# Unconvential Music Solos **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 7, 2017, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626 "2017-03-07T16:13:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/21 "2017-03-07T19:45:12Z")
Some nice solo trombone work in “Efemera” by Tulipa Ruiz (starts at 1:15, them more throughout) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Bo8Gg6dGIIQ/hqdefault.jpg "Tulipa Ruiz - Efêmera") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo8Gg6dGIIQ) In live prformances, she does that part with a comb and paper. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/22 "2017-03-07T20:12:28Z")
Mexican restaurants around here often have a feed from some mariachi version of MTV playing, and I’ve noticed those guys love their accordions. Almost every song has an accordion solo, with the squeezebox player looking like a Mexican Jimi Hendrix playing Accordion Hero or something. It’s inspiring, and makes me want to learn to play the accordion. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/23 "2017-03-07T20:13:17Z")
Traffic’s “Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” - I’m not even sure what the instrument is that is being played in the solo. To me it sounds like a sax being run through an effects box of some sort, but it could be keyboards, or I don’t know what. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/24 "2017-03-07T20:15:31Z")
[This song by the band Eluvite](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AawUSC6hGY&list=PL1A5DC2C3B7C3B989&index=78) has a pretty awesome Violin and Flute solo in it. Another one of theirs has a pretty good bagpipes one in it too. What a weird-ass band… ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/25 "2017-03-07T20:33:48Z")
[Dueling Tubas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojqrd7FeXmg). ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/26 "2017-03-07T20:40:36Z")
Interesting topic The French chanteuse ZAZ plays something like a kazoo at about 2:10 in this song: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm88QAI8I5A) Kazoo or no, it’s a cool tune ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/27 "2017-03-07T20:51:31Z")
If we’re listing kazoo solos, we mustn’t forget Ringo Starr’s version of “[You’re Sixteen](https://youtu.be/8ainB6qnWBI?t=56)” ([which may or may not have involved an actual kazoo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You're_Sixteen#Ringo_Starr_version)). ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/28 "2017-03-07T22:09:53Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Mexican restaurants around here often have a feed from some mariachi version of MTV playing, and I’ve noticed those guys love their accordions. Almost every song has an accordion solo, with the squeezebox player looking like a Mexican Jimi Hendrix playing Accordion Hero or something. It’s inspiring, and makes me want to learn to play the accordion. There’s an interesting background to that. In the 1800s, a bunch of eastern European workers came to Mexico to work in the mines, and some brought their instruments with them. They sat around in the evening and played polkas, and the Mexicans fell in love with it, and it is still the central theme of the music of northern Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/29 "2017-03-07T22:14:05Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > They were allegedly not even using instruments – it was apparently Freddie and Roger imitating instruments using only their voices. > > Also, the “tap dancing” in that verse was the two of them tapping on the mixing desk with thimbles. > > [A Night at the Opera (Queen album) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaside_Rendezvous#Details) Thimble solo–very cool. Might tie “More cowbell” on the slick-o-meter. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/30 "2017-03-07T22:15:46Z")
Randy VanWarmer’s _Just When I Needed You Most_ has an autoharp solo. Jakcyl’s _The Lumberjack_ has a chainsaw solo. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/31 "2017-03-08T00:01:16Z")
Flute solo - California Dreaming. Love that song. Quite famously, there’s also a neat flute solo in Men at Work’s “Down Under”… ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/32 "2017-03-08T00:26:02Z")
You don’t expect a trombone solo in folk music, but Jeb Loy Nichols has always used fun-yet-funky trombone in [haunting reggae-tinged songs like _“As The Rain”_.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESQHWQoYygU) At 2:25 he mutters “Now let it rain…” and trombone ensues. And his old band Fellow Travellers did a lot of early funk/folk/roots/dub music, [like the sparse _“Big Mistake”_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEBes8B0fKc) (mostly just drums and trombone… and great lyrics\*). \*Well, they got married/ And that was Big Mistake… ---
**Author:** ![4d3fect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/4d3fect/32/9728_2.png) [@4d3fect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4d3fect)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/33 "2017-03-08T01:44:08Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > BJ Thomas’s version of “Hooked on a Feeling” has an electric sitar solo in the middle and another at the fadeout. > > Queen’s “White Queen” (on “Queen II”) has a smokin’ sitar solo in the middle. Eh, that’s an altered electric guitar (think Boxtops’ Cry Like a Baby) on the BJ Thomas tune, not a sitar, right? ---
**Author:** ![4d3fect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/4d3fect/32/9728_2.png) [@4d3fect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4d3fect)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/34 "2017-03-08T01:52:34Z")
[![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cE3C1bX-6yk/hqdefault.jpg "The legendary Vinnie Bell plays his invention, the Electric Sitar!") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE3C1bX-6yk) ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/35 "2017-03-08T02:40:19Z")
I like the brief tuba solo in “Go Down Gamblin’” by Blood, Sweat and Tears. ---
**Author:** ![bunyupp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@bunyupp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bunyupp)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/36 "2017-03-08T02:59:04Z")
Bass guitar solo (starts at @4 minute mark, gets heavy at 6 minute mark) Tim Bogert of Beck, Bogert, & Appice Live [Lose Myself With You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcZf-KWB4ik). ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/37 "2017-03-08T03:46:47Z")
> [@4d3fect](#): > > Eh, that’s an altered electric guitar (think Boxtops’ Cry Like a Baby) on the BJ Thomas tune, not a sitar, right? I saw BJ Thomas perform that song on one of those PBS pledge-drive shows. Large band with an electric sitar like the one in the YouTube clip. Sounded just like the song, so I’m assuming there was one in use then. As for “White Queen,” I’m not really sure what Brian May is playing; the lead has the twang of a sitar but none of the drone string sound like on a Ravi Shankar or George Harrison tune. Speaking of which, “Within You, Without You” has a sitar solo as well as sitar throughout. ---
**Author:** ![4d3fect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/4d3fect/32/9728_2.png) [@4d3fect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4d3fect)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/38 "2017-03-08T05:17:03Z")
on the subject of sitars wanting to be guitars or vice versa, consider the solos on Face to Face and Mind Ecology (John Mclaughlin on a custom scalloped-fretboard Gibson with drone strings): ETA: It's a whole band, Shakti, ftr ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/39 "2017-03-08T05:23:50Z")
How about Clare Torry in _Great Gig in the Sky_? She thought it was a mess, but it really is pretty awesome. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/40 "2017-03-08T05:29:53Z")
There are a number of vibes solos on Frank Zappa records, most notably [at the 3:23 mark of this song.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smZA9Jv3qH0) And for the all time most bizarre instrument used in a rock solo, ever heard of the theremin? That weird squeaky thing you hear on old horror movies and “Good Vibrations”? Well in the 60s an obscure band called Lothar and the Hand People used a theremin regularly, [like 1:30 into this song.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqVkwVVtkGQ) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626.md?page=3)