The passing of the... guitar solo? - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Hack&Lube · 02-05-2006, 02:02 PM

In a similar vein to the death of the drum solo thread - when's the last time you saw or heard a good lengthy guitar solo in a "hit" mainstream song?

If you consider mainstream music and mainstream rock these days, the guitar solo has died as well and that's quite a shame. Are there ever going to be any guitar virtuosos in mainstream music anymore?

Even watching SNL last night, it was amazing to see Prince of all people playing like he used to. Sometimes you forget just how good a guitarist that guy is, and to pull it off with his coordination for singing and dancing at the same time is unbelievable. The guy still looks like a fruit, but man, can he ever play. That was the first time I've seen a strong guitar solo with plenty of ostentatious hammer ons/tapping and whammy bar play in a lengthy solo on mainstream TV for what seems like more than a decade.

http://www.youtube.com/w/prince?v=ho...&search=Prince

I was watching with people and they were like: "that guy must've had the guitar on a tape like Ashlee Simpson's SNL lip synching because he isnt' even strumming the strings. And how can the guitar keep playing without him? What's the lever he's pulling? He must be cheating". And it's sad because you know its because they've never seen someone play like this before. Yeah, rock in the 80s had EVERYBODY playing like that and that's why people got sick and tired of it and went Grudge, but hell, I'm sick of power chords and punk if you know what I mean and a whole generation of people don't really know what a guitar is capable of.

Guitar will always have it's circles and still be the most popular instrument and there are plenty of rock and metal bands that still play solos (of course, plenty of them go overboard with shredding and it becomes "c**k-rock" like the 80s again), but it just seems sad that you never hear or see it in the mainstream anymore and a lot of people have no idea. They're like "so uhh...Sum 41 is rock right?" and I'm like "no, that's punk...and not even the real original punk at that."

tripin_billie · 02-05-2006, 06:25 PM

Obviously you are not familiar with the jamband genre. Hell, even Phish has been on SNAl in the last 4 years (I can't remember when exactly, but just after their hiatus).

But in general, other than in a few genres, the guitar solo, other than a crap 2 bar riff is all but obsolete. The thing that is realy anoying is that the hired guns playing for these pop stars could rip out some crazy sweet solos.

Igottago · 02-05-2006, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Yeah, rock in the 80s had EVERYBODY playing like that and that's why people got sick and tired of it and went Grudge, but hell, I'm sick of power chords and punk if you know what I mean and a whole generation of people don't really know what a guitar is capable of.

But when you look at some of the Grunge bands like Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden...they still used some pretty awesome guitar solos, they were just more tasteful and less wanky than the hair metal bands. I mean, guys like Mike Mcready and Jerry Cantrell can play some great guitar. I consider them great guitarists.

I agree, nowadays it seems like a sin to have guitar solos, especially with the new crop of emo/indie bands..they have no problem using synths like they're going out of style, but they are afraid to throw any creative guitar into the mix. They probably just don't have the talent. There arent many new bands who have guitarists who make you really think "wow, that's a great guitarist".

LGA · 02-06-2006, 12:54 AM

Jerry Cantrell as has been mentioned still does some nasty things with the guitar. Tom Morello is the master of odd and even more odd guitar effects, some of the things he does with his pedal effects is insane. Not to mention Rage Against The Machine's "Sleep Now In The Fire" still has the coolest guitar effect ever...accidentally picking up a Korean radio station.

John Frusciante can do some really nice solo's as well, if you haven't seen Red Hot Chili Peppers Live At Slane Castle I suggest it, the band really churns out a great performance. Though Dave Grohl doesn't really do solo's he still is a pretty darned good guitar player, and varies his chords every song.

Keith Urban I also find to be quite the talented guitar players, in fact most of his songs have really nice subtle pull offs and hammer ons randomly thrown in that frustrate me to no end. Joe Satriani is of course still making music, Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen of course are still pretty recent.

So there's a few very talented guitar players.

The sad thing is so many bands are just sludging out the same power chords song after song it's pathetic. Than of course there's bands like Linkin Park who play something like...3 different notes, not even a full chord in a full flippin' song. It's frustrating, but it makes you appreciate the good bands that much more.

troutman · 02-06-2006, 10:41 AM

Hell ya. Prince hit a home run Saturday on SNL. He nailed it, and he knew it too. What a great song - I'm really looking forward to his new CD.

Punk rock and post-punk pretty much killed the guitar solo.

Top 100 guitar solos of all-time as selected by readers of Guitar World:

http://guitar.about.com/library/bl100greatest.htm

Some of my favorite guitar players: Hendrix, Santana, Zappa, Page, Belew, Van Halen, May, Lifeson, Knopfler, Thurston Moore, David Hidalgo, Greenwood, various Steely Dan session guitarists, Prince, Howe, Townsend, Ronson, Reid, Mould, Big Country, Edge, Scholtz, Smiths, Buckingham, Ween, Metheny, POlice, Pretenders, Jack White.

tripin_billie · 02-10-2006, 05:25 PM

that list is allright, but grossly overlooks many greatsolos. Actually, it is pretty bad for the first few pages. Seriously, for Frank Zappa to only make it on in somewhere in the 50's is a joke. Maybe, those solos on the first pages are so popular because they aren't to hard to pull off.

Jayems · 02-10-2006, 07:58 PM

If you want solos you need to stick with metal or country.

Both awesome... awesome to the max.

shoestring · 02-11-2006, 12:18 AM

Nobody but nobody could make a solo like my good bud,
Duanne Allman . He played with everybody during the birth of the electric solo even Jazz guys ,blues guys and
pop singers.

He is dead,oh my god.....Martha!... Martha!!!

Have a look at Fillmore or either of his Anthologies.
He uses old blues riffs to begin with but HE evolves them,transcends them, and you can hear every heavy metal riff ever recorded within his music.

Well except.
If he just could have recorded with Jimi.

I never "really" met him so he isn't really my bud
but I can air guitar everything he ever wrote. Ya sure!

Reggie Dunlop · 02-11-2006, 04:09 AM

Guitar Wankery at its finest...

My...head....hurts...

What? No Chet Atkins?

Hack&Lube · 02-11-2006, 04:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

Guitar Wankery at its finest...

My...head....hurts...

What? No Chet Atkins?

and that's why they call it c*** rock. Still, the incredible speed shredding is impressive and something I'll never be able to do. Good video.

Strangely, I gather the video is pretty recent except the guy in the middle seems to be stuck in 1986.

Muta · 02-11-2006, 11:41 AM

Two bands I've recently been listening to with great guitar riffs are Dream Theater and Black Label Society. Very hard rock, but very talented guitarists in these bands.

Dynamic · 02-11-2006, 01:19 PM

Am I the only one that doesn't get the old "guitar solos".

I think its rather humorous that during the middle of an song back in the day, they would just start a guitar solo...............for TWO MINUTES. Is that just to prove they can play guitar???

Coelah · 02-12-2006, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tripin_billie

that list is allright, but grossly overlooks many greatsolos. Actually, it is pretty bad for the first few pages. Seriously, for Frank Zappa to only make it on in somewhere in the 50's is a joke. Maybe, those solos on the first pages are so popular because they aren't to hard to pull off.

No kidding! Zappa released a 3 disc album consisting of nothing but solos and he's ranked in the 50's? Zappa inspired and influenced many on that list.

Seriously flawed list.

Phaneuf3 · 02-12-2006, 08:36 PM

Just thought I'd share this little gem with you guys.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...q=paul+gilbert

For those of you who don't know paul gilbert: He can keep up with the best of shredders but that's not his entire game, he's got some really kick ass song writing on a lot of stuff. Plus he gives really awesome interviews.

Also if you don't know who he is, look into michael hedges. Most jaw dropping guitarist i've ever seen/heard -- hell one of the most inspiring musicians period.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...michael+hedges
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...michael+hedges

edit:
found another one to throw at you. this guy is the reason why i started taking guitar seriously....

http://www.youtube.com/w/michael-hed...chael%20hedges

Jayems · 02-12-2006, 10:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Muta

Two bands I've recently been listening to with great guitar riffs are Dream Theater and Black Label Society. Very hard rock, but very talented guitarists in these bands.

Seen BLS 3 times, twice at ozzfest.

Vancouver, Phoenix, Wash. state.

Goddamn he rules.

(If you don't know, he's (zakk wylde) Ozzy's old guitarist, and apparently is in a comedy video now... or something?)

BEST SONG/SOLO EVER:

ZAKK WYLDE
FARM FIDDLIN'

rockstar · 02-12-2006, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phaneuf3

Just thought I'd share this little gem with you guys.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...q=paul+gilbert

For those of you who don't know paul gilbert: He can keep up with the best of shredders but that's not his entire game, he's got some really kick ass song writing on a lot of stuff. Plus he gives really awesome interviews.

Also if you don't know who he is, look into michael hedges. Most jaw dropping guitarist i've ever seen/heard -- hell one of the most inspiring musicians period.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...michael+hedges
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...michael+hedges

edit:
found another one to throw at you. this guy is the reason why i started taking guitar seriously....

http://www.youtube.com/w/michael-hed...chael%20hedges

That's some seriously disgusting guitar. Very very impressive stuff, he's amazingly creative.

Phaneuf3 · 02-12-2006, 11:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rockstar

That's some seriously disgusting guitar. Very very impressive stuff, he's amazingly creative.

yea sadly people don't want creativity or talent in their music. The people that do are often just guitar players and well they all end up trying to do crap like this...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...michael+angelo
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...michael+angelo
http://www.youtube.com/w/Michael-Ang...chael%20angelo

yes while I guess he's creative and no doubt talented, it makes me want to stab myself in the ear.

[/rant]

Hack&Lube · 02-13-2006, 12:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phaneuf3

yea sadly people don't want creativity or talent in their music. The people that do are often just guitar players and well they all end up trying to do crap like this...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...michael+angelo
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...michael+angelo
http://www.youtube.com/w/Michael-Ang...chael%20angelo

yes while I guess he's creative and no doubt talented, it makes me want to stab myself in the ear.

[/rant]

Haha, it's dual-guitar 80s leftover Micheal Angelo - what parent would name their kid that? Sadly, I have M. Angelo's shredding instructional video from then and that thing is absolutely hilarious in how bad/cheesy it is and he's been milking that Speed Kills song for like 2 decades. But he actually has a degree in music theory which is surprising which he tries to show in his videos but I doubt anybody can actually learn from them:
http://www.youtube.com/w/counter-str...chael%20Angelo

Michael Hedges and his progressive guitar work is beautiful though.

tripin_billie · 03-01-2006, 10:08 PM

to bump this thread, those with access to that little piggy noise site can go download the return of the guitar solo, the new David Gilmour has leaked!!!!

and damn is it sweet.