Your Top 20 Guitar Solos

Arts & Sciences Arts & Entertainment
1

It’s about personal favourites, not “best/most significant” etc.
The only rule is that you can only choose a band once, so no, like, 20 AC/DC or Zep songs.
Definition of “solo” is also up for personal interpretation.
All that matters is that, every time you hear it, it moves you.

Here’s mine:

Don’t Worry Baby/Los Lobos/David Hidalgo & Cesar Rojas

Voodoo Child/Jimi Hendrix

Take It So Hard/Keith Richards & the X-Pensive Winos/Waddy Wachtel

My Morning Song/The Black Crowes/Rich Robinson/Marc Ford

Sympathy for the Devil/Rolling Stones/Keith Richards

Rikki Don’t Lose That Number/Steely Dan/Jeff “Skunk” Baxter

Cinnamon Girl/Neil Young & Crazy Horse/Neil Young

Panama/Van Halen/Edward Van Halen

Jessica/The Allman Bros./Richard Betts

Superstition/Stevie Ray Vaughn

Pretty Woman/Roy Orbison/Bruce Springsteen & James Burton

China Grove/The Doobie Brothers/Jeff “Skunk” Baxter

Aqualung/Jethro Tull /Martin Barrere

Absolutely Sweet Marie/Jason & the Scorchers/Warner Hodges Jr.

Desolation Row/My Chemical Romance/Ray Toro & Frank Iero

The Rover/Heartbreaker/Led Zeppelin/James Page (sorry, tie on this one)

The Bends/Radiohead/Jonny Greenwood (I know, “solo” in the broadest interpretation, but still…)

Murder Incorporated (Live)/Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band/B. Springsteen & S. Van Zant & N. Lofgren

Old Folks’ Boogie (Live)/Little Feet/Lowell George

You Shook Me All Night Long/AC/DC/Angus Young

1 Like
2

Couldn’t you have made it “Top
5
 Guitar Solos”? Some us have short attention spans, ferfucksakes!

Oh, and does “Neil Young” and “Neil Young and Crazy Horse” and “Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young” count as “one” artist?

3

Double Crossin’ Time/Clapton
Another Girl Another Planet/Only Ones

Can’t think of any more right now. Anyway, they both count for, like 10 normal favourite solos.

4

I’ll play your game you rouge.

Frank Zappa Zoot Allures
Duane Allman from Live at the Filmore
Whoever is playing guitar on that Steely Dan song, Reeling in the Years. Crappy song, great guitar.
Steve Howe Intro to Close to the Edge
Jeff Beck She’s a Woman
Carlos Santana She’s Not There
Brian May Killer Queen
Tom Petty Last Dance with Mary Jane
Lou Reed Sweet Jane
Jimi Hendrix If a Six…
Jimmy Page Heartbreaker
Joe Satriani Friends
BB King Why I Sing the Blues
RL Burnside I Got Messed Up
Richie Blackmore It Can’t Happen Here
Pink Floyd Comfortably Numb
James Gang Funk49
Pete Townsend Won’t Get Fooled Again
Beatles Get Back
Rolling Stones Honkey Tonk Woman

1 Like
5

The first four in no particular order:

The Velvet Underground - European Son

Sonic Youth - Starpower

Minutemen - The Red And The Black

Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond

Without doubt, the two greatest guitar solos in rock history:

NEIL YOUNG - LIKE A HURRICANE

JIMI HENDRIX - VOODOO CHILE

6

My list a mix of favorite riffs and solos

Foreplay / Long Time --> Boston
johnny B Good --> Chuck Berry
November Rain --> GnR
Over the Hills and Far Away --> Zeplin
Money for Nothing --> Dire Straits
We Will Rock You --> Queen
Layla --> Derek and the Dominos
Cliffs of Dover --> Eric Johnson
Crazy Train --> Ozzy
White Room --> Cream
Ace of Spades --> Motoehead
Are you Gonna Go My Way --> Lenny Kravitz
Black Magic Woman --> Santana
Time - Pink Floyd

might edit this later

T

7

Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees

8

Too tired to write a list now so will do it tomorrow.

9

Today, just about any solo by Wayne Krantz:

youtube.com/watch?v=zgswhBHPeI8&NR=1

Also, just about any solo by Scott Henderson, who I had tickets to see at the Riverside Red Theater in Ximending this week, but who is still stuck in Japan, last I heard, because of the earthquake:

youtube.com/watch?v=QnXsyhxu … re=related

And Allan Holdsworth has to fit in there somewhere:

youtube.com/watch?v=XPiAHHDT … re=related

And super foxy shredder Nori Bucci of Gamalon

youtube.com/watch?v=RXUxplb7kcw

(will add the other 17 later, but it will include Shawn Lane, Eddie Hazel, Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix, Jimi Page, Psycho Yang, Ah Yi, and Dion Payton)

10

Wow toughy. a couple off the top of my head

I’m well with the chief on “sympathy with the devil”
ozzy - revelation (mother earth)
who - young man blues
beatles - savoy truffle
zep - dazed and confused
jon spencer blues explosion - greyhound, moby remix, prolly him on the guitar
jimi - too many but all along the watchtower
black flag - your last affront (maybe cheating instrumental)
sonic youth - washing machine
slayer - dead skin mask
metallica - ride the lightning
pink floyd - one of these days

1 Like
11

“Left Hand Path” - Entombed
“No Love Lost” - Carcass
“Watermelon in Easter Hay” - Frank Zappa
“War” - Burzum (Burzum leader Varg Vikernes murdered the guy who played this solo and served 16 years, pity as it’s a cool solo)

12

Red House - Jimi Hendrix
Dazed and Confused - Led Zeppelin
I’m The One - Van Halen
Key To The Highway - Derek and the Dominoes (Eric Clapton & Duane Allman)
Paradise City - Guns N Roses
Tin Pan Alley - Stevie Ray Vaughan
Used and Abused - Midnight Oil
Texas Strut - Gary Moore
Over Under Sideways Down - Yardbirds (Jeff Beck)
N.I.B. - Black Sabbath
Pickapart - John Butler Trio
Black Magic Woman - Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green)
Soap On A Rope - Chickenfoot (Joe Satriani)
Black Moon Creeping - Black Crowes
Train Kept A Rollin - Aerosmith (got a killer bootleg where they’re joined by Jimmy Page)
Rock Me Baby - Hot Tuna (Jorma Kaukonen)
Midnight Rambler - Stones (any live version in the Mick Taylor era)
Steppin Out - John Mayall Bluesbreakers (Clapton)
Shake Your Moneymaker - Paul Butterfield Blues Band (Mike Bloomfield)

13

Duane Allman – Whipping Post (Live at the Fillmore East)
Jimmy Page – Dazed and Confused (from The Song Remains the Same)
Eddie Hazel – Red Hot Mamma/Vital Juices
Joe Satriani – Flying in a Blue Dream
John McLaughlin/Al Di Meola/Paco De Lucia – Mediterranean Sundance (from Friday Night in San Fransisco)

Surprised no one has mentioned Steve Vai. Not sure what I’d go with there. Sisters is an instrumental. Maybe Blue Powder or Tender Surrender.

I’d definitely put Hendrix, SRV and Buddy Guy in there, just not sure which ones.

Here are some others from the internet I watch all the time:

It’s cheating a bit (because it’s a compilation), but this one:

Love Buckethead. Saw him in Seattle back in 1998 where he was a virtually unknown opener for some crap 80s has been pop star. He confused the shit out of 99% of the audience by alternately pulling off insane shredding at the same time as twirling nunchaku and playing slow stuff and throwing fake thumbs into the audience. Afterwards, met him sans-mask and had a weird conversation about Mad Max. Awesome.

1 Like
14

Wow! A bunch of mine have already been taken. Neil Young - Cinnamon Girl is hard to top . . . if you got a good note, why stray? :wink:

One guy that does Jimi well is Paul Gilbert. I know this is against the rules, but it’s too hard for me to choose from these three.

15

I’m partial to the blues, myself, so I like anything with some good blues guitar in it.
Albert King, B.B. King, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, etc.

One of my favorite songs with a good guitar solo in it is Texas Flood, as played by Stevie Ray Vaughan. The longer versions are better than the studio version if you want to hear some raw feeling and true soul come out.
This version is particularly good. I can’t listen to it without getting goose bumps.

1 Like
16

I’ll have to fill out the rest of my list in due time, but for now here’s a few of my fav guitar solos:

Aqualung (especially the live version from around '78 MSG shows) - Jethro Tull
Stairway To Heaven - Led Zeppelin
NIB - Black Sabbath
Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd

17

Why do the good have to die young?

18

Fortunately, not all of them do. Quite a few of the greats have lived to be pretty old.

19

stepping stone might be my favorite jimi solo maybe

20

1:04