Face Melting Guitar Solos

[cherryowen]

Following on from a comment yesterday on the "Riff" thread concerning Eddie Van Halen's work on Beat It, why not post the guitar solos that stand your hair on end?

Every genre counts, slow, fast, jazz, blues, country, fingerpicked. Whatever, but please post video links.

Defend your choice by all means, but it's not default. Maybe suggest skipping to a certain point in the video where the solo starts?

Some starters for me:-

Steve Vai : For The Love Of God Solo starts at 0:22

Steely Dan : Peg Solo @ 1:47

Steve Vai : Eugene's Trick Bag

Guthrie Govan : Regret #9

[cherryowen]

Pastor Of Muppets said:

Again there is an absolute myriad of phenomenal guitar solos been recorded in the last 50 years or so, how can
you pick the best, well you cant really, all you can do is list the ones that spring to mind, but even then there will
be others that you forgot that are equally stupendous, so it's a tough call, but here's some of mine...

Queen... We will rock You. Brian's guitar at the end of this is just spine tingling.
Gary Moore... Shapes of Things.
Megadeth... Hangar 18. (Marty Friedman, just phenomenal, an absolute master of the guitar.
Van Halen... Ice cream Man.
Rainbow... Eyes of the World.
AC/DC... Up to my neck in You.
Rush... A Farewell To Kings. Alex Lifeson on fire in that one, incredible.
Judas Priest... Painkiller. Tipton / Downing. the masters of twin lead harmonies.

Then we come to the ultimate master... Joe Satriani, so many gob smacking tracks to choose from, Surfing with the Alien,
Back to shalla-bal, Summer Song, Psycho Monkey, Crystal Planet, the list goes on and on, but the one track that stands
above most from him is the astounding, Flying in a blue dream. If you are into guitar music and never heard this,
its well worth a listen, If I had to choose the last ever guitar track I could hear it would be this masterpiece.....
https://youtu.be/SINl5JY7LhI?list=PLE88290F62F3029...

My bold above.

By coincidence, I watched a Rick Beato vid yesterday on the Lydian scale and its associated chords. Basically, a Lydian scale is a major scale but with a raised 4th note. Much used by film composers, Flying In a Blue Dream is a tune written by Satch entirely based on Lydian and is by some measure my favourite Satriani tune.

Great to see Diamond Darrell, Marty Friedman and Mark Knopfler mentioned!

That "Red House" cover by Gales / Fish / Ingram is just dynamite. He's AFAIK still just 19 year old as well (Octane magazine did a feature back in 2014 where they drove from Louisiana to Chicago. They stopped at a blues shack somewhere down south, and a 14 year old "Kingfish" Ingram was playing that night)

Talking of 19 years old:-

Muddy Waters : She's Nineteen Years Old

Solo starts @ 2:17

Edited by cherryowen on Wednesday 8th January 22:59

[cherryowen]

wombleh said:

And Pers Nilsson (Meshuggah) who is a technical genius: https://youtu.be/VbZ27N9L3GQ

That is deeply impressive on both technical and melodic levels.

For something a little different:-

Have You Ever Loved a Woman : Derek & The Dominos Live at The Fillmore

Clapton at his best, on - for me - one of the best live albums ever recorded. The solo proper start at 4:35, but his lines in the intro are delicious.

[cherryowen]

Simes205 said:

Kid Charlemagne - Steely Dan
Guitar, Larry Carlton

https://youtu.be/jJ9Xk-VoGqo

For me, one of the best solos ever.

Carlton is a giant talent.

[cherryowen]

A pre-concert sound check, Stevie Ray style.........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grBmQwLSlDw

Hat tip to PH'er Kinky for the next one:-

Gary Moore lets loose

And one of the finer classic rock solos ever recorded. This studio version is, for me, the best version (Blackmore at his inventive and fiery best):-

Child In Time

[cherryowen]

I'd completely forgotten about The Bluest Blues

Two completely different offerings tonight, both 100% solos.

Eruption (Original Recording) by EVH 1978 FFS! Years ahead of time!

Simon Dinnigan plays J.S. Bach's BWV1001 Dinnigan performs rarely, but compared to John Williams or Julian Bream, his clarity, technique, and feel is astonishing.

[cherryowen]

AIUI, this solo was scripted originally by Gary Moore but this live version by John Sykes is majestic (solo starts @ 3:15):-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsizGjgvx8I

[cherryowen]

oddball1313 said:

End of level boss

https://youtu.be/IaH2C2Qe97Y

Oh I love that!

It's why I posted it in my OP on page #1

[cherryowen]

angusfaldo said:

oddball1313 said:

cherryowen said:

oddball1313 said:

End of level boss

https://youtu.be/IaH2C2Qe97Y

Oh I love that!

It's why I posted it in my OP on page #1

I know - I figured after 4 pages it’s still rules as one of the most epic moments on a guitar ever recorded

It's just a shame that the clip starts at the guitar solo and misses out the rather epic keyboard solo that goes right before it. Both are worthy of gold medals imho.

Aye, agree with all that.

IIRC, wasn't that Govan's first and only take on that solo?

[cherryowen]

Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D minor on solo guitar

Fair play to the lad, he's working hard on this

[cherryowen]

RobM77's post above has reminded me of:-

Cherub Rock

Solo @ 3:08

[cherryowen]

longblackcoat said:

One of my all-time favourites: Mark Knopfler's Speedway At Nazareth. I'm ashamed to say that I skipped past this for a number of years as the first three minutes are more than a little plodding, but from about 3:00 the guitar starts to make its presence felt, and from 3:25 or so to the end is just one big solo.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYtU1GfqjZ0

I'd not heard that before, but that is marvellous

[cherryowen]

Johnny Raydome said:

Bit of jazz-y guitar stuff for a change.
Drum roll for Pat Metheny - yay! No-one could ever accuse Pat of being a bit rubbish.

(I know the OP will have a listen. I posted some live Weller stuff years ago and you watched it, thanks Vourn!)

Get yourself comfy, headphones on, eyes closed and imagine you're on a beach.
If you want to scroll past the gorgeous piano*, the solo is from 6.30-ish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMRmCAiC5TM



*RIP Lyle Mays

That's bloody delicious!

And for something completely different:-

Black Sabbath - Warning

This is Iommi's guitar wk-fest akin to Blackmore's Lazy and EVH's Eruption

Solo proper starts at 3:31

[cherryowen]

Something a bit "jazz" courtesy of Martin Taylor:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6N1ic3Xpn4

[cherryowen]

Blib said:

popeyewhite said:

Blib said:

Anyone mention the God that was Frank Zappa?

Pages 2 and 4

Good! He should be on every page!

[cherryowen]

popeyewhite said:

Technically brilliant like a lot of very fast, proficient players, but no soul.

Mmmm. Largely

Blackmore I'd suggest would be an exception, regularly mixing fast technical stuff with long, slow, bluesey bends. Page was pretty good at is as well (his intro to Since I've Been Loving You live on The Song Remains The Same film is a great example).

Paul Gilbert and Guthrie Govan like to mix up speed and soul as well, I find.

[cherryowen]

silverthorn2151 said:

Not sure if it counts as face melting but Bill Nelson's guitar solo in 'Adventures in a Yorkshire landscape' always sounds fabulous to me. Be Bop Deluxe at their best.

From about 1:50

https://youtu.be/CjiArdooBi4

I'm ashamed to say I've never heard of either Be Bop Deluxe or Bill Nelson.

I have now.

That solo is fantastic; controlled, perfectly measured but with a bit of "free time", landing on notes that compliment the chord etc etc. Wow.

Many thanks for posting

[cherryowen]

popeyewhite said:

It's subjective, obviously, and involves actually playing a tune rather than just stringing notes together as quickly as possible or showing off how adept you are at making extemely complex guitar work look easy. Now don't get me wrong - there's nothing wrong with fast guitar work and shredding - it has it's place, but a cacophony is always just round the corner, and personally I'd prefer something considered, tuneful and played to draw the listener in, take the listener on a journey if you will, rather than try to impress. Also the dog whines when something screechy, long and technical is played. It's only a poodle, but poodles have feelings too.

HTH.

Mmmm. Good points.

IIRC, Gary Moore once commented on the playing of Vai and Satriani as (and I may paraphrase, as I read it in Guitar World magazine some 25 years ago) "just a load of scales played fast".

A viewpoint which has some merit, but there are examples out there that are exceptions to the thinking that shred has no soul / feel / emotion. Vai's Blue Powder is a bit of a modal workout, but the closing bars from 3:15 on are wonderful, expressive guitar work. Marty Friedman did some astonishing work as a member of Megadeth, but his leads on Hangar 18 were perfect combinations of speed and feel. Similarly, Satriani's lines on Always With Me, Always With You are fantastic (as is his left hand fretting for the opening chord )

[cherryowen]

Very Stevie Ray tones

[cherryowen]

Yesterday, Mrs O had an appointment at the hairdressers so, in the absence of anything else to do, I watched a programme I recorded a few months ago called, 'Great Guitar Riffs at The BBC'. amongst stuff everyone has probably seen before like Hendrix and Cream etc. was this:-

Dave Evans, "Stagefright"

Never heard of the guy, but that is some fearsome fingerpicking skills!