Idolator

now and forever, the 8.18.88 bootleg of Prince doing "Just My Imagination" at an afterparty in Amsterdam; the Velvet Underground's "What Goes On"; Yo La Tengo's "Pablo & Andrea"; Funkadelic's "Get Off Your Ass and Jam"; Young John Watson's "Space Guitar"; Buzzcocks' "Boredom"

my two, Sweet Child and One are already at the top of the list...I'm happy.

No "Jessica"? No Dick Dale?

Thin Lizzy's "Emerald" from Live and Dangerous (overdubs or no), Slave's "Slide," Steely Dan's "Boddhisatva," the Isley Brothers' "That Lady (Parts 1 & 2)," Funkadelic's "Super Stupid," John McLaughlin's "Dragon Song," Sonic Youth's "Sugar Kane" and Can's "Mother Sky".

Personally, my favorite guitar solo is on Weezer's Tired of Sex.

Can you not say We Will Rock You? If you can't can I say Kid Charlemagne, Evangeline by Robert Quine and any Elliot Easton solo?

matos, i'm definitely with you on the small club "imagination." simply gorgeous.

but seriously,

i got three words for y'all:

BABY'S ON FIRE.

Sleepless Nights - King Diamond
Hangar 18 - Megadeth
Bodhisattva - Steely Dan
And So I Know - STP
Deadwing - Porcupine Tree (courtesy of Mr. Belew)
Terria - Devin Townsend...the whole album
Dogs - Pink Floyd
...and the list goes on.

Bob Mould in Midnight Radio, Prince in 3 Chains of Gold and Funkadelic's Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow

The solos on Steely Dan's "My Old School" deserve a mention, and so does Tom Morello's work on the Rage albums (I'd go with "Killing in the Name").

Zakk Wylde's solo in Ozzy Osbourne's "No More Tears" from the album of the same name. End of story.

"Maggot Brain" is probably #1 on my list.

"My Best Friend's Girl" is up there.

Nokie Edwards' behind-the-bridge solo in "Bulldog" from The Ventures' "Live in Japan '65" is a good one, too.

I'm shocked that "Marquee Moon" is so high on their list. I had always pegged GW's readership as nu-metal morons.

@natepatrin: I'll second Emerald. Mastodon's take on that has a pretty awesome solo, too.

RS actually listed my two favorites (Time and Maggot Brain) even if they did mark them much too low.

Honorable Mention: Tim Sult of Clutch on Tim Sult vs The Greys

Queen - Brighton Rock, ZZ Top - Ten Dollar Man, and Ted Nugent - Stranglehold.

"Talk Dirty to Me" was the first song I ever learned on electric guitar.

The guitar solo in "She Still Loves Him" by Jellyfish is pretty damn special.

I'm going to go off the reservation a bit and propose the best 30-second solo of all time.

I recall that at the dawn of the '90s, Guitar World did a feature on the "Best Guitar Solos of the '80s" - the decade of the wank - and two solos overwhelmingly topped the list: Slash on "Sweet Child O' Mine," and Eddie Van Halen on...Michael Jackson's "Beat It." No guff.

I've long felt that EVH's "Beat It" solo accomplishes something few solos do: flashy virtuosity in a tight package. For its succinctness alone, I'd put it in my top five - to say nothing of the mind-blowing fretwork leading up to the final slide down the neck, which says, Yeah, I just fuckin' killed that.

Of all the solos on Dark Side of the Moon, they chose "Time"? No way, dude. The solo in "Money" is much cooler. The song jumps from 7/8 time to 4/4 just as the guitar comes in, and the whole track explodes with pure rock energy. After some tasty licks, the wailing, bluesy melody quiets down, lulls you into a false sense of security, then ramps up the volume again and blows your face off! It doesn't get much better than that.

@babystrange72: Amen.

How about The Kinks' You Really Got Me. It sounds like Davies' synapses are popping as he plays it.

Glad to see lots of Funkadelic here.

    That's a difficult task, properly ranking guitar solos. I've tried to pick out my top five, and apologies in advance. I'm sure there are several I've forgotten.

    1. Move "Eruption" to the top of the list. That was my first "Oh, God!" guitar reaction. So rude, and so fluid at the same time. Compared to the other guitars out there in 1978, this thing just KILLED!
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    2. Dokken's "Mr. Scary" has to be in the next. Hot metal aggression and the squealiest arpeggios ever. Here's a poor-audio-quality clip, but you can see what he's doing on the fretboard.
[www.youtube.com]

    3. Ozzy Osbourne's "Diary of a Madman." This was the last we heard from Randy Rhoades in the studio before he died. Bizarre, twisted, haunting and agonized! I dare you to try and play a solo in that backdrop. Heck, I dare you to even figure out the chord changes without cheating and looking up the chart! The solo's at 4:32, but I recommend ramping up to it by starting around 4 minutes.
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    4. Extreme's "Pornograffitti." Nuno Bettencourt tears it up in this thing. Shred-o-mania! Here's a bbotleg live clip. The solo comes about 3:50.
[www.youtube.com]

    5. Gary Moore's Roy Buchannon cover, "The Messiah Will Come Again." (1989, the "After the War" album.)The whole song is pretty much the quintessential minor-blues guitar solo. So evocative... This version shows him in all of his live glory. It's an awesome ten minute wank, if I've ever seen one!
[www.youtube.com]

No Frank Zappa? No real Van Halen song (Eruption doesn't count. A solo is a break in a song, not the entire song)? Living Colour? King Crimson? Man there's a lot of kick ass stuff not on that list, and some fairly crappy things in their place.

Also: ditto to what Acidreign says. Those are some damn fine solos.

Last Exit (Sonny Sharrock), "Sand Dancer"
Ronnie Hawkins (Robbie Robertson), "Who Do You Love?"
Franco, "Limbisa Ngai"

If they are going to insist on having Pearl Jam's "Alive" in there, then they should have replaced it with The Door's "Five To One". Mike McCready said he copied it from Ace Frehley ("She") which was copied from Robbie Kreiger...

Any list of top guitar wankery needs J Mascis on it somehwere.

Robbie Robertson solo at the end of "King Harvest" may be the best thing he (or anyone) has ever done on electric guitar. It gives me chills every single time and I can't even explain why. Watch it here at 3:37 (but watch the whole performance, as it's just about perfect):
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It's hard to argue with Marquee Moon but I'm going to go with Sugar/Mould "Explode and Make Up", a wrenching song, and a solo to match. And no Richard Thompson? "Shoot Out the Lights" shames most of the shit on that list.

@revmatty:

Good lookin out! I'd like to add Fight the Fight - Living Colour to the list.

Happiness is a Warm Gun - The Beatles
dunno if it counts as a solo but if a good guitar solo should sum up what the song is about then this is king.

Why settle for one solo when you can have fifteen?
Hear N' Aid - "Stars"

slayer - raining blood

Amen to "Bodhisattva" as a great solo.

While not a top 25 guitar solo, the work on "Scar Tissue" is what I imagine it sounds like when the sun sinks into the Pacific Ocean.

I just threw up in my mouth a little.

I'm not obsessive (if that's the right word) enough to have a ready list of solos to give, but as a huge fan of Big Country when I was in high school, I want to say that there were quite a few on their first two albums.

When did the title of "Free Bird" officially become just one word?

It's pretty hard to compile a list of guitar wankery and not include the spectacle that is the Hear n'Aid benefit song "We're Stars"

[YouTube]

I've always been fond of the solo in The Cure's "10:15 Saturday Night."

Skid Row's "I Remember You"

No, I'm not kidding.

Robbie Robertson is an asshole but he destroys "Just Like Tom Thumbs Blues" on Vol. 4 Live 66. Also Mick Ronson all over the Rolling Thunder Revue.

Any time Dick Taylor decides to rip on Mekons records, esp. Flitcraft, Abernant 1984/1985, Big Zombie, and many more...

Lee Underwood on Tim Buckley's "Buzzin Fly"

A thousand examples of Richard Thompson, Hokey Pokey, Roll Over Vaughn Williams, and many Fairport Tunes.

Lindsey Buckingham, The Chain is simple and brilliant.

David Feck and Jon Slade, Comet Gain "Look At You Now You're Crying"

The Dead, Saint Stephen -> The Eleven, Live Dead.

whatever, the list goes on.