20 Greatest guitar solos of the Twentieth century:
in the opinion of Chris Vreland
1. Machine Gun, Jimi Hendrix, Band of Gypsies; He came, he changed the guitar, he left. The nearly ten minute solo finds him at the top of his form- in complete mastery of electricity as it flowed through him and his instrument. The cosmos, the spirit, the guitar and the amplifier were utterly unified for at least one brief moment.
2-10 in no particular order.
Glamour Profession, Steve Khan (Steely Dan), Gaucho; The most perfect example of less is more. I love this one as much for the space between the phrases, and the anticipation it builds.
The Way That it Shows, Richard Thompson, Mirror Blue; Why doesn’t he do that more often? Definitely king of the “way out there” style. The song should be subtitled Angst and Despair Play the Guitar. Sounds a good bit like Andy Partridge on Books Are Burning (see below).
Books are Burning, Andy Partridge (XtC), Nonesuch; What he plays on his too short sections shouldn’t work, but some how it does magnificently. My opinion? He was too nice to Dave Gregory when he gave him half the space in this one. He’s a MUCH better guitarist than he gives himself credit for being.
That Wave, Dave Gregory (xTc), Nonesuch; A masterful technician, who doesn’t get down to the emotion of a piece as often as he should, as evidenced by what happens when he does. Have you ever been tossed end-over-end by a six foot wave? The solo section of this song recreates the feeling perfectly, so no need to go rushing out into the surf- just close your eyes and tumble.
That’s Really Super, Supergirl, Dave Gregory (xtC) Skylarking; Having gotten ahold of Eric Clapton’s psychedelis Gibson SG, Gregory was determined to record a solo wortyhy of the instrument’s lineage, and apparently paracticed the part for hours before tracking it. There’s a precision and conciseness to his work that really makes him one of the masters of the short form. We may be left to always wonder what he’d do with five minutes, were he given them.
Kid, James Honeyman Scott (Pretenders), Self-titled debut; This is EXACTLY what to do when the band leader allots you fifteen seconds in which to do your worst. In fact, there is absolutely nothing else that could have been played here, but I doubt anyone else would have known that at the time. Perfection in the short pop format.
Private Life, James Honeyman Scott (Pretenders), Self-titled debut; I know. Two songs from the same album? In a row? We were turning left from South Congress Avenue onto Ben White Boulevard in the spring of nineteen eighty the first time I heard this solo. Normally, I don’t retain trivia of that sort from my drug-addled youth, but that moment was different. It was so utterly different from what anyone else would have done, and once again, utterly perfect. He moved to Austin the next year, married a local girl named Peggy Sue Fender, and then one day he was gone. What we could have had....
‘Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers, Jeff Beck, Blow by Blow; A six-minute lyric poem without words. After deleting five or six attempts to describe this solo, I’ll leave it at one word: Grace.
The Great Curve, Adrian Belew (Talking Heads), Remain in Light; Like the giant anthropomorphic Kool-aid pitcher bursting through the wall to satisfy our thirst, so did the incredible Mr. Belew burst through the speakers of college dorm rooms to change the electric guitar, once again. Roget’s suggests the following synonyms for exuberant: exhilarated, buoyant, light-hearted, zestful, abundant, bounteous, lavish, copious, abounding, rich. You can apply all of these at once to this piece without risking redundancy. So much of his work is so ground-breaking, it’s really impossible to place one piece of his work above rest; but this was the first of him I’d heard, and it hit me in such a big way.
Dazed and Confused, Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) Self- titled debut; Admit it- where would rock criticism be without Led Zeppelin? I personally believe, that despite whatever may have been wrong with Led Zeppelin (Robert Plant), they have been the victim of unnecessary revisionist history-- being assigned blame for trends in music that their imitators from the late seventies should really take responsibility for. Although this song was probably the harbinger of what became known as "arena rock," it would have been hypocritical of me to pretend that it's not still one of my favorite pieces of music of all time, and I had to include it out of a sense of misguided justice, at the very least.
In the Dead of Night, Alan Holdsworth, (UK) Self-titled debut; The word I’ve most heard in reference to Holdsworth style is “silky,” which may be a too simple word to describe the fluidity and grace that denote his style. There’s an obvious mastery of technique here but there’s something more, that thing that mere mortals can anly wish to posess. There’s a thousand speed demons who can play every bit as fast, (though Holdsworth is nothing if not fast) but mere notes upon notes are no match for his sense of phrasing, his seamless motion from one note to the next, his way of almost merging the notes together. In a Holdsworth solo, one note simply of becomes the next, because he wills it so. the space between is also wilfully employed here, which is why this particular solo is a favorite of mine.
Empty Arms, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Sky is Crying; There's no end of SRV solos, and the Guitar Slinger thing can get hackneyed after a point, especially with the overexposure we all went through after his death. The thing that brings me back to him again and again though, is his supernatural sense of rhythm. The solo in this song best exemplifies what people tend to overlook-- his amazing right hand work, and his natural feel for the nuances of the beat.
Rock Bottom, Micheal Schenker (UFO), Phenomenon; I don’t normally reserve much space in my brain for so-called “Metal,” but when melody is properly called upon, exceptions can be made, and Schenker is nothing if not melodic. UFO never quite fit the category, anyway. Phenomenon is really just a good-old rock album, and despite it’s utterly inane lyrics, Rock Bottom is a classic of early seventies straight-ahead rock, despite the fact that it wasn’t a giant hit like Stairway, or My Woman From Tokyo. Schenker was obviously not an improvisational player, and his lead here sounds written note for note. The thing I like most about this solo is how well it builds. His sense of building a piece to crescendo is unparralelled, and his vibrato when he holds a note is a thing of constant beauty.
In Memory of Elisabeth Reed, Dickie Betts, Duane Allman, Live at the Filmore East; Do I really need to write anything here?
Heaven's in Here, Reeves Gabrels (Tin Machine); A master of the “ugly is pretty” school. A noisy, almost atonal piece, which would compare to Ornette Colman, if you were to squint.
Waiting in Vain, Junior Marvin (Bob Marley and the Wailers), Exodus; The spareness and simplicity of this short solo has always impressed me. It has a calm, smooth feel to it, like it was tossed off almost flippantly, but this all adds up to just how capable of a player he is. All of Marley's band has more or less been overlooked for their talent by the music community at large, and I've always thought this was a great loss to the collective memory. They might never have individually created any world-changing parts, but together, they were one of the great powerhouses of rhythm.
Dave Levita, The Way Back Home. (Kevin Gilbert, The Shaming of the True); The only real guitar solo on the record, and one of the few places where the album stops to breathe for a few seconds. Closes the album with a very emotional note.
Steve Hackett, The Knife, Genesis Live; Raw and grating, yet somehow smooth. Just when you think he’s going to lose it, he pulls the whole thing together perfectly. Hackett never got a lot of air-time in Genesis, and here he takes full advantage of the window while its open. You can hear him trying to cram a whole career’s-worth of ideas into 45 seconds whenever he does get a solo.
Mike Keneally, We'll Be Right Back, Dancing; A true natural who has that ability to just "be" his instrument. He really runs the gamut of styles as he takes this one up and down through the dynamic range. It starts out slow, clean and jazzy, and ends up just screaming on full distorto-sound.
Don't forget to listen to the Guitar Solo of the Week!