snap judgement saturday

[dr_memory]

(With apologies to Dr. Berube, whose “Arbitrary but Fun Friday” schtick I am mercilessly appropriating.)

Your snap-judgment question for the weekend is:

What is the best guitar solo in a rock song that is not by someone who’s last name is Hendrix, Page or Clapton?

My answer: Kim Thayil’s amazing breakdown in the middle of Soundgarden’s “Like Suicide

Comments

[sweh]

(I can't make it through that Soundgarden song to get to the 4 minute mark, and can't easily find a way to skip to it. It's definitely not my taste in music)

Mark Knopfler, Sultans Of Swing, from about 4:50 in through to 6:00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pa9x9fZBtY
Just watch his left hand! Everything from 4:50 onwards is just guitar wanking, but it's good. I find it funny how far down the neck he plays at 8:30

From the same concert, Private Investigations is also good fun from 4:00 onwards but more as a group effort than a solo; they build a good "sound picture".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt6Jo5U3Ito

[penk]

I'll ++ Knopfler. he has a smooth sweet style that's hard to match. Good choice.

[cos]

You've made me realize how little conscious attention I pay to guitars relative to other instruments. I hear them, I enjoy them, I see what they're doing for the overall structure of the music, but I focus on other stuff. I can think of some of my favorite banjo solos, violin solos, drum solos, cello solos, kora solos, digeridoo solos... but I have to search my brain to think of guitar solos I really remember as guitar solos. (and mostly, what I come up with are acoustic, not rock)

Anyway, after some thinking, I think I'd have to go with some of the solos I saw Luther Allison do live at a show Katy and I went to at HoB in New Orleans circa 1995, that I don't know if I can find online.

[catness]

BTW, I am the same regarding electric guitars vs. other instruments. I tend to automatically nice the electric guitar sound way into the back, and if I intend to listen to it, I have to consciously hold onto it so I don't miss it entirely. (Not the same for acoustic guitars, incidentally.)

[penk]

Alas, my chosen isntrument has made me tend to focus on the background bass player. "Oooo, listen to what he's doing! Betcha no one even notices!" :)

[catness]

Nah, see. That doesn't happen to me. I hear the kinds of things you hear (and it makes my bass player sick that I hear those things before and clearer than he does). And I hear what horn players hear. And what singers hear. And what drummers and percussionists hear. And what string players hear. The more I play music, the more I hear. *EXCEPT* electric guitar. For example, I've played two of the tracks that people have recommended in this post, including one that I already know really well. While consciously thinking about guitar solos and whether or not they're good, I've actually missed both of them *while typing about not hearing them*. [Edited for redundancy. And redundancy.] It's a little bizarre how specific and strong my ability to tune them out is.

[bryant]

Well, it's gonna be something by Richard Thompson. Let's see... because it's readily available for consumption, I'll single out "Put It There, Pal" from his Austin City Limits gig a few years back. The action starts around 4:30 and keeps on going till 8:00, but of course you're best advised to listen from the beginning.

I dunno; I don't have words for it. He's been doing this since he was 18, in 1967. His vocabulary is ridiculously wide, and his technique is flawless. Every electric show I've seen him play, he does this. His acoustic work is of the same quality.

[penk]

I got turned on to Richard Thompson via Radioparadise. That I overlooked this master through all my music wanderings is a true crime.

[bryant]

It's a common one, at least! And hey, if you're a bass player, half the time you get Danny Thompson playing along with him. Bonus.

[trom]

Angus Young in "For Those About To Rock We Salute You"

[catness]

All of the guitar in this song knocks my socks off (previous comments in this thread notwithstanding). Simple, powerful, and made entirely of \m/ \m/ \m/

That being said, my vote is for the solo in You Should Me All Night Long.

Criteria: It's simple (and kind of based in blues), and pretty clean. But the big reason is that almost everybody I know can sing it from beginning to end, and does, ala Bohemian Rhapsody in Wayne's World. :)

[penk]

Okay, this one might make folks cringe. David Gilmour's solo at the end of Another Brick in the Wall Part Two. I'm not one for the wailing fuzzed out crashing, and his clean picking and smooth finger action. Delightful. Just found a truncated version on youtube (guitar starts at 2:20) - but don't have the full bit.

[sweh]

7:10 to 8:25 of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGvkebKlM_4&feature=related