top 100 solos...

[m4rk0]

some belong on there, some don't and some are missing!!

ok, this is obviously related to personal taste.
but I still wonder why the most boring solos ever ended up on #6 and 7???

http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/Top-50-Guitar-Solos-924/


1. “Stairway to Heaven,” Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page)
2. “Eruption,” Van Halen (Eddie Van Halen)
3. “All Along the Watchtower,” The Jimi Hendrix Experience
4. “Hotel California,” Eagles (Don Felder, Joe Walsh)
5. “Comfortably Numb,” Pink Floyd (David Gilmour)
6. “Free Bird,” Lynyrd Skynyrd (Gary Rossington, Allen Collins)
7. “Layla,” Derek and the Dominos (Eric Clapton, Duane Allman)
8. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” The Beatles (Eric Clapton)
9. “Johnny B. Goode,” Chuck Berry
10. “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Queen (Brian May)
11. “Crazy Train,” Ozzy Osbourne (Randy Rhoads)
12. “Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers,” Jeff Beck
13. “Sweet Child o’ Mine,” Guns N’ Roses (Slash)
14. “Hot for Teacher,” Van Halen (Eddie Van Halen)
15. “Since I’ve Been Loving You,” Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page)
16. “November Rain,” Guns N’ Roses (Slash)
17. “Mr Crowley,” Ozzy Osbourne (Randy Rhoads)
18. “Whole Lotta Rosie,” AC/DC (Angus Young)
19. “Like a Hurricane,” Neil Young and Crazy Horse
20. “Sultans of Swing,” Dire Straits (Mark Knopfler)
21. “Texas Flood,” Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
22. “One,” Metallica (Kirk Hammett)
23. “Cortez the Killer,” Neil Young and Crazy Horse
24. “Rock Around the Clock,” Bill Haley and His Comets (Danny Cedrone)
25. “Sweet Jane” (live), Lou Reed (Steve Hunter, Dick Wagner)
26. “Purple Rain,” Prince and the Revolution (Prince)
27. “Heartbreaker,” Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page)
28. “Jessica,” Allman Brothers Band (Dickey Betts)
29. “Machine Gun,” Jimi Hendrix
30. “Crossroads,” Cream (Eric Clapton)
31. “Time,” Pink Floyd (David Gilmour)
32. “Are You Experienced,” The Jimi Hendrix Experience
33. “Race with the Devil,” Gene Vincent (Cliff Gallup)
34. “Don’t Believe a Word,” Thin Lizzy (Brian Robertson)
35. “Purple Haze,” The Jimi Hendrix Experience
36. “Besame Mucho,” Wes Montgomery
37. “Sympathy for the Devil,” The Rolling Stones (Keith Richards)
38. “Blue Sky,” Allman Brothers Band (Duane Allman, Dickey Betts)
39. “My Sharona,” The Knack (Berton Averre)
40. “Marquee Moon,” Television (Tom Verlaine)
41. “Hitch a Ride,” Boston (Tom Scholz)
42. “The End,” The Beatles (Paul McCartney, George Harrison, John Lennon)
43. “Whole Lotta Love,” Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page)
44. “Train Kept A Rollin’” (live), Aerosmith (Joe Perry)
45. “Highway Star,” Deep Purple (Ritchie Blackmore)
46. “Dirt,” The Stooges (Ron Asheton)
47. “Off the Handle,” Rory Gallagher
48. “The Great Curve,” Talking Heads (Adrian Belew)
49. “The Messiah Will Come Again,” Roy Buchanan
50. “Beat It,” Michael Jackson (Eddie Van Halen)

 

[m4rk0]

So what would be your top 10?  (or 5)
Comfortable Numb and Mr Crowley would absolutely be in mine (I know such a cliche) as well as Best of Times (dream theater)
let me think about the rest

 

[bagman67]

There are so many wrong answers in that poll that I can hardly figure out where to begin.

Stairway to Heaven at no. 1?  Sure, it's a great song, but the solo is hardly the greatest thing about it.

Eruption?  I can live with that being in the top ten, being one of the most significant gamechangers in electric guitar EVER.  All Along the Watchtower, I guess so, too, since Hendrix belongs up there too, and it has to be for SOMEthing.

Hotel California?  BOOOORINNGG!

Comfortably Numb's first solo, the composed one, is a lovely piece, but maybe my problem here is that I'm expecting these top flight solos to exhibit a little improvisational flair - which actually DOES apply to the ride-out solos on Free Bird and Layla, but not the main ones.  But I agree that neither of the latter tunes belongs in a top-10 list, either.

I could go on at length - spare me from Slash's obnoxious honking tone and metal-blooz cliches in "Sweet Child," for example - but there are some nuggets there that I cannot argue with.  Sweet Jane (live) is awesome, as is "Rock Around the Clock" (the song that has us all on a guitar player's forum instead of a saxophone player's forum).

Bagman

 

[Superlizard]

All LOL'z (or "lulz"):

16. “November Rain,” Guns N’ Roses (Slash)
22. “One,” Metallica (Kirk Hammett)
26. “Purple Rain,” Prince and the Revolution (Prince)
37. “Sympathy for the Devil,” The Rolling Stones (Keith Richards)
39. “My Sharona,” The Knack (Berton Averre)

Fave solos ever?  Tough but ATM (entire song is solo in this case):

1)  Steve Morse - Highland Wedding (very Celtic) *or* The Road Home
2)  Eric Johnson - Cliffs Of Dover *or* Camel's Night Out *or* several others

Stairway To Heaven, Highway Star, Eruption, Hotel Cali, Comfortably Numb, Crazy Train, etc get nods as well

*like to add "Call Me The Breeze" for some fantastic soloing both geetar and piano.
*as well as Icarus' Dream Suite Opus 4 (or something) from Yngwie J. Sweep-pick-steen
* there's too many - my head just exploded

 

[line6man]

For the love of God, where is For The Love of God? :sad:

 

[BassmanAK]

Looks like Gibson had to make sure a Paul player came out on top....
Now, I'm not saying it was rigged or anything like that....
Never.....


No, really.....



I mean it.....

 

[Justinginn]

I actually don't hate that list there. In that order, of course not. But it's got some pretty good solos. Personally, I love Hotel California. It's got the stuff that makes a great solo even if it's not shredding. I'd add some of Richie Sambora's (Bon Jovi) solos live between 92-98. I can't stand his playing other than those few years. Killer tone and great playing other than his flat bends.
I personally don't like much of anything Eddie played.

 

[drewfx]

Looks like Gibson had to make sure a Paul player came out on top....
Now, I'm not saying it was rigged or anything like that....
Never.....


No, really.....



I mean it.....

Then they made a bad choice, as the Stairway solo was played on a Tele.

 

[m4rk0]

For the love of God, where is For The Love of God? :sad:

I agree with Line6joey

 

[ptirman]

So what would be your top 10?  (or 5)
Comfortable Numb and Mr Crowley would absolutely be in mine (I know such a cliche) as well as Best of Times (dream theater)
let me think about the rest

Many of the same solos that everyone else loves (Whole lotta love, etc) but "
Reeling in the Years" is one of my all time favs and would be on my list along with La Grange, Dazed and Confused, anything Jimi off of Valleys of Neptune.

 

[Jusatele]

I would dish Stairway to heaven, it is good, but not that good
and if you really want to say why they are up there, we also should look at what they did to expand the guitar as part of a rock group'
So, why not some Chuck Berry in the top ten
and how bout the outro solo of Purple Haze, he pusses the 1 note solo and even when it fades out you still want to hear it
Stevie Ray needs to be there for pure style and originality, but only once, he gets to repetitive after one song
Layla I can live with
Eddie brought Rock back into the forefront, but he has better solos than eruption, that is a song, a solo is part of a song that adds to the song, it needs to be melodically and harmonically tied to the song.

The problem here is solos are just that, a time for the guitarist to show his stuff, but by all means it does not take away from the song. During the Hair metal days we were all rushing around, polishing off our speed runs and trying to fit as many licks into a solo as possible, and it got repetitive, soon we were making solos out of finger exercises, I listen to so much of that and can pick scales and exercises out all over the place. Because of a lack of new ideas. Fast was considered the key to sell CDs so they went with it. But if you listen back so many of those solos do not fit the song. All genre's of music suffer from this in one way or another, clone after clone try to do what the innovators do and soon you have a jumble of like sounding bands.

So, in order to rate a good solo I would have to see where it differs from the others within it's genre, how harmonically and melodically it is with the song and how original it is,
That puts a hole new spin on that list, It would kick over half off and the ones it puts in would blow your mind. Such as the 6 note turn around lick from the Beatles song "Something".
List such as those you find in Magazines are designed to sell more mags, and to get people talking about them. They are not very well thought out, usually only cover music that is popular or has been popular, and that most 25 year olds and younger have heard. Is there any Roy Buchanan in there? Not till you get to the forty plus count and any Tele player will point to him, your mind get lost in his stuff. And then players like Joe Pass will make you cry listen to him, but so many have never heard of the guy. Chet Atkins and the entire country group are not well taken care of in that list and most of them could out play a rock star any day of the week.
If we put out a true list of the most influential and best solos of all time, I think 70 percent of that list would disappear

But that is just my opinion,and opinions are just that :headbang1:.

 

[Superlizard]

"Reeling in the Years"

:icon_thumright: :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright:

 

[ledzepplin6914]

theres my favorites from the list,

but there were alotta songs that were great on the list but the solos in them were not even close to the best part of the song

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

some belong on there, some don't and some are missing!!

ok, this is obviously related to personal taste.
but I still wonder why the most boring solos ever ended up on #6 and 7???

I thought the same about #7 until I saw the special on Tom Dowd.  It wasn't until then I knew that was Duane Alman.  It's piano rhythm is very dominant for a guitar solo too.

 

[BassmanAK]

Looks like Gibson had to make sure a Paul player came out on top....
Now, I'm not saying it was rigged or anything like that....
Never.....


No, really.....



I mean it.....

Then they made a bad choice, as the Stairway solo was played on a Tele.

Proof that Gibson needs to get their shiznit together....

 

[bbl4ck]

Number 9, no, I mean number 8, While My Guitar Gently Weeps;  The Beatles w/ Eric Clapton
Certainly a true classic that holds its place in time...

However, the new release from Santana; Guitar Heaven, The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time has a version of this song that just blows me away.
Carlos Santana on lead guitar, India.Arie on vocals, and Yo-Yo Ma on cello.
There are certainly some great guitar classics on this album.  If they are the greatest of all time might be debatable.
But this one just rocks!  The first time I heard it, I think I replayed it 10 times.  I would buy the album just for that song. 
Anyway, a great album, but that song in particular deserves a spot in the top 100...
:rock-on:

 

[elfro89]

I'm sure many of you will know what i would choose!

Eruption - by we all know who.
Bark at the moon - Jake E Lee
Turn up the Radio - Steve Lynch
Electric Eye - Glenn Tipton
No Looking Back - Kenny Loggins
Play With Me - Nuno Bettencourt
Madhouse - Dan Spitz
Vengeance - Yngwie Pingwie
Osaka Cool - Larry Carlton
Boys are back in town - Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson

 

[erogenousjones17]

Ahem...Smells Like Teen Spirit?  :icon_jokercolor:

Seriously though, I'd have to add Cherub Rock (Smashing Pumpkins) and Santeria (Sublime), not because either of them are super flashy or technical, but because they are just great solos. They fit their respective songs very, very well. And that's the key for me personally.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Proof that Gibson needs to get their shiznit together....

So when you thought Page was playing that on a Gibson, it was rigged?  When you found out it was a Tele, Gibson needs to get their shiznit together?    :icon_scratch:

 

[TBurst Std]

Here's one to toss in
Parisenne Walkways - Gary Moore