LC Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Here's the link to Guitar World's "50 greatest guitar solos": http://www.guitarworld.com/50_greatest_solos?page=0%2C0 Alas, nothing from Wally. Here's the list without the write-ups (click on the link to see the writer's tidbits with each selection):50) "Shock Me" (Ace Frehley) - Kiss Alive II, 1977 49) "Europa" (Carlos Santana) - Carlos Santana Amigos, 1976 48) "Sympathy for the Devil" (Keith Richards) - Rolling Stones Beggars Banquet, 1968 47) "Jessica" (Dickey Betts) - Allman Brothers Band Brothers and Sisters, 1974 46) "Hot For Teacher" (Edward Van Halen) - Van Halen 1984, 1984 45) "Light My Fire" (Robby Krieger) - The Doors The Doors, 1967 44) "Alive" (Mike McCready) - Pearl Jam Ten, 1991 43) "Sharp Dressed Man" (Billy Gibbons) - ZZ Top Eliminator, 1983 42) "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (Eric Clapton) - The Beatles The Beatles (White Album), 196841) "Brighton Rock" (Brian May) - Queen Sheer Heart Attack, 1974 40) "Reelin' in the Years" (Elliot Randall) - Steely Dan Can't Buy a Thrill, 1972 39) "Cortez the Killer" (Neil Young) - Neil Young and Crazy Horse Zuma, 1975 38) "Whole Lotta Love" (Jimmy Page) - Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin II, 1967 37) "Sweet Child O' Mine" (Slash) - Guns N' Roses Appetite for Destruction, 1987 36) "Black Star" (Yngwie Malmsteen) - Yngwie Malmsteen Rising Force, 1984 35) "Cemetary Gates" (Dimebag Darrell) - Pantera Cowboys from Hell, 1990 34) "Paranoid Android" (Johnny Greenwood) - Radiohead OK Computer, 1997 33) "The Thrill is Gone" (B.B. King) - B.B. King Completely Well, 1969 32) "Machine Gun" (Jimi Hendrix) - Jimi Hendrix Band of Gypsys, 1970 31) "Stranglehold" (Ted Nugent) - Ted Nugent Ted Nugent, 1975 30) "Surfing with the Alien" (Joe Satriani) - Joe Satriani Surfing with the Alien, 1987 29) "For the Love of God" (Steve Vai) - Steve Vai Passion and Warfare, 1991 28) "Mr. Crowley" (Randy Rhoads) - Ozzy Osbourne Blizzard of Ozz, 1981 27) "Pride and Joy" (Stevie Ray Vaughan) - Stevie Ray Vaughan Texas Flood, 1983 26) "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (Kurt Cobain) - Nirvana Nevermind, 1991 25) "Aqualung" (Martin Barre) - Jethro Tull Aqualung, 1979 24) "Fade to Black" (Kirk Hammett) - Metallica Ride the Lightning, 1984 23) "Bulls on Parade" (Tom Morello) - Rage Against the Machine Evil Empire, 1996 22) "Sultans of Swing" (Mark Knopfler) - Dire Straits Dire Straits, 1978 21) "Time" (David Gilmour) - Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon, 1973 20) "Bohemian Rhapsody" (Brian May) - Queen Night at the Opera, 1975 19) "Floods" (Dimebag Darrell) - Pantera The Great Southern Trendkill, 1996 18) "Little Wing" (Jimi Hendrix) - The Jimi Hendrix Experience Axis: Bold as Love, 1968 17) "Cliffs of Dover" (Eric Johnson) - Eric Johnson Ah Via Musicom, 1990 16) "Heartbreaker" (Jimmy Page) - Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin II, 1967 15) "Highway Star" (Ritchie Blackmore) - Deep Purple Machine Head, 1972 14) "Layla" (Eric Clapton, Duane Allman) - Derek and the Dominos Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, 1970 13) "Texas Flood" (Stevie Ray Vaughan) - Stevie Ray Vaughan Texas Flood, 1983 12) "Johnny B. Goode" (Chuck Berry) - Chuck Berry His Best, Volume One, 1997 11) "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" (Jimi Hendrix) - Jimi Hendrix Experience Electric Ladyland, 1968 10) "Crossroads" (Eric Clapton) - Cream Wheels of Fire, 1968 9) "Crazy Train" (Randy Rhoads) - Ozzy Osbourne Blizzard of Ozz, 1981 8) "Hotel California" (Ben Felder, Joe Walsh) - The Eagles Hotel California, 1976 7) "One" (Kirk Hammett) - Metallica ...And Justice for All, 1988 6) "November Rain" (Slash) - Guns N' Roses Use Your Illusion I, 1991 5) "All Along the Watchtower" (Jimi Hendrix) - The Jimi Hendrix Experience Electric Ladyland, 1968 4) "Comfortably Numb" (David Gilmour) - Pink Floyd The Wall, 1979 3) "Free Bird" (Allen Collins, Gary Rossington) - Lynyrd Skynyrd pronounced 'lĕh-'nérd 'skin-'nérd, 1973 2) "Eruption" (Eddie Van Halen) - Van Halen Van Halen, 1978 1) "Stairway to Heaven" (Jimmy Page) - Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin IV, 1971 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marvin Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Diane put up a similar list a few months ago, and like that list, it's hard to give any value to this one when guitarists like Steve Cropper, James Burton, and Chet Atkins (to name 3) are not mentioned. Ok they didn't do any 10 minute solos, but the brevity of their solos spoke volumes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollies65 Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 George's short solo in 'Nowhere Man' is as good as a solo gets. IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marvin Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 By the way, who is "Ben Felder" in song #8? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mannoman Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Marv, I suspect that's Don's doppleganger twin from the other dimension. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marvin Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Marv, I suspect that's Don's doppleganger twin from the other dimension. Thought as much. Thanks Ted! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LC Posted February 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Chill.... The writer had the name correct in the text.... He was probably thinking of Ben Folds or something (we all make mistakes, no?) when he punched in the header info, which I cut-and-pasted. The passage on "HC" is pretty interesting, if you don't know the story:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Credit for the guitar majesty of “Hotel California†is often given to Joe Walsh, who toughened up the Eagles’ laid-back California sound when he joined the band just prior to the Hotel California album’s recording. Actually, the primary guitar heard throughout the solo belongs to Don Felder, who wrote the music for the track and actually conceived and played the solo’s intricate harmonies on his initial, instrumental demo.“Every once in a while it seems like the cosmos part and something great plops into your lap,†says Felder. “That’s how it was with ‘Hotel California.’ I had just leased this beach house in Malibu and was sitting in the living room with all the doors wide open on a spectacular July day, probably in ’75. I was soaking wet in a bathing suit, sitting on the couch, thinking the world is a wonderful place to be and tinkling around with this acoustic 12-string when those ‘Hotel California’ chords just oozed out. I had a TEAC four-track set up in a back bedroom, and I ran back there to put this idea down before I forgot it.“I set this old rhythm ace to play a cha-cha beat, set the right tempo and played the 12-string on top of it. A few days later, I went back and listened to it and it sounded pretty unique, so I came up with a bass line. A few days after that, I added some electric guitars. Everything was mixed down to mono, ping-ponging back and forth on this little four-track. Finally, I wound up with a cassette that had virtually the entire arrangement that appeared on the record, verbatim, with the exception of a few Joe Walsh licks on the end. All the harmony guitar stuff was there, as was my solo.“Then I gave it to Don Henley on a tape with eight or 10 ideas, and he came back and said, ‘I really love the one that sounds like a Matador…like you’re in Mexico.’ We worked it all up and went into the studio and recorded it as I wrote it—in E minor, just regular, open chords in standard tuning—and made this killer track. All the electric guitars were big and fat and the 12-string was nice and full. Then Henley came back and said, ‘It’s in the wrong key.’ So I said, ‘What do you need? D? F sharp?’…hoping that we could varispeed the tape. But he said no, that wouldn’t work, and we sat down and started trying to figure out the key—and it turned out to be B minor! So out comes the capo, way up on the seventh fret. We re-recorded the song in B minor and all of a sudden the guitar sounds really small and the whole track just shrinks! It was horrible, so we went back and tried it again. Luckily, we came up with a better version in B minor.“I kept the capo on and recorded the acoustic guitar through a Leslie. They took a D.I. out of the console and a stereo Leslie, and this got this swirly effect. Then I went back and did most of the guitars, except for the stuff where Joe and I set up on two stools and ran the harmony parts down. I play the first solo, then it’s Joe. Then we trade lines and then we go into the lead harmonies.“Now that I’ve heard it for 20 years, the 12-string part sounds right to me, but it’s still not as nice as the E minor version we did. And even when we’d finished the song and made it the title track, I wasn’t convinced that it should be our single. I thought it was way too long—twice the normal radio length—and sort of weird because it started out quiet and had this quiet breakdown section in the middle. I was very skeptical, but I yielded to the wisdom of Henley.†Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marvin Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 I think that most of that Felder quote is taken from Don's recent book. If you have heard the demos / outtakes of the song in the Em key, you'll know that it sounds incredibly different, and much more vibrant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BadfingerBarb Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 I've always been fairly indifferent to The Eagles. What I did like about them was Don Felder. The manner that Henley and Frey treated him was inexcusable. Where can I find the demo for "Hotel California"? People love lists but at the end of the day they're pretty meaningless. There are a lot of Raspberries solos I love but my favorite solo from Wally is on "Come Back" by Fotomaker. The Beatles' "Something" and the end solo on Badfinger's "Meanwhile Back at The Ranch/Should I Smoke" are also favorites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Nivan Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 #48 should be higher. Really."K" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Mc Carthy Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 I cant believe Randy Bachman is not on the list ! This guy can play any style of music ! What about the solos in American Woman and Roll on down the Highway AND listen to the end of Gimme your money please AND ! The ending of Blue Collar and Welcome Home They are incredible Jazz licks ! C MON ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMan Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Speaking of Jazz licks.....how about "Undun"? That is such a great tune! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelley Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 quote from Highwayangel Quote:I cant believe Randy Bachman is not on the list ! This guy can play any style of music ! What about the solos in American Woman and Roll on down the Highway AND listen to the end of Gimme your money please AND ! The ending of Blue Collar and Welcome Home They are incredible Jazz licks ! C MON !I agree...He was awesome...I love BTO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Mc Carthy Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Hey Gman undun is a jazz rock masterpiece When Randy showed Burton the chords for the song Burton said What ! how can i put lyrics to this ? There are to many chord changes But somehow he wrote the lyric and what a nimble vocal performance to go together with Randys super jazzy riff They found the perfect balance Its one of my favorites thanks Gman i am so uptight he is not on that list son of a gun ! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny S. Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 OMG Page? Stairway To Heaven #1??? Give me a friggin break!That is so lame...and Guitar World magazine polled this???And since we're talkin Eagles, I wouldnt go see them for FREE without Don(Ben)Felder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Carmen Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Umm......Does the name Jeff Beck ring a bell? How can you possibly compile a list of great guitar solos and leave out Jeff Beck?????? Oh, wait, I know how. The dolts who compiled the list are 23 years old, that's how.These lists are so ridiculous. What was the criteria? Fastest solo? Most notes crammed into 8 bars? Loudest amp? Technical difficulty?Or was it something like "Most awesome, after I copped a buzz, dude!"How about solos that are "memorable". Jeff Beck did more with four notes on "People Get Ready" than most of these guys will ever do. There are so many great players who've done WAYYYY better solos than a lot of these it's just silly. How about Albert Lee? And Dave Edmunds, George Harrison, Paul Kossoff, Pete Townshend, Jeff Baxter, Lenny Kaye and Les Paul?Steve Lukather could shred most of these guys in his sleep. So could Mike Landau. And how about Mike Campbell and Wally Bryson?Clapton is a fine technician, but he's never played a single bar that's "moved" me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Mc Carthy Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 Guitar World magazine Go back to the drawing board ! Why dont they ask Eddie Van Halen When BTO toured with VAN HALEN In the 80s Eddie was mesmerized by the talent of Randy Bachman that he asked him to show him a thing or two YES ! Eddie was in AWE of Randy ! SON OF A GUN ! Wake up Guitar World magazine ! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMan Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 Just as Jimi Hendrix was in awe of Terry Kath. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMan Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 "Umm......Does the name Jeff Beck ring a bell? How can you possibly compile a list of great guitar solos and leave out Jeff Beck??????"I agree 1000% Eric!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Mc Carthy Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 Hi Eric and YES ! Beck too Thanks Eric I hope whoever rates magazines leaves GUITAR WORLD off the list ! AND Gman another great example Terry Kath was incredible too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny S. Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 Jeff Beck did more with four notes on "People Get Ready" than most of these guys will ever do. I Totally agree with that statement.Another great example of "taste", not speed, nor level of difficulty, one solo that always moved me was The Late Hiram Bullock, on Sting's version of Little Wing (Nothing Like The Sun Album)..Tone, texture,FLAVOR...listen:at 2:06...very "Beck-ish" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrWoEjo-SIE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny S. Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 I Loved Terry Kath's (Singing)VOICE too... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Mc Carthy Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 Thats the problem Eric 23 year old kiddies are not an authority on legends And all the other names you mentioned are remarkable talents that were ignored including our hometeam hall of famer Wally Bryson I get goosebumps listening to his unique sound and style Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LC Posted February 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 Not to defend Guitar World (no connection to them whatsoever), but this kind of list is meant to do just what it's doing: get people talking, stir up the pot, and have a little fun... oh, and sell a few magazines (or Web ads) too. But we all know it's subjective as heck. Every one of us could come up with our own list, and none of our lists would match -- although... I bet our lists would be better. Personally, I thought it was a crime to omit George Harrison.... The only Beatles entry was a Clapton solo? That's sinful, considering George's impact. The list-makers obviously gravitate toward volume and speed rather than style. So yeah, my list would have Harrison. I've always liked those short but powerful solos in "All My Lovin'," "Nowhere Man" (as H-65 noted), and "Something." And how about Paul McCartney's solos in "Taxman" and "Ticket to Ride," or John Lennon's on the single release on "Let It Be," or the Harrison/Lennon/McCartney solos on "The End"? I know I'd have a Lindsey Buckingham solo on my list (maybe even "Go Your Own Way," or something like "I'm So Afraid"). And definitely some Wally licks. And I'd have Jeff Beck and Terry Kath too (I love early Chicago), among others. And how can you leave out Pete Townsend? Also, if I had done the list, I'd have said: Make a separate list for blues guitarists, because you can't just sample a couple of 'em within a mainly rock'n'roll list. It's not fair to blues players, or to the omitted rock'n'rollers. So... yeah, the list is just a list.... But isn't it fun to dissect it? Speaking of fun, check out this collage of Beatles guitar solos, all played in one video by Mateus Schaffer. It's very entertaining... http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-ZQ8YOtudPcE/mateus_sch_ffer_11_beatles_guitar_solos/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollies65 Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 Ten great guitar solos'Baby's On Fire'...Robert Fripp [brian Eno]'Hurricane'...Neil Young'Nowhere Man'...George Harrison'Reelin In The Year' Jeff Baxter, and a great player whose name eludes me right now.'Another Girl, Another Planet'...The Only Ones'Somebody Loan Me A Dime' Boz Scaggs [Duane Allman]'Countdown'...Lindsey Buckingham'Jack The Ripper'...Link Wray''Train Kept A Rolling'...Yardbirds [Jeff Beck]'Green Onions'...Booker T MGs..[steve Cropper]Any James Burton, Tony Hicks, Wally Bryson, Glen Campbell, Mick Taylor...[i'll take Keefs riffing and fills over his solos].These are not the 10 greatest...but I'd take em over what's on Guitar Players list. Anyday. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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