OT: - Best Guitar Solos | Page 4 | The Boneyard

OT: Best Guitar Solos

As someone who's been playing in bands for 55 years, this song from the Allman Brothers
"Live at the Fillmore East" continues to amaze me. Duane's solo work is incredible (Dickie's is pretty good too). Tons of riffs to learn for the aspiring guitarist, but Duane's at 13.50 is just killer. Overall, great tone and phrasing. So many great solos listed on this forum. Many worthy choices for "best".



A solo perfect in its simplicity? George Harrison's solo on "Something":

The Beatles - Something
 
Not listing this as a "greatest solo" per se, but for some reason last night I stumbled on a 1997 video of Ringo Starr's All-Star Band. The band included Gary Brooker, Jack Bruce and Peter Frampton, along with Mark Rivera and the drummer from Bad Company/Free (and Ringo).

Supposedly Dave Mason was supposed to be on this tour but got all Dave Mason-y and dropped out, leaving Frampton to do ALL the guitar work, whether it was rhythm or lead (or both) for Ringo, Procol Harum, Bad Company/Free, Cream or Mountain songs, plus his own stuff. I watched the whole thing as it was pretty bad ass. Frampton and Bruce just about took over the show and were amazing together.

I'd heard this year will be Frampton's last tour, at "only" 68/69 years old as he has IBM, a progressive degenerative disease. He says he can still play great, but his fingers may lose strength/flexibility soon. It will be sad to see him go as his playing has only gotten better over the years, IMO. He's taking some experimental treatments, so maybe this isn't the end. Hopefully not.

Anyway, if you're at all interested in seeing a great guitarist be about as versatile as one gets in a single concert, it's worth watching for Frampton, although Bruce is astounding and Brooker has his moments. It's Ringo's gig, but this particular show should've ended with "Do You Feel..." as the last couple of Ringo numbers were decidedly anticlimactic.

 
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2 of my favorites. Eric is a friend, Carlos Santana's Godson. Walter is a friend of a friend who used to play lead for John Mayall, Canned Heat, and John Lee Hooker-I saw him live the other night.
The playing starts at around 4:15.
 
Disappointed, but not shocked, to have not seen Dimebag yet. The greatest combination of soul and melt-your-face-off ever

 
Always like Carlos' sound. You know when you are hearing a Carlos Santana song. This may not be his best version but I'm partial to shows from Tanglewood.

 
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Cliche....but I always have liked Slashes solos on Sweet Child O' Mine, Knocking on Heavens Door, Night Train, Welcome to the Jungle...
 
For mainstream hits, comfortably numb or stairway to heaven are both absurd
 
nomar said:
I'm a huge Pink Floyd fan. Some of the live versions of Comfortably Numb are incredible. And the studio version of Dogs was a great call. Just beautiful.

I'm also a huge Zappa fan. Even if you don't like the silliness, his guitar solos are insanely good. Just that little burst in Muffin Man, for instance. But I have some live versions of Advance Romance and The Illinois Enema Bandit (yes that's the name of the song) where the guitar solos are mind-blowing. And I could listen to Hot Rats on repeat.
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I bought my friend a Frank Zappa poster once in high school, and then his mom caught us stealing her booze and punished us by tearing up the poster in front of us the next morning. I have no clue why that poster meant so much to us, but we were absolutely outraged
 
I thought Tony Levin's bass work on this live Crimson tune "Elephant Talk" was pretty good

 
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The usual suspects including/plus (not in any order):

Carlton (Steely Dan) - Kid Charlemagne, Don't take Me Alive
Jeff Baxter (Steely Dan) - Rikki Dont Lose that Number
Steve Howe (Yes) your is no disgrace or any song really.
Terry Kath (Chicago) 25 or 6 to 4.
Buck Dharma (Blue Oyster Cult) Burnin for You.
Elliot Easton (Cars) - Shake it Up - It's all I Can Do.
Wayne Perkins (Rolling Stones) - Hand of Fate.
Tommy Shaw (Styx) - Blue Collar Man.
David Gilmore (Floyd) - Comfortably Numb.
Alvin Lee (10 years after) - I'd Love to Change the World.
Gary Rossington, Allan Colins, Steve Gains (Skynyrd) - That Smell and Freebird (of course).
Clapton and D Allman - Layla
Buckethead - Soothsayer
Lindsey Buckingham - Go Your Own Way
 
Madmannsucks said:
2 of my favorites. Eric is a friend, Carlos Santana's Godson. Walter is a friend of a friend who used to play lead for John Mayall, Canned Heat, and John Lee Hooker-I saw him live the other night.
The playing starts at around 4:15.
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Walter is a MONSTER on guitar, and he looks great given his medical issues! I'm a big fan.
 
8893 said:
Although he's not my favorite guitarist, Clapton's solo in "Let it Rain" always makes me happy.
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Hans Sprungfeld said:
Memorable as my first ever regarded-as-favorite guitar solo, summer 1970.
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So I only recently learned that "Let it Rain" was originally recorded with entirely different lyrics, as "She Rides." I've been hearing it on Deep Tracks and on the Loft on Sirius and I heard it twice again this weekend. It is extremely jarring to me to hear it, as it upsets all the synapses I've developed around the "Let it Rain" lyrics with the same exact backing track. Very strange to hear it the other way:

 
8893 said:
So I only recently learned that "Let it Rain" was originally recorded with entirely different lyrics, as "She Rides." I've been hearing it on Deep Tracks and on the Loft on Sirius and I heard it twice again this weekend. It is extremely jarring to me to hear it, as it upsets all the synapses I've developed around the "Let it Rain" lyrics with the same exact backing track. Very strange to hear it the other way:

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Thank you/no thank you.
 
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Most of the “best” have already been mentioned here; if we’ve moved on to the “underrated” portion of this thread, I’ve always really enjoyed the 12 strong solo in the Byrds cover of My Back Pages

Also, I can’t believe no one has mentioned the solo in Let it Be (yknow, in the version that has an actual guitar solo)
 
Mike Campbell, 3:00 mark and on...
Watch "Runnin' Down A Dream - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers" on YouTube
 
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superjohn said:
Mike Campbell, 3:00 mark and on...
Watch "Runnin' Down A Dream - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers" on YouTube
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IMO he is an underrated lead player. For what it's worth, Rolling Stone ranked him 70th in their Top 100 Guitarists of All Time.
 
The Master of the Telecaster.
If you look around his feet for any pedals, you won't find any. Oh and Johnny Wadd on keyboards.
 
Blistering searing solo at around 4 m 18 sec.
Take a little pop tune turn it into a lamenting ballad.

 
weyuo said:
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Yea, but can he play Smoke on The Water on the one string?

A lot of good examples. My selections earlier focused on mainstream lead solo's on (mostly) mainstream songs. There are quite a few examples of guitar solo's that I would say are "improvisations", usually live, or otherwise. There are a lot of guitar virtuoso's, but seeing that work on tunes we can all identify is really a special talent. IMHO.
 
Al D is not my favorite guitar player but man this tune has the chops. Jaco on bass is a huge bonus. This is a three part tune and part three which starts at 2:35 delivers the goods.



 
I really love unconventional solos. Two that have been mentioned are Magic Man (Roger Fisher= unsung genius) and Yours is No Disgrace. Steve Howe really makes the case by following his crazy solo with one that would make any jazz player jealous.
 
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