best single rock guitar performance?

[ryberg]

Just for kicks, and even if it may seem like a tired or cliché type of question or whatever, what's your vote for best rock guitar performance, meaning in a single cut, not the best rock guitar album or the best rock guitarist ever (or we'll be at it forever not getting anywhere -- and we wouldn't want to do that on the Playa.Info Off-Topic Forum, you know! ).

I'm not a huge rock sort of guy, you know, but I'd be interested in generating a battery of good choices based on what forum folks like. Maybe we can even collect many suggestions and start a poll with them later or something.

Cosmo's thread that turned into a kind of impromptu Pink Floyd discussion made me think of this, and I can kick off the discussion here with what I posted there:

I tell you what, for my money, Comfortably Numb has not one but two of the greatest guitar solos in all of rock music. I mean it's hard to see how he could have done a better job on that, especially given the very unusual challenge of the first one being more peaceful and reflective and straightforwardly sad, perhaps, and then the second being that really guttural, angst-ridden affair. Such good work there, both sort of in and of itself and also in terms of suiting the context of the rest of the musical content.

So kudos to David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, who I throw out as the first nominee of what will undoubtedly be many excellent choices, for his work on Comfortably Numb.

Anybody care to join in?

Steve

[sctx]

well, if you exclude any moment in time where jeff beck has had a guitar in his hand, i'd have to go with Eddie Van Halens "Eruption"

[Cosmo]

Well, I didn't get to see Jimi do Wild Thing but it's right up there. I have seen Pink Floyd a bunch of times and just about all of the great guitar players and as far as I'm concerned it's Jimmy Paige doing Dazed and Confused. Not only does he slay you with his finger work but then he gets out the violin bow and blows you away. The only person that actually played both necks of a double neck guitar....

[roni]

Alvin Lee deserves consideration, certainly, as do a many bluesmen.

[ryberg]

Well that's true, and right away I thought of Stevie Ray Vaughan (near and dear to Scott's heart, as well, I know), and I wondered about the... validity of including his stuff or blues guys' stuff since I was really thinking rock guitar performance. Seems to me like SRV and of course Hendrix (whom SRV could obviously sound remarkably like, when he got into the right style and chose to do so), would probably be in as nominees due to their pretty clear crossover status, at least. But I wasn't thinking of guys who are really basically more blues guys than rock guys (Buddy Guy is one of those guys for example).

I think more than anything it depends on whether the performance -- whether the song -- in question is a rock song more than anything else. If it is, then I wouldn't care who was playing it -- Andrés Segovia on a flying V could even qualify.

Steve

[roni]

Originally Posted by ryberg

-- Andrés Segovia on a flying V could even qualify.

Steve

I have a favorite flying V rock guitarist.

This poem was written for his memorial service. Poet was a student at DePaul University at the time.

I seem to remember a brown Comet barrelling down my street
an old beat up guitar case on its back seat
Cigarette hanging out of his mouth
with a flick of his thumb we were off
to inject some life into this town
and you'd better have some energy to keep up
Like a comet on a quickly ascending arc he flew around
and he redefined the meaning of friend for you

I revisit Java house Saturdays and Zach is moshing
or talking to you about darn near anything you could think of
The easiest thing ever was to spend a day with him
and he redefined freedom for you

Punk rock heaven just got a new guitarist
and he can wail like any Hendrix with just a hint of NOFX
and my ears still ring and will forever ring
with that immense and beautiful note

[JEZ]

Mick Ronson playing on Moonage Daydream, 1972... Incredible.

[ryberg]

Originally Posted by JEZ

Mick Ronson playing on Moonage Daydream, 1972... Incredible.

Oh, yes, good one! I have often thought Ziggy Stardust is one of the select few albums that really define the entire rock genre.

Steve

[ryberg]

From roughly the same period and perhaps even more overlooked would be Elliot Randall's work on Steely Dan's Reelin' in the Years. Ya gotta love that tasty level of distortion there, combined with the upbeat drive of that playing. Really makes the whole song.

And ya gotta love a song that just starts right out with a guitar solo!

As far as that goes, I think Denny Dias (had to look up his name, and I'm a fan of the Dan!) must be even more overlooked for his fine sitar work on their Do It Again. I would have to give him some kind of special category honorable mention for that, myself.

Steve

[blondeandblue]

Brian Setzer Sleepwalk

[james]

Neil Young's solo on Cinnamon Girl

[Banzoomba]

Peter Frampton "Off The Hook"

[ANDY&JEN]

Great idea for a thread Steve
I am lucky enough to have spent most of my teens / 20`s and 30`s going to rock concerts in the UK and have been able to see just about every rock giant there was from AC/DC - ZZ Top (and no it aint a boast) but you name them ive probably seen them, like i said i was lucky and ive seen some really good guitarists ..Toni Iommi from Sabbath..Richie Blackmore (Deep Purple and Rainbow and Angus Young (AC/DC) but for me the greatest piece of guitar playing is the hard melodic (hairs on the back of the neck) duel between Scott Gorham and Brain Robertson (Thin Lizzy) on my favorite all time track Black Rose ....simply awsome .

.

[ryberg]

Originally Posted by james

Neil Young's solo on Cinnamon Girl

YES! You da man!

Ah, the power of a single, repeated note. Great overall sound for the song, too. The problem with Neil might be narrowing down the choices, though, I think, as Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) is another that fits, and there must be many more.

Indeed, Rust Never Sleeps is another album I think defines the rock genre. "He said 'red means run, son, numbers add up to nothin'".

I was thinking that I quite like Clapton on Cream's Badge, too. That whole bridge where the song kind of stops and the arpeggios begin is awesome (dude!), and the later soloing is also nice.

Ah, which makes me think, what about Clapton on another Harrison collaboration, While My Guitar Gently Weeps ? I don't know who's playing which parts, but wow, that's another good one where the guitar work is impressive on its own but also very much fits with and adds to -- even makes -- the song as a whole.

Steve

[Ginger]

I don't know much about playing guitar, but my son is learning to play. He spent a few minutes yesterday extolling the merits of Angus Young (AC/DC) and his fabulous guitar giftedness.

He played the beginning of "Thunder Struck" for me, and explained (and demonstrated) how difficult it is to play the notes in the main riff that always seem so simple. In fact, the notes seem to be so far away from each other on the...I wanna say fret?.....and it's so quickly picked, I see now how hard something is that is really taken for granted.