Favorite Electric Guitar Rock Solos

[Hornbein]

You already know about Crossroads and Red House, so skip those.

Etsushi Ogawa [ 小川悦司 ] I like the way this builds so gradually. You also get to see Senri Kawaguchi wearing a Peter Pan collar.



John McLaughlin -- Tokyo City Girl
I dunno that anyone else will like this but it's my fave. What can you do?



Steve Vai. As extreme as it gets.
Vai

 

[Frabjous]

I’ve always loved Hubert Sumlin on Hidden Charms.
Apologies for it not clearly being rock.

 

[Hornbein]

I’ve always loved Hubert Sumlin on Hidden Charms.
Apologies for it not clearly being rock.

Howlin' Wolf's nose is huge here. Looking at photos it seems to have been very variable in size, from small to XXL.

 

[Frabjous]

There‘s this Prince performance

 

[Hornbein]

Ogawasan resurrects the wah wah.

 

[JT Smith]

Hard to top Cinnamon Girl (@2:06)

 

[difalcojr]

All good. Jerry Garcia. Saw them do this entire album in '69 at the UCSB gymnasium. Memorable.

 

[pinball1970]

Jan Ackerman, Hamburger concerto.
From 29.00-34.07

 

[pinball1970]

He has solos here and there but from 32.00 to the end of the track is great.
A Lute piece follows on, Elspeth of Nottingham.

 

[pinball1970]

Child in Time solo from Made In Japan

 

[DennisN]

Two favorite solos I immediately came to think about...

Lenny Kravitz - Fields of Joy (at 1:53-) (solo performed by Slash)


The Stones Roses - Breaking into Heaven (9:13-)
- I've always adored this solo because I find it very expressive and edgy (or actually solos, because one guitar solo meshes with a second one)


By the way, the song above is 11m 19s long and was the opening song for their second album. Imagine the guts to do such a thing.

 

[DennisN]

And three more which I think would be a crime to not mention...

AC/DC - Back in Black (1:58 -)


Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb (4:30 -)


...and Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) did some great ones too, e.g.

Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing (an awesome live solo, ca 3 minutes long here)

 

[pinball1970]

There‘s this Prince performance

I do not like the solo but I love the track. George's son is playing on this too.

 

[difalcojr]

1967. Monterey Pop. Electric Flag.
Michael Bloomfield, guitar, Harvey Brooks, bass, Buddy Miles, drums, Barry Goldberg, keyboard, Nick Gravenites, vocal. One of the mikes is out, but you can read their lips. Even faster version than on the album.

 

[difalcojr]

Oh, wow, just saw this one too. 1969 Woodstock. Santana. Soul Sacrifice. High energy.

 

[pinball1970]

It's nice to see what he actually does. This guy is good, all parts, All along the Watchtower, Hendrix version.

 

[pinball1970]

It is not a favourite solo but the performance is iconic. Amazing. He goes straight into Purple Haze without tuning up!

 

[pinball1970]

He is playing little bits all the way through here, the song is genius for me. What the hell is it? Reggie Jazz, just brilliant.
Steely Dan, Haitian Divorce.

 

[pinball1970]

It is hard to separate the solo from the track, I am trying to be objective about the solo only.

Goodbye to Love, the Carpenters.

 

[Mondayman]

Too many to choose from. My favorites change weekly. I tried to think back on when I first started getting into guitar and the solos that really hit home.

Since I've Been Loving You - Jimmy Page
Ice Cream Man - Eddie Van Halen
Help Me Thru the Night - Joe Walsh
Rocky Mountain Way - Joe Walsh
Peaceful Easy Feeling - Bernie Leadon
Comfortably Numb - David Gilmour
Time - David Gilmour
Testify - Stevie Ray Vaughan
Lenny - Stevie Ray Vaughan
Nightrain - Slash
Sharp Dressed Man - Billy Gibbons
Cause We've Ended as Lovers - Jeff Beck
Always With You, Always With Me - Joe Satriani
I Remember Stevie - Andy Timmons
Super 70's - Andy Timmons
Ladies' Night in Buffalo - Steve Vai
Flatlands - Guthrie Govan
One of These Nights - Don Felder

 

[Astronuc]

Cause We've Ended as Lovers - Jeff Beck

Definitely! One of my favorites.

 

[Astronuc]

Solo bass - Jon Camp, "Ashes are Burning", Live at Carnegie Hall.1973

Solo starts at 7:22, but it's worth listening to the track from the beginning. They could have shortened the part after the solo by 2 or more minutes. I heard a shorter version of the song during a live performance around 1976. Imagine playing a bass like that for 23 minutes. Camp also uses a bass peddle.

 

[robphy]

Here are some Paul Gilbert instrumentals/guitar solos.

Paul Gilbert - Scarified (start at 1m00s)
Paul Gilbert "Fuzz Universe" Nov.17.2010@Luxor, Cologne Köln
Paul Gilbert - Viking Kong

 

[jogezep]

Alfa Mist - Variables

Dude this guy really knows how to choose his players. If you're into jazz and fusion stuff you should definitely check this artist, who's not only amazing at the keyboard but also one of the best writers that we can enjoy live nowadays. His composition skills, and his ability to lure top-musicians to join forces with him definitely deserve the recognition he's getting as a sort of new-wave jazz promise. Anyway, as a guitar player I tremendously enjoyed the solo from the song "Variables" of his last album (which, incidentally, is named the same). Jamie Leeming did an astounding work there. I got lucky enough to see them play this one live, and it felt awesome, though it can really be felt that they are constantly reviewing their musical choices and just playing as it feels in the moment, since it was radically different from the studio version. Anyway, here's my two cents:

 

[robphy]

Here are some early Yngwie Malmsteen instrumentals/guitar solos.
Yngwie was 20 years old in early 1984.

It was probably at this time that "neoclassical metal" took off
(even though there was Randy Rhoads on Ozzy's Revelation (Mother Earth) - 1980 (solo at about 4m55s)
and Uli Jon Roth on Scorpions - Sails Of Charon - Musikladen TV (16.01.1978) and others).

(1983) Steeler -04- Hot On Your Heels (HD) - audio only ( has a 3m40s long solo intro )


(1984) Kree Nakoorie | Alcatrazz 1984 - solo starts around 2m35s



(1984) Film -- Alcatrazz with Yngwie -- Evil Eye -- 28 January 1984
Evil Eye appeared in his first solo album Rising Force (late 1984)
start at 26s


The first Yngwie video I saw:
Yngwie Malmsteen - I'll See The Light Tonight (1985 Video) - solo at 2:35

(the singer in the music video is Marc Boals, but the vocals is from Jeff Scott Soto... see the live version below)

Here's a live version where you can see him play the Yngwie Malmsteen - I'll See the Light Tonight solo
My favorite:
Malmsteen - 09 Soldier without faith - Marching out - 1985 (start at 1m16s) (solo at 3m10s)

(cover of Soldier Without Faith by Classic Solo Spotlight )​

 

[DennisN]

I heard this song for the first time today and was completely blown away.
Some can play the guitar (like me) and some can play the guitar really good (like pros and studio musicians).

But after that there is a level which only very few people reach.
At that level they don't just play, they bond with the instrument.

Like Stevie Ray Vaughan does here, live.
(and almost the entire song is like a guitar solo, haha).

Warning: The video may make you reconsider what a good guitarist sounds like .

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Texas Flood (Live at the El Mocambo)



And a funny comment on youtube under the video :

As an avid guitarist for the better part of 20 years, this video has inspired me to pursue a career in cooking.

 

[Pythagorean]

David Gilmour's work on Dogs (Pink Floyd)

 

[Hornbein]

I heard this song for the first time today and was competely blown away.
Some can play the guitar (like me) and some can play the guitar really good (like pros and studio musicians).

But after that there is a level which only very few people achieve.
At that level they don't just play, they bond with the instrument.

Like Stevie Ray Vaughan does here, live.
(and almost the entire song is like a guitar solo, haha).

Warning: The video may make you reconsider what a good guitarist sounds like .

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Texas Flood (Live at the El Mocambo)



And a funny comment on youtube under the video :

Reminds me of this.

Red House (Live At New York Pop Festival, Randall's Island)​

If there is ever a best eguitar solo poll this one would get a lot of votes.

 

[DennisN]

Reminds me of this.

Red House (Live At New York Pop Festival, Randall's Island)​

Jimi Hendrix is without a doubt in that upper echelon of guitarists I talked about in my previous post .

I was actually a latecomer when it comes to Hendrix (because early in my life I listened mainly to pop, synthpop and new wave (in the 1980s)). But after I started playing guitar I soon got into rock, and finally I was ready for Hendrix. And then I understood and saw the light .

 

[Hornbein]

Too bad about the title. I've skipped over the offensive part to the amazing solo.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

 

[DennisN]

That is simply amazing!
And playing with a slide in that way is far more difficult than it may look like.

I know from experience, I can play very basic slide, but not more. It's a real challenge, you have to think in a different way than when you play with just the fingers on the frets (you typically get less freedom to move around on the fretboard with a slide, (edit: AND you often have to make sure you end the slide movement at "exactly" the right position on the string (typically right above the fret), otherwise it sounds out of tune, gosh, it's a bit like violin ).

I am also in awe of those guitarists who can play with slide AND their fingers by quickly switching between playing modes. I so wish I was able to do something like that.

An example is in this phenomenal song, Love Spreads by the Stone Roses (UK), where the intro features exactly that (ok, it's not Hendrix/Stevie Ray Vaughan, but the guitars in this song are just awesome, in my opinion )

Here's one guy on youtube who can play the intro (I wish it was me ):

Ben Hanson Guitar - The Stone Roses - Love Spreads - Guitar Intro:

 

[pinball1970]

No quarter, Led Zeppelin. Was not keen on them live but this was better than the studio and the solo is fantastic.

 

[pinball1970]

The guitar solo starts with the Purple intro 8.15. This track is carnage. It also shows the greatest rock drummer for me ever, following the leads.

Purple were so much better live, very rare for a rock band.
Probably because they were so above everything else in terms of playing in one band.

ELP, YES absolutely outstanding but for what they did, Purple number one.

 

[BillTre]

I always liked these guys since their first album came out, but never saw them live ( ).
There are live versions of several tunes on youtube at Alchemy. I like the Sultans of Swing a lot:



Interestingly, after this came out, I got a room mate in Eugene who was on the University gymnastics team.
They liked practicing to music and really liked Dire Straits.
There were guys on the team that could handstand on a skateboard going uphill (zigzaging) for 3 or 4 blocks!