Another Top 10 Guitar Solos

On New Year’s Day 1980, Rush dropped their seventh studio album entitled Permanent Waves, and with the second blistering track about one’s right to choose between pain or pleasure in life, guitarist Alex Lifeson exhibited his free will to thoroughly shred with the spectacular solo. When you’re playing with someone like this, you need to keep your distance, as Geddy Lee can certainly attest to, and Lifeson himself has recognized “Freewill” as one of his favoritesolos. In fact, when the band originally threw down in the studio, he was only trying to keep up with the rest of the band, and well, he succeeded.

For the lead single off their 1992 debut album, Rage Against the Machine relied on some repetitive phrasing to drive home their political message of institutional racism. Oh, and they also relied on the impressive guitar talents of one Tom Morello who gave us a “Drop D” riff that channeled the intensity of the lyrics. You gotta love how Morello shows complete control while still giving into the powerful sound. He came up with the riff while teaching guitar lessons and his Whammy-pedal based solo subsequently provided a master class to fellow artists.

Ok, not it’s time to get filthy, and it only made sense for the White Stripes to kick it old school for their seventh and final album. For the lead single, the band played off of the British phrase “Ecky Thump,” which actually means “Oh, God.” And when Jack White hits the solo after singing about a cryptic trip to Mexico, well he made us believes in a new religion, and it was called “Icky Thump.” It’s hectic, it’s relentless and it’s that classic White Stripes sound. Hallelujah.

When the Dire Straits hit the music scene in the late 70s, critics often compared their lyrical and vocal styling to Bob Dylan, but with all due respect to Mr. Dylan, he never busted out any guitar solos quite like this. Based on a chilled-out band that frontman Mark Knopfler saw play in South London, “Sultans of Swing” is smooth to the core, and that’s how Knopfler approached his sprawling solo. He puts his pants on like everybody else and then produces magicalsolos that never fail to mesmerize audiences.

By 1997, many rocks fans saw Radiohead as a byword for depression, and while that may be the case for some of their tracks, “Paranoid Android” poked fun at the idea with a reference to a character from “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Recorded at Jane Seymour's ancient English mansion and influenced on a spiritual level by the Beatles' “Happiness is a Warm Gun”, Queen, and the Pixies, this mini-epic sees Jonny Greenwood torture a poor, unsuspecting Telecaster into giving two solos worth of fuzzed, distorted beauty.

When folk-rocker Jackson Browne caught a show at the 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival, he discovered a Texas guitarist by the name of Stevie Ray Vaughan and soon invited the guitar slinger to record in his personal studio. From those sessions sprang “Texas Flood”, an old blues song given the Stevie Ray progressive blues treatment. The song, and it's hot as Texas guitar solos remained an Stevie Ray Vaughn concert staple until the guitarist's untimely death.

Guitarists are known to have a special relationship to their instruments but none are more special than that of Brian May and “the Red Special”. Built by May and his father, the homemade guitar has been the fifth member of Queen since day one. With a bond that tight you know Mr May and company are going to find a way to show that baby off. What better way than with a three-minute solo crying, moaning, and screaming out from a wall of cookin' Vox amps? There may be more face-melting solos around but never has a man and his guitar connected so deeply.

A monumental monster ballad needs an equally heroic guitar solo. While this song was originally released in 1992, it dates all the way back to the early 80s and even pre-dates the band but when Use Your Illusion hit stores in 1991 the long, slow birth was proved to be worthwhile. GNR fans listened patiently through the first nine tracks, before Slash made it rain with his trilogy of soulful solos in the nine-minute “November Rain.” When this song was played in live shows, there was no limit to the possibilities, as Slash sucked away on his cigarette and set the tone for a jaw-dropping experience.

At 17 minutes lengths, this isn’t your typical rock song, but then again, Pink Floyd isn't your typical rock band. Originally titled “You've Got to Be Crazy,” the song took on another form within the structural framework of the 1977 album Animals. Serving as a warning about the effects of business on personal lives, David Gilmour channelled the joys and pains of humanity into mournful, saturated, and harmonically textured guitar solo. Although sonically quite different Gilmour's playing reached a level of emotion rivaled only by the band's earlier epic, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.”

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
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Matthew Bellamy from Muse: “Knights of Cydonia”

- John Frusciante from Red Hot Chili Peppers: “Parallel Universe”

- Mike McCready from Pearl Jam: “Alive”

- Duane Allman and Dickey Betts from The Allman Brothers Band: “Blue Sky”

- Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top: “La Grange”

By 1983, Michael Jackson had already transcended racial barriers within the music industry, but with his hit “Beat It,” he grabbed attention from people of all races and ages courtesy of a killer solo from special guest Eddie Van Halen. While the guitarist wasn’t allowed to be appear in the iconic music video thanks to his label, he still lent his rock and roll gifts for free, thus providing the perfect grit to Michael Jackson’s crossover hit. Eddie would inspire legions of MJ fans to pick up a guitar and do some shredding of their own, while his own fans were rocking out to his own hit “Panama”.

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