Greatest Guitar Solos Ever Vol. 2

2nd in a series of 8,000

Devo, "Beautiful World" - if 'regression'='achieving perdect singularity' then their concept was encapsulated/vindicated with these 20 notes. I like the convulsive-liquidizer approach of the early mutant gtrs as well but this is intelligent and beautiful and how often do you find that combination? Tho some found the later stuff too "not necessarily mutated but beautiful" dir. contradicting their Hendrix (clue) cover there's also great string shit in "Jurisdiction of Love", "Explosions" and "Love Without Anger" as revivifying as aerosol air!

Venom, "One Thousand Days in Sodom" - Funk out! OK it's Sab's "National Acrobat" at double speed but still slower than everything else on the album and thee only cut on 'Welcome to Hell' where you can actually hear individual instruments (or distinct 'chords' for that matter) but as changes of pace go this makes their Satan look a bit less like a Louvin Bros. album cover. Same altar, different blood type -

Bathory, "Equimanthorn" Proof that a)home-studio acts can be cool sometimes b)uses can be found for the high strings in black metal sometimes. This song sounds like all their others (i.e., the mandolin from 'Godfather' stuck on Moby's "1000" then shoved up the tailpipe of some North Korean farm equipment) but it's the one on the 'Gummo' sdtrck so you might know it.

Bulletboys, "Hang on St Christopher" - heh heh! Everyone knows the original is great but the idea of a poodle-rock Van Halen tribute act 'interpreting' Marc Ribot is just too good to resist!

"Party Girl", U2 - everybody who says the Edge has 'no lead technique' should hear this. It's a doozy, really. They should teach it at Berklee. Maybe not, it would be too difficult and all the students would quit in frustration. A veritable compendium of every chordal modal harmonic melodic velocitic device ever effortlessly performed with jaw-dropping technical mastery and stunning dexterity. Go buy a copy now! Pay loads for it it's worth it if you're a gtr player who wants to explore the extreme athletic manual supremacy gone insane!!!

"Lay of the Land", The Fall; "Let Me Entertain You", Queen - I love it when stuff just reaches out through the speakers to throttle you like those lips in 'Videodrome'. ("Throttled by lips"? Whatever, if Videodrome was a real channel I might even get a TV) I also like how Freddy Mercury recommends buying drugs from his road manager by name. Gerry Stickells (who according to FM is the man to see "if you want a high or need a fix") must've been well pleased. Good thing Queen was just an obscure DIY indie band, not a huge supergroup whose millions of fans JUST MIGHT HAVE heard Fred naming his dealer.

Fleetwood Mac, "Hold Me"; Steely Dan, "Don't Take Me Alive"; Roxy Music, "Whirlwind" - OK the main thing that these have in common is that they were all ripped off note-for-note by the Brazen Hussies ("Enjoy yr High", "Salt Leak" and "Sleep it Off" respectively), and in the absence of anybody else reviewing the fucking things another Shameless Bid for Publicity never goes amiss!