The Top 100 Rock Guitar Solos of All Time--39-30

39.) "Brothers in Arms" (Dire Straits)



I absolutely adore this song. What brilliant, soul-tugging, fucking tasteful guitar-playing in here. My God. I don't think there has ever been mournful guitar. This song literally leaves me speechless.

38.) "Surfing with the Alien" (Joe Satriani)



Satch's signature song, the title track off his second record, is a descendant of the adrenaline rush of early rock and roll like Chuck Berry and surf-rock songs like "Misirlou." Indeed, I have often heard this song described as "Chuck Berry on steroids." It's bursting at the seams with boyish energy and enthusiasm for the thrill of making music, the high you get from being completely in the zone, wrapped up in a cocoon from the outside world and its banal distractions. I love that the title precisely describes the contrast/harmony of the early, innocent rock feel and the alien, jaw-dropping virtuosity of Joe's playing. Being as this is the first song on the album, that first solo at one minute in hits you like a ton of bricks with its pick-tapping and lightning-fast yet fluid licks (Joe differentiates himself from other '80s shredders by his focus on legato technique instead of tremelo-picked scales, which gives his solos the more organic, fluid sound of a wind instrument, instead of the picked, staccato feel that shredders borrow from piano and violin virtuosos like Paganini--see right heeyuh). The second solo is just pure joy--it truly is Chuck Berry at hyperspeed. My favorite part is the first lick, which just sounds amazing and preternatural. There are so many Berry-esque double stops in this solo, given unique flair through Joe's use of the whammy bar. Joe had such a gift for phrasing in his solos that gave them a sort of pop hook that was missing in other guitarists' repertoires at the time.

37.) "Black Star" (Yngwie Malmsteen)



Without a doubt Yngwie's greatest piece and his signature tune (although not his greatest solo), this is one of the only things I've heard by him I would describe as "beautiful." It has a very unique tone to it--let me try to think of the right words to describe it (and I don't mean guitar tone, but the feel of the song). The best I can think of is a sense of loss, of the ruin of the high culture of the West, Europe's fall from grace and America's brutish ascension to power. It has an elegiac power. Perhaps this is reading a little too deep in Malmsteen, a man who lacks somewhat in the intelligence department, but more than makes up for it in the ego department. But Yngwie's devotion to the Baroque masters, as well as the late-19th century virtuosos like the above-mentioned Paganini, lend this song an air of classical sensibility. This is one of the few times Malmsteen's speed passages actually seem to fit some sort of melodic, song-based purpose. A beautiful song.

36.) "Ladies Nite in Buffalo" (David Lee Roth)



It took me a while to really grasp the full impact of this solo, which resides in perhaps David Lee Roth's greatest solo song. Steve Vai's guitar work adorns the entire song, adding impossibly laid-back rhythm parts and jazzy fills throughout. But the solo is a true piece of work, a miniature yet perfectly complete work of art in itself. It is perhaps Vai's most perfectly structured solo, his equivalent of Joe Satriani's "Crushing Day." It is amazing to hear the difference between Vai's raw solos on Flexable and the polished perfection of this solo on Eat 'Em and Smile just two years later in '86. But I suppose this isn't surprising when you remember that Vai, above all other guitarists, prided himself on being a true musical virtuoso, not able only just to play fast, but to be able to conquer any style of music and composition that he put his mind to. This is like an exquisite gem waiting for the right light to shine on it to reveal its complexity and clarity.

35.) "Whole Lotta Love" (Led Zeppelin)



This is the most masculine, the most virile of all rock songs. This doesn't exude sexiness so much as it just smells of sex. This is not about trying to seduce a woman through lies and niceties, not about love--it's about lusting after and the act of fucking itself. Jimmy nails his best guitar tone ever on that solo. Nothing has ever been fatter--not even Eddie Van Halen's "brown sound." Technically sloppy, just like Page was notorious for, the solo is nevertheless is absolutely, balls-out cum-on-her-face. Very few solos have suited the song better than this one. And what's even better than the solo is the riff, one of rock's very finest. This has got to be my favorite Led Zep song, and perhaps the greatest hard rock song of all time. This is what Van Halen aspired to with a song like "Hot for Teacher," but utterly failed at in delivering the pure goods that this one shoots in your face.

34.) "White Room" (Cream)



Everyone and their mom has heard this song on repeat since birth, but it doesn't stop it from being a great one. I love the gradual build-up of Clapton's wah guitar throughout the song as it progresses, fatalistically, towards that final, orgiastic burst of Clapton's soloing that closes "White Room." "Crossroads" is usually billed as Clapton's great solo in Cream, but I prefer the melodic hooks of this one, as Clapton uses the wah pedal to its full effect in imitating the human voice.

33.) "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (The Beatles)



Clapton pops up again in this spot, and again we can see his capacity for playing some of the most melodic licks of all time, here countering the bell-like purity of Harrison's voice with phrases of such real emotion that they truly do give you the impression that Clapton's guitar is crying at the beauty and loss in the world. His excellent vibrato is of course a large part of this effect, but it is his breathtaking sense of musical composition that creates such fine musical phrases that they can actually hold their own against one of the Beatles' very best songs. I have never heard Clapton's work with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, so my opinion is not very valid, but for my money, this song has Clapton's best soloing.

32.) "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" (The Jimi Hendrix Experience)



Jimi's guitar playing on here has such raw, unpolished force, a sense of expression like he was overflowing with musical energy yet incapable of channeling it, so he opened up his heart and let the force of his own creative sun burst from his fingertips. His playing truly was some of the most original of any guitar player--I can't think of anything that sounds like this, before or after him. He really just fucking goes for it on his best songs. His use of guitar effects was pioneering, but he did it in such a way that they suited the song--even more than that, they suited his musical persona, bringing an otherworldly quality that is uncanny, because it reminds us of something we've forgotten. His songs are so raw and powerful that they shatter our musical (mis)perceptions and allow us to look and hear the world anew, after our soul has been torn down to its most primitive form by Hendrix's caveman/prophet guitar-playing.

31.) "Binge and Grab" (Buckethead)



I've said this a lot of times, I know, but this is truly a case of the solo coming out of absolutely nowhere to kick your ass for being such a pussy. The song begins with such a simple, catchy riff, riding it out for all its worth. Seems pretty bland, amirite? The solo even starts relatively tamely, which is just great, because you are left unprepared for how Buckethead is going to rip your flesh from your bones with his sheer technique and his wonderful energy and perhaps even naivete. How else could you contrast such carefree, innocent licks with such soul-devastating shred and blues-excelsior licks? This one is all feeling for me. Best not to try to over-intellectualize it, because I don't think that is his intention.

30.) "Is There Love in Space" (Joe Satriani)



An absolutely gorgeous song, "Is There Love in Space" has a kind of mature, understated beauty lacking in Satriani's earlier ballads (other than "Rubina"). By this point in his career, Satriani has matured into a less-is-more approach (well, sometimes he has). That means we are missing the resplendent power of Surfing with the Alien's finest songs, but it also means we have the raw emotion of a solo like this one. When I say the word "raw," I think of my description of Hendrix above. A solo like this one is like some kind of Hendrixian beast that has been refined through Joe's vast chops, able to express the feeling of Jimi's creative energy through the prism of Satriani's technique (this is oversimplified, since I don't think anyone has been able to channel Hendrix's wild energy with any great success). But nevertheless, I feel that this solo is Hendrix-inspired, through its impressionistic use of effects and tone to conjure a feel, a mood. The tone is just so overpowering in its contrast to the beauty of the verses, I just can't help being swept away by it into space and the great vault above us, a world Joe seemed eternally drawn to.

--Edward