Best beginning moments of a rock guitar solo?

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At this moment, the very start of Page's solo from "In the Evening" takes it for me.

"What? A solo? Hold up, I've gotta turn this thing on!"

― Johnny Fever (johnnyfever), Thursday, 14 December 2006 00:40 (seventeen years ago) link

I thought this was going to be a PEW thread.

― jim (jim), Thursday, 14 December 2006 00:45 (seventeen years ago) link

wtf, why did they leave that in??

― Venom 18, the autistic spy (flezaffe), Thursday, 14 December 2006 00:58 (seventeen years ago) link

(that was a fictional ad lib on my part)

― Johnny Fever (johnnyfever), Thursday, 14 December 2006 01:00 (seventeen years ago) link

I thought this was going to be a PEW thread.
i did too

― RIYL Christiane F. (drowned in milk), Thursday, 14 December 2006 01:58 (seventeen years ago) link

And me.

― pfunkboy (Kerr), Thursday, 14 December 2006 01:59 (seventeen years ago) link

The first note of EVH's solo in "Beat It" sounds like he just flipped on one of those switches you see in old movies that control an electric chair, only instead of executing a prisoner it makes crazed shredding happen.

― nathan explosion (natepatrin), Thursday, 14 December 2006 02:08 (seventeen years ago) link

mods: please make this a PEW thread.

― grady (grady), Thursday, 14 December 2006 02:29 (seventeen years ago) link

Am I the only person here who hasn't paid any attention at all to PEW? I guess so.

― Johnny Fever (johnnyfever), Thursday, 14 December 2006 03:37 (seventeen years ago) link

the way the guitar solo on "search and destroy" is always great only cuz it was mixed like twice as loud as everything else.

― M@tt He1ges0n (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 14 December 2006 03:38 (seventeen years ago) link

"Sympathy for the Devil"

― whoop de doodle (kenan), Thursday, 14 December 2006 03:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Mainly because of recognition, I admit. But what else is there? The beginning moment of a solo?

― whoop de doodle (kenan), Thursday, 14 December 2006 03:54 (seventeen years ago) link

"Longest lasting sustain in a song" would be way more interesting.

― whoop de doodle (kenan), Thursday, 14 December 2006 03:59 (seventeen years ago) link

wasted years iron maiden

― chaki (chaki), Thursday, 14 December 2006 08:11 (seventeen years ago) link

"more than a feeling"

― thebingo (thebingo), Thursday, 14 December 2006 13:18 (seventeen years ago) link

How about, for a change, the guitar solo intro for "The air that I breathe" the Hollies?

― M Grout (Mark Grout), Thursday, 14 December 2006 14:02 (seventeen years ago) link

November Rain, guitar solo #3

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 14 December 2006 14:10 (seventeen years ago) link

sludgefeast!

― 69 (pete), Thursday, 14 December 2006 14:20 (seventeen years ago) link

At this moment, the very start of Page's solo from "In the Evening" takes it for me.

"What? A solo? Hold up, I've gotta turn this thing on!"

YES! but it sounds AMAZING!!!!

― stevie (stevie2), Thursday, 14 December 2006 14:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Run Run Run is ace for the opposite reason.

"Ahh, a solo! Oooops, too loud . . . "

― Johnney B has zeros off the line (stigoftdumpilx), Thursday, 14 December 2006 14:28 (seventeen years ago) link

The half-second pause in between Lou Reed's "...And then my mind split open-" and the sudden feedback-shriek. That half-second is the only bit where his guitar's not making some kinda noise.

(Velvet Underground, "I Heard Her Call My Name", of course.)

― Monty Von Bygone (Monty Von Bygone), Thursday, 14 December 2006 14:31 (seventeen years ago) link

oh yeah MVBOTM

― 69 (pete), Thursday, 14 December 2006 14:35 (seventeen years ago) link

thirded

― stevie (stevie2), Thursday, 14 December 2006 15:10 (seventeen years ago) link

(...but hmmm, on reflection, "Run Run Run" may indeed outdo "IHHCMN" by virtue of sounding entirely outplanned.)

― Monty Von Bygone (Monty Von Bygone), Thursday, 14 December 2006 15:15 (seventeen years ago) link

all of a sudden not so OTM

― 69 (pete), Thursday, 14 December 2006 15:19 (seventeen years ago) link

November Rain, guitar solo #3

OTM.

― grady (grady), Thursday, 14 December 2006 18:37 (seventeen years ago) link

Trey Azagthoth, "Where the Slime Live"

― Jaufre Rudel (Jaufre Rudel), Thursday, 14 December 2006 19:04 (seventeen years ago) link

At this moment, the very start of Page's solo from "In the Evening" takes it for me.
"What? A solo? Hold up, I've gotta turn this thing on!"

iirc Pagey got that sound by running a hundred-foot cable from a Fender Vibro Champ into a marshall 4x12 cab and kicking the cab down a flight of stairs at Headley Grange.

Either that or it's some kind of rake/whammy thing. Which is possible, since it's one of the few songs on which he used a strat.

― Name Not Found (rogermexico), Thursday, 14 December 2006 20:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Edge, New Year's Day: the whole song is dominated by bass and keyboards and then Edge has that first blistering note.

Slash, Coma: it starts out with a speed metal riff and the solo seems to grow out of it organically.

Natalie Imbruglia's studio musician, Torn: maybe my favorite first note ever in a guitar solo (of course, there's like 6 notes total!)

― Matt Armstrong (gensu3k1), Thursday, 14 December 2006 21:39 (seventeen years ago) link

iirc Pagey got that sound by running a hundred-foot cable from a Fender Vibro Champ into a marshall 4x12 cab and kicking the cab down a flight of stairs at Headley Grange.

oh fuck that's awesome if it's true!!!

― M@tt He1ges0n (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 14 December 2006 21:54 (seventeen years ago) link

Yes, Starship Trooper for the oldies

Spiritualized, Shine A Light (live at Albert Hall) for the younglings

― I am the best lyrocost since Dylan (Scourage), Thursday, 14 December 2006 22:21 (seventeen years ago) link

"i heard her call my name" fourthed... also:

U2 - "the fly"
built to spill - "carry the zero" (though the few seconds right before the start of the solo are where it really kills)

― rajeev (rajeev), Friday, 15 December 2006 00:20 (seventeen years ago) link

Lee (I think) on Sonic Youth's "Washign Machine" does it for me every time.

"In The Evening" fourthed, or fifthed, whatever.

― sleeve (sleeve), Friday, 15 December 2006 01:36 (seventeen years ago) link

I really REALLY want that Jimmy Page/Headley Grange anecdote to be true! (Wasn't that the same stairwell from where Bonzo's drum kit was set up for "When The Levee Breaks"?)

― Monty Von Bygone (Monty Von Bygone), Friday, 15 December 2006 18:21 (seventeen years ago) link

I thought that was in a cathedral! Hmmm.

― sleeve (sleeve), Friday, 15 December 2006 18:29 (seventeen years ago) link

The Smiths - Frankly Mr Shankly

― zeus (zeus), Friday, 15 December 2006 20:14 (seventeen years ago) link

Okay, I made that up. YOU try mic'ing a tumbling 4x12 and getting the levels consistent.

― Name Not Found (rogermexico), Saturday, 16 December 2006 06:14 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.ncr-iran.org/images/stories/news/hanging%20noose.jpg

― friday on the porch (lfam), Saturday, 16 December 2006 06:26 (seventeen years ago) link

blasphemy againts the new page religion

― friday on the porch (lfam), Saturday, 16 December 2006 06:27 (seventeen years ago) link

"Frankly Mr. Shankly" and "I Heard Her Call My Name" are good answers. I'll also nominate the perhaps too obvious

Richard Hell and The Voidoids - "Blank Generation"

― Ruud Haarvest (KenL), Saturday, 16 December 2006 15:12 (seventeen years ago) link

the knack - "my sharona"

― max (maxreax), Saturday, 16 December 2006 18:12 (seventeen years ago) link

the rapture "house of jealous lovers"
i love the retarded warble noises.

― ChristoC (Christo C), Saturday, 16 December 2006 21:29 (seventeen years ago) link

Adrian Belew in "The Great Curve"

also the beginning of "Frame By Frame", altho not technically a solo.

― sleeve (sleeve), Saturday, 16 December 2006 22:09 (seventeen years ago) link

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