Solos

Some rock bands have a guitarist that’s capable of delivering a jaw-dropping solo every now and then. Some rock bands have a guitarist that’s capable of even more than that. These guitarists are frankly super human.

I’ve come up with five solos which I think are among the best ever.

1) Deep Purple – Highway Star

Deep Purple was full of musicians all jostling to show off their talent. Ritchie Blackmore, the ego maniac also known for Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow and Blackmore’s Night, was desperate to play as loud and fast as possible and threw complicated, melodic solos at almost everything the band recorded.

The first track from the band’s Machine Head album has the greatest ever dual-guitar solo. Think Thin Lizzy or Hotel California, but way better. Sadly a band with one guitarist could never replicate this magnificence live.

2) Extreme – Get The Funk Out

This is my shock inclusion. Extreme were, to be brutally honest, shit. I did get into them when I was about fifteen, and out of them again before I was a year older, but this solo always remained a favourite.

Why Nuno Bettencourt was wasting his talent in a band like this always baffled me. There is a guitar version of Flight of the Bumblebee on the same album as this song, but rumour has it that he cheated when recording it. Gasp!

3) Van Halen – Hot For Teacher

Eddie Van Halen is another man with such an over-inflated ego that he named his band after himself. He then dared to criticise David Lee Roth for being self-centred. Oh well.

He didn’t invent it, but he certainly popularised the two-handed tapping method of soloing and this is one of his best efforts.

4) Metallica – The Call of Ktulu

This is an instrumental track which clocks in at almost nine minutes. There might be quite a bit of repetition during the song, but it’s all worth it.

Metallica’s Kirk Hammett usually just clicks on the wah-wah pedal and produces stock solos that all sound too similar. This one is different for some reason and has always stuck in my mind. Possibly the only instrumental, H.P. Lovecraft-themed metal song ever.

If you’ve got time, check out the Polish guitar students doing a cover of this as well.

5) Slayer – Angel of Death

The problem with including a Slayer song was which one to pick. Their songs are packed with thrash metal musical brilliance and this is truly the pinnacle of everything they’ve ever done. I’ve probably heard this song a million times and will never tire of it.

This is the only song to make it on to my Best Riffs and Best Solos lists, so well done - not that they’ll know.

If I’ve done this right, the songs should be here too. Give them all a listen. Yes, even the Extreme one.