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The 20 Greatest Guitar Solos Of All Time
Guitarist magazine, Tue 22 Mar 2011, 5:05 pm GMT
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Jethro Tull - Aqualung (Martin Barre)
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Manic Street Preachers - Motorcycle Emptiness (James Dean Bradfield)
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Michael Jackson - Beat It (Eddie Van Halen)
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Gary Moore - Still Got The Blues (For You)
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Led Zeppelin - Since I've Been Loving You (Jimmy Page)
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Dire Straits - Sultans Of Swing (Mark Knopfler)
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The Eagles - Hotel California (Joe Walsh/Don Felder)
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Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower
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Steve Vai - For the Love Of God
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Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
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Megadeth - Tornado Of Souls (Marty Friedman)
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Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird (Gary Rossington/Allen Collins)
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Led Zeppelin - Stairway To Heaven (Jimmy Page)
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Dream Theater - Under A Glass Moon (John Petrucci)
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Dream Theater - Hollow Years (John Petrucci, Live At Budokan)
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Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb (David Gilmour, Pulse: Live)
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Guns N' Roses - November Rain (Slash)
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Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine (Slash)
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Van Halen - Eruption (Eddie Van Halen)
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Alter Bridge - Blackbird (Mark Tremonti/Myles Kennedy)
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This, ladies and gentlemen, was the moment that the young Edward Van Halen kicked the doors down and announced the arrival of a new force that would have as much impact on a generation of guitarists as Jimi Hendrix did ten years earlier.
It's certainly been covered a more than a few times over the years, but the original remains a staggering showcase of the instrumental prowess of one of the handful of guitarists who, hyperbole aside, genuinely did change the face of electric guitar playing forever.
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User comments (13)
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dimebag is probably one of the lesser REALLY technical guitarists (if you compare with the likes of friedman and vai) but the guy blended technique with feel like no one else did!! i'm no metal head (i still stick to soundgarden, nirvana and beatles) but seriously, listen to the solo on "floods".....makes me cry.......my God this list is screaming out for dimebag !
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i understand the list has been determined by not just variables such as guitar techniques and skills, but also the solos' feel, appropriateness and acceptability.....so my questions is, where's dimebag in the list?? and seriously tremonti as number 1? i acknowledge that blackbird is a masterpiece (coming from very unbiased terms) and tremonti is amazing but the solo is far from being a number-1 SURPASSING the others in the list !!!! it introduces itself in a most typed fashion, remains on a predictable scale and has no awe factor at all....some may argue it sticks to the song's feel but slash did much more in this regard (not saying slash should've been number 1). all i'll say is that it's a very courageous move to put this solo at number 1 (maybe 20 years later when this song becomes a classic, people will sneer and defend it) but i'll still say this DOES NOT DESERVE to be a number 1 !! and once again, where's dimebag????
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Wow, how old were the people that voted?
There's a few great solos here but the top 12 - gilmour and page aside - really don't cut it.
Here's some great solos:
Frank Zappa - Zoot Allures, Black Napkins
Jeff Beck - Where Were You, Goodbye Porkpie Hat
Roy Buchanan - The Messiah Will Come Again, Roy's Bluz
All have brilliant teachnique and genuine emotion. Listen to them and then tell me I'm wrong
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Let’s have a shot at Pantera (formed 1981)???? It’s like Alter Bridge (formed 2004)???????? It is funny how rock (and art in general) chronologies and influences get turned upside down and inside-out by newbies on the scene (whatever art scene it is) who reference their own (much) later times as (erroneously) original, especially here, when this solo came over thirty years earlier than Alter Bridge... incredible how dense we can be as newbies… but it is interesting how ‘tame’ the earlier works seem, after they’ve been embellished upon by following artists; what is lost is the context and impact the original had… I hear the same thing about many electrifying works (for their time), the context and impact is lost amid myriads of imitations and copycats and technical (rather than artistic) improvements… it is what academia does with art – technically takes an original concept to it’s ultimate commercial end, which is what Pantera and Alter Bridge did with this solo, one a decade later, the other over three decades later… incredible how as newbies we have our chronologies so out of whack…
Ted Nugent’s ‘Stranglehold’? Four years later. Frampton’s – two years later. Even two years in the 60’s was like two centuries, rock music speaking. That newbies can’t differentiate between 1971 and later years is a tribute to 1971, and not, for example, 2004…
Bark at the Moon and Dio? 12 years later…
What I think is going on is whatever a guy hears when he’s 14 constitute his greatest moments in rock… for me it was Jimmy Page’s Dazed and Confused, which was like something from outer space at the time, and technically light-years beyond anything else (barring King Crimson); it was the first time I thought 'true virtuoso' in rock guitar (barring Hendrix)… -
Yowsa a guitar solo list without Mick Ronson or Rory Gallagher or even Frank Zappa c'mon..
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Are you kidding me??? ever heard of Ted Nugent and Stranglehold? or how bout Peter Framptons Live "Do you Feel Like We Do" to name two. What eva.
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Blackbird is great, my only problem with the solos on ABs albums (I'm still callin' 'em albums and I always will dammit!), is that I can't hear them, push up those faders come solo time Mark! Seriously though I am a big fan and they'll be playing my home town in less than two weeks so I'll be hearing it live! I missed the voting so here are my votes: #1 tie Jake E. Lee's solo(s) on Ozzy's "Bark at the Moon", and Vivian Campbell's on Dio's "Rainbow in the Dark", these two solo's still set my heart on fire every time I hear them. Oh, and Adrian Smith pulled out a couple of stunners on "Isle of Avalon", and "Coming Home" on The Final Frontier, and check out Davey on "Coming Home" there's some Hendrix possession going on there!!! Thanks for keeping the solo alive boys!
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I've never heard of the winning song either, and I didn't know Hollow Years even had a solo!
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That is one damn lame solo! Even given that I dont like maybe half of the songs or solos in the shortlist, that one doesnt compare in comparison to everything else on the list. Average metal solo and thats if I'm feeling kind
And the song? Its like Alter Bridge very cynically combed through the structure and feel of Pantera's Cemetery Gates and said "lets have a shot at that". Just as cheesy but without the flair or any kind of energy whatsoever
Pile o crap -
What a load of over-wrought, widdly knob-waving. Couldn't hold a candle to Gilmour, Hendrix, Page et al...
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heneverwrote
19 weeks ago.