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 (nineteen years ago)

I thought this was going to be a PEW thread.

jim (jim), Thursday, 14 December 2006 00:45 (nineteen years ago)

wtf, why did they leave that in??

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

(that was a fictional ad lib on my part)

Johnny Fever (johnnyfever), Thursday, 14 December 2006 01:00 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

And me.

pfunkboy (Kerr), Thursday, 14 December 2006 01:59 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

mods: please make this a PEW thread.

grady (grady), Thursday, 14 December 2006 02:29 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

"Sympathy for the Devil"

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

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 (nineteen years ago)

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

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

wasted years iron maiden

chaki (chaki), Thursday, 14 December 2006 08:11 (nineteen years ago)

"more than a feeling"

thebingo (thebingo), Thursday, 14 December 2006 13:18 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

November Rain, guitar solo #3

Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 14 December 2006 14:10 (nineteen years ago)

sludgefeast!

69 (pete), Thursday, 14 December 2006 14:20 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

oh yeah MVBOTM

69 (pete), Thursday, 14 December 2006 14:35 (nineteen years ago)

thirded

stevie (stevie2), Thursday, 14 December 2006 15:10 (nineteen years ago)

(...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 (nineteen years ago)

all of a sudden not so OTM

69 (pete), Thursday, 14 December 2006 15:19 (nineteen years ago)

November Rain, guitar solo #3

OTM.

grady (grady), Thursday, 14 December 2006 18:37 (nineteen years ago)

Trey Azagthoth, "Where the Slime Live"

Jaufre Rudel (Jaufre Rudel), Thursday, 14 December 2006 19:04 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

"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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

I thought that was in a cathedral! Hmmm.

sleeve (sleeve), Friday, 15 December 2006 18:29 (nineteen years ago)

The Smiths - Frankly Mr Shankly

zeus (zeus), Friday, 15 December 2006 20:14 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)

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

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

blasphemy againts the new page religion

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

"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 (nineteen years ago)

the knack - "my sharona"

max (maxreax), Saturday, 16 December 2006 18:12 (nineteen years ago)

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

ChristoC (Christo C), Saturday, 16 December 2006 21:29 (nineteen years ago)

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 (nineteen years ago)


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