If a Beatle’s solo, why not “I Feel Fine”?
Where is Blue Oyster Cult - Maybe ETI?
Of course, it goes without saying that Mark Knopfler could be on here a dozen times…
This. Compare and contrast with Vai’s Peter North impersonation during the last two and a half minutes of the P.I.L. song ease.
Why should someone who can play both necks of a harp guitar (well) get any credit. This wasn’t a guitar solo list, it was a generic music list. Usually these have “some” sense of grouping but this could have been made by other world aliens based on radio wave interceptions.
That is a great one for sure.
No “Reelin’ in the Years”, by Steely Dan? Elliott Randall did some nice work on that song.
Bonus Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter in the clip.
I should have said I think that’s Denny Dias with Baxter in the clip I provided. Randall wouldn’t join the band, and I guess didn’t he didn’t perform for the show. I don’t know if he ever performed live with them, but he was on the album.
Uh, #20.
I agree that lists like these are often dumb and also have glaring omissions, but there are some really great solos on this list. There’s solos for their own sake, displaying technical proficiency, like Eruption, and then there are ones that either showcase a combination of technical skill/emotion as a part of an actual song structure or that just really work within the melody of a song.
I think, for instance, that Stairway’s spot on this and any other list is pretty damn deserving, as overplayed as it may be. Its a gorgeous solo, perfect for the song, it’s structure, its climax/conclusion. Freebird, too for that matter.
Your observations make sense. Two points:
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Eruption, while technical, is all about his delivery. How many technical displays leave you flat? Most - that’s why shredding gets a bad rap; it’s hard to find the good ones. Eddie has a sense of urgency and out-of-control-ness (without ever really losing control) to his playing that transcends the merely technical. So - not disagreeing, but wanting to point out that there’s even more to his work…
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Okay, I disagree on one point: Page’s Whole Lotta Love solo after the psychedelic break/bridge is, to me, a superior “statement” solo vs. Stairway. That would be the one I would expect to see on his tombsone, alongside Kashmir as the epic song…
To me, Whole Lotta Love’s solo is more immediate, more crackling with energy and raw than Stairway’s solo, although I like them both equally. Stairway as a song just has a wonderful sense of buildup to it and the solo just is an extension of that tension that continues to build and pretty much the entirety of IV is just a better crafted and produced album than II, although again, I like them equally well.
Whole Lotta Love kind of beats you over the head from the get-go, *Stairway *is a little more subtle. Both great, great songs though.
What I do love about these lists is how it gets people that share a mutual appreciation for music to split hairs so finely!
All good - and yeah, that’s the point I make in the OP: the lists are good for discussion more than anything - the fact that this one veered in to Zappa-land for a while is a great example. Interesting stuff I didn’t know a lot of…
Yeah, it’s not a very consistent list. Some of them (“Sweet Child” and, for some, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”) are perhaps mediocre songs with an undeniably great solo dropped in the middle. But others, like “Layla” don’t even have something you could pick out as a ‘solo’ (well without going back and checking, maybe there is a solo break somewhere in Layla, but if so, clearly it’s pretty forgettable. And certainly worse than at least two others on the same album (“Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” and “Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad” if you stretch ‘solo’ to include ‘instrumental break with multiple parts’)).
Anway, my Egregious Omission nomination is “The Thrill is Gone” (B.B. King), in the It’s Only A Couple Notes, But They’re The RIGHT Notes category.
How could Gibson leave out Tony Iommi?!
There seems to be a “Classic Rock Radio” theme and it’s a reader’s poll list, so I wouldn’t read much into it. Although, I believe I have been asked by many students to teach them how to play almost all of these songs/solos.
Maybe a better question might be how many on the list actually play Gibson guitars?
I don’t think much of that list. Like it’s already been said, it’s too limited. It completely ignores all the other types of music, from all other time periods out there.
While Gibson can shill pretty heavily at times, they needn’t work too hard - the list is naturally populated with work on Gibsons from top to bottom. Along with Fender for electric work, they are Ground Zero. I own four and wish it was more.
Because riffs aren’t solos?
Anyway, I think that its funny (in a sad way) that they couldn’t even throw a bone to Les Paul somewhere in there on an otherwise slanted list.
That, “My Old School,” and “Bodhisattva.” And Larry Carlton did some nice work for them too.
I had never heard of this so I finally found it on YouTube and gave it a listen.
I must have found the wrong thing, or you forgot to add the little winky face. :dubious:
Did you find the 10-minute album version (which has a longass guitar solo at the end) or just the shortened single?
I’m a little bummed that Steve Hackett didn’t make it in there somewhere.