love - The Carpenters
Shoot Out The Lights...
could easily have made my list (as could any of about 25 Steely Dan tunes)
I've said it before and I'll say etc. etc
The best solo of any pop song ever done and anyone who disagrees is wrong.
step forward Mr Tony Peluso
Finger on nose pointing
Finger on nose pointing action!
Oddest Guitar Solo
Oddest guitar solo must be the one in Steve Miller's Abracadabra - just a series of weird noises.
I've always been baffled by the one in The Impressions Mighty Mighty Spade & Whitey. Sounds like one of those spoof ones that lad does on Youtube.
And it‘s left to me to bring Hotel California to the table, is it? Might as will bring The Commodores' Easy along too.
Best one-note guitar solo: New Amsterdam.
Best long sustained note......
Taboo, Carlos Santana/Santana 3rd, just after the yessss exhortation of the vocalist,(which could be an entry for PCs intros and outros also)
Somewhere in a parallel universe...
(thanks, Eels frontman's dad) Carlos Santana is still sustaining a note that he struck on stage at the Woodstock Festival. Very Nigel Tuffnell...
"The sustain... listen to it."
"I don't hear anything."
"Well you would though, if it were playing."
Not sure if it counts as a solo or an outro, but...
The bit in The Chain by Fleetwood Mac where Lindsey Buckingham's guitar comes screaming in after the bass breakdown. Only a few notes, still makes all the hairs on my neck stand on end.
Canyons of your Mind The Bonzos
by Neil Innes presumably...every wrong note is right.
Honourable mentions to Luther Grosvenor for his efforts on Evil Woman from Spooky 2 and Mike Bloomfield for I got a Mind to Give up Living on East West.
tonyboydell
No one likes a smart arse but its Priory of Bryon.
Let's hear it for the late Mr Halsall
Ollie, that is. Lots of good 'uns, but most of the output on Kevin Ayers' Confessions of Dr Dream, especially thru'out See you later. A gifted man.
Taxman
Paul McCartney's blistering guitar solo on The Beatles "Taxman".
I've often wondered why George didn't play it.
And Again
Apparently the same solo was chopped up and inserted into Tomorrow Never Knows. Can anyone substantiate this?
That's Right
According to Ian MacDonald's book Revolution In The Head, the same solo is played backwards on one of the loops that's played repeatedly throughout the song. The seagull noises are Paul McCartney's laugh played at a different speed.
Impossible Germany...
...by Wilco...Tom verlaine-esque in its clarity and beauty. Not from the 1970s at all.