Probably lots of major disagreements to come, so I’ll start off with:
The main guitar hook in (Escape) the Pina Colada Song is so weak and tedious - maybe fitting for the putridness of the song.
In an otherwise funky, awesomely kick-butt tune, the passage from 2:03 to 2:28 in Zep’s The Wanton Song is, AFAIK, the low-point in the band’s career. All of the guitar in that passage sounds so derivative, by the numbers, toothless, as though Page was getting bored and completely running out of ideas. The drabbest filler imaginable.
The openings of Thunderstruck and Sweet Child of Mine. A guitarist in one of my bands - whenever he’d first pick up the guitar at practice - always played that SCOM riff, before anything else.
He knew this annoyed me, which of course made me want to kill him.
Did you ever listen closely to Neil Young’s lead solo in “Cinnamon Girl” on the album “Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere”? It gives me a new respect for The Nightcrawlers “The Little Black Egg”.
I shouldn’t comment because I hate almost all solos this side of Mark Knopfler. Growing up in the 80’s this lead me to punk/industrial so I didn’t have to fast forward past them on my cassette deck but does it count if the entire song/album/band is a train-wreck?
Because I have a special hate in my heart for this one in “New Thing” by Enuff Z’Nuff
Can we put the Southern Man solo in there as well? (sure - a few more notes than the Cinnamon Girl solo, perhaps)
And, truth be told, my soft spot for can-do-no-wrong NY gives those not-too-flashy solos the green light for this fan.
Woah there! That’s a simple sounding opening but it is absolute genius in building up the tension. I can understand it might be annoying if someone keeps playing it though.
In his 2016 book Every Song Ever, Ben Ratliff presents his suggestions on how to appreciate music. One chapter, “Repetition,” extols the virtues of just this sort of thing – I think he might even cite the Cinnamon Girl solo specifically.
YMMV, but I get what he’s saying. I’ll take Neil over Yngwe Malmsteen any day of the week.
And The Kingsmens’ Louie Louie, from the lame 1st-year guitar solo, ending with the vocalist coming into early and saying “Me see” and it sounding like “mistake.” Indeed.
I would add, simply as a bad noise, the guitar strum break in R.E.M.'s It’s the End of the World, where Peter Buck is playing a sour, out of tune chord on purpose. I think he liked how it represented decay or something. It just sounds like a garbage disposal to my ear. It’s 3:15 in, after the vocal break: R.E.M. - It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - YouTube
That passage has the same middle-eight change-up chords that are used in other parts of the song, and I am pretty sure the melodic lead work in that timeslot is JPJ on organ. Either way, yeah, I don’t like the distorted jazz chords for that middle eight myself.
As for lame riffs…I nominate any of the several filler songs from the Stones during that 1978-1981 period (Some Girls, Emotional Rescue, Tattoo You) – stuff like “When the Whip Comes Down,” “Lies,” “Where the Boys Go,” and “Neighbors” – just because they’re so disappointing, mixed in with some of the greatest riffs ever (“Beast of Burden,” “Start Me Up,”’“Before They Make Me Run”…).
Oh, and I have to add one more: Kirk Hammett’s lead on Enter Sandman. Lame, lame, lame. He takes a few repetitive licks and strings them together and the climactic bit is a lame overuse of a wah pedal, which is now his signature move.
They’re selling this cool, ominous kid’s room at night vibe, and Hammett fuckin’ dweedles. Lame.
This reminds me somewhat of the awful, dirge-like middle eight of “In the Evening” (from Zep’s last album) – a song with a cool riff, but nothing else good going for it (among other things, some chunky, awkward solo passages from Page).
I’ve tracked that book in interviews but haven’t read it. But if that Repetition list doesn’t include Ministry’s Just One Fix, then it’s not thought-through ;).
Ugh, I’ve always hated this one. For all the love the Kinks get, this solo always struck me as a 16-year-olds first attempt at a solo. It sounds unprepared and nonsensical. Like someone told David Davies to ‘give me a solo’ and he just flailed around for a minute and it stuck.
Reading that GuitarWorld article, though, I’ve gotta say…
#12 is Twisted Sister’s ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’. I understand their position on the solo - it is just a copy of the vocal chorus, after all - but it’s played very tightly. I was always impressed by how together it sounded.
Ha. Never heard that one until now. I lived in Lawrence, Kansas for ten years, and I know that tree well. I don’t recall so much projectile vomiting, though.
Come on, folks. The rock guitar solo barely existed as a concept at the time. It’s like you guys are ragging on the Wright Brothers because they failed to fly at supersonic speeds!
Just One Fix is relentless. God I love that song driving late at night. I will check out your link later.
As for the Kinks, nope, sorry. There had been guitar leads across genres since the 40’s with T-Bone Walker up through Chuck Berry. Dave is playing licks that syncopate against the famous riff’s groove, and with his tone and just-outside-the-pocket playing, it sounds clashy.
ETA: ah, you linked to the song video. Good ol’ Wm S Burroughs. I didn’t know the tree is in Lawrence KS. I will rewatch the video but what can you say about it?
