by Streeter

Welcome to a new week, Indaba.  It's Monday and that means it's time to talk shop on the ol' Indablog here.  But what to talk about?  We've argued about guitars and keyboards and drums.  And we've argued about music videos and bands.  We've argued about cover songs and you've given me buying tips for new instruments.  So what's left?  Well, how about we argue about something a bit smaller.  Let's argue about guitar solos. 

The guitar solo is one of those most cherished commodities of a rock band.  A good guitar solo can be more memorable than the song that surrounds it.  There are hundreds of great ones, thousands of decent ones and even more bad ones (listen to any Limp Bizkit guitar solo and you'll know what I mean).  A good solo can lift a song to a new level and lift the public's opinion of a band up with it.  What would Zep be without Page?  The Stones without Richards?  Bon Jovi without Sambora? The list goes on and on. 

So I ask you guys today to name off some of your favorite guitar solos and give me a little explanation as to why.  I'll start:

• "Let It Be" The Beatles - George Harrison rips this guitar solo no questions asked. The songs is fairly slow and rambling but then, out of nowhere, he punches in and really kicks it up.  The solo gives the tune the energy it needs to finish strong.  And finish strong it does, thanks to Harrison's great guitar work. 
  
• "November Rain" Guns n' Roses - Yes, it's hair metal, leather pants, overblown 90's cock rock at it's finest, but damn if that isn't one good solo.  If you can block the image of Slash standing in a desert, wailing on a Les Paul for a minute and instead just listen to the licks, you can hear why Slash will be remembered as one of the great rock guitarists of all time.  He played exactly what the song needed and that song needed a lot. 
  

Now it's your turn.  Leave your favorite ones in the comments.