solos, collectivized (not slight but quite mighty return)


Marcin Kruszewski of Pontone:

still sounds like nightmare from my childhood but watching (from 6:00) this guy soloing is even better than listening to it:



Wishbone bleedin Ash! didn't they invent the dual lead/duelling leads thing? Always meant to give them a proper 'go'. Argus is the one supposedly

Marcin continues

"and this from 5:28 - i don't know is it Byrne's guitar or just an elephant squeak"



That would be Belew wouldn't it, Adrian (as discussed over at Carl's). But Byrne will be making an appearance in days to come


Marc Goodman:

I'd (re)commend Mike Hampton's solo on The Brides of Funkenstein's "Never Buy Texas From A Cowboy". The song is about 16 minutes long but the solo is in the first part as it's divided on YouTube. There's great riffing beginning at the 5 minute mark but I'd say the true solo begins at the 6 minute mark.





Ben Caldwell:

I couldn’t let this discussion go by without mention of the solo in "Soma" by Smashing Pumpkins. The whole song is the indie/grunge quiet-loud thing in macrocosm, with this solo being the incredibly cathartic loud climax. It starts at 4.24 and then continues both alone and then under the vocals for the majority of the rest of the song. It’s the most emotional guitar solo I can remember, and is not necessarily what you’d expect in a fey indie song!

Also have to mention the light/dark twin solos in "Comfortably Numb" – both incredible.







Joe Maher:

My favourite solos have an entropic quality - the organised harmonic coda of a riff or lick repeated again and again with increased degradation of the formal structure til a kind of sonic chaos, wildness reigns.

Jimi Hendrix -" Red House (live at the Isle of Wight)"
Gary Moore - Still Got the Blues for You (Live)
Led Zeppelin - "Since I've Been Loving You"

Some are just pure release / relief from the overwhelming tension of the rest of the song (or in the Manic's case, entire album) :-

Manic Street Preachers - This Is Yesterday
White Stripes - Ball And Biscuit
BB King - The Thrill Is Gone (Live)

Sorry Joe this is a Gary Moore Free Zone and a Manic Street Preachers Free Zone and I've also got an unreasoned and uninformed anti-thing for BB King









Peter Lloyd back for a second bite:

know you have had "What Do I Get" from the Buzzcocks but what about "Boredom" from the Buzzcocks Spiral Scratch,possibly the Punk guitar solo on Pete Shelleys Woolworths guitar!

Also Robert Quinne on "Atomic Bongoes" and various other tracks on
Lydia Lunch,s "Queen Of Siam" album







Paul Hammond:

(i know that name, i know that name... why bless my cotton socks it's Paul Hammond, as in Ultramarine! )

I'd like to propose Mike Oldfield's beautiful slo-mo blues solo in the
Kevin Ayers track 'Whatevershebringswesing'. The guitar solo comes in at 4:24. Sends shivers down my spine every time.



I just have to interject here,Paul, if we're talking Mike Oldfield, then what about the playing on this K. Ayers track



and then in the whole-song-as-solo stakes, Ayers own playing and proto-Frippery on "Decadence", especially the last three-plus minutes from about 4-40, choir of sky dolphins



but back to the guest appearances:



Aaron Goldberg:

my two bobs:

Peter Laughner/Pere Ubu – FINAL SOLUTION – while the song may have allusions to fascism or whatever , Laughner’s solo is a glorious swansong into the afterlife at the Valhalla of rock..



Jimi Moginie/Midnight Oil – HERCULES – Moginie was an under-rated guitarist, because in amongst all of Garret’s righteous-earnest softcock bluster and the cheesy socialist fluro-80s blather that were ‘the Oils’ were so very fine mixolydian scale noodling within a very mainstream context..

[goes into urgent consultation with self... "look, Simon, we've always been very clear about this, Blissblog is and always will be a Midnight Oil Free Zone. i thought that was understood. I mean, 'Beds Are Burning', need i say more"... "yeah but Simon, Simon, it might actually, be... good. I mean, it's a possibility"]



^^^^^^listens^^^^^

[actually that bit at the end is quite exciting, shame about the sinewy gristle of the rest of it]

Ira Kaplan/You La Tengo – FIVE-CORNERED DRONE – forget their twee earnestness, one of their secret weapons, for me anyway, was when Ira goes for those extended ‘her her call my name-meets-Albert Ayler’ solos, starting here about 3:23 and lasting at least another 2 glorious minutes. Let’s be straight here, Kaplan simply doesn’t get the ‘hoity toity’ kudos as an avant guitarist in his own right, that alot of shitter guitarists that the Wire magazine ejaculate praise on and the twee indie types find his playing to be too ‘Jimi Hendrix’ and ‘rock’!

Many of the ‘Country rockers’ can be just as avant and probably more dexterous that all these Fripp avant-garde players..ditto the Allman Brothers ‘Ramblin Man’ which is actually prettier on record:

and let’s not forget Blue Oyster Cult’s HOT RAILS TO HELL – fuck everything, it’s is pure drive-you-nuts addictive, labyrinthine electric rock ‘n roll guitar solo wankery bliss!!..Like an ecstasy pill that peaks and troughs and peaks and peaks and peaks and peaks.... Eric ‘Buck Dharma’ Rosers’ ‘Stun Guitar’ is in full effect...!








James Parker back for a second or is it third bite:

j mascis in buffalo tom's 'sunflower suit'! [not Buffalo Tom!? Yo La Tengo was bad enough but not a Buffalo Tom tune - still i guess we're talking Mascis as guest star so OK then go on]
quite a lovely song, in that drab keening feelin'-massachussetts way the buffalo toms have, but when j stamps on his pedal at 1.35ish you can hear the whole thing *lifting off* - booster-rocket guitar, (with great munchings of wah-wah)!




Tim Finney back again for a second nibble:

Guitar solos in disco... I think this is the one you want:




Travis Gettys:

a few worthies that I haven't seen mentioned yet.

Funkadelic's "Maggot Brain" [done by Carl real early act-u-al-ly] is the towering monolith of guitar shredding freakouts, and it's nearly a solo performance quite literally. Eddie Hazel somehow manages to keep even non-stoned listeners from growing bored through its not-quite 10-minute length. No mean feat, that. (I also like the solo-within-the-solo at around the 5:50 mark.)

Marc Ribot's solo on Tom Waits' "Clap Hands" is one of my all-time favorites. It's all wrong notes played just right.

And isn't Charlie Christian's playing throughout "Solo Flight" pretty much the granddaddy of them all?