I’ve been hearing for a long time now that the guitar solo is dead.

Apparently, while I was eat-ing a bowl of Cheerios in 1990, the solo lost in a fated duel against Kurt Cobain and the flannel-garbed, an-ti-solo axmen of Seattle. In some ways this is true. Had the eighties continued in its blubbering, spurting muta-tion of superfluous and over the top shredding (I’m re-minded of John Carpenter’s The Thing), the listening community may have erad-icated all guitars from the Earth simply out of moral obligation. At the least a shred tax would have been

mandated on all pointy gui-tars with an additional pen-alty fee for double necks.

Yet the question re-mains, Is the solo dead? Well, of course it isn’t. Since the beginning of rock and roll, each decade has had its own unique expres-sion of the guitar solo. Al-though there were some amazing players thriving in the eighties ( Johnny Marr, Robert Smith, Mike Camp-bell), the decade was one of excess, and the guitar solo suffered as badly from that unfortunate malady as span-dex, hairspray, and moonlit Camaros. The shift of ex-pression from the lead gui-

tar was much needed, and I am thankful for it. How-ever, I am equally thankful that the guitar solo is alive and well, even if you have to look a little harder for it these days.

A guitar solo is rarely an island unto itself. I’m aware that there are still millions of Asian teenagers and ado-lescent American rednecks getting off to “Eruption” at this very moment. Some-where, someone will always buy a Joe Satriani record or wear leather pants solely to emulate Yngwie Malms-teen.

Don’t get me wrong—I currently own and still listen

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The 10 Greatest Guitar Solos You’ve Never Heard

Clint Wells

to every record that Steve Vai has released. I’ve been in cover bands for over 10 years churn-ing out GNR and Zeppelin solos week after whiskey-drenched week. Trust me. I get it.

But a guitar solo is at its best when it serves something g reater tha n itself, namely a good song. That’s what makes this list so interesting. These ten guitar solos are only as powerful as the context they live in. I don’t gravitate towards technically profi-

cient guitar play-ing. Instead, I prefer the kind of guitar playing that feels like an extension of the lyric—to have sung all you can sing and helpless-

ly look down at your hands for a new avenue of expression. Prince once said that if you want to understand his guitar playing then listen to Aretha Franklin. That is precisely what this list is about.

Perhaps you have heard the songs on this list. Although most are back catalogue tracks, I intentionally avoided super obscure artists. You likely have records by Norah Jones, Emmylou Harris, and Kiss (if not, you should!), but I doubt you remember the gui-tar solos. It’s okay. I forgive you. Because all that really means is that the guitar players

did their jobs, and they’re that fucking good. So get out your records, or spare ten bucks on the interweb, and enjoy these guitar solos with me. I hope you find them as restful to your ears as I do.

1. Norah Jones“Be Here To Love Me Today”Album: Feels Like Home (2004)

Guitarist: Adam R. Levy

Time: 1:40 - 2:05

Every time I hear Levy’s solo I can’t help but think, “I could probably learn a lot from this guy.” Not just how to play the guitar like a Jedi, but also how to repair an engine, plow a field, or drink really old Scotch. This solo just feels like it is being played by wise hands. Every phrase tells its own story while simultaneously continuing the story of this wonderful Townes Van Zandt lyric.

2. Guster“Ruby Falls”Album: Ganging Up On the Sun (2006)

Guitarist: Joe Pisapia

Time: 2:20 – 2:52

A GUITAR

SOLO IS AT ITS

BEST WHEN

IT SERVES

SOMETHING

GREATER THAN

ITSELF.

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Two words: whammy pedal. No wait, three words: Simultaneous whammy pedals! The “Ruby Falls” solo comes out of nowhere, like a crack of thunder, and is awesomely re-lentless. The highest compliment I can pay to Joe Pisapia is that his solo sounds like what The Beatles would have done with a whammy pedal.

3. U2“If You Wear That Velvet Dress”Album: Pop (1997)

Guitarist: The Edge

Time: 2:32 - 3:19

U2 spent the eighties completely oblivious to their own sex appeal, which just made them that much sexier. In the nineties, though, they knew they were sexy and well, that just made them sexier still, an evolution that underscores the argu-ment that the band spent the eighties fighting excess and the nineties indulging it. Buried in the back half of Pop, U2’s most extravagant record, is this quiet, devastating lounge tune. And buried in this lounge tune is this quiet, devastating solo with infinite de-lay feedback, strange bends, and quirky note

choices. I’ve never been in one of the private backrooms at a gentleman’s club, but I bet this song is currently playing in every single one of them.

4. The Damnwells“I Will Keep The Bad Things From You”Album: Bastards of the Beat (2003)

Guitarist: Alex Denzen [also lead singer]

Time: 2:26 - 2:55

When Bastards of the Beat first came out I was having a drink with The Damnwells’s lead guitar player, David Chernis. I specifically asked him about “I Will Keep the Bad Things From You” and its solo, be-cause it blew me away the first time I heard it. His first response was humorous to me: “That song is on the record?” I assured him it was, and he said, “Oh yeah, Alex just did all of that himself,” which makes perfect sense. Like several on this list, this solo feels like a singer with guitar strings for vo-cal chords, plugged into an AC-30 and, of course, drenched in reverb.

5. Emmylou Harris“Wrecking Ball”Album: Wrecking Ball (1995)

Guitarist: Daniel Lanois

Time: Whole Song

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What, other than great-ness, do you expect to get when you mix a Neil Young tune with Emmylou’s voice and Lanois’s guitar? “Wrecking Ball” is a won-derful example of how the guitar can actually make you feel like you’re on an-other landscape. There is not a single misstep in this entire track. Lanois’s touch is perfect, his tone is other worldly, and that melody is timeless. Enjoy!

6. Andrew Osenga“We Were Sure We Would Change The World”Album: Photographs (2002)

Guitarist: Andrew Osenga

Time: 3:21 – 4:03

“We Were Sure We Would Change the World” features one of the most in-teresting solos I have ever heard. It’s basically a third verse but digs much deeper into the emotion of the lyric. With the help of a memory man and a micro synthesizer, this song finally has its moment of angst and frustration that the verses and chorus hint at but never quite land on. This whole

song slays me, but the solo is easily the most devastating part.

7. Ryan Adams“The Shadowlands”Album: Love Is Hell (2004)

Guitarist: Johnny McNabb

Time: 3:36 – 5:18

For the first three min-utes, “The Shadowlands” is simply a haunting piano ballad. Then, as Ryan sadly croons the titular line of the song, a band creeps in, and McNabb fills out the space of the track with a lovely, warm guitar solo. It’s clean, thoughtful, lyrical, and such a sweet payoff after trudging with Ryan through his beautiful but brutal story. If you somehow merged this guitar moment with any Sade record, you could convince anyone to fall in love with you based solely on neuron synapses in the pleasure center of the brain.

8. Roman Candle “One More Road”Album: Oh Tall Tree in the Ear (2009)

Guitarist: Logan Methany

Time: 2:52 – 3:25

What is the most amazing thing about the “One More Road” solo? Is it that every note is perfect? Is it the warm, raw tone? Is it the fact

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that it takes a song that al-ready tests the very limits of rock awesomeness one step further? No. What makes this solo so amazing is that it was played by Logan Methany, the band’s drummer. This kind of infor-mation sends a shiv-er down the spine of any self-reflective guitar player, but it’s a good shiver and one I appreci-ate. “One More Road” will likely always find its way into every rock mix I ever make for anyone I even remotely care about. That’s how much I dig it.

9. Pedro the Lion“Keep Swinging”Album: Achilles’ Heel (2004)

Guitarist: David Bazan

Time: 1:34 – 2:02

There are many things I love about “Keep Swinging”: the groove, the lyric, the un-usual harmonies. The solo, though, has always stood out to me as the most interesting moment by far. There’s so much space to breathe and it feels so raw and spontaneous, like the guitar is lurching along and all Bazan could do to control it was squeak out these few precious and immaculately placed notes. The solo is an

anthropomorphic audio representation of the song’s main character, which is why it sounds so devastating and perfect.

10. Kiss“Strange Ways”Album: Hotter Than Hell (1974)

Guitarist – Ace Frehley

Time: 2:16 – 2:55

Although Kiss often had a futuristic aesthetic, they are the only band I can think of that has always sounded staunchly seventies. Even when they were making “edgier” music (“I Was Made for Loving You Babe” doesn’t count!) their tones were still wrapped in the fabric of that brown sound decade. “Strange Ways” is the last track from the second (and my favorite) Kiss record, Hotter than Hell. Megadeth’s Marty Friedman once remarked that after 20 years of being a professional metal guitarist, he was still mysti-fied by this solo. It is the only moment where Kiss sounds like the future to me, and the only thing more badass than the solo is Peter Criss’s vocal performance.

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