Guitar solo - does the song get better or worse?

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Inspired by a misreading of this thread's title:
Going solo - does the music get better or worse?

This thread is about great guitar solos that add value to the song, and terrible ones that actually make it worse.

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 06:22 (twenty-one years ago)

For example:
Better: Michael Jackson - Beat It (Van Halen)

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 06:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Umm, nah.

― Sasha (sgh), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 06:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Better: Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody & any Ween song with a solo!

Worse: Metallica - Unforgiven. I know that's not a bad solo per se, but Justice and previous solos were much better.

― piers (piers), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 06:30 (twenty-one years ago)

no love for EVH Sasha?

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 06:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Better: Dinosaur Jr. "Get Me"

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 06:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Better: Dinosaur Jr. "Freak Scene"

― piers (piers), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 07:29 (twenty-one years ago)

better: any Richard Thompson song, 'Baker Street',

worse: 'My Sharona'

― derrick (derrick), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 07:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Television's Marquee Moon (the song, not the album)

― new amsterdam (newamsterdam), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 10:01 (twenty-one years ago)

worse: anything pearl jam

― AaronK (AaronK), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 11:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Black Michael Jackson needs to teleport into the right now and murder the False Michael Jackson and reclaim his place. And then he needs to do a song with a Buckethead guitar solo on it. And that would be the most awesomest moment of human history.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 11:55 (twenty-one years ago)

One I'm torn on is Tom Petty's "You Don't Know How It Feels". The guitar solo is little more than drunken bending of one note, and by all (rockist) means, it should suck ass, but no, that guitar so is totally classicker than fuck.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 11:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Dennis DeYoung - Let Me Stand Next to Your Fire. If that song could get any worse, the guitar solo would be the reason.

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 12:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Better: Allman Bros - "Blue Sky"
Grateful Dead - "Scarlet-->Fire"

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 12:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Better: "Hymn For the Dudes" by Mott the Hoople
Worse: Acid Mothers Temple

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 12:41 (twenty-one years ago)

BETTER
AC/DC "Whole Lotta Rosie" "Walk all over you"
Motorhead "Ace of Spades"
The Cult "Love Removal Machine"
Metallica "Seek and Destroy"
Van Halen "Girl Gone Bad"

WORSE
Van Halen "Drop Dead Legs" -- from me, the song ends when the solo starts
Megadeth "Hangar 18"
EMF "Unbelievable" -- not that I like the song that much but it is an awful, hack solo that adds nothing to the song

― cw28 (cw28), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 12:44 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah - any dinosaur jr song is totally better.

rage against the machine goes from sorta boring to TOTALLY OFFENSIVE when tom morello starts on his "no keyboards! i swear! im puuuuuuure!" crrrrrrrazy guitar tone that supposedly makes all the music theory-guitar performance majors at harvard swoon, but really just makes me sad.

― peter smith (plsmith), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 12:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd estimate that 75% of all guitar-oriented rock acts suffer from either too many solos, or not enough solos. I was always impressed by face-melting solos that appeared where you wouldn't expect 'em, i.e. anywhere but heavy metal. The "Beat It" solo was a great example, Vernon Reid's solo on Public Enemy's "Sophisticated Bitch" another. And as welcome as those solos are, equally unwelcome are the redundant solos on metal LPs, simply because they're practically required, and there aren't enough guitarists talented enough to play something memorable time after time after time. Which makes Kirk Hammett's (practically unheard-of) refusal to play solos on Metallica's "St Anger" admirable. I'm impressed! (Not that I have any intention of listening to the goddamned thing, understand.)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 14:38 (twenty-one years ago)

>Which makes Kirk Hammett's (practically unheard-of) refusal to play solos on Metallica's "St Anger" admirable.

He didn't refuse, he got outvoted.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 14:50 (twenty-one years ago)

better:

Led Zeppelin: "Good Times, Bad Times"
Radio Birdman: "Descent into the Maelstrom"
Radio Birdman: "Man with the Golden Helmet"

― Lt. Kingfish Del Pickles (Kingfish), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 15:04 (twenty-one years ago)

even better: Deep Purple - "Child In Time" ...yowzah!

― Paul (scifisoul), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 15:07 (twenty-one years ago)

what about sax solos

― emm, Tuesday, 24 August 2004 15:08 (twenty-one years ago)

"One I'm torn on is Tom Petty's "You Don't Know How It Feels". The guitar solo is little more than drunken bending of one note, and by all (rockist) means, it should suck ass, but no, that guitar so is totally classicker than fuck."
Also see Joan Jett's "I Love Rock & Roll" where halfway through the song there's a wankery guitar solo, but at the end of the song the lead just repeatedly hits one note and that one note makes the song 1287329 times more exciting than the wank.

― Felonious Drunk (Felcher), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 16:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Better - Eric Johnson... without it, we'd have a bass line and a drum line

― Bryan Moore (Bryan Moore), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 17:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Err, Cliffs of Dover by Eric Johnson... SHIT fucked that up.

― Bryan Moore (Bryan Moore), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 17:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Worse: BOC - "Don't Fear the Reaper"

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 17:12 (twenty-one years ago)

better for a moment: "november rain" on account of slash's first solo

worse: "november rain" on account of slash's second solo, about 12 seconds later.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 17:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Isn't it weird that on Johnson's, Satriani's, and Vai's instrumental records, you can actually tell where the solo's *supposed* to be?

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 17:23 (twenty-one years ago)

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