The Top 100 Rock Guitar Solos of All Time--89-80

89.) "That Smell" (Lynyrd Skynyrd)



Following the Beatles' existential debates on the state of the human soul, here we have Lynyrd Skynyrd's deep discussion on the perils of drug abuse (okay, this is being a bit mean to them--but who cares? Their solo is ranked higher!). While Skynyrd lacked the songwriting gift of the Beatles, they made up for it by having three goddamn lead guitarists! (Actually, you can hear McCartney, Lennon, and Harrison dueling lead guitar in "The End" on Abbey Road, but it's pretty pathetic stuff in comparison to "Free Bird.") This is just filled to the brim with lead guitar, and the song itself is a good time despite its gloomy subject matter. This is one of the songs I'd most like to see in Rock Band (along with "Sultans of Swing").

88.) "War Pigs" (Black Sabbath)



Tony Iommi was not the soloist that Ozzy's later guitarists were (Randy Rhoads, Jake E. Lee, and Zakk Wylde, among others). However, he was the best there is at one crucial, nowadays completely underutilized element of guitar and rock music: riffs. Topping even the great riffmeister Jimmy Page, Tony Iommi is the greatest riff-writer in rock history. He is the most influential guitarist in metal history, pioneering the heavy, dark sound of metal through his use of drop-tuning. He turned to this technique of lowering the pitch of the guitar by loosening the strings because he lost part of his finger in an industrial accident and this made it easier for him to play. This accident helped create the absolute heaviness that is synonymous with metal (hence heavy metal). He made the guitar such an integral part of metal music. In a song like this, there is guitar everywhere. There has to be about 5 or 6 different memorable riffs on this song. And despite his limitations as a soloist, he delivers two tasty and melodic solos on here. While he didn't have the chops of Ozzy's later guitarists, he knew how to create a memorable hook with his guitar, whether that was a soul-crunching riff or a bluesy guitar solo.

87.) "Moonage Daydream" (David Bowie)



Mick Ronson, Bowie's guitarist during his prime '70s years, is a very underrated guitarist of the period. Like Brian May of Queen, he knew how to make his guitar serve the song. He had such a great, crunchy tone on his riffs. It really adds the rock edge to what otherwise could be pure camp with some Bowie songs. Ronson here concludes the song with guitars flying to the very heavens. This is just such a good song. The solo is simple, but Ronson had such finesse when it came to tone and feel that it really grabs you. This solo and the guitar refrain of "Starman" really encapsulate the adolescent need from escape from authority and prejudice and bigotry that mark Ziggy Stardust and made it such a moving album for its audience of misfits and freaks.

86.) "Mean Street" (Van Halen)



Containing the standard crazy and incredibly brief EVH solo, this song is really on the list for its jaw-dropping, how-did-he-do-that? tapping intro. Proving that no matter how many imitators he had in the early '80s finger-tapping at the first opportunity, Eddie was still the best at the technique he revolutionized (though it should be pointed out that he did not invent it, as he is so often credited as doing). Just as in "Spanish Fly," Eddie toys with harmonics a shit-ton in the intro, combining them with multi-string tapping to create his wildest sounding guitar effects.

85.) "You Really Got Me" (The Kinks)



A lot of songs on this list boast great riffs as well as solos, and goddamn it, this is no exception. An all-time classic rock song. I considered putting the Van Halen version on here instead, but upon inspection, this stands up as the more memorable solo. Even all these years later, Dave Davies's tone is still as raw and sexually vulgar as it must have been back in '64. He slashed his guitar amp speakers to get that sound, foreshadowing the kind of guitar violence that Jimi Hendrix and Pete Townshend would make popular in the coming years. Incredibly brief and succinct, this is garage rock at its finest, spewing forth adolescent lust and carelessness.

84.) "Something" (The Beatles)



Nothing could be as far from adolescent lust and carelessness as George Harrison's masterpiece "Something." His solo on here is just so incredibly gorgeous and fitting to the song. One of the most melodic solos ever.

83.) "Light My Fire" (The Doors)


Legend has it that Jim Morrison one day asked his band members to go home and write a song about some intangible, abstract subject, and guitarist Robbie Krieger came back with the rough outline of "Light My Fire." What really makes this song for me are the keyboard and guitar solos, and it baffles me whenever the radio plays the edited version without these parts. The transcendental power of the song is stripped without the ecstasy of the hypnotic solos--the lyrics are rendered meaningless. Some solos are endlessly memorable or lyrical or technically proficient. I love this solo because it fits in with the psychedelic, hypnotic vibe of the song. You don't really remember what happened in the solo; you just remember how it made you feel afterward. One of the great psychedelic guitar solos in my opinion, because even more than Hendrix it takes you to another place with its vague Eastern vibe and the relentless keyboard drone in the background and the gradual fade-out back into the climactic vocals of Jim, building us all up into a sort of ecstatic trance in a communal musical/cultural event that arguably has not been approached since the death of the 1960's.

82.) "In Bloom" (Nirvana)



Kurt gets a whole lot of flak from guitar fans because his meteoric rise to fame in the early 1990's destroyed the guitar virtuoso trend of the 1980's. Musically, his revolution was quite necessary as far as I'm concerned. Real power and emotion had been lacking in popular music for a long time. I'm not sure whether there is much of a place for guitar solos in music anymore. They do not seem to fit the musical mood of our times, or of our culture. In any case, Kurt was an interesting guitarist who, though lacking in technical proficiency, could write a mean riff when called upon ("Smells Like Teen Spirit" anyone?), and delivers one of the most pissed-off solos I've ever heard in this song about Kurt's disdain for much of his audience. I wish there were more good guitar solos in modern music, but I'd rather there just be good songs than solos. Guitar solos work better in melodic instead of atmospheric songs, which seem to dominate the airwaves in terms of rock music. The guitar is now used as a backdrop instead of driving the song as a force itself.

81.) "I Believe" (Joe Satriani)



Joe's vocals were never very well-received on the few times he sang, but I always give him the benefit of the doubt because I like him so much. He seems like such a nice, almost naive guy. But what his vocals do not express, he certainly is able to on his guitar. The first solo in this is so beautifully moody and perfectly depicts the feeling of melancholy at all of the despair around us that Joe is singing about, ending in those gorgeous ringing harmonics. The second, backwards solo is what makes the song a classic for me. I've seen lots of backwards guitar in my years, but this is the most artfully used. The chaos of this nihilistic world is echoed in these heavily processed notes. The use of more backwards guitar at the end of the song with ringing high notes shows the resolution of Joe's temporary spiritual crisis. A beautiful song.

80.) "Desert Island" (Cacophony)



Is this a pretty song? Hell no. I don't think I've ever listened to my Cacophony CD the whole way through. It's some pretty dense shred music, lacking much in the way of melody or emotion. However, this song always stuck out for me on it. That guitar break at 3:00 absolutely comes out of nowhere and floors me every time with its unexpected beauty. The contrast of the nastiness of the song around it almost makes it better. What a great combination of ringing arpeggios with some heavy delay and volume swells on the lead guitar. It transforms into some hardcore shredding soon enough, and young guitar virtuosos Marty Friedman (who would play in Megadeth during its peak years) and Jason Becker (unfortunately he was diagnosed with an illness at a very young age soon after this, which prevented him from playing the guitar, although he continued to compose music even into the terminal stages of his illness--I believe he was a teenager on this album) certainly knew their way around the instrument. Call it wankery. Call it whatever you want. That break is still kick-ass.

--Edward