My Seven Favorite Guitar Solos

As guitar solos seem to be a dying art form as of late, I thought I'd do my part to reinvigorate interest in the craft by enumerating for my readers my six all time favorite guitar solos captured on recording. Now remember, these are my favorites. They are not necessarily the most important or creative or skillfully executed. They are merely my favorties. You'll find no Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai or Eddie Van Halen on this list. Here goes:

7. Song: Just/ Band: Radiohead/ Guitarist: Johnny Greenwood
This is a guitar solo which begins with feedback rather than ends with feedback. A creative little twist. While this solo is not too long, it is perfectly executed and compliments the song. It just rocks, that's all.

6. Song: Umass/ Band: Pixies/ Guitarist: Joey Santiago
This solo sounds like a freightrain full of scrap metal crashing through a garbage truck factory.

5. Song: Voodoo Chile/ Artist: Jimi Hendrix
The Picasso of electric guitar's finest moment?

4. Song: When I Go/ Band: Over The Rhine/ Guitarist: Paul Moak
The solo comes in about 5:20 into this live recording of OTR's "When I Go". Moak is not even really in teh band. he's merely a hired hand, but this solo is one of the greatest I've ever heard. It is visceral and muscular and I love that you can hear the buzz of the amp and the screech of the strings. It ends in a sputtering of feedback. Nearly Perfect in every way.

3. Song: Groaning the Blues/ Artist: Eric Clapton
This solo is on the last track of Clapton's from the cradle. Clapton has always been a minimalist with respect to guitar work and this solo is no exception. He mostly just plays one string. One sustained bending note that can bring you to tears. You must check it out. It makes me want to give him a hug.

2. Song: Sympathy for the Devil/ Band: The Rolling Stones/ Guitarist: Keith Richards
This is what rock and roll is suppose to sound like. Wow.

1. Song: Love is Blindness/ Band: U2/ Guitarist: The Edge
Some guitars gently weep. On this track, the Edge's guitar swallows a bottle full of perscription pills and slides down into the bath tub in despair. This is what a breaking heart sounds like. I challenge you to find another sound as expressive as this one in the entire vocabulary of modern electric guitar work.

If you've got a comment or a favorite or two of your own, be sure to comment here. I'd love to hear what you think.

Something I read today...

The initiative of the saint is not towards self-realization, but towards knowing Jesus Christ. The spiritual saint never believes circumstances to be haphazard, or thinks of his life as secular and sacred; he sees everything he is dumped down in as the means of securing the knowledge of Jesus Christ. There is a reckless abandonment about him. The Holy Spirit is determined that we shall realize Jesus Christ in every domain of life, and He will bring us back to the same point again and again until we do. Self-realization leads to the enthronement of work; whereas the saint enthrones Jesus Christ in his work. Whether it be eating or drinking or washing disciples feet, whatever it is, we have to take the initiative of realizing Jesus Christ in it. Every phase of our actual life has its counterpart in the life of Jesus. Our Lord realized His relationship to the Father even in the most menial work. "Jesus knowing . . . that He was come from God, and went to God . . . took a towel . . . and began to wash the disciples' feet."

The aim of the spiritual saint is "that I may know Him." Do I know Him where I am to-day? If not, I am failing Him. I am here not to realize myself, but to know Jesus. In Christian work the initiative is too often the realization that something has to be done and I must do it. That is never the attitude of the spiritual saint, his aim is to secure the realization of Jesus Christ in every set of circumstances he is in.

- Oswald Chambers