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100 Greatest Guitar Solos

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I am sure we will be unanimous in praising this list …

1

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    • It’s from Rolling Stone, so of course it’s bollox.
      And guitar solos are s-o-o-o-o-o last century.

      Les Paul & Mary Ford “How High The Moon at #95.
      I rest my case.

  2. It’s an interesting read with a few songs I’ve never heard. No surprise at the no.1 – I can’t stand it, but I think i’m an outlier. Omissions? The live cut of Lou’s “Sweet Jane”, The Carpenters “Goodbye To Love” and Pat Benetar’s “Heartbreaker” for starters. Several artists where I’d have chosen a different song – BOC’s “Dominance & Submission” vastly superior to “Reaper”.

  3. It’s a pretty good list with a few surprising entries and placements (Firth Of Fifth only at #88!).

    My first thought on glaring omissions is this from Guthrie Govan (from Steven Wilson’s Home Invasion / Regret #9). I love the look of surprise at the end – “yep, nailed it”

    Although, @twang will probably be along any minute to say that its bobbins and really easy to play……

  6. An interesting list, even though the top two are obviously wrong.

    Purple Rain’s solo just goes on too long to too little effect, and Jimi Hendrix does nothing for me – yes, you can play your guitar with your teeth, Mr H, but do you move me? No, I’m afraid you don’t.

    Comfortably Numb should of course be at No 1. It’s the only guitar solo that has ever reduced me to tears.

    • You could objectively level the ‘too long/too little effect’ jibe at any solo. The issue is whether a particular example subjectively moves you; as someone who has witnessed the PR solo performed live in various extended and quixotic ways, it never fails to move me to the core. The CN solo is reliably brilliant, of course, but Gilmour strikes me as having a more studious, intellectual approach as opposed to Prince’s balls-out emotional playing.

    • THIS should be number one.

      I scrolled down past all of the obligatory mentions looking for this one, and when I got to the dullard top ten I couldn’t be arsed to go back through the list again.

      Too much poodle rock widdling. Not very inspired blues selections, some performative obscurities and lots of safe choices.

      I’ve travelled by train from Wiltshire to Plymouth many times, and Caravanserai is pretty much my standard listen for the stretch from Exeter St. Davids out onto the Exe estuary and then to the coast along Brunel’s amazing seaside route.

      When we get to the tunnels through the red sandstone stacks, the opening bass motif of Song Of The Wind emerges like magic in my ears. It’s really hard not to visibly emote as the guitar solo unfolds, and the best experience can be had when the carriage is sparsely populated so that you can unselfconsciously close your eyes and shake your head momentarily as the high notes unfurl, cool and soaring.

      Transcendent bliss.

      Dive in:

    • Every note of this album is imprinted into my DNA – absolutely fabulous. We actually visited a Caravanserai in Turkey on the old silk route, and I played this as we left and crossed the desert like landscape, but I shall now always think of @Vulpes_Vulpes listening when I see a train across the Exe Estuary from Exmouth!

  9. As someone who thinks himself fairly well versed in music, it was astonishing how few of these I actually knew; somewhere between a third and quarter. (Strikes rock from his list of liked genres, in shame.)
    I’m not even that minded to check out the ones unknown, either.

    • You and me both – a number I hadn’t even heard of, never mind heard. And quite a few names I was surprised not to see on the list at all (unless I missed them) – Ry Cooder, Rory Gallagher, Ali Farka Toure, Stephen Stills, Dave Rawlings to name a few. But I guess they’re not really the type of guitarist who throws out extended note shredding solos.

      As previously noted here my favourite guitar solo from recent years is by Duke Levine on Mary Chapin Carpenter’s ‘Between the Dirt and the Stars’

  10. Pretty surprised that Goodbye to love doesnt feature but then again three that I would offer also don’t feature:

    Yardbirds Shapes of things (Jeff Beck)
    Steely Dan – Bodhisattva (Jeff Baxter/Denny Dias)
    John Cale – Gun (Phil Manzanera)

    Also think Glen Tilbrook is a greatly underrated guitarist.

  11. Who knows if this Roy Buchanan solo qualifies as among ‘the best’, but for me it is outstanding. And that Machine Gun solo from Hendrix is also one of the finest recorded (IMO).

  12. No idea about most of them. I would have the intro to All the young dudes and the solo from Rocky Mountain Way in there but, as ever, it’s all just opinions.

  13. I’m cheered by almost any of them that aren’t white dudes playing blues-rock based things that go on for hours.

    So I’m very pleased see King Sunny Ade and Mdou Moctar.

    Also happy to see Prince, Richard Thompson, Eddie Hazel, Wata, Adrian Belew.

    I’d have put Machine Gun over Purple Rain though. The sound of pure, mind-warping electricity.

  14. Like all such lists essentially a starting point for discussion. I do find it funny when posters here slag such lists off before telling us what the number. 1 should be 🙂 You mean your favourite one, right?

    Like others here there are many listed I am unaware of, one of them may become my favourite of all time, you never know.

  16. I was hoping to see No Regrets by the Walker Brothers on there, or Kid by the Pretenders which, like Goodbye to Love is often mentioned on here.

    And don’t get me started on the omission of the solo from Shakin’ Stevens “You Drive me Crazy” which is tremendous.

  18. Prince really was brilliant, but if I see that clip of him playing While My Guitar Gently Weeps one more time… I’m going to be cross. Sorely vexed.

    It’s a great bit of playing, but the way this persists around social media, shared by your barmy aunt’s next door neighbour on ShiteBook or whatever… it’s an excellent example of this:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro

    I wish Prince would be remembered for his own work over this.

      • …with the added subtext that guitar is the only instrument where virtuosity can be observed. Boils my piss, it does. Prince was squeezing fruity and dirty noises out of fairly unsophisticated synths and drum machines for years with breathtaking skill, but it was only when he embraced the fact that he could actually do the same on the guitar (if he felt like it) that he somehow gained kudos from the rock police.

  19. No James Williamson? I’d vote for “Penetration” off Raw Power, or “Death Trip” (really one long guitar solo throughout). He wasn’t a great innovator, but he evolved the type soloing Keith did on “Sympathy For The Devil” into something truly vicious and primal.

  20. No Mike Ronson means no Moonage Daydream which is one of the greatest solos ever played and my personal favourite.

    More obscure but just as good is his solo from I’d Give Anything To See You

    No a bad list in general though, good see Maggot Brain and Machine Gun given their due

  22. No Sparks! ” Never Turn You`re Back On Mother Earth”, ” I bought The Mississippi River”, “Goofing Off”. One thing about the Sparks Brothers, they surrounded themselves with mighty fine sidesmen.

  23. Very little punk/new wave on the list. I would add the guitar breaks is Richard Hell & The Voidoids “Blank Generation” short and sweet and perfect for the track.

  25. No Roddy Frame – We Could Send Letters
    No Gary Dunn – Little Red Bottle
    No Andy Gill – What We All Want…

    …which is by way of saying that any list that doesn’t feature our favourites is clearly a flawed list. Music is subjective so inevitably we have done our own version on here 10 years ago. I doubt many of us have changed our minds.

    Guitar Solos

    • As you say: virtually the same solos, chosen by virtually the same people, approximately ten years ago…

      Does this imply that there have been relatively few solos in the last decade which challenge the old warhorses? Or are we just stuck in the past?

  26. List!
    Now for “normal service” of pulling it apart and questioning why a particular personal favourite is missing.

    Here’s my list of 10, and their positioning in the link:
    * No Regrets – Walker Brothers (Alan Parker) X
    * Dead Flowers (Live At The Marquee 1971) – Rolling Stones (Mick Taylor) X
    * Kid – Pretenders (James Honeyman-Scott) X
    * Boredom – Buzzcocks (Pete Shelley) X
    * Reelin’ In The Years – Steely Dan (Elliott Randall) X
    * Wuthering Heights – Kate Bush (Ian Bairnson) X
    * Another Girl Another Planet – The Only Ones (John Perry) X
    * Another Nail In My Heart – Squeeze (Glenn Tilbrook) X
    * Baker Street – Gerry Rafferty (Hugh Burns) 89
    * Goodbye To Love – Carpenters (Tony Peluso) X

    1/10
    (am I a cloth-eared fool, or just not the Rolling Stone demographic?)

  29. Unless I missed it no Neil Young?? Also (probably less controversial) no Jan Akkerman. Pleased that Impossible Germany in there – a miraculous solo. Should have been at least another half dozen Steely Dan contributions

  30. Trying to scroll through this on my ipad is a nightmare, but I bet this isn’t there..? Wilko’s genius is surely undisputed, none more so than here. I reckon he plays about three notes in total (a guitar player here will tell me)…

  31. Maybe not a guitar solo in the traditional sense, but one of my favourites is the lead out solo by Mark Knopfler on Joan Armatrading’s “The Shouting Stage”. Nothing flashy, just some sublime guitar playing (and very recognisable)…..

    From about 4 mins

    (and yes, I know that I’ve posted this before, but its great, so I don’t care !)

  33. Solos are fine. Long may they be widdled. What has always appealed to me more is the guitar fill. A phrase, or fragment, of melody used to augment a pause between lyrics. Call and response style.

    JJ Cale would do this magnificently, as do the likes of Cooder, Thompson and Knopfler.

    That said, where was Eddie Van Halen’s centrepiece solo from ‘Hot For Teacher’? Tongue rammed firmly in cheek it is nevertheless a phenomenal thing. Swings like an elephants willy, too.

  34. I like long, epic ones, short, economical ones, avant garde ones, bluesy ones. All kinds. It’s not a case of needing to move me, like everything’s got to be about feelings. I’m interested in solos as pieces of art, imaginative inventions. They can be witty too, like Frank Zappa impersonating someone trying to start an engine. Television have lots more than Marquee Moon, Little Johnny Jewel live is hard to beat. Foxhole also. Duelling guitars. The most acclaimed solos aren’t always the best. I think I prefer the playing on Dogs to Comfortably Numb. Earl Slick on Stay really shows how it should be done.

  35. Well I think they got the correct Zappa one. I imagine most FZ fans would accept that it is one of his best, if not the best. It’s certainly my favourite. It is or course, the Zappa solo that doesn’t sound like any other Zappa solo.

  36. Not so bothered by the list, but Keith Levene on “Public Image” is not playing a guitar solo as such, but doing much more than rhythm, supplying the texture and tension of the entire song.

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