Whenever people talk about the greatest guitar solos ever recorded, Guns N’ Roses star Slash is always in the conversation for what he played on classic songs such as Sweet Child O’ Mine, Welcome To The Jungle, Civil War and November Rain.
But what would the man himself name as the best guitar track of them all?
In an interview with Q magazine in the early 2000s, Slash revealed his favourite – Machine Gun by Jimi Hendrix, from the 1970 live album Band Of Gypsys.
The track was recorded on 1 January 1970 at the Fillmore East venue in New York City. In this performance, Hendrix was accompanied by bassist Billy Cox and drummer Buddy Miles.
Slash told Q: “There are so many guitarists and so many tracks that have had such a huge impact and influence on what I do – people like Albert King and Jeff Beck. But nothing beats Machine Gun by Jimi Hendrix – the live version he recorded with the Band Of Gypsys at the Fillmore East.
“That performance by Jimi, it speaks. The solo is his interpretation of war, all this screaming… It’s such a brilliant piece of artistry, such a pure form of expression.
“I first heard it when I was about 13. I was in my bedroom, sitting on my bed – the bottom bunk below my brother’s if you really want to know! It was on the radio and it just killed me.
“I found the Band Of Gypsys album in my mom’s record collection – she had all the really cool stuff from the ‘60s. I must have played Machine Gun five hundred times, but I never tried to learn how to play it. I’ve never been like those other guitar players that have to tear a piece of music apart and put it back together again. With a lot of my favourite stuff, I just like to listen to it.
“When you’re 13, 14, it’s all about discovering your own music. I was getting into Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, Sabbath… AC/DC was a big one. But eventually I went back to all those great records that my parents listened to.
“I wasn’t into the psychedelic thing, all that meandering, self-indulgent shit I couldn’t relate to. But Jimi was just hands down the best guitarist I’d ever heard. And what he’s playing on Machine Gun is not even complicated in a technical sense.
“It’s a very particular language that Jimi is speaking. It’s just pure, soul-wrenching emotion.”
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