Guitar solos
This is a list of some really good rock guitar solos.
I will not do a "top whatever-number" list because I would probably change my mind sooner or later, and I have not heard every guitar solo ever. Also, this gives anyone who wants to offer some words about great guitar solos a chance to do so without having to argue about which song should be booted from the list. There are many reasons for making this list of great guitar solos, but the single most important one is this: I . . . am . . . bored.
So, here are a few of my favorite rock 'n' roll guitar solos (in no order other than coming to my mind):
Aerosmith (and if you know me, you knew they'd be first): Crying
The solo starts at the end of a harmonica solo with a lick that rocks you right to your soul and then Perry plays behind Tyler's vocals after rocking it out while the drummer "falls off the ladder" as they say. Aerosmith is just a band that fills you up right, know what i mean? It was hard to decide on just one from Joe Perry, but that one lick never fails to hit me just right. The problem is the radio always fades the song out as the harmonica ends, and that pisses me off.
Guns 'n' Roses: November Rain.
Again, this was tough to call. Slash always rocks, but in this song, he plays two rockin' solos. So you can pick either one.
For that matter, dang near any solo Joe Perry or Slash ever played. Those guys are sick.
Boston: Foreplay
Don't know the guitarist's name, but that solo is good.
Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody
I realize that most of that solo being so great is the fact that it is probably exactly how Freddy Mercury told Brian May how to play it, but it all goes so smoothly from the one style into the other, sounds really good and is really hard. Props.
Every guitar solo on Weezer's "Green Album."
Okay, there is not a single impressive solo on the entire album, and that is part of the genius. Each and every song on that album follows the same structure. 1)verse 2)chorus 3)verse 4)chorus 5)guitar solo that is simply the melody from the verses 6)chorus 7)finish (and most of the time, the finish is simply a chord. Every song is the same. It probably took Rivers Cuomo all of ten minutes to write the entire album! But they needed some poppy crap like that to get recognized again. They had been on hiatus for years and a lot of people didn't like "Pinkerton." Man, how much can I ramble about Weezer before it just gets monotonous?
Are you seriously still reading this?
Led Zepplin: The Ocean
It's totally more than just the guitar solo here. It's the band solo. The entire band plays off of each other so well that it makes a sound powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline, to quote a favorite movie of mine.
Allman Brothers: Jessica
I shouldn't have to defend that. This is, as popularity goes, the greatest pure jam song of all time. It's smooth, melodic, impressive and it keeps on going when you think it's about to end and you're sitting there going "NO NO NO, DON'T STOP PLAYING NOW! THIS SONG IS TOO AWESOME TO END!!!!" Cool. (I also get a bit of delight each time I hear that slight mistake from the piano player. Not because I'm glad he messed up, but because it proves that they're humans playing that music.)
That'll do. Thanks for reading this much if you did. I appreciate it.
I will not do a "top whatever-number" list because I would probably change my mind sooner or later, and I have not heard every guitar solo ever. Also, this gives anyone who wants to offer some words about great guitar solos a chance to do so without having to argue about which song should be booted from the list. There are many reasons for making this list of great guitar solos, but the single most important one is this: I . . . am . . . bored.
So, here are a few of my favorite rock 'n' roll guitar solos (in no order other than coming to my mind):
Aerosmith (and if you know me, you knew they'd be first): Crying
The solo starts at the end of a harmonica solo with a lick that rocks you right to your soul and then Perry plays behind Tyler's vocals after rocking it out while the drummer "falls off the ladder" as they say. Aerosmith is just a band that fills you up right, know what i mean? It was hard to decide on just one from Joe Perry, but that one lick never fails to hit me just right. The problem is the radio always fades the song out as the harmonica ends, and that pisses me off.
Guns 'n' Roses: November Rain.
Again, this was tough to call. Slash always rocks, but in this song, he plays two rockin' solos. So you can pick either one.
For that matter, dang near any solo Joe Perry or Slash ever played. Those guys are sick.
Boston: Foreplay
Don't know the guitarist's name, but that solo is good.
Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody
I realize that most of that solo being so great is the fact that it is probably exactly how Freddy Mercury told Brian May how to play it, but it all goes so smoothly from the one style into the other, sounds really good and is really hard. Props.
Every guitar solo on Weezer's "Green Album."
Okay, there is not a single impressive solo on the entire album, and that is part of the genius. Each and every song on that album follows the same structure. 1)verse 2)chorus 3)verse 4)chorus 5)guitar solo that is simply the melody from the verses 6)chorus 7)finish (and most of the time, the finish is simply a chord. Every song is the same. It probably took Rivers Cuomo all of ten minutes to write the entire album! But they needed some poppy crap like that to get recognized again. They had been on hiatus for years and a lot of people didn't like "Pinkerton." Man, how much can I ramble about Weezer before it just gets monotonous?
Are you seriously still reading this?
Led Zepplin: The Ocean
It's totally more than just the guitar solo here. It's the band solo. The entire band plays off of each other so well that it makes a sound powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline, to quote a favorite movie of mine.
Allman Brothers: Jessica
I shouldn't have to defend that. This is, as popularity goes, the greatest pure jam song of all time. It's smooth, melodic, impressive and it keeps on going when you think it's about to end and you're sitting there going "NO NO NO, DON'T STOP PLAYING NOW! THIS SONG IS TOO AWESOME TO END!!!!" Cool. (I also get a bit of delight each time I hear that slight mistake from the piano player. Not because I'm glad he messed up, but because it proves that they're humans playing that music.)
That'll do. Thanks for reading this much if you did. I appreciate it.