Favorite Guitar Solos?

On the heels of "when did rock die", I went dumpster diving for this thread.

some of my personal favorites:

Money- Pink Floyd. One of the first solos I wanted to learn how to play on guitar.

Just what I Needed- The Cars.  Short, but brilliant.

My Sharona- The Knack. Still blows me away.

Stairway to Heaven- Led Zeppelin. Timeless and classic.

Free Bird by Allen Collins and Gary Rossington seems to have been overlooked.

Prince   "My guitar Weeps"

@flwino posted:

Prince   "My guitar Weeps"

Yeah, phenomenal playing by Prince on While My Guitar Gently Weeps at the 2004 R&R Hall of Fame ceremony. He's standing in the shadows for most of the song, then steps out in the last third and blows the roof off the place.

https://youtu.be/6SFNW5F8K9Y

@sunnylea57 posted:

Yeah, phenomenal playing by Prince on While My Guitar Gently Weeps at the 2004 R&R Hall of Fame ceremony. He's standing in the shadows for most of the song, then steps out in the last third and blows the roof off the place.

https://youtu.be/6SFNW5F8K9Y

I hadn’t seen that previously, so thanks for sharing it. Wow!

Wait, wha....<puts headphones on, sits at laptop...>

Honky Tonk nighttime man, Lynyrd Skynyrd (Steve Gaines).  Bakersfield, baby.  You can hear him warming up to it....as hard as you can imagine kicking a rock hard cow pie, imagine you were Lee Majors with a bionic leg and with the paddy on a tee.

Crossroads, cream Clapton, the GOAT of rock n roll solos.  The energy packed into this is unbelievable, first solo is the warm up act. The height of the rock and roll power trio.  Think this ain't the greatest rock and roll solo..?   Come at me bruh.

Hendrix, of course.  Watchtower, Little wing, Axis, the inter play of Freedom, Ezy Rider, Straight Ahead from Cry of Love.  The lick of Midnight oil, the power of Voodoo child (slight return) et al, but Power for soul from the band of gypsies, is a seminar, a master class.  I bow to this.

Peg, steely Dan.  For years I thought this was Donald Fagin, but it’s some obscure studio musician I believe.  Clean, tidy, if a little short, effing nailed it.

David Gilmore is a genius melodically.  Comfortably numb is the crowd fav, I also like Mother, which simply hits the right notes, but if pressed, and I’ve owned nearly every Floyd record on vinyl, I think Time.  Among other moments, the simple climb up before the background singers chime in is as as sweet a mood change as as any master could compose.

As a Dead Head, I have to give a nod to Garcia.  As a main act that may have played more live gigs than just about any popular working band, there is an over abundance of material, Eyes jams, Playin' jams, Bird song, true improv.   To put a stamp on it, I'm to They loved each other as Al Franklin is to Althea.  On first listening to this version, I thought, “man, he was on a good one,” but realized it might have gone over my head.  Starts out a little slow, but where the second stanza would be is pure genius, tidy, compact, a little arpeggio....perhaps a little too dependent on the chords in the final pass of the chorus.

A second Garcia solo, forward to hey pocky way (Neville bros cover) from 5-6-1989, specifically the first four or so measures (circa 3:10 mark, gravy afterwards).  Brent Midland was the most talented keyboardist the Dead ever had and he was at the height of his skills.  So much so, that Jerry moved from stage right to stage left to be able to jam with Brent.  I can't imagine what slamming liquid morphine and cocaine into my veins would do to me, but I get a sense after this.  This isn't a particularly stand out solo, rather representative of the late 80's era, and I had the bootleg tapes for these shows as a youth.  That, and I was at the shows in Irvine the previous weekend.

If you talk about pure talent,  virtuosity, melody, Angelo Debarre, Entre Amis, live in Paris.  For virtuosity, melody, pace, this is the cake, no topping it.  This is what Django would sound like it he had ten fingers!

honorable mentions:

Hotel California.

And for nostalgias sake, more Pink Floyd:

Syd Barret, Astronomy Domine, from Umma Gumma

While not a solo, Run like hell, the opening riff, and, well, David is a genius.

Thanks for reading this!  Enjoying my new gamer headphones whilst typing

@jabe11 posted:

Peg, steely Dan.  For years I thought this was Donald Fagin, but it’s some obscure studio musician I believe.  Clean, tidy, if a little short, effing nailed it.

First, it's Donald Fagen with an e.

Second, he doesn't play guitar. At all. He plays keyboards.

Third, Jay Graydon who played that solo is hardly obscure. Two Grammys, twelve more Grammy nominations, and even appeared as himself in a number of Doonesbury comic strips. Scroll down and look at the list of albums he has played on.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Graydon

But I agree that he nailed it. And I do like your other guitar solo choices. 👍🏼

Yeah, Sunny senior moment for me, of course I was thinking of Walter Becker (should I check the spelling before posting this?).  But I acquiesce I have no idea  who Jay Graydon is other than the guy who plays the solo on Peg.