I don’t even know if any bands still do this. A guitar solo at the end of a song that keeps going as the song fades out, no actual end to the song. When I think of this two Steely Dan songs immediately come to mind for me. In both cases I wish I could have heard what was going on after the music faded.
Kid Charlemagne: Steely Dan. Guitar solo by Larry Carleton
My Old School: Steely Dan. Guitar solo by Jeff “Skunk” Baxter
I think it will be hard to top those but give it a shot.
I’ve always liked the ending of Mainline Florida with Eric wah-wahing away.
Boston’s More Than a Feeling keeps going through my head, but I guess that it technically doesn’t end on a ‘solo’.
God, this might sound cheesy and will definitely date me, but the first song that came up when I read the thread title was Running With the Night by Lionel Richie. I don’t know who did the guitar work on that song, but to my 16 yo ears, they had far better chops than one would expect from, you know, Lionel Richie music.
Black by Pearl Jam.
The ones I thought of were “Rainmaker” by Traffic and "The Battle of Glass Tears"by King Crimson (although the guitar has settled down somewhat by the end of the latter).
Hotel California.
Comfortably Numb
Sultans of Swing; when the song ends, it sounds like Knopfler is just getting warmed up.
(That’s for the original version, anyway. There are online performances with a long instrumental coda, and a proper ending.)
On Ryuichi Sakamoto’s album The Thousand Knives of… the track The End of Asia features an amazing guitar solo by Kazumi Watanabe. It’s not exactly a fade-out, as the song cross-fades into another song, but the guitar doesn’t show up until 4:30.
I think the best fade-out solo is Mike Campbell’s in “Runnin’ Down a Dream” by Tom Petty.
Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac
Gypsy by Fleetwood Mac. Solo starts at 3:42.
I always wanted to hear the rest of ‘Siberian Khatru’ by Yes, from the album ‘Close to the Edge’. It sounded like Steve Howe had lots more to say…
“Crosseyed and Painless” - Talking Heads
Yes. YES. **YES!
**
Yes, that’s what I was thinking of when I opened this thread.
As a soloist, Pete isn’t in the same league as some of the players mentioned, but he does some nice work at the end of The Who’s It’s Not Enough.
“Loan Me A Dime” Boz Scaggs (Duane Allman playing the solo).
I won’t say it’s the best guitar solo outro per se, but this is a great overall outro with guitar, bass, and strings.
Red Hot Chili Peppers: Sir Psycho Sexy
It starts at 5:37. It’s just a beautiful ending to the record (I don’t count “They’re Red Hot,” since I think it’s basically a throwaway track) and so different to most of what’s come from the previous 60+ minutes.