# 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:** 10\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![SigMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@SigMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SigMan)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/101 "2017-03-14T19:39:30Z")
You mentioned clarinet and that reminds me of a cool song by War. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hA0b87tWshc/hqdefault.jpg "War - Fidel's Fantasy") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA0b87tWshc) ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/102 "2017-03-14T21:38:57Z")
Not really a solo, but Jimmy Buffett’s “[Hippolyte’s Habitat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W8IaRiB1dc)” uses a machete being hand-sharpened with a stone as rhythm. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/103 "2017-03-15T03:15:23Z")
Rush’s [Losing It](https://youtu.be/BIn0ECi5IlA) features an Electric Violin before those really began happening much. ---
**Author:** ![HyacinthBucket](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hyacinthbucket/32/3063_2.png) [@HyacinthBucket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HyacinthBucket)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/104 "2017-03-16T02:57:02Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I’m a little surprised no one’s mentioned the Beatles so far—solos like the piccolo trumpet solo in “Penny Lane,” the penny whistle solo in “Fool on the Hill,” the sax solo in “Lady Madonna”… > > Saxophone solos aren’t really that unusual per se, but they are for the Beatles. If the OP’s really interested, I’m sure we could come up with many more examples of sax solos. Not the Beatles though, and short but sweet - Alto Reed on sax at the beginning and end of Bob Seger’s “Turn The Page” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/rQW2Lq5pA5k/maxresdefault.jpg "Bob Seger-Turn the Page('Live' Bullet)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQW2Lq5pA5k) ---
**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 16, 2017, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/105 "2017-03-16T14:05:52Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Apparently, [yes](http://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2013/02/07/171385175/no-it-wasn-t-a-theremin-on-good-vibrations-remembering-paul-tanner). I did not know that or even think to look that up until now. Nice bit of trivia to know. ETA: And he also plays on “I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times.” Took his Intro to Jazz class at UCLA. Great guy, unassuming, informative, entertaining. One of those “easy A” type classes used by jocks. Still, a hell of a lot of fun. ---
**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 16, 2017, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/106 "2017-03-16T14:10:30Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > There are a couple of bassoon solos in “Live at the Quick” by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones and also a call-and-response between tabla and electric banjo. Love that disc, one of the first music performance DVDs I ever bought. I’d forgotten Paul McCandless (woodwind/horn player) was with Oregon for a good while. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/107 "2017-03-16T15:00:08Z")
(isn’t the sax as common a lead instrument as guitar/bass/etc.?) anyhoos… > [@jtur88](#): > > Starbuck’s “Moonlight Feels Right” has an awesome 30-second solo on vibes. Always went all loopy over how the solo ends with that nifty ascending run! Trippy mellotron solo here at the one-minute mark in [Captain Beefheart’s _Ashtray Heart_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82gyb0cFJ20). Always liked how David Cross’s violin solo starts quietly at around 11:46 and then builds in [King Crimson’s _Lark’s Tongues Aspic (Part I)_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVb2tnFN5AA). ---
**Author:** ![f.coli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eada6e/32.png) [@f.coli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/f.coli)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/108 "2017-03-21T21:34:23Z")
Chick Corea’s “The Mad Hatter” has an awesome bass guitar solo to start side two (on my vinyl record). Rory Gallagher played Mandolin on “Going to my Hometown” on his Live in Europe album. Carl Palmer played a percussion synthesizer on “Toccata” on the Emerson Lake & Palmer album “Brain Salad Surgery” ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/109 "2017-03-22T01:41:27Z")
> [@f.coli](#): > > Carl Palmer played a percussion synthesizer on “Toccata” on the Emerson Lake & Palmer album “Brain Salad Surgery” Nitpick: He was playing multiple synthesizers, each triggered by its own drum. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626/110 "2017-03-22T04:22:15Z")
Two Canadian bands, neither of them Rush: “Undun” by the Guess Who - that’s Burton Cummings playing the flute. Saga's "No Regrets" concludes with a clarinet solo. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-bYA6ZXjkow/hqdefault.jpg "Saga - No Regrets (Chapter Five)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bYA6ZXjkow) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconvential-music-solos/781626.md?page=5)