Guitar solos that I HATE

RandallFlagg

The Edge on the live version of Party Girl on Under A Blood Red Sky, he even makes a mistake which was left in on the final release. Almost as bad as Adam Clayton's plunky bass solo on Gloria on the same album.

Nunogilberto

Beastie Boys - FFYRTP - As others have mentioned, utter pap solo. The kind of solo someone would play if they'd never played a guitar before and you just handed them one.

Clapton - Layla outro - Again, another vote for this. The piano part is nice enough but all those bloody wailing slide parts - it's like having twenty cats outside the back door...

Edwyn Collins - Girl Like You - Another vote for this. It might fit the song but it's still a crap solo and I've always hated the song anyway.

Any Jimmy Page solo - Yes he wrote some memorable riffs but his solos don't go anywhere in particular and all have that scratchy horrible tone.

Bryan Adams - I Need Somebody - A sort of melodic fill like the one in the Edwyn Collins track above. Just irritates me for the same reason as that song.

Any Nirvana guitar solo - just no.

Alter Bridge - Down To My Last - Most of the solos on this album are just overly widdly, wah drenched and saturated with high gain. I think Tremonri upped his game a fair bit on the Blackbird album...

TTBZ

Nunogilberto said:

Any Nirvana guitar solo - just no.

What's wrong with Kurts leads? I think they're awesome and fit the songs perfectly. In Bloom is one of my favourite solos.

darthed1981

Iamnobody said:

darthed1981 said:

The worst "solo" I've ever heard is the one on Angels by Robbie Williams, I'm not a fan of his on any level in any case but I just wonder why they bothered with that one.

Ok I'm no fan of the fat dancer but that solo is a memorable one. One you can hum to yourself.

The best type of solo in my book. Most importantly it fits the song.

I disagree strongly.   Though I agree with your two qualifications for a good solo, I don't think it fits.  Obviously several people agree with you who were in the studio though, it got recorded and stuck on the record.  That of course applies to everything in this thread!

What it comes back to is my dislike for the song's recording (the song itself is very good, lets face it).  I think it would work much better if rather than pretending to be Wonderwall, they went to one of two natural places it belongs.  The first would be to acknowledge what it is, a power ballad, and go full 80s, like the sax solo on China In Your Hand, but played on guitar (which I've always thought would sound great).

The other way would be to go light acoustic ballad, more "More Than Words" and tone William's delivery down as well.

All IMHO, I know a lot of people love the song as it stands.

I think in some ways its less irritating than for example "rule the world" by Take That where the song has a section which might as well say "insert guitar solo here" but doesn't have one.  Whenever I hear that I insert a solo in my head.

This is one thread where no-one will have a consensus!

CHRISB50

proggy said:

The worst solo I've ever heard is by Paul Weller on Start by The Jam.

What a fucking din.

Lol. I really like it. It it fits the song nicely. 

Vibetronic

after all these years I never knew Maiden did solo spots on the World Slavery Tour!! I'm guessing it was to give the others a break. Not awful, agreed not particularly tuneful, but I doubt that was the intention. 

Don't particularly hate any guitar solos, it's all good; there's not going to be one out there that pleases everyone. That said, Take That did a cover of Teen Spirit live (on youtube somewhere), and there's a solo on that which isn't particularly adept. Can't say I hate it though, it made me smile and that's something.

Luminous

Comfortably numb.....make it stop.

siraxeman

Some choices on here seem like fairly melodic solos....each to their own. Solos that irritate me tend to be widdly widdly for flashes sake and have no real melody to them...so that for me is a waste of time. If you wouldn't want to listen to it on a cd or you'd press skip if it was, or it's just.a visual thing only then it's just a cheap trick and not really music to me anyway. 

dindude

Oh and jump by Van Halen, very unmusical, comes from nowhere, adds nothing.

Sassafras

Vibetronic said:

after all these years I never knew Maiden did solo spots on the World Slavery Tour!! I'm guessing it was to give the others a break. Not awful, agreed not particularly tuneful, but I doubt that was the intention. 

What about giving the poor audience a break?
I'm usually begging to be put out of my misery during those kinds of interminable solos.

Bucket

Nunogilberto said:

Any Jimmy Page solo - Yes he wrote some memorable riffs but his solos don't go anywhere in particular and all have that scratchy horrible tone.

Sometimes it seems like I'm the only one who thinks this. Good to find someone who agrees. Heartbreaker is particularly cock.

Whole Lotta Love, Black Dog and Stairway are notable exceptions.

Bucket

You know who frustrates me? Neal Schon.

Frequently he'll come up with a fantastic solo which is melodic, tasteful, serves the song perfectly and, of course, has his wonderful tone. Then he'll spoil it all by doing a massive shred run back down the scale, which is not only anticlimactic in the context of the solo as a piece of music, it also just doesn't fit. Perfect example - 3:50 in Faithfully.



He does it in When You Love A Woman too, and Separate Ways, and Only The Young.

stratman3142

Indiscriminate (unmusical) bends or vibrato are my pet hates.

Nunogilberto

Bucket said:

Nunogilberto said:

Any Jimmy Page solo - Yes he wrote some memorable riffs but his solos don't go anywhere in particular and all have that scratchy horrible tone.

Sometimes it seems like I'm the only one who thinks this. Good to find someone who agrees. Heartbreaker is particularly cock.

Whole Lotta Love, Black Dog and Stairway are notable exceptions.

Funnily enough I was thinking of the Black Dog solo when I wrote that. WLL isn't so bad, but on the whole I prefer his riffs to his solos...

Sassafras

Usually when someone's earned the moniker 'guitar hero' that's a good indication that their solos are best avoided.

siraxeman

Bucket said:

You know who frustrates me? Neal Schon.

Frequently he'll come up with a fantastic solo which is melodic, tasteful, serves the song perfectly and, of course, has his wonderful tone. Then he'll spoil it all by doing a massive shred run back down the scale, which is not only anticlimactic in the context of the solo as a piece of music, it also just doesn't fit. Perfect example - 3:50 in Faithfully.

Totally don't get this...a nice melody with a small but if spice on the end of it. Fairy nufff...tell me though out of curiousity - what are some good solos? Brian May and Slash do that kind of thing all the time - melody mostly but with a bit of widdle here n there to spice things up a bit...but they generally have a modicum of taste to not go OTT as a shredder would do.

Bucket

siraxeman said:
they generally have a modicum of taste to not go OTT as a shredder would do.

There's my point - Neal Schon often doesn't.

axisus

To be honest, every ego driven live wankfest without any other instruments (like the OP) is a pile of overindulgent steaming poop. Why do guitarists do that???? Oh yes, ego.

A solo I have always hated is Commodores Easy - I HATE that zippy slide up the strings that keeps happening.

Also, flying in the face of popular opinion, I hate the tone on the 'revered' Goodbye to love. Cool solo otherwise.

stratman3142

I remember Supercharge taking the piss out of the isolated guitar solo.

Their guitarist launched into an extended spoof solo without the other instruments. After a while, the band started yawning. Then they picked up one of the horn players and used him as a battering ram to knock the guitarist off the stage.

They had a bloody excellent guitarist though.

siraxeman

Bucket said:

siraxeman said:
they generally have a modicum of taste to not go OTT as a shredder would do.

There's my point - Neal Schon often doesn't.

But that wasn't OTT....twas but a quick flurry then back to business...hardly gratuitous?