This may be a bit more difficult than a “Best ever” thread, but I was listening to the radio and actually sat through Queen’s “We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions” and noticed that Brian May’s solo in “We Will Rock You” is horribly out of time with the rest of the song. How can you lose time on “We Will Rock You”, the simplest beat of all time?!?!
So that’s it. What are the other really BAD guitar solos of all time?
Hands down
We’re Not Gonna Take It by Twisted Sister.
No, no. The worst is “Free Bird”. No further replies to this topic are necessary 
Free Bird is way down there, but my vote for the worst is Neil Young’s one note solo on “Cinnamon Girl”
‘I Don’t Want To Dance’ by Eddy Grant. Nice little pop song, even got to No 1 here in the UK, but features a truly clueless, dreadful guitar ‘solo’ in the middle. Sounds to me like Grant (who over-dubbed all the parts on the song in his own studio) decided his song needed some kind of middle eight, hadn’t a clue what to do, tried for a guitar solo and just couldn’t come up with anything.
‘Simply Irresistible’ by Robert Palmer. I like the song, and it was successful enough. But the guitar solo, and in fact the guitar work in general, could suck the pattern off a Persian rug.
Why does the solo from “November Rain” keep popping into my head?
Oh yeah. Because it sucks sour frog ass.
I’ve heard this bandied about a lot before, and I’ve asked this question before (without reply,) but…why? I mean, sure, it’s long and overplayed, and essentially self-gratifying. But it’s not off-time, off-pitch, or out of key. It’s not my choice for the greatest solo EVAR, but for the genre, it ain’t bad.
So, honestly, why do people say this?
And the first shall be the worst:
Heartbreak Hotel
Thank you, thank you very much!
On one hand, this is a poll of sorts. On the other, it’s purely about music, so it would fit into Cafe Society very nicely. But on the other hand :: bemusedly checks number of arms and attachments:: uh, back on the first hand, if I hadn’t used it already, I haven’t dumped anything on Ike in simply a day or so.
Yeah, the second (and third) hand wins. Off to Cafe Society it goes…
Veb,
IMHO mod
The solo in Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” sucks balls. Especially the live version. Or any other Led Zep song, for that matter. How on earth did Jimmy Page become regarded as a musical genius? Oh wait, he sold his soul to the devil. That’s right. Never mind.
bolding mine…Actually, I’d say, even thought I don’t recall a lot of these, I’d say that perhaps it’s not the worst EVER compared to some of these, but definitely the worst in the genre. It is not only long and self-gratifying, it also tries to be much more than is (i.e. a Great Classic Rock Solo), and doesn’t realize its ambitions at all.
It’s sort of like the difference between camp and kitsch. Camp doesn’t take itself too seriously: a lot of soloes in the 80s for instance were self-limiting both in tiem and attempted breadth: while they never had the chance to succeed, at least they never thought they could. Whereas Free Bird seriously thought it was reaching for the stars, which is why it’s so humorous to poke fun at.
Yes, I’d say the “Free Bird” solo really goes off the deep end of the musical taste scale.
MUCH too long and it is as if the guitarist is saying look at me - see what I can do? There is an expression that “sometimes less is more” which is very apt for this solo. There is another expression that states “leave the audience wanting more”. I don’t think Lynard Skynard ever heard of these 2 expressions.
Those are some good points about Free Bird. To keep a good thing going: the guitarists seem to have thought that whatever they were playing was made much more impressive by the fact that three guitars were doing it. Three guitars! 
Three guys playing two- and three-note licks, or tapping for what feels like a week, is not really that amazing. Similarly they seem to think length makes the solo better. Nope.
Clearly, you’ve never listened to:
1)Since I’ve Been Loving You
2)White Summer
3)Heartbreaker
4)No Quarter
5)Achilles’ Last Stand
6)Thank You
7)Ten Years Gone
And that Satan worship thing? Pure BS. How many Satan worshipers raise money for charity? :rolleyes:
I think the “We Will Rock You” solo is pretty cool—in fact, it’s the only part of the song I can still listen to without embarrassment. For the rest, I just keep picturing high school basketball fans stomping in the bleachers.
This is hard question to answer … I really don’t think much about the solos I don’t like. Even a solo from a lousy or undistinguished player can work in the right setting—I wouldn’t call Tommy James a good guitarist, but I wouldn’t replace the solo on “Hanky Panky” with anything else.
Let’s see … the solo on Concrete Blonde’s “Woman to Woman” is pretty godawful, but then, so is the song, and Jim Mankey has played some fine leads otherwise.
I don’t know if it’s bad per se, but the solo in Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” always bugs me. Everything about the song is so kick-ass, but this solo is so generic–it seems like it could be plugged into just about any other hard rock song.
The one Alex Lifeson pukes out in “Chain Lightning.” Lerxst, what were you thinking?
Harrison’s solo from the alternate version of Let it Be - the single, not the one from the album. They tend to play that version more often on the radio, so wheneve I hear the good solo I always feel this little upsurge of joy.
I’ve always thought that “WWRY” had a fantastic solo. You can complain about it being “off time”, but you can complain about Picasso painting both eyes on the same side of the head.
Name something else of the era that sounds like that. And can you truly say that the solo doesn’t work? I find it hard to believe that you can.
:eek:
Really? You honestly think it sucks? I wouldn’t call it my favourite solo of all time, but I think it’s quite well done, actually. Oh well, tastes will vary!
Denis, I agree about Chain Lightning - and I’m a die hard Rush fan. Sub-par to say the least.
I have two additions to this thread.
Golden Earring’s When the Lady Smiles is actually a quite catchy pop/rock tune, but the guitar solo George Kooymans craps out is unbelievably dull and uninspired. Which is odd, because he’s really quite a good guitarist.
Cheap Trick’s live version of I want you to want me. Cripes, would it kill you to tune your fucking guitars before you go on stage?