The Greatest Guitar Solo Of All Time.

[CSpenceFLY 1]

A youtube video was posted in the Prince B-day thread that made mention of the Greatest Guitar Solo Ever. I believe the judgement of music is way too subjective to actually make such a claim but post your choice for the Greatest Guitar Solo Of All Time.

If you post a video please post the approx. point in the video where the solo is.

I start with comfortably Numb

Start at 4:30
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cPxKq-gMDo&feature=related

Here's a little Jonny Lang at 4:30 also.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqvYq8LhREU&feature=related

[quade 4]

I kind of have to agree with you on the subjective and how the hell does a person judge something like that.

That said, when something hits me on an emotional level and makes me cry because some guy puts his fingers on the right places of six stings . . . to me that ain't just nothin' . . . it's some kinda magic.

Listen to this; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fk2prKnYnI&sns=em

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[CSpenceFLY 1]

I submit Eddie Van Halen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzla7UlDFJo

Jeff Beck & Stevie Ray

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W-vxNZP2AE&feature=related

[CSpenceFLY 1]

Santana...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pccqV8FyAkY

Eric Clapton

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIBxn8arV3w

Jimmy Page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgA76eq2RTU&feature=related

[PLFKING 4]

  Quote

I believe the judgement of music is way too subjective to actually make such a claim but post your choice for the Greatest Guitar Solo Of All Time.

Agreed, agreed, agreed.

With that said, I'd have to submit Allen Collins' work in the final rip-up on Free Bird, or Carlos Santana's licks throughout Soul Sacrifice.


Don

"When in doubt I whip it out,
I got me a rock-and-roll band.
It's a free-for-all."

[MikeJD 0]

There's definitely a distinction to be made between technical and emotional greatness - it's not all about how fast you can move your fingers. So much guitar work is hugely impressive, but leaves me cold.

It's like vocal prowess. I don't care that Mariah Carey has a five-octave range - I wish she'd stop warbling across all of them and just sing the bloody tune.

For hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck effect, I vote for the guitar solo that kicks in towards the end of 'Just' by Radiohead - not a band known for them. Whole song is great in my book - the guitar solo arrives at 4:15.

[muff528 3]

You've already mentioned a lot of good ones but Paul Cotton's Gretsch on Rose of Cimarron (Poco) is not too shabby. Starts around 2:55

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF91ul0ZR64

[jumpwally 0]

A most excellant thread.....

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FB # - 1083

[jackwallace 3]

Jimi Hendrix, anytime he picked up the axe. His national anthem was the best its ever been done.

U only make 2 jumps: the first one for some weird reason and the last one that you lived through. The rest are just filler.
scr 316

[davelepka 4]

Just a quick note, I was the one who posted the link to the Prince 'Best Guitar Solo of All Time' video, but I wasn't the one who posted it on Youtube, or named it as such. It might be Prince's best work, but not the best of all time. That said, it is good stuff, and Prince is highly underrated as a guitar player.

I don't think anyone can say what the 'best of all time' is, but I recently stumbled onto this one from Stevie Ray, and it's got to be in the running for sure. Fast, slow, quiet, loud and everything inbetween. It's not even a solo, it's a whole song, but the whole thing is pretty much a solo.

Oh yeah, don't click the link unless you have 9 minutes to kill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWLw7nozO_U

[jakee 1,535]

  Quote

It's like vocal prowess. I don't care that Mariah Carey has a five-octave range - I wish she'd stop

Fixed it for you

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[Andy9o8 2]

OK, here's my vote. Duane Allman's solo on "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" at the Fillmore East in 1971. I've heard many of Duane's (and others') versions of this solo, but IMO this one is the best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV8RoNePzfI

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ETA: J'ever notice how the title "Greatest guitar solo ever" appears in YouTube almost as often as "Skydive goes horribly wrong"?

[JohnMitchell 16]

  Quote

There's definitely a distinction to be made between technical and emotional greatness - it's not all about how fast you can move your fingers. So much guitar work is hugely impressive, but leaves me cold.

You nailed it. This thread is like "What's the best painting in the world?" There's too much individual taste involved, all of it valid.

As a kid, I grew up with Jimi, so he's the standard I apply to all others.

Voodoo Chile. The whole damn thing's a solo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMEeJVBhAnQ

[muff528 3]

Another. Moody Blues, Justin Hayward, Tele, Ride My See Saw, 2:45

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOgTNJ7W5qo

[lawrocket 3]

There are so many. And since I'm at work I really can't post youtube links. But here are some of mine in no particular order:
(1) Duane and Dickie trading licks on Allman Brothers' "Blue Sky." One wouldn't think a several minute guitar solo would be good, but this one is. You get this when guitarists are happy.
(2) Mark Knopfler in "Sultans of Swing." The tone. The solo. And those killer fills. Mind blowing! Shows where fingerpicking has some advantages.
(3) Jimmy Page in Ten Years Gone. Check out what he can do when he isn't shredding.
(4) Elliott Randall in "Reelin' in the Years." Guitar solos aren't supposed to define a song. This one does. Without this solo the song is merely good.
(5) Ace Frehley in "100,000 Years." Simple. Effective. Sinister. Melodic. Lyrical.
(6) Eric Clapton in "Badge." It's about the only time I can recall him playing a melodic solo.
(7) Adam Levy in "Give Me One Reason." Nobody's ever heard of him, but everybody knows this Tracy Chapman song. I know it as a guitar gem. Just an amazing bit of guitar work through the whole song.
(8) Tom Sholtz and Barry Goudreau's call and answer solo at the end of Boston's "Hitch a Ride." Goudreau goes. Then Sholtz. Then Both. Then Goudreau. Then Sholtz. Then Both. Gorgeous tone. Great technique. When guitarists mix harmony and melody like this,,.
(9) James Calvin Wisley's guitar solo in "Wicked Game." Guitar solo that adds texture? Yep.

I think the solos I mentioned reflect things I look for in guitar work and solos. Killer tone. Melodic. Not overplayed. With exception of Sultans of Swing none of these are particularly difficult solos or even particularly fast.

Maybe it's because these players all could play the way I couldn't. I could play fast. I could play with some feeling. But I could NEVER play with the humility of these guys who all could put the song ahead of the guitar. (Note Badge is a Clapton outlier in this regard. No, I'm not dissing him!)

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[JackC1 0]

It's an impossible question to answer, there are just too many great guitar players around. Most of them aren't even famous.

Take Jess Lewis for example, she's only 18 and can already out play just about everyone on the planet.

[airdvr 210]

Stevie Ray's "Little Wing" always did it for me. Jimmy Page said that Elliot Randall's riff on Steely Dan's "Reelin' in the Years" was the best he'd ever heard. Too many great axe players to rank.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[freeflynick 0]

I've always loved the Mark Knopfler solo towards the end of Sultans Of Swing - about 5:00 in:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlJxDgONeDQ&feature=fvwrel

Hobbes: "How come we play 'War' and not 'Peace'?"
Calvin: "Too few role models."

[CSpenceFLY 1]

  Quote

I've always loved the Mark Knopfler solo towards the end of Sultans Of Swing - about 5:00 in:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlJxDgONeDQ&feature=fvwrel

[CSpenceFLY 1]

Some Uncle Ted

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jf2dYJQSjI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHGu9P3bquI&feature=related

[cocheese 0]

I was going to say Voodoo Chile.

[DiverMike 5]

Not to derail the pop music thread, but are other genre allowed? I think some of the best guitarist play spanish guitar. Specifically Julian Bream playing Concerto De Aranjuez. Extremely expressive as well as technical.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV8vPE4IAqY

For the same reason I jump off a perfectly good diving board.

[CSpenceFLY 1]

Open to all.

[usedtajump 1]

Of all time? That's hard to pin down but I still like these a lot.

Steve Winwood "Mr. Fantasy" 5:08

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DYC61HzmtM

Honorable mention Blackfoot "Highway Song" 4:22

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy5TIsBNjhE

The older I get the less I care who I piss off.

[CSpenceFLY 1]

You forgot the times.