Sorry to piss on your chips Jim, but I absolutely loathe Maggot Brain. I made the mistake of playing it on the radio once - mainly because it was Funkadelic, and I knew I was "supposed" to like it. Subsequent attempts didn't change my mind. Then just a couple of weeks ago, in the Salisbury on Green Lanes (great pub with an excellent jukebox - mostly!), I heard a ghastly squall of guitar wankery, and had such a visceral reaction to it that I was forced to go and find out what it was. Can you guess?

So, to leave on a more positive note: my favourite guitar solo might just be that time-worn warhorse, Paul Kossoff on Free's All Right Now. Dramatic, sparse, soulful, nothing wasted. Couldn't be improved, nor indeed equalled: Mike Oldfield did an atrocious cover in the 80s, and reproduced the solo note for note, yet missed the point by a country mile.

And yes, I believe it is the best guitar solo ever. Apparently George Clinton and guitarist Eddie Hazel took industrial quantites of LSD and George told Eddie to imagine that his mother had just died before flicking the record switch and letting him loose.

While "Maggot Brain" does boast an impressive slab of fret-wankery, I think that Steve Hackett's spine-tingling solo from "Firth of Fifth" by Genesis must also be considered a viable contestant for best guitar solo ever.

See also: Robert Fripp's two-note solo on "Starless"

...that the best guitar solo ever is on Long-Distance Love by Little Feat

Grady Martin's guitar playing on this is pretty outstanding.

... but the end of Red Hot Mama has some blooming marvelous guitar soloing. I get awfully jumpy when that plays...

... Tony Peluso's fuzz-guitar on The Carpenters' "Goodbye To Love" is the one for me...

starts at 3:00 so you don't have to suffer it all and please ignore the fannies waving their arms and flapping their hands about

thank you

for the Richard Thompson fan club to weigh in.
Nobody home?

You have to go a long way to beat the solo on the live version of Sultyans of Swing on Alchemy

although not cool, are bloody great.

I've always loved the guitar "solo" that he did at the end of Joan Armtrading's "The Shouting Stage" - its up there with some of his best Dire Straits work.

I always thought the guitar solo from "Another Brick In The Wall" was perfectly formed.
Comes in beautifully and doesn't out stay it's welcome.

Tightrope. On this, SRV mastered the technique of making you wait just a nano second longer than expected for the first note of the solo to actually come in, thereby raising the musical "tension", and creating an almost religious moment of "release" when you hear it. It's like you think he's forgotten to come in. But he hasn't. Brilliant.

..straight to you through the holes in your string vest. (Solo starts about 1.03)

Starts at 1.26 but the whole thing will take you less than 3 minutes. This also gets my vote for one of the best guitar riffs, lyrics and vocal performance. The drumming is pretty neat too.

In an attempt to uphold The Word blog law that no thread must pass 30 posts without mention of the Fab Four...

Shoot out the lights live is the best example. He gets more out of his guitar than you would think possible and the live solos are trancendental.
Agree with the comments about the Carpenters Goodbye to love and Mark Knopfler has come up with some beauties too - I particularly like Speedway at Nazareth which is economical but well constructed. Further back in time I was mesmerised by the Ritchie Blackmore solo on Child in Time.

Were the Punk Wars fought for nothing?

What next - the merits of the drum solo? Toad or Moby Dick?

Anyway - Johnny Ramone's 10 second solo in Blitzkreig Bop is the best. Gabba Gabba Hey!

Was Strummer taking the piss when singing You're My Guitar Hero! to Mick in Complete Control?

I tend to switch off if they go on for longer than eleven minutes.
Hence my appreciation of all things Squeeze and (at about 2mins 50)
this ....

The lovely bit in Aqualung by Jethro Tull. Sorry.

I sat here and soaked that up, not having heard it for aeons. If you enjoy that as much as I did, can I urge you to check out Spirit's "Spirit of '76" album, specifically the track "Like A Rolling Stone", which is a monumentally fantastic version of the Dylan song, phased to high heaven, full of fret thrashing, dreamy whispered vocals and is cosmic as f*ck.

3+3

That Lady. 02:24 onwards.

....at 3.31 as Prince Rogers Nelson spanks the plank and totally transforms an adequate superstar jam. Maybe not the best ever but transcendent..

Normally AC/DC knock your socks off, biff biff bang. From the blues-iest, best (just ask the Youngs) Powerage, Gone Shootin'

Also, November Rain is brilliant - overblown, but brilliant?

Fred Tackett's guitar solo during Brenda Russell's In The Thick Of It is just beyond perfection.

Regrettably the audio quality on this youtube clip doesn't really do it full justice.

So use this mp3 file instead. Big speakers and huge amps preferred.

is interesting - and rather great at times.

I like Earl Slick's work on Bowie's 'Station to Station album a lot. He gets into the groove nicely on 'Stay'. Here's a live version from not too long ago. Best bit probably around 4:40:

Then for really raw, driving rocking out you can't beat Keith's work on 'Bitch'. Around 2 minutes in he takes off, but it's not a long clip:

Numerous examples. Concise on studio releases, rambling live, usually unpredictable, often astonishing.

Thin Lizzy "Waiting For An Alibi".
Scott Gorham, possibly one of the most underrated guitar players, and Gary Moore combining for a killer harmonised solo. Its like a song in itself. Also check out the harmonised guitar tag closing out the song. Always great solos on TL records.

Bang. On. The. Money.

Rory played many fantastic solos but none finer than this one. There's a typically twisting turning nimble ye olde unplayable solo at 1.16, but the one at 4.04 is a total master class of dynamics, muting, pinched harmonics, swells, violining, wah wah, chicken picking, octaves and controlled feedback. All done without any effects pedals whatsoever, and it never repeats itself or gets boring. An absolute masterclass in handling a Stratocaster.

I'd like to see some bloke on YouTube replicate this one!

Not my favourite solo of all time but crikey he's good.

Playing starts at 2.34 but there's some nice 'Look Around You' style voiceover work prior to that if you're interested.

..You think it's all over, then (ignore clunking edit) Mitch's phased drumming, and some just sublime soloing from Jimi, makes me feel good every time I hear it.

Interesting that someone (looks up) picked "Firth of Forth" by Steve Hackett - I know I'm supposed to think it's his best, but it sounds a bit stilted to me. Much prefer "Musical Box".

Straight in at #1 would be David Gilmour's understated solo in "Mother". Nothing wasted.

(Honorable mention to the acoustic parts of "Tommy" especially around the "Captain Walker" bits...Overture?)

My favourite Richard Thompson solo...hmm...the DADGAD frenzy on Fairport's Nottamun Town? The fiendishly difficult harmonics on "Shoot Out the Lights"? Some of the stuff he tosses off on stage, tough call, there's usually something worth hearing.

If what we are about here is all things Planet Rock, and the bedrock of Planet Rock is rock 'n roll, then there's really only one guitar player we need to consider: James Burton.

Here he is, as a 19-year-old old timer, playing "Believe What You Say" with Ricky Nelson (solo at 0:42), followed by him playing the same song nearly 50 years later with Nelson's sons, Matthew and Gunnar. The present-day solo (at 2:50) is nothing extraordinary for Burton (he's just playing a succession of his boilerplate licks really), yet it manages to distil the whole essence - indeed, most of the history - of rock guitar into 20 seconds.

This is the one, at 0.48

(Incidentally, I also found a live/dubbed performance of this on You-tube, which demolished my fond memory of seeing the Albertos perform Snuff Rock at the Royal Court Theatre, as this clip shows how hideously sub monty python they could be, with the singer more Idle (not Idol; Eric) than Rotten.)

Tasteful. Considered. Short.

On second thoughts, it's not that short, but I've been listening to Frank and Dweezil Zappa's fret-a-thon on Sharleena, which clocks in at 15 mins (or so it seems). So it's all relative...

i give you 'watermelon in easter hay'

... I would like to nominate Neil Young for Cortez the Killer.
Thank you.

Off of Eno's "Here come the warm jets". Robert Fripp is the culprit, obviously, although Paul Rudolph is also credited with guitar on this track.

It always sounds to me like he's wrestling frantically with his guitar, which has gone haywire, and by the end of it, it's compeletely out of control and he's actually struggling to make it stop playing.

I'll get me coat.

I think Peg by Steely Day is an awesome solo, particularly as its by someone who as far as I know never featured on any other Dan track. I think Jay Graydon was MD for Manhattan Transfer but I've never heard any other example of his work. His solo on Peg is short, and admirably controlled

My fave RT solo is from The Sea Captain on Sandy Denny's The North Star Grassman and the Ravens. No real flash, it settles for being just gorgeous

I'd go for Reeling in the Years. Is that Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, the now famous White House missile defense consultant?

Pretty much the whole of Another Girl, but the guitar solo isn't half bad.

Jimmy Page's outrageous solo on 'Since I've been Loving You', for my money the best Led Zep track of the lot. Coming up a close second it's tie between Skunk Baxter on Steely Dan's 'Changing of the Guard' and his beautiful, deft, slightly jazzy blast on 'Rikki Don't Lose That Number'. You don't get the likes of that on Guitar Hero II or whatever it is.

So many wonderful solos/players, but in terms of feeling, control and conciseness, for me it has to be DL's solo on Jackson Browne's 'Late for the Sky'.

I could never get that sound, mind you he was playing some Doc Kauffman-enhanced Gibson body with a Fender neck so there you go.