The standard answer to “Whats the worst XXXXX ever” is always “The Doors” but in this case it’s absolutely anything by the Gratefull Dead - especially Dark fucking Star. Less is more Gerry.
Another possibility that should be remebered is that Bob Dylan has taken to playing lead solos on stage.
A while ago I got sent a video clip that was just perfect in its Spinal Tap-ness. I believe it was Limp Bizkit. Their regular guitarist had just left and their vocalist (Fred Durst?) had taken over lead axeman duties.
The clip showed him trying to do a solo, and literally looking at the fretboard and repositioning his hand to change notes, and almost always missing the one’s he’s going for - it was laugh out loud funny. Eventually he gives up and gives a sort of “San Dimas High School rocks” yell, to the audience’s clear bemusement.
(I had a quick google but couldn’t find it, unfortunately. Worth posting if anyone else knows where it is)
Can’t believe that Jimmy Page and Brian May have even been *mentioned * in this thread. :dubious:
I guess it all depends on what you mean by “worst”
Freebird is overindulgent, but competently structured (as mentioned above, hard to do with 3 guitarists) and pretty well executed
Stuff by Jimmy Page is known for having a little “slop” in it - he was never precise, but always captured an amazing feel. I put Chuck Berry in the same category - I was just listening to a bunch of his tracks, and it always sounds to me like his hands are too big for the guitar neck - but I love his stuff.
There are a number of solos that are frankly incompetent - the lead break in Louie Louie by the Kingsmen comes to mind - but that is part of their charm.
George Harrison had wonderful taste, but didn’t have the assertiveness that I look for in a lead guitarist - is he worst? Nah, but I can’t think of many leads that stand out, except for being a great fit for the song. (I worship the Beatles, btw)
What about Nirvana - what comes to mind is the lead break on the Unplugged version of “The Man Who Sold the World” Cobain starts off the break with a honker of a bad note. I respect their music (or in this case, Bowie’s) but it’s just a mistake, plain and simple.
I agree with the “dweedly dweedly” solo on Enter Sandman - cliche, and the lick he plays when they change rhythm parts always sounds off to me.
And don’t get me started on the Dead or the Doors. owlstretchingtime and I seem to be in the same camp, but I know lots of folks love them.
So, no real definitive answer. I guess, if pushed, I would nominate Vernon Reid of Living Color’s lead in “Cult of Personality” - both leads, in fact. I know he is a big rock/jazz/fusion guy, but as a guitarist myself, I find his stuff to be a blurry mess of notes with no structure, melodic interest or anything. Just slop to my ear, but since he is pretty well respected, I write it off to being over my head, but in my heart of hearts I think it is simply bad.
I don’t listen to the Dead, and I hate long guitar solos, but “less is more” does not apply to the whole jam band concept. It’s akin to saying, “Yeah, I like jazz, but there’s just too many freaking solos.” That’s nine-tenths of the point. Frankly, I don’t see the appeal, but the whole point of the music involves long, meandering instrumental sections.
I’ll second Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take It solo. It basically reproduces the melody line, and sounds more like Fischer-Price than Les Paul.
But wait…it becomes a duet! That’s because the sound engineer showed more talent than the guitarist in doing an overdub.
I can’t think of a specific example offhand, but Kiss’s lead guitarist sucked so much they had to get a studio musician to come in to play his solos for him.
You mean there actually is a guitar solo in We Will Rock You? I never noticed it!
I think this kind of judgement is extremely subjective, as so much depends on the musical context. I always hear people slamming the Doors, as it were, because guitarist Robbie Krieger wasn’t quick technically, but in the context of their music it worked. If you replaced the lead guitarist in The Kingsmen with Jimmy Page, I don’t think he could have come up with something that was better for the song. There are what you might call r’n’r standards that have one or two note solos, and it’s not in spite of that fact that they are standards.
Excellent point. I’m sort of the same way about rap. I prefer something that’s more musically rather than verbally based, with a more noticeable instrumental background. I’ve heard some rap songs that have that and I like them better than others. But a rap fan would probably tell me it is the words, and the delivery of the words, that IS the music. So it would make little point to say I don’t like the music because there’s no guitar in it.
So yeah, Dark Star sucks as a rap song, and a lot of rap sucks because it has no guitar, so to speak.
He really wasn’t a flashy player, so I’m not sure where you get the “less is more” thing. Maybe he played a high number of notes since his technique basically came from the banjo, but if you heard Phish or some of the bands that followed the Dead you would probably hear more notes in one minute of soloing than in ten minutes of Garcia’s…
What’s the Frank Zappa track/solo where he switches to a whole tone scale (Sheik Yebouti Tango?) Obviously it’s supposed to sound that way but I’m guessing your average listener would think the whole thing was just so wrong 
The solo from the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band’s Canyons of Your Mind is absolutely fucking dreadful, but as it is supposed to be I guess that doesn’t count.
I’ve seen a film of Ziggy period Bowie where Mick Ronson repeatedly plays a semitone out of tune. Maybe he just couldn’t hear himself?
BTW Anyone else ever notice that the “flash” bit in **Heartbreaker ** is slightly out of tune with the rest of the track, what’s up with that? Re-listening to this track for the first time in years I was amazed by how sloppy that bit is, but it impressed/scared the hell out of me twenty five years ago.
Huh! I wasn’t aware that the worst guitar solo had an ever.
This is fresh in my mind because I’m listening to They Might Be Giants’ new album this morning, but I nominate for worst guitar solo anything done by John Flansburgh. I say this as a fan of TMBG, but that dude seriously can’t play him some guitar.
Anybody remember REO Speedwagon? One section of the guitar solo on the live version of “Golden Country” is essentially the same note played over and over for about a minute. I don’t know, maybe he was trying to build up some dramatic tension in the solo, but I always had to check to make sure the album wasn’t skipping…
Rage Against the Machine “Killing in the Name” would be the greatest fist-shakin’ song ever written, except for the horrible something-solo in the middle. It is either an over-effected guitar, or an over-guitared effect. Whatever it is, it makes cats in heat stand up and say “Damn, who’s gettin’ some?”
The Who’s “outtakes” album Odds and Sods includes a song called “Faith in Something Bigger” which contains what Pete Townshend identifies as his worst guitar solo ever.
A big ditto for Simply Irresistible. What the hell was that?
Rolline Stones’ Time Is On My Side (not sure if it’s Keith Richards or Brian Jones to blame). I’m a huge Stones fan, so I’ll chalk this up to the fact that it was proto-primeval-rock, and they didn’t know yet what constituted a good guitar solo. But that sure wasn’t it.
Freeform. Nothing wrong with it at all except it doesn’t fit in with most people’s notion of what music is supposed to be.
I also see nothing wrong with the solo in “We Will Rock You”. It’s raw, but structured, and works well in the piece.
[QUOTE=Chefguy]
Freeform. Nothing wrong with it at all except it doesn’t fit in with most people’s notion of what music is supposed to be.QUOTE]
Well, that does cover a multitude of sins, doesn’t it?
How does one tell the difference between “freeform” and “inept”?
[QUOTE=jsc1953]
Other than obvious problems such as being off-key, it’s largely a matter of listener perception, which is highly subjective. Ask any jazz fan. I still can’t figure out what Ornette Coleman was doing, and Weather Report’s music is still largely noise to me, but their fans are legion.
Again, it seems to me that you have to be saying that because it doesn’t sound “normal.”
Tom is rubbing the guitar cable jack on the strings. By positioning the jack and his fretting hand, he can produce the intended tones. I think that solo is simple genius. Period.
Personally, I like the solo in “We Will Rock You” and it sounds fine to me time-wise.
I also would say the solo in “Rock and Roll” by Zep is one of my favorites of all time.
I’m a big fan of Wilco, but the guitar breaks near the beginning of “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” are pretty bad (intentionally though, I think.)
I happen to agree. Although I’m not a huge Rage fan, Tom Morello is certainly one of the freshest and most inventive guitarists playing today. No one sounds like him. I can’t believe the crazy sounds he gets out of his axe.