Your favorite rock guitar solo

I'm a bass guitarist. I love John Wetton's long, lyrical solo at the end of Bryan Ferry's "Love Me Madly Again." I loved Renaissance because Jon Camp basically played the lead on his bass; "Can You Hear Me" is full of solo riffs in the upper registers.

And who can forget Jon Entwistle's solo in the middle of "My Generation"? No one could believe it was possible to even play bass strings that fast. He revolutionized the role of the instrument in rock and roll. Before that song hit the radio, most people never noticed the bass line in pop songs because they were too elementary.

I started out as a guitarist. I would probably never have taken up the bass guitar if it weren't for Entwistle. Which would be a shame because the first time I picked one up I discovered that I was born to play it.
 
In regard to Floyd songs, has anyone else ever noticed how there are little sound bytes from previous Floyd song mixed in with other songs sometimes. I'd have to go over a couple of songs to name which ones but it sure seems like there is.
 
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Kee Marcello, Europe, "The Final Countdown".

Okay, seriously ....

I only like to pick on that song because while the solo got written up in a couple of magazines (GTFPM and Circus, as I recall) for teenage gunslingers to learn, it is nothing more than a superficial rip-off of Randy Rhodes' solo in Ozzy's "Mr. Crowley".

Seriously, though, claiming a favorite guitar solo? That's hard to do. For instance, two of my favorite in all time (Andy LaRocque for King Diamond's "Tea" and "Black Horsemen") aren't in any way defining or crowning achievements. I just really like them.

Stevie Ray Vaughan playing "Voodoo Chile" is a classic, as well.

Or Malmsteen's solo for "I Am A Viking", which pretty much answers all speedy scale soloists for all time.

But over the years, I've started to have a greater appreciation for other styles of guitar playing. After a few years of listening to worldbeat fiddlers and the like, it's getting harder and harder for me to pronounce greatness according to older criteria.

In my day, guitar legends were Eddie Van Halen, SRV, the late Randy Rhodes, Yngwie Malmsteen, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Kirk Hammett. With perhaps the exception of Satch and Vai, there's not much among the really good guitarists today to compare to. I can't explain, for someone who, for instance, worships "Eruption" or "I Am A Viking", or even "Satch Boogie"—who thinks Dimebag was the greatest guitarist ever, or some such—what makes Johnny Greenwood so incredible, or why Doyle II, despite being unable to write a decent song, is so important. (Hell, when you back Eric Clapton and Roger Waters?)

But if I have to pick one ... how about SRV doing "Little Wing"?

Nothing else really comes to mind.
 
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