Glen’s Rockmaggeddon – Guitar Solos

I’m a sucker for a guitar solo, I love ’em !!

Doesn’t matter what, where. How or when!

My parents didn’t really listen to music at all, so I had no real musical upbringing. My older sister started to actively listen to music when I was 10 or so, but she heard a lot of stuff like Springsteen or Bread or whatever was in the charts at the time, so I basically thought music sucked.

I remember sitting in my bedroom when I was around 11, playing games on my old rubber keyboard ZX Spectrum when I heard something coming from my sister’s room. I hit pause, space bar at the time, jumped up and ran into her room screaming “What the fuck is that ??????”

It was the guitar solo to “Ace of Spades” which was playing on the radio. It all went downhill from there. In the space of about 5 seconds my life changed, I didn’t want to be a fireman or an astronaut anymore, I wanted to be the guy playing the instrument that made that noise that made me feel really alive for the first time ever.

It’s been 35 years and I still can’t play it properly, but what the hell, it’s Rock’n’Roll !

There was no record store in the village I grew up in, but thanks to KERRANG magazine and our local library, I discovered so much. I would order cassette after cassette, everything from Uriah Heep to Metallica, from KISS to Venom, sometimes waiting for weeks for them to arrive, only to be disappointed because some bastard had swapped out the reels on the Blizzard of Oz tape for some shite no one ever wanted to hear.

Pocket money was saved and on every monthly shopping trip to Belfast I would hit the markets and buy every second hand record with a heavy metal looking cover that I could afford. Lots of shit was bought during that time but I didn’t care. There were loud guitars and screaming solos and that’s what my soul needed !!

I was so naïve at the time that when I got a hold of Megadeth’s So Far So Good So What, I proudly said to my best friend Paul, „Hey look man, Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten wrote a song for these guys,“ not knowing that “Anarchy in the UK” was a cover version, but I had heard the aforementioned names somewhere before !

So, that’s how it started, how I fell in love with guitars and solos… I could go on about it forever but the internet ain’t big enough !!!

From Dave Mustaine’s intensity on Megadeth‘s “My Last Words“ to Peter Green’s dulcet tones on “Albatros“. From the beautiful insanity that is “Freebird“ to the car crash that is Franché Coma’s 2-note work on The Misfits‘ “Attitude“- there is just something about a guitar solo that gives me goosebumps.

What makes a good solo? Is it technical ability, feeling, speed, tone or just pure damn luck ?

It can be all of the above, none of the above, or one of the above if u ask me

One of my favorite solos ever can be heard on AC/DC‘s seminal live album If You Want Blood You Got It on the song “Bad Boy Boogie“. Angus plays the usual solo and then, ladies and gentlemen, plays the same fuckin’ note for 40 seconds, and it’s the best part of the whole album, next to Bon’s „Ey!“ in the intro to the 2^nd verse of „Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be“, but that’s another story !

This is what I mean about pure damn luck, I think Angus was tired and needed a wee rest, so he just picked the one note for a bit, and with a bit of soul and feeling thrown in there for good measure, he made an amazing 40 seconds of rock’n’roll history happen. Did he want to? Who knows! Would he admit it? Maybe I’ll ask him some day !!

How did guitar solos come about?

I guess it all started way back when souls were sold to Satan at crossroads in Mississippi so that a certain young black man could become one of the most renowned and well-loved blues guitarists of his and all time- Mr Robert Johnson. Along came Fats Domino, invented rock’n’roll on a piano, then Mr. Chuck Berry did the same with a guitar. Guitar solos became standard in rock’n’roll music.

And then there’s Jimi and Rory, incorporating their love of blues with their own unique styles, changing the world of guitarists forever. When asked after Woodstock how it felt to be the best guitar player in the world, the humble Sir Hendrix replied „I don’t know, ask Rory Gallagher“.

Sabbath came alone, invented heavy metal, while Zeppelin were still plagiarising old blues numbers, Blackmore brought classic into the mix, Steely Dan and Thin Lizzy were doing the twin guitar thing, and then punk appeared. Solos were forgotten for about five minutes, then came NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) and Iron Maiden’s “Prowler” brought the guitar solo back to the masses !!

And then a young kid from Santa Monica joined a band called Blizzard of Oz and the guitar solo would never be the same again, again !!!

Randall William Rhoads influenced so many of today’s guitarists, a humble young lad who left this world too soon at the age of 26. He wrote and performed some of the best guitar solos ever written, to this day unbeatable, “Crazy Train“, “Mr Crowley“, “Revelation Mother Earth“, “Steal Away The Night“, “Over The Mountain” to name but a few, not to forget the beauty that is “Dee“.

Hair bands like Hanoi Rocks, Mötley Crüe, G’N’R, Cinderella, LA Guns, Poison etc hit the scene, all with amazing guitarists; then there were the anti-hair guys like Anthrax, Metallica, Megadeth, Overkill etc. also featuring unbelievable guitar players, all influenced by the aforementioned legends. Depending on your taste you love these guys or hate ’em, but there is no denying that they could all pull off a solo that would knock your socks off !!

Then one day you’re workin’ in an Irish pub and the boss puts on a DVD: its Fleetwood Mac‘s The Dance, and you think, „Cool, Go Your Own Way is awesome,“ and then you discover Mr. Lindsey Buckingham- sweet lord is that guy good !! If you don’t know what I’m talkin’ about, listen to the live version of “I’m So Afraid“, probably one of the best ‘relaxed’ guitar solos ever if you ask me !

I gotta come back to Fleetwood Mac again, “Albatros” is for me THE Cocaine solo. Peter is in in the studio well up on sugar and he’s just playin’ and thinkin „Fuck me, I’m so good I just need no play a note here and a note there“ !!!
And you know what ? He was fuckin’ right!!!

Every top 10 solo list features solos like Stairway, Comfortably Numb, One, Erruption and the likes, but there are better ones out there. Take Floyd for example. Yes, “Comfortably Numb” is awesome, especially live, but the better solo is without a doubt “Time” .

There is so much I could say about guitar solos, I could go on for days, taking a solo, picking it apart bar by bar, talking about what’s going on there and in a future column I probably will !!

There are so many great guitar players out there from the virtuosos like Eddie Van Halen and Joe Satriani to the guys who keep it more simple but still strike a chord in my heart like Dave Davies or John Fogerty. Unfortunately, I can’t do them all justice in one column but here are 10 of my favorite solos that I haven’t yet mentioned. They can change depending on my mood though !!

Hope I can awake some love in your heart for all the guys who spent their youth playing scales for six hours in their bedrooms instead of partyin’ !!

by Glen Clarke

1. Love Gun – Ace Frehley (KISS)

2. Emerald – Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson (Thin Lizzy)

3. Looking At You – Wayne Kramer (MC5)

4. I’m In The Band – Nicke Andersson and Robert „Strings“ Dahlquist (Hellacopters)

5. Hard To Handle – Rich Robinson (The Black Crowes)

6. Mr Crowley – Randy Rhoads (Ozzy Osbourne)

7. Fast As A Shark – Wolf Hoffman (Accept)

8. One More Reason – Tracii Guns (LA Guns)

9. Keep On Hustlin’ – Tony Slug (Hydromatics)

10. Pretty Fucked Up – Rontrose Heathman (Supersuckers)

by Glen Clarke