Rules: A guitar solo is a segment of a song that strongly features the expressiveness and creativity of a guitar. The solo must be part of a song of any genre, not a fully instrumental piece. The solo can be of any length, but you cannot select a riff. Questionable selections will be decided by vote. 7 rounds. Straight picking. 12 hour windows. You do not have to post links to YouTube/other sites that have the music in question, but it is strongly recommended. Please post the time of the start and end of the solo. When you have posted your pick, tag the next player so they know when to pick. If you will be away during your time slot, send your pick to a trusted proxy to vote for you. I can be that trusted party because I am trying to lose this game and will never steal your pick.
Pick order: afgrijselijkheid SpencerNY Cascarino's Pizzeria spejic Caddman Auriaprottu nicodemus taosjohn Matt in the Hat @afgrijselijkheid your window starts now.
SpencerNY said he was in twice in the sign up thread and I didn't notice. His second-position roll was the first I gave him, so that is where he picks.
Wow, I did not expect the first pick. Let's kick this off in fitting style with a must-have I would not expect to be available by round two. The #1 overall pick, our Mats Sundin, our Tim Duncan, our Earl Campbell... Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses Soloist: Slash I have a theory that Slash hated this song. Because it is really two songs. The Axl song that starts the track and carries on for two verses is lilting with charm about a romance grown comfortable. The second song is when Slash comes in and wrecks that pop song by unleashing what amounts to a depressing movie of sound based on what comes after when it all goes wrong and spirals out of control until his guitar is growling and whining its way through "Where do we go now?"-land. Like the solo, that lyric was almost completely improvised. Upon hearing that emotional cuisinart of a solo, Axl repeatedly asked that now famous question into his mic, probably wondering what happened to his nice, sweet song. The recording engineer suggested he sing that for the outro, which some consider as being still part of the solo. This makes musical sense, but I won't claim that much. It does remind me of a funny fact surrounding this solo, though: originally top 40 radio and MTV sliced out the guitar solo for time consideration. They eventually restored it to their air versions because fans freaked the hell out at them.
Hotel California - Eagles Soloists: Don Felder, Joe Walsh Sweet Child O'Mine is a perfect lead in to my pick, Hotel California. Now that I think about it, Axl Rose and company probably ripped off Hotel California! Both songs are about Los Angeles and going from innocence to decadence/experience, or something like that. Don Felder starts it all off at 4:00 (4:20 on the album cut) after Don Henley has informed us that we're never gonna leave Hotel California. He's starts of pretty mellow and clean, but with each passing bar his note choice implies something increasingly foreboding, until he crescendos right into Joe Walsh's half of the solo. Joe Walsh starts of at 4:28 doing this sweet Chuck Berry thing (think Johnny B. Goode) which really revs up the tension a notch. He pretty much continues the crescendo Don was building up and it all culminates in that glorious part where Don and Joe start off dueling a bit (4:55) but then gradually start playing mostly the same notes, until at 5:18 when they totally lock-in for the outro. I have no idea what guitars were used on the album version, but in the video I chose I think the Felder's double-necked Gibson of Felder goes really well with Walsh's twangy Telecaster. I picked this video because clearly at 4:45 or so you can see from the look on Joe Walsh's face, that he has crapped his pants from the awesomeness that is this solo.
Excellent choice; first time anything on my short list has ever gone early in a music draft, IIRC. Wouldn't have been my first choice, but wouldn't have made it through round two...
Ismitje is next in line, but I thought he had opted out in the original thread. I'm not sure how to tag him either.
The same thing happened there. Basically, I used the list Auriaprottu created and added everyone that said "I'm in" after that - but everyone that said "I'm in" was already in. List fixed. @Cascarino's Pizzeria is currently up.
It looks like Cascarino's Pizzeria's slot has passed. "Do Your Thing" (1971) album: Shaft group: Isaac Hayes, Bar-Kays soloist: Charles Pitts solo: 2:10 - 11:30 Isaac Hayes sings a two minute song about doing your thing. Then Charles Pitts does his thing. For 9 minutes. @Caddman is next.
"Comfortably Numb" (1979) album: The Wall group: Pink Floyd soloist: David Gilmour I'll go with the 2nd solo which starts roughly at the 5:00 mark. What can I say? The yin to Roger Waters' yang, or the sanity to his madness. David Gilmour's blues based guitar with clean tones brought balance to the force and turned Pink Floyd into one of the biggest rock acts of all time. I'll take this iconic solo in the 1st round to build my team around. A live performance worth watching.
Still The One- Orleans John Hall and Larry Hoppen, soloists Album- Waking And Dreaming, 1976 Dual guitars in a Southern Rock setting. At times they play some fiddle-esque riffs, other times you think you're hearing pedal steel. Great harmony all the way thru and creative ideas for a genre where it can get stale and bluesy real quick. Solo begins at 1:45 and runs until 2:25, but there's great licks all the way thru. Enjoy!
Sorry I missed. Many hours of NCAA watching, alcohol and Duke-loss-celbratin. So here's my 1st round pick. From someone I had no idea could wail like this...starting off strong...it's Prince's solo from "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" at the R&R HOF in 2004:
I wondered if anyone would think of that-- I wasn't gonna go hunting for it, but it definitely scores with me. Dhani's expression is priceless, and very George-like.
I apologize for the fact that whoever assembled it apparently does not remember which album the track was actually on. I am posting it anyway because I want the studio version, not anything live. Steely Dan-- "My Old School" Soloist-- Skunk Baxter/Brecker-Fagan There are three solos in this actually--1:10-1:27, 2:31- 2:54, and the one I am taking, 4:46--fade, which kind of recapitulates the other two. A classic studio solo, this wasn't actually played, according to lore and legend, but was assembled by Brecker and or Fagan out of favorite parts of many solos Baxter offered them, using razor blade and adhesive. While not devoid of emotion by any means, it is nonetheless a thinking man's solo, and the two of them are nothing if not thinking men. For my money it is the best part of the best track on their best album. @Matt in the Hat
I've spent many a post here on BigSoccer trying to convince folks that there's no contradiction here. Great call, too!
"Praise from Caesar is praise indeed!" Thanks, I was hoping it would be in your line... Now I have to figure out what to take next, since the Slash is already gone and I can't use either of the instrumentals I had chosen...