Five guitar solos that poison otherwise amazing songs
The guitar solo is one of the most important musical components in the world of rock, as it can take a good song and elevate it to something otherworldly.
A lot of the time, when we listen to songs like ‘Stairway To Heaven’, ‘November Rain’ and ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, we do so purely with the intention of getting lost in those beautiful guitar solos. They’re not just instrumental sections of music; they channel the emotion of the song and translate it onto the six-string.
That being said, while they can take a song from good to great, the opposite also applies. There are a lot of songs which, all things considered, are pretty good listens, but then are somewhat spoiled because of a lacklustre guitar solo. It’s not just that they don’t sound great, but they stop the song in its tracks and take the wind out of its sails.
Here, we’ll be looking at the latter, as we scorn some horrible guitar solos that almost ruin what are otherwise perfect songs.
Five guitar solos that spoil great songs:
Nirvana – ‘Milk It’
Nirvana were at the height of their fame when they made the album In Utero, and in a bid to try and create something anti-mainstream, they put the record together on a bit of a whim. They were happy with the album, feeling unfinished in parts, and would write songs on the spot and record them quickly. The result is a grainy and unpolished piece of music that people everywhere seem to adore.
While this approach to music made for some great pieces of music, there are certain aspects of the album that fall flat, given the imperfect approach the band had towards writing songs. The song ‘Milk It’ is a great example of this, as the riff which the track is built around is great to listen to, but the guitar solo lets the whole thing down.
The Kinks – ‘You Really Got Me’
The Kinks possibly play the most important A chord in the world of rock on their track ‘You Really Got Me’. Rock music was shaped by that chord, as the hint of distortion, paired with the aggression with which the note was played, led to a sound that would set the foundation for the rest of the genre moving forward.
With how iconic that riff that makes up the song is, you would think the band would write a solo that packed more of a punch, but that’s not what we get. Instead, it’s just a few bends here and there with a couple of blues licks. It’s certainly not a bad solo, but it doesn’t live up to the rest of the song.
Beastie Boys – ‘Fight For Your Right’
Can you really call the Beastie Boys rock and rollers? It’s a tough sell, but the rap trio certainly used elements of rock in their approach to music. It led to some pretty hard hitting pieces of music at times, for instance, when they got Slayer guitarist Kerry King to play the guitar solo on ‘No Sleep Till Brooklyn’, it sounded like the kind of thing rock lovers would go mad for.
The band liked working with King so much that they brought him back to work on the solo for ‘Fight For Your Right’, but what he produced paled in comparison to his work with the band prior. The whole thing falls flat, it’s put together in a very sloppy fashion, and compared to some of King’s other work, it is borderline unlistenable.
Oasis – ‘Lyla’
Oasis weren’t a band renowned for their guitar solos, but that didn’t stop them from chucking a few six-string offerings into the mix every now and then. Some of what Noel Gallagher put together for the band is pretty good, but ‘Lyla’ is a lazy offering that highlights just how much guitar playing wasn’t Noel’s strong suit.
Rather than put together any kind of melody, he decides to stay on one note for the entire solo. No doubt Gallagher would find a way to talk about the solo as if it’s a genius piece of guitar playing, but realistically, this just ruins what is otherwise a good song.
Ramones – ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’
You have to give a lot of credit to the Ramones; they were a band who channeled the punk sound and ideology before the genre even had a name. Everything that they did was incredibly innovative, and they didn’t have much of a blueprint to work from when it came to putting together great songs. As such, some of the elements of their tracks fall by the wayside slightly.
One of their biggest tracks was ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’, and while it was a great exercise in punk, its guitar solo doesn’t quite meet the high bar which is set by the rest of the song. Johnny Ramone just doesn’t bring his A game to this track, and on a song that is one of their most popular, it’s hard to listen to that solo and not feel like it’s lacking a bit of punch.
