# Great songs ruined by terrible solos **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 19, 2008, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833 "2008-05-19T12:54:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/21 "2008-05-19T20:05:59Z")
**Simply Irresistable** , by Robert Palmer, although I don’t mind it too much. I think he was making it deliberately ‘crazy’ to indicate how screwed up the woman was making his mind. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/22 "2008-05-19T20:28:53Z")
On the other hand, there are terrible solos that _enhance_ a song. Namely, the guitar solo on the Bonzo Dog Band’s _Canyons Of Your Mind_ (by Neil Innes, I think). It must rank as the absolute worst guitar solo every recorded. Wonderful. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/23 "2008-05-19T20:35:46Z")
[QUOTE=WordMan] Does that spark your memory? 😃 [/QUOTE] Ah, now I remember. But I never tire of hearing it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TheBoltEater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@TheBoltEater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheBoltEater)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/24 "2008-05-20T02:59:12Z")
[QUOTE=Mister Rik] So I’m not the only one who thinks Janick Gers sounds (and _looks_) completely out of place in Iron Maiden? [/QUOTE] Well it wouldn’t have been very nice of them to boot him out when Adrian Smith came back… though maybe they should have anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/25 "2008-05-20T11:32:52Z")
[QUOTE=GargoyleWB] I’ve mentioned it before in similar threads, but **Rage Against the Machine** “Killing in the Name” is the most dreadfully disjointed out of place solo I’ve ever heard. I’ve heard kindergarteners using chalkboards for their first time create better sounds. [/QUOTE] He’s done far worse. Tom Morello has come up with a lot of great riffs and he can make some interesting sounds, but he can’t combine those things to come up with a half-decent solo. He just plays distorted scales that aren’t connected to the song and you just sort of wait for it to end. ---
**Author:** ![PharmBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@PharmBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PharmBoy)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/26 "2008-05-20T14:36:33Z")
[QUOTE=WordMan] My pleasure 😃 The scene: a top recording studio in London in the early 80’s. My buddy is getting one of his first big engineering assignments - Asia’s second album. His job? Setting up and doing the engineering prep for the legendary Carl Palmer, drummer for ELP, Asia, etc. My friend showed up for work hours early and used all of that time tuning Carl’s kit, placing mic’s, checking all the effects associated with each mic - you name it. And since Carl has a kit the size of, well, a huge freakin’ drum kit, my friend had to crawl underneath a few rack toms to get in and out, so this was a physical, hectic, stressful situation for our first-time engineer. But it was worth it because he was doing it for the legendary Carl Palmer. After all this, the Producer (my buddy’s boss on the project) comes in, sees all the excruciating work my friend has done on this, his first job, and kind of snickers to himself, but at the time my buddy doesn’t put 2 + 2 together. They both remain up in the control booth, finalizing settings for that day’s recording. Later, the legendary Carl Palmer comes in, blithely gets behind the kit (not sure how he did it blithely, but my friend assures me he looked smooth), picks up the sticks and…proceeds to rip off a drum fill that sounds like a cat falling into a stack of cookware. My friend looks up at his Producer, who says something along the lines of “well, that pretty much shatters your fantasies, don’it?” Apparently it was common knowledge that Carl couldn’t keep proper time and was all about the fills – which couldn’t sound great if you can’t keep time!- nice time to tell my friend! Weeks later in the session, my buddy was playing the kit to check a mic set-up he had changed and Geoff Downes and Steve Howe both came in and tried offer my buddy the job playing drums since they found Palmer’s timekeeping so bad. I doubt they were serious, but it was a way to get under the legendary Carl Palmer’s skin - and there was so much infighting that they couldn’t pass up the chance… Does that spark your memory? 😃 [/QUOTE] Just goes to show you: no musical talent needed in the rock n roll biz. It was true then and it’s true now… ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/27 "2008-05-20T15:53:57Z")
[QUOTE=cher3] The flute solo in _California Dreamin’_ always sounds way out of tune to me. [/QUOTE] That solo puzzled me for years. I also play flute, and while I could usually pick up various solos by ear, I couldn’t manage to get this one. Then I found out that the Mamas and the Papas used an alto flute (played by Bud Shank), and I realized I wasn’t going to get that sound with a C flute. I stopped trying, but it would have been an interesting exercise to try to create something similar on my C flute–the solo might not sound so out of tune then. > [@GargoyleWB](#): > > I’ll also vote for Moody Blues “Nights in White Satin” flute(?) solo. It isn’t necessarily written badly, but is poorly produced and performed, the audio level seems way out of whack. Yes, it is a flute solo. For the most part, it’s not difficult to play, though there are a couple of tricky spots. (I may be biased on the “not hard to play” part; I’ve played it hundreds of times so I may not be an impartial source.) But because it’s not that hard to play, I’d suggest the problem you have is with the production–certainly, when I played it with a friend’s band in public, trying to get the levels just right was a bit of a challenge. You can continue to dislike the solo, but maybe my comments will help you get a handle on why. As for a response to the OP, I’d suggest Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “Roll On Down the Highway.” Most good solos should show off some musical and technical skill; simply plucking the same note (a single guitar string) in different rhythms shouldn’t count as a solo. ---
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/28 "2008-05-20T17:25:10Z")
Pat Benatar did a cover of [Wuthering Heights](http://youtube.com/watch?v=KO5L2p-r1HQ) where she interpreted Kate Bush from the overscreeching original to a decently emotive ballad-then about 2.5 minutes in, someone dropped in the ‘generic 80’s power guitar solo’ and the song crashes into the floor like a wet fart. ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/29 "2008-05-20T18:09:24Z")
Forgive me, but most of The Beatles’ early stuff had dire guitar solos, **All My Loving** being a case in point. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/30 "2008-05-20T18:11:17Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] He’s done far worse. Tom Morello has come up with a lot of great riffs and he can make some interesting sounds, but he can’t combine those things to come up with a half-decent solo. He just plays distorted scales that aren’t connected to the song and you just sort of wait for it to end. [/QUOTE] You know what- I finally remembered how the Killing in the Name solo goes, and it’s actually one of his better efforts in my opinion, along with Take the Power back. Those two are about average, many of his others fall way short of that bar. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/31 "2008-05-20T18:50:18Z")
How about _Green Grass and High Tides_ with about 12 solos (and I’m not exaggerating, I play it in Rock Band.) Good song but goes on way too long. Those guys had to be on drugs to play it in a concert. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/32 "2008-05-20T18:54:35Z")
[QUOTE=control-z] How about _Green Grass and High Tides_ with about 12 solos (and I’m not exaggerating, I play it in Rock Band.) Good song but goes on way too long. Those guys had to be on drugs to play it in a concert. [/QUOTE] First time I tried to play it on Bass at Medium, halfway through the solo I just dropped the controller and said, “what the @!#$???”. I didn’t fail us out though, it was a mutual fail as everyone, even those who could play other songs on hard, failed. But yeah, the end solo went on too far for such mediocrity. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/33 "2008-05-20T19:13:59Z")
Every single song by Phish? ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/34 "2008-05-20T19:34:33Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] Every single song by Phish? [/QUOTE] No Phish song is a great song to begin with. The endless solos just make them even more annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/35 "2008-05-20T19:48:34Z")
OK, point taken. ---
**Author:** ![Ghanima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/36 "2008-05-20T20:14:22Z")
Most of Janis Joplin’s stuff with Big Brother, etc. is unfortunately marred by the band’s major suckitude, so I’d say any early Joplin songs with solos qualify. Big Brother SUCKED. The Kozmic Blues Band was only marginally better. Sadly, she didn’t get a decent band until near the end when her voice was pretty much shot. ---
**Author:** ![Bi-Polar\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c4cdca/32.png) [@Bi-Polar\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bi-Polar_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/37 "2008-05-23T05:07:29Z")
**Anything** involving Yoko Ono in any capacity whatsoever ---
**Author:** ![Ducktail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/43a26b/32.png) [@Ducktail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ducktail)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/38 "2008-05-23T05:41:06Z")
[QUOTE=kelly5078] I like the organ solo in “Light My Fire,” and I also like the guitar solo in “Free Bird.” What I don’t like is the intermnable bullshit ending to “Layla” and the shorter, but still way the hell too long, ending to “Baba O’Reilly.” [/QUOTE] Heh, I’ve been known to fast forward all the rest of Baba O’Reilly to _get_ to the solo. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/39 "2008-05-23T06:40:31Z")
If a spoken-word part counts as a solo, Elvis’s _Are You Lonesome Tonight?_ is one of several that come to mind. ---
**Author:** ![buns3000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c89c15/32.png) [@buns3000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buns3000)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/40 "2008-05-23T08:54:31Z")
[QUOTE=WordMan] There are many and if I ever find time I will try to come up with more (very busy work week this week; lots of travel). The first song that comes to mind wasn’t ruined, per se, but the lead took a great song and dumbed it down to cliche for the length of the solo: **Enter Sandman by Metallica**. Kirk Hammett is a decent lead player in many cases, but this just blows - it is a set of strung-together licks that have no coherence and their basic feel is completely different vs. the menace of the song. And towards the very end when he does a little triplet pattern that almost sounds like it has a wah on it? Argh - I think it sounds awful; like a boogie break - who needs boogie in a song about nightmares? I really wish they’d tried a completely different approach… [/QUOTE] I endorse your nomination. Just imagine what the reject takes sounded like. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833.md?page=3)