The Three Most Influential Guitar Solos On Your Life.

axisus

Wow, lots of things I haven't heard to look up!


EVH - Eruption - unbelievably exciting!

Billy Idol/Steve Stevens - Man for all seasons - just a beautifully composed solo with separate sections and a fabulous clean run.

Dream Theater - Under a glass moon - so inventive, so much going on and the first time I heard the 'warble' sound 

Demonseated

Mick Ronson - Monnage daydream


EVH - Eruption


And third is either White Lion - Wait or EVH - Beat it.

Teetonetal

BB King, The trill is gone
Bon Jovi. Dry county
Kurt Cobain: Smells Like teen spirit.

Veganic

Teetonetal said:

BB King, The trill is gone

You sure that wasn't by Budgie?

Sporky

Jesus & Mary Chain - Cherry Came Too - 'cos it's slow and simple and actually enhances the song
Janes Addiction - Up The Beach, because it has wiggly bits but is still quite musical

Van Halen - Jump - because it drives home the absolute nadir of stunt guitar playing, utterly irrelevant to the song, just egotistical showboating and eclipsed musically by the keyboard solo that follows.

frank1985

SRV's Voodoo Child cover
Kirk Hammet - Master of Puppets - that solo blew me away as a 17 year old 
Slash - Welcome to The Jungle

JezWynd

Interstellar Overdrive - Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett)
She Shook Me Cold - Bowie (Mick Ronson)
You Lit A Fire - Nils Lofgren

Philtre

1. John Cage - 4' 33""
2. John Cage - 4' 33""
3. John Cage - 4' 33""

Placidcasual79

@richardhomer - wis for need your love so bad - I've only recently discovered this piece of music - its sublime, subtle, emotive and sassy. Love it. 

@Demonseated - wis for moonage daydream - I first heard that when I was 17 - that solo and the whole record did strange things to me. 

I haven't gone for my favourite solo's or the ones I think are best - I've picked the three that were most influential - 

1 - live forever, Oasis - I was 15 and had dismissed guitar music as belonging to miserable nirvana fans with sh*t clothes and no girlfriends. Live forever came out and changed everything. It wasn't fas,t flash bollocks like Kirk Hammett - it was melodic and euphoric and was being played by lads in decent trainers. Made it possible for me to play guitar 

2 - maggot brain, funkadelic - I'd dismissed virtuoso playing and long musical interludes as being boring, pretentious posturing - but this spoke to me - its so expressive and soulful 

3 - stir it up, bob Marley - its just sweet isn't it?

richardhomer

Philtre said:

1. John Cage - 4' 33""
2. John Cage - 4' 33""
3. John Cage - 4' 33""

They're all bollocks - you'd have been far better studying Paul Simon's 'The Sound of Silence'.....

RobDavies

Pete Townshend's 'jam' solo during the Live at Leeds version of My Generation.
 
Dave Murray on Number Of The Beast

Gary Moore on Devil In Her Heart

BloodEagle

Kirk Hammet - Creeping Death
Slash - It's So Easy
Ministry - Jesus Buit My Hotrod

english_bob

ICBM said:

Lindsey Buckingham - Go Your Own Way

That has to be one of the most perfectly crafted pop-rock songs ever.

I'm usually struck by the way the drums drive the song- dragging it back in the verses and powering it through the choruses- but last time I heard it it was the guitar solo that got me. So simple, but so soulful and so compelling. Dude should have his picture in the dictionary next to "underrated".

For me?

Gary Moore - Cold Day In Hell. His best? Probably not, but it was the single I heard from After Hours around the time I started playing guitar, and it blew me away. Partly because I hadn't heard Albert King at that point, but mostly because it was right in my wheelhouse- a bit blues, a bit rock, fairly understandable from a theory point of view, played with Moore's signature energy and fire, and just dead dead good.




Longpigs - The Sun Is Often Out (album). Couldn't pin it down to one. This was Richard Hawley before he was Richard Hawley, and it really stood out among the Britpop pack for its guitars. Sure, there were other great players on that scene (Butler/Oakes in Suede, Graham Coxon, Greenwood/O'Brien/Yorke in Radiohead) but I really liked Hawley's playing- crafted but chaotic, modern but clearly rooted in the likes of Robert Quine and all the old stuff that Hawley likes. OK, if you made me pick one it would be "Far", which actually has a solo of sorts. It's making me want a Gretsch.




Roy Buchanan - Hey Joe (Live In Japan). I was gigging with a Telecaster around the time I heard this, and a guy told me after a gig once that I sounded like Roy Buchanan. I didn't, but it made me curious- I'd heard of the guy but never listened to his music. This was the track that really got me. I mean who hasn't heard "Hey Joe" a million times? This version turns the story on its head, and adds so much drama, such a sense of tragedy and regret. The dynamic shifts are brilliant, and the wailing guitar fits beautifully. The chords at the start are my other favourite part- it sounds like the amp is up super loud and the speaker is breaking up because of the bass.

Freebird

The ones that don't happen 

I can just about accept this level of soloing ... 

Vibetronic

good shout whoever said "Wait" by White Lion, I'll have that one too, plus...

TNT (Ronnie le Tekro) - Tonight I'm Falling
Steve Vai - pretty much anything off P&W/Sex & Religion.

duotone

Guns n Roses (Slash) - Sweet Child o' Mine
Ozzy Osbourne (Randy Rhoads) - Crazy Train
Van Halen - Eruption

scrumhalf

Oye Como Va - Santana
Too Drunk to Live Too Young To Die - Alcatrazz (w/Yngwie)
Sidetracked - Freddie King

Rocker

Despite listening to it several times, well dozens actually, I have never found any part of 'Eruption' to be musical. A technique tour de force - absolutely. Causing young impressionable lads to go 'wow!' - again absolutely. But IMHO the jury is still out on the question of it being music....

digitalkettle

Baker Street
Turning Japanese
Kayleigh

I wanted 'Beat It' but I can't say it influenced me

bingefeller

Steve Vai - Tender Surrender
Edwin Dare - Never Had Time
Ratt - Nobody Rides For Free.