# 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:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/41 "2008-05-23T09:15:25Z")
[QUOTE=dalej42] No Phish song is a great song to begin with. The endless solos just make them even more annoying. [/QUOTE] duh-- you’re not supposed to listen to them sober 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/42 "2008-05-23T13:44:07Z")
[QUOTE=seosamh] Forgive me, but most of The Beatles’ early stuff had dire guitar solos, **All My Loving** being a case in point. [/QUOTE] Agreed - listen to the solo on “The Night Before” (starts at 1:30) [Link](http://youtube.com/watch?v=xCGYBBHtMZc) ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_Clock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Shot\_Clock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_Clock)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/43 "2008-05-23T14:46:07Z")
[QUOTE=seosamh] Forgive me, but most of The Beatles’ early stuff had dire guitar solos, **All My Loving** being a case in point. [/QUOTE] Add the solo in **Can’t By Me Love** to that list. George Harrison became a great guitar player the day he decided to start playing like George Harrison and stopped playing like Chet Atkins. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/44 "2008-05-23T15:25:12Z")
Chet Atkins? I think it was Carl Perkins… anyway it’s surprising, considering all the musical taste in the group (John, Paul, George Martin), that such atrocities occurred. I guess at the time rockabilly was on a pedestal (Perkins, Elvis, Buddy Holly). ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/45 "2008-05-24T14:12:46Z")
Deep Purple’s lead guitarist was just incompetent. The guitar solo in “Hush” hurts to listen to. They had a great rhythm section and wrote great music, but … good god, that guitarist sucked. ---
**Author:** ![DfrntBreign](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@DfrntBreign](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DfrntBreign)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/46 "2008-05-24T14:39:25Z")
[QUOTE=Evil Captor] Deep Purple’s lead guitarist was just incompetent. The guitar solo in “Hush” hurts to listen to. They had a great rhythm section and wrote great music, but … good god, that guitarist sucked. [/QUOTE] [Which one?](http://youtube.com/watch?v=eaOlw7r2-Q0)😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/47 "2008-05-24T17:28:44Z")
[QUOTE=DfrntBreign] [Which one?](http://youtube.com/watch?v=eaOlw7r2-Q0)😃 [/QUOTE] What the?! Where did the black guitarist come from? No sign of him, then all of a sudden there he was. Was he even a member of the band, or was he another performer at that “Jazz” fest coming on stage to jam? I think he had the autowah (or whatever effect he was using) turned up way too high, because it was turning all the notes he was apparently playing into a sort of monotone “murblemurf” (to coin a bit of onomatopoeia). ETA: But the bass and drums were tight! ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/48 "2008-05-24T18:10:19Z")
[QUOTE=Evil Captor] Deep Purple’s lead guitarist was just incompetent. The guitar solo in “Hush” hurts to listen to. They had a great rhythm section and wrote great music, but … good god, that guitarist sucked. [/QUOTE] Ritchie Blackmore is an incompetent guitarist? WTF? Have you heard any of the absolutely amazing stuff he’s recorded since then with his own groups? Or is “Hush” one of the songs Deep Purple recorded without Blackmore on the lineup? ---
**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/49 "2008-05-24T19:23:20Z")
_ **Whole Lotta Love** _ ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/50 "2008-05-24T21:50:29Z")
[QUOTE=DfrntBreign] [Which one?](http://youtube.com/watch?v=eaOlw7r2-Q0)😃 [/QUOTE] [This one.](http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ilz5SxrHA3E) IMHO, the guitar solo is just godawful. Painfully bad. ---
**Author:** ![plankter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ba0ec/32.png) [@plankter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plankter)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2008, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/51 "2008-05-25T16:52:58Z")
“Southern Man” is okay if you like Neil Young’s voice and lyrical stylings, until the guitar solo kicks in (and I quote): _twank twanktwank twanktwank twank twanktwank twanktwank twank twanktwank twanktwank_ …on and on, and it’s the **same frelling note**. It’s so bad it undercuts the message of the song for me. [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] Funny, I like the organ ‘solo’ in “Light My Fire” (IIRC John Densmore compared it to the Raga form in Indian music) and the end of “Baba O’Reilly”, but I don’t like “Layla” or “Free Bird”. ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2008, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/52 "2008-05-25T17:26:01Z")
[QUOTE=plankter] “Southern Man” is okay if you like Neil Young’s voice and lyrical stylings, until the guitar solo kicks in (and I quote): _twank twanktwank twanktwank twank twanktwank twanktwank twank twanktwank twanktwank_ …on and on, and it’s the **same frelling note**. It’s so bad it undercuts the message of the song for me.. [/QUOTE] No, no, no - I can’t sit by and not respond to this. The live version on Four Way Street is one of the most sublime pieces of music ever. The guitar duet/battle between Young and Stills is stunning. You can follow it as if you’re reading a story: it’s got twists and turns, it’s galvanising and stimulating. You’re compelled to give it your full attention to follow the narrative. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2008, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/53 "2008-05-25T17:36:31Z")
I thought Black Crowes, touted in some quarters of the music press when their first album was released as the “new Zeppelin”, were totally undermined by a pathetically uninventive guitar soloist. I see from Wikipedia this was originally Jeff Cease, but he was subsequently replaced by Marc Ford (I wonder if the crappy solos were the reason?), but I’ve heard nothing of them since. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/54 "2008-05-26T02:42:32Z")
[QUOTE=Evil Captor] Deep Purple’s lead guitarist was just incompetent. The guitar solo in “Hush” hurts to listen to. They had a great rhythm section and wrote great music, but … good god, that guitarist sucked. [/QUOTE] [Ritchie Blackmore](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritchie_Blackmore) is many things including arrogant and difficult to work with. He is most definitely not incompetent. He is #55 on Rolling Stone’s top 100 Greatest Guitar players of all time. ---
**Author:** ![plankter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ba0ec/32.png) [@plankter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plankter)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/55 "2008-05-26T16:34:09Z")
[QUOTE=NineToTheSky] No, no, no - I can’t sit by and not respond to this. The live version on Four Way Street is one of the most sublime pieces of music ever. The guitar duet/battle between Young and Stills is stunning. You can follow it as if you’re reading a story: it’s got twists and turns, it’s galvanising and stimulating. You’re compelled to give it your full attention to follow the narrative. [/QUOTE] I will take your word for it as I’ve never heard aught but the radio-play version, but I’m glad the live version is an improvement. For the record, I _like_ Young and CSN/CSN&Y. As for my original post I should have said “the same frelling **chord** ”, but the rest stands. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833/56 "2008-05-26T18:23:07Z")
The Clash’s “Prisoner.” Good strong song, and then this amateurish sounding guitar wanking at the end. Actually, I feel that way about a number of Clash songs. But the best answers so far, IMO, Light My Fire and Layla-- I’m not keen on either song, but the wanky solo sections drive me up the damn wall. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-songs-ruined-by-terrible-solos/449833.md?page=2)