What is your favorite guitar solo of all time?


It's a difficult question,maybe your top 2 or 3 that year after year blow you away and raise the hair on your head and move your soul inside.
playpen
Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez played by Paco de Lucía
Hodu,

IIRC, that solo on "Baby's on Fire" is actually a duet between Fripp and Paul Rudolph. (BTW - the same goes for the intro to Sweet Jane on RnR Animal, also a duet). Phil Manzanera's solo on BoF on 801 Live is - I think, but I could be wrong - an actual solo and is pretty amazing in its own right. There's another live version from a different Brian Eno band - can't recall the band or the record - in which the guitars and bass are really strangely tuned. It's fantastic, too. Just an epic guitar tune.

Marty
I'd have to say that Don Feldar's solo on Hotel California is among my all-time favorites.
This is a Lays Potato chip question. Right now maybe Reeves Gabrels, (still can't eat just one) Heaven's in Here/Baby Universe/If there is Something (Tin Machine was %$###!!!!! GREAT in MHO). Sonny Sharrock/Dick Dogs is fantastic and maybe throw in a few no brainers like Hendrix/All Along The Watchtower, Live Kraan/Holiday am Marterhorn and John McLaughlin/Purpose of When.
A couple of posts back...A Kevin Ayers Live w/Nico has a version of Baby's on Fire w/ Ollie Halsall on guitar... Ollie put out some of the most cranium smokin' guitar work ever miked. Check the first 3 Patto records for proof, (Money Bag is beyond classic). I guess they opened for Ten Years After on one tour... sad times for Alvin.
Brian May

This shows why they invented reverb and the electric guitar - awesome.

Here is a more technical classic approach Jeff Beck - anything by Jeff is awesome - probably the greatest guitarist ever...but who is this AMAZING GIRL?
Eric Clapton on Stephen Stills solo - go back home, David Gilmore comfortably numb and on the turning away - Johnny Winter on John Lee Hooker's Suzie
Two of the Jimi Hendrix songs "All along the Watchtower" & " I hear my train a coming" from Rainbow Bridge
Wes Montgomery, "Round Midnight" is my favorite, while many of those mentioned are my second favorite.
From the LP "Welcome" by Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin there is the tune "Flame/Sky where at 2:30 you get the guitar solos of a lifetime. Just pure bliss IMHO!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHTyOVGDbWQ

;^)
Wes Montgomery,wow I almost forgot,he is so clean a player,uses his thumb,no pick,he is a fabulous guitar player.How about impressions from the willow weep for me .album and tear it down from the bumpin lp on those great sounding verve black lp's.Too bad he died of heart attack at 45,my favorite jazz guitarist. Thanks orpheus 10.
Great to see the votes for Wes Montgomery (yeah, Playpen, anyone ever use his thumb like Wes?). Funny, though, I'd have bet that "4 on 6" would be the first solo mentioned. My favorite - and I suspect Jimi's favorite, too.

Marty
Duane,

I was indeed thinking of the Kevin Ayers/Nico version of "Baby's On Fire". Thanks.

Marty
A lesser known one that stays with me is Steve Hackett's (Genesis) in Firth of Fifth. Another is Andrew Latimer's (Camel) in "Long Goodbyes" on the album "Stationary Traveler" (so many by him....).

Clapton's in the Beatles 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is certainly great and most iconic!

There are so many good ones....these just come to mind.
Alvin Lee with Ten Years After, "I'd Love To Change the World". My favorite? Let's just say it is one of them.
"Since I've Been Loving You".

Out of all the studio tracks in Led Zeppelin's recording career, this IMHO was Jimmy Page's finest moment and my favourite guitar solo of all time.
While their are so many three more come to mind:

Buddy Guy--Damn Right I've Got The Blues

Stevie Ray:The Sky is Crying

Warren haynes and Derek Trucks on The ABB's Desdimona and High Cost of Low Living
Journey "Of a Lifetime" song "In My Lonely Feeling" before Steve Perry ruined the group.
UFO "Lights Out" song "Love to Love"
Robin Trower "Twice removed From Yesterday" song "Daydream"
Luther Allison "Cherry Red Wine" forgot the album name.

If these songs don't get you playing air guitar, you might be dead.
Carlos Santana, "Blues for Salvador", the 2nd cut "Bella" puts me in a trance.
No question... Hendrix (Band of Gypsys II) "Hear My Train A Comin'. There are a few versions of that song floating around, but on that particular record, it used to blow me away. So much so, that I used to try and time my acid peaks with the main solo (heh, yeah, LSD over 20 years ago).
Still haven't snagged Band of Gypsys on cd an' lost my turntable during an acid trip about 20 years ago... need to get Band of Gypsys again. Also really dig the Little Wing solo from the Jimi Hendrix Concerts disc (1968 live in Winterland)... this one has the coolest LSD warped cowboy underwater sound of any Little Wings I've heard so far.
Sometimes less is more. For example, the few bars of brilliant, crystalline perfection in Todd Rundgren's solo in 'I Saw The Light.'
There are so many from all the known guitar heroes - but I'll certainly give a honorable mention to Walter Rossi in general, a great Canadian guitar player with tone and feel that should have put him amongst the top of the 70s...listen to 'Silent I Wait' (from Diamonds for the kid), for example, for a show case in good taste...
I'll probably get flamed for this selection since this probably isn't considered audiophile type music but my favorite guitar solo is from the song Disposeable Heroes by Metallica off of the Master of Puppets album.

My all time favorite solo starts around the 4:27 mark after James Hetfield sings Hell is here!!!
Walter Rossi!
Great suggestion. Haven't listened to him in years
Has a unique guitar voice and deserves mention in this thread
Soundgasm,

The short solo in service to a great pop song is almost a separate subject unto itself. I'd also choose the Rundgren example you cite, and I'd add Dave Davies' (Kinks) solo from "I'm Not Like Everybody Else", Dave Edmunds'(Rockpile) solo on "So It Goes", and Terry Kath's (Chicago) solo on "25 or 6 to 4" to that list.

Marty

PS two more from my hero, Lindsey Buckingham:

"Go Your Own Way" from Live @ Bass Performance Hall
"(This is The) Time" from Out of the Cradle
I have a lot of favorite solos but the most hair raising is the original master recording Mobile Fidelity Utradisc II Muddy Waters Folk Singer. The dynamics from low to high are definitely hair raising.
Leslie West, "Don't Look Around" simply smokes, he is my all time favorite geetar man
Tom Morello on "The Ghost of Tom Joad" (with Springsteen nearly bursting the vein in his forehead as he tried to match intensities). Can be seen on U2B, from the R&R HOFame concert.