What's Your Favorite Guitar Song/Solo?

Jimi Hendrix's "Bold as Love," always does it for me.

The opening riff to Dire Straights " Money for Nothing" is one of those.

Anything Dick Dale: https://youtu.be/XnreN5LsjvQ

Hendrix Machine gun

Or Man...Or Astro-Man? https://youtu.be/6syxA0ThR5Y

Not a big G n R fan but Paradise City's solo is pretty epic.

I have it narrowed down to a few SRV songs, I may be able to pick the best, give me a few more years

David S. Wallens wrote: Or Man...Or Astro-Man? https://youtu.be/6syxA0ThR5Y

I liked that.

BlueInGreen44 wrote:

David S. Wallens wrote: Or Man...Or Astro-Man? https://youtu.be/6syxA0ThR5Y

I liked that.

They really do rule. Back in the day their equipment trailer carried a GRM sticker.

David S. Wallens wrote: Anything Dick Dale: https://youtu.be/XnreN5LsjvQ

That's the song I was going to post up. I often go running with The Very Best of Dick Dale coming through the headphones and he's come close to killing me a bunch of times.

Here's Eddie Van Halen jamming at his house in 1974:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl-Y3nx4xsw

Speaking of Eddie, I thought that the POV on this was just too cool: https://vimeo.com/120203163

Stevie Ray Vaughn: Texas Flood

For me it's gotta be the live, long version recorded at the El Mocambo night club in Toronto, 1983. SRV at his best technically and artistically.

I've watched or listened to this hundreds of times over the past 30 years (just did again), and I smile and shake my head in amazement every time. He really was that good. Check out the YouTube video link below. Yeah, he really did make all those sounds. He was the best.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tWLw7nozO_U

EVH's solo in the song "Humans Being" from the Twister soundtrack is pretty damn spectacular.

I'm pretty deeply attached to SRV's instrumental version of Hendrix's Little Wing. Kinda covers the whole range of emotion he could bring out in his playing.

Doc Watson's "Black Mountain Rag"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdUrg2Cqxdw

Duane Eddy's "Rebel Rouser"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8uZutr1avs

Jimi Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edeZqCchIYg

My tastes are too diverse to pick just one. The 3-part solos on No More Lies or Dance of Death by Iron Maiden are favorites. The outro solo on Comfortably Numb... Prince's outro solo on that "all-star" live version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Give me time and I could add a dozen more...

Toebra wrote: I have it narrowed down to a few SRV songs, I may be able to pick the best, give me a few more years

For SRV, for me, it would be Riviera Paradise.

For Rush, it would be the solo at the end of the live version of Bravado

Greatest solo ever, yea Comfortably Numb

There's more, but I need to get some work done.

Kirk Hammett pretty much kills it in the solos in Unforgiven 1 and 3..

it's not a solo, but my all time mostest favorite guitar moment of all time starts at the 3:10 mark in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7Z8Ww1EmMk

The one and only Eddie Van Halen:
Eruption: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI7XiJgt0vY
Panama: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-NshzYK9y0
Little Dreamer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbixKDRxIz0
Summer Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPUb4Wsi9kI
Unchained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx86CxKYtg0

Randy Rhoads, gone too soon:
Over The Mountain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_d3eAgkmqk
Crazy Train: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcoweoZ6jpM

Jimmy Page, legend:
Heartbreaker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhS6isyG2gk
Since I've Been Loving You: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4THXeOD-Dw
In My Time of Dying: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZgblTKscX0
Bring It On Home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2qHbEriQ6A

That's enough for now.

I am a bit of an odd duck. I am a guitar player who pretty much hates guitar solos. Particularly the really technical ones. Most of the time they pull me out of the melody of the song. Some players just do it because they think they have to, as in "OK guys the song is halfway over, time for me to wank off for a few measures"

I like em short sweet and simple. I think the Undertones nailed it with "Teenage Kicks"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAtUw6lxcis

If I never hear another triplet again I will die a happier man.

That's my main problem with EVH. Many of his solos are indeed heroic, but they're just set pieces dropped into the middle of a song. They could be moved, swapped, or deleted without changing the song fundamentally. He's a phenomenal guitar player but lacks as musician.

I definitely agree that a successful guitar solo doesn't depend on how many notes you can stuff into it.

I've been enjoying Big Al Anderson recently. The two solos in "I Want You Bad" when he was with NRBQ are some of my favorites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-_pcfHGR3U

His live solos are something special though. Rocket in my Pocket with NRBQ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d5Hdqyjj5o and Crazy Like a Fox after he had left the group: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRJxQDxcuHs

I'm rather partial to my little brother doing Amie. Not that complex, but it just sounds really good. (Also different every time) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y0gQy-7zlU

Here he is doing SRV, Allman Brothers, Jimi, Paul Simon, etc. while demoing a guitar we had for sale https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnxwxy8yJWw

Neil Young, Cinnamon Girl.

Sometimes one note is all you need.

Not solos, since they're all instrumentalists, but you cannot go wrong with the Holy Trinity of instrumental guitar: Dick Dale, Duane Eddy, and Link Wray. Sheer perfection, from all three.