Throughout history, guitar solos have pressed neophyte guitarists to build the necessary calluses to obsessively master their favorite riffs, transported listeners into different times and spaces, and added the necessary sheet of music that transformed a regular song into a rock classic.
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Bobbing to Chuck Berry’s “Jonny B. Goode” by the late ’50s or drenched in the oscillating drifts of Mark Knopfler’s guitar on “Sultans of Swing, Joe Walsh and Don Felder’s transportive dueling riffs on the Eagles’ 1977 hit “Hotel California,” or Eddie Van Halen‘s explosive “Eruption,” the list of epic rock guitar solos is immense.
Touching the tip of some of the most iconic guitar solos in rock, here are six of the most mind-blowing ones.
1. Jimi Hendrix on “All Along the Watchtower“ (1968)
Firing up multiple audible senses with wah-wah distortion and fuzzy twists, while melodically messing around in the C minor pentatonic scale, Jimi Hendrix‘s “All Along the Watchtower” is a hypnotic spectacle that has barely been matched.
Though “All Along the Watchtower” was originally written and released by Bob Dylan on his 1967 album, John Wesley Harding, Hendrix and the Experience brought it somewhere cosmic a year later on their third and final album, Electric Ladyland.
Read more about the meaning behind Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” HERE.
2. Jimmy Page on “Stairway to Heaven” (1971)
Recorded in London at the end of 1970, “Stairway to Heaven” was featured on Led Zeppelin‘s 1971 album, Led Zeppelin IV, but it was never released as a single.
Regarded as one of the greatest rock songs of all time, the crux of the classic lies within Jimmy Page’s three distinct guitar pieces throughout the track, from the finger-picked intro, through a mid-section, one-minute plus solo, and the more rapid-fire ripping toward the end. Page built it up, then came back down right into Robert Plant‘s a cappella close. And she’s buying a stairway to heaven.
What is the meaning behind “Stairway to Heaven”? Find out HERE.
3. Allen Collins and Gary Rossington on “Free Bird” (1973)
When Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded “Free Bird” for the first time in 1972, there were no guitar solos at the end. It was running seven minutes, but the band felt the song still wasn’t finished.
Written by guitarist Allen Collins and singer Ronnie Van Zant, “Free Bird” transformed by the time the band finalized the track for their eponymous debut in 1974, with the song running more than nine minutes was complete with its nearly five-minute boundless licks by Collins and Gary Rossington.
Check out the story behind the meaning of “Free Bird” HERE.
4. David Gilmour on “Comfortably Numb“ (1979)
David Gilmour delivered a collection of transportive guitar solos with Pink Floyd, from his transportive movements within “Time” or the building intensity around “Wish You Were Here,” many would agree that nothing compares to his greater opus on “Comfortably Numb,” released on the band’s 11th album, The Wall, in 1979.
Written by Gilmour and Roger Waters, the song—partly inspired by Waters’ experience with a muscle relaxant after contracting hepatitis during the band’s In the Flesh Tour—showcases Gilmour’s dynamic range. Richly toned in his delicate vibratos, legatos, and other masterful nuances, Gilmour’s mind-bending solo on “Comfortably Numb” is one to behold.
5. Randy Rhoads on “Crazy Train” (1980)
Originally released in 1980 as the first single from Ozzy Osbourne’s post-Black Sabbath solo debut, Blizzard of Oz, “Crazy Train” was propelled by Randy Rhoads’ tapping into lengthening riffs and a climactic solo, before coming back down to wrap back around the rhythmic chorus.
Trained in classical guitar by the age of 7, Rhoads later switched to electric guitar, then started teaching by the age of 16, and continued taking guitar lessons through his days with Osbourne.
Considered one of the best guitarists of all time—and “Crazy Train” one of the best guitar solos of all time—Rhoads continued working with Osbourne on his second album, Diary of a Madman, the last before his death in a plane crash at the age of 25 in 1982.
Check out 5 Electrifying Moments in Honor of Randy Rhoads HERE.
6. Kirk Hammett on “One“
The escalation of sharp guitar strikes on Metallica‘s “One” is part of its command as a great solo. Starting more ominously, the iconic intro—one played by many novice guitarists by the late ’80s—set the scene for what Kirk Hammett later unleashed on the seven-plus minute …And Justice for All track.
Hammett seizes the song through several solo breaks, each escalating and breaking across the potent lyrics, before unrelentingly ripping towards the end.
Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns
