Entertainment For Lively Minds
Guitar solos that unexpectedly transcend.
Posted by Vorgongod on 30 January 2010 - 12:53am.
Ok everybody, I'm risking ostracisation from the massive for positing this as one of the greatest guitar solos of all tine: especially given the smug chops on the featured white-flared axeman I know there's Slash's Sweet Child o' Mine and John Squire's Resurrection wigout, but what I love about this one is its incongruous setting.- as though it were a tiger mistakenly housed in a petting zoo: and an extraordinarily musically talented tiger at that...anybody wanna recommend anything similar? C'mon, there must be loads!.
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Not just one of the greatest guitar solos of all time
It graces one of the greatest songs of all time. Just perfect in every way. Masterful.
The thing is.. I remember my dad playing this to death from the original album and my memory says that the the solo goes on for miles longer. But I can't find that version anywhere.
Help?
Your memory isn't playing tricks
Here's the full version with the all-important second guitar solo that kicks in at about 2.50.
And a documentary clip about how Richard Carpenter invented the rock power ballad
Love the idea that certain Carpenters fans viewed the inclusion of a fuzz guitar solo as a 'sell-out'.
Ooooh yesss..
That's the bunny. It's those two great raking arpeggios at the fade which I remember. Thanks, Richard.
Unpredictable solos
The solos in this song never go where you'd think.
Lennylaw senior
had great taste... The truth is that there's at least 30 seconds' more tear wanking riffage. all available on iTunes Carpenters Gold.. (69-73 is, though, a much better album!)
It may seem 'obvious', and yet...
... I've always thought, from a very young age, 'The Guitar Man' by Bread has a guitar solo that was something quite exceptional. It's musical, it builds, it serves the bittersweet spirit of the song, it feels epic and yet it's probably amazingly short (this is from memory - I haven't timed it!), like all David Gates' micro-symphonies. And.... on the record it was played by THE KEYBOARD PLAYER. I saw Bread on their all too brief reunion tour - since when, alas, only David Gates and said keyboard player, Larry Knechtal, are now alive - and the otherwise brilliant James Griffin played the solo. But it wasn't quite the same...
good call
Guitar Man is a magical record. Larry Knechtel is no longer with us though, he died last August.
Funkadelic: Maggot Brain
Love it
Just goes on and on way longer than you expect, doesn't it?
Great thread!
I love every one of the solos above! David Gates and the Carpenters are both those kind of easy listening "soft" acts that have miles of depth when it comes to song arrangements and guitar solos.
I'm sure David Gates is due a critical reappraisal at some point...
Anyway, I have my very favourite guitar solo in mind here, one of those ones that makes you feel 100 feet tall when you hear it. Give me a minute to see if it's on youtube...
Here it is...
They don't make em like this anymore: 9 and a half minutes of pure prog action, with (quite possibly) the greatest guitar solo ever just jumping out of nowhere in the last minute...
Take a bow, Mr Howe..
This one comes to mind
Fascinatingly...
When I moved to North America in the early 90's nobody I met knew this version,(which was the only one I knew) they were all "Seals & Crofts"
Who the funk are Seals & Crofts said I?, I still prefer the Isley's by a country mile.
And from the very same album...
"That Lady" has another stunning Ernie Isley solo.
That for some reason I'm unable to embed at the moment...
very fine
but, the solo at the end of Summer Breeze is even bettter!
Concise, taught and utterly necessary
And it leaves you wanting more...
Mr. Nelson enters at 3:30
Phenomenal
Prince is such a great guitar player. Love the way he just chucks the guitar and struts off at the end.
That
is what you want
I was thoroughly enjoying that until The Midget™ turned up...
he was just showing off as far as I'm concerned. The others totally captured the spirit of the song and then he went off on a widdly fest which was neither necessary nor welcome. If I were Tom Petty I'd have given him a punt up the posterior.
Oh I disagree sir.
If only the others would have just stopped singing and let the little guy get on with it. That was The Prince Show. The others were just lucky to be there.
Gotta give the guy credit Patrick
You may not like his persona, but he is a great guitar player. That wasn't just fancy noodling. There was some inspired phrasing in there with each note picked out cleanly.
He is a very good guitarist, granted...
but I don't think he played with as much restraint as that performance required. I saw him at the end of the 1980s and was seriously impressed by his playing, but it's different when you're playing your own songs and you can do what you like; While My Guitar Gently Weeps calls for a more subtle approach.
Don't forget this one
You never know where you are with Mike Oldfield. Sounds like a jolly pastoral knees-up? Bit like the Blue Peter theme tune or something? And then you get to 1:28... LET IT RIP!
Ah that felt good. Mike, you complete me.
Sorry to state the obvious, but
Taxman solo
One of my favourite moments on the Love album is the seamless insertion of McCartney's solo from Taxman into Drive My Car.
Solos you need to see
Wilco is playing at the opening of the 2010 Olympics on Feb 13, 2010.It is a free outdoor concert- Nels' guitar is smokin after this
and
I wonder if everybody knew what was coming at 3:30
oy , over to the humble professor for a few more:
and what is a friday night Saturday morning without the stones
http://www.youtube.com/user/therollingstones?blend=1&ob=4&rclk=cth#p/f/2...
You can't beat the original
Terrible video, but a great moment!
The second solo at 3.34 is one of THE great guitar moments.
Mmmm
nice
One Note.
Amos Garrett's solo on 'Midnight at the Oasis'...
is extraordinary... it's completely out there but it works perfectly.
Barbra
Student party, 1980, some bastard puts on that vile album with Barbra Streisand and Barry Gibb....the song is the typical shlocky power ballad that I loath - then at 3.19 an absolutely stonking guitar solo flies in, and the soloist (a studio player called Pete Carr - who says session players are no good) even has the sense to not go for the high screaming bend at 3.48 but instead a "let down" bend as the chords break....total class. So I had to buy the single, and in the end I like the song too, shlocky overblown thing that it is. Ending is unforgivably dreadful though - mind you it was the 80s. And the Gibbs.
if you want soar, here's some Gary Moore soloing
Azeem
come on down!
my vote for sheer
my vote for sheer effortlessness - the music seems to simply flow through toshy - no showboating or grandstanding just sheer magic and unexpected in reggae
remember buying this and thinking the guitar/arrangement on this was very chicagoesque and totally unexpected (see traffic i my mind also)
Not unexpected..
but you need to have heard this one of many, many great soli from Frank Zappa:
Enjoy.
Unexpected Solos
The guitar on the end of this has always been one of my favourites:
And I do like this one:
And this is the top of the list for me:
If you think YOU risk ostracism
check THIS out:
I know, I know - deeply uncool. And I usually hate guitar solos. HATE 'em. But this is like using an instrument as a voice - emotional rather than flashy. Beautiful. If you can get beyond the 80s rolled-up sleeves/mullet combo, of course.
The Mighty Tull
Martin Barre, one of our finest guitarists, on fire at 3.46. Control, structure, flash, melody - it's all here.
No presure either.
If there was a competition
for the longest serving, most unsung hero in music - Martin Lancelot Barre would win hands down.
Here's a corker.
This Feeling by Sam Brown from the album Stop!
Short but absolute ripsnorter of a solo kicks in at 1:45 and if you can't guess the guitarist from the opening bend, you lose points.
I ♥ Sam Brown
Two great pop albums (and others less accessible but worthy), a fabulous voice, sense of humour, excellent "black book" of contacts, what's not to like?
And is there another guitarist as distinctive as the guest on this? A question for a new thread, I think.
has no-one mentioned
this unexpected gem
The owner of the Bada Bing club...
...could play a bit.
Two more
Love the way May barges in at 2.02 and then becomes part of the track.
This still sounds great - especially at 6.29 when the softness gives way to Butler's finest moments
Mr David Bowie
with a great Fripp solo too.
Where you don't expect...
If it's about solos that are unexpectedly brilliant that this has to take it for me. Not because Tilbrook isn't routinely great (which he is - several other solos of his come close), but because you just don't see it coming.
Brief but perfectly in sync with the song, it's great because it adds to the track, it isn't just high speed noodling to fill the gap. technically it's brilliant as well but you don't notice it at first.
Pat Metheny on Joni's Shadows and Light
His solo at the end of 'Amelia' is sublime.
If anyone can find a clip please upload. The only one I could see on Youtube appears to be blocked.
Heard the song
so many times - it's become like a kind of aural wallpaper - but Jim Cregan's acoustic solo on "Make me Smile" by Cockney Rebel is a thing of deep beauty - and all the more remarkable if the story that it's just a warm-up piece that was taped and added later - is to be believed.
I've always loved this
not the most showy or musically proficient solo, but I love it so. From 3.10
Steve Stevens jazz-hands...
Okay, this might not sit well with the Word massive, but, hey, it transcends for me: Steve Stevens solo on Billy Idol's Man For All Seasons. Not the greatest song in the world, but Stevens pulls a real leftfield solo out of the bag. Apparently it was the thing they fell out over, Idol thinking it wasn't heavy enough - resulting in Stevens buggering off for a number of years - but I think he was wrong; this is inspired, cross-genre stuff...
This is perfect
I remember seeing this at the time. Perfect song. Perfect band. Great look (not that I normally care less about the look) then at the end, a guitar solo whose perfect construction is matched only by its difficulty and the slightly embarassed look on Mike Campbell's face as he peels off those notes. Magnificent.
I get up...
This is nice. Roddy starts off all nu-country and quaaludes on this Van Halen cover, sticks with it for three minutes or so, then gets bored just before what you think is going to be the fade. He then spazzes out until he has a seizure. Try it; you will popcum...