John Lennon performing with The Beatles in Hamburg, 1966

Credit: Bent Rej

The most perfect guitar solo John Lennon ever played

Sun 7 September 2025 17:30, UK

While barely being a song, ‘The End’ is still one of the greatest achievements The Beatles ever put to record.

It’s an instrumental workout that doesn’t just show off how The Fabs were brilliant instrumentalists; it shows the character of each instrumentalist. Ringo Starr, through his uncharacteristic yet unforgettable drum solo, and Paul McCartney, George Harrison and John Lennon through their guitar solos. McCartney’s playing is bright, clear and melodic. Harrison’s is bluesy and dripping with feel… then you get John’s.

It’s a real shock the first time you hear it. In amongst a jaunty rock jam, Lennon plays with savage aggression. His Epiphone Casino is coated with thunderous distortion as he thrashes jagged noise onto what could otherwise be a mildly pleasant little distraction of a number. It’s a reminder that while George Harrison was nominally The Beatles’ “lead” guitarist and was a phenomenal player in his own right, Lennon was also a spectacular guitarist who was responsible for a lot more of The Beatles’ lead playing than you might expect.

The best way of seeing this is in Peter Jackson’s wonderful Get Back documentary. This makes sense as it’s arguably the most complete document of The Beatles’ creative process outside of their Anthology records, and it shows that Lennon was often the first up to bat for a solo in Beatles songs of the time. It’s what leads us to the first candidate for the most perfect lead playing Lennon ever laid down, the iconic soloing of their 1969 classic ‘Get Back’.

It doesn’t quite get the top spot, as Lennon’s spot was an act of necessity. The song was arranged and finished in the brief time that Harrison quit the band, so Lennon was playing in Harrison’s absence. The blues-loving George may have actually been a better fit for the song than Lennon, so the question of what might have been keeps it off the top spot. While Lennon and Harrison would trade lead duties more often later in The Beatles’ life, this wasn’t unheard of in the Fabs’ early years.

So, what is the best guitar solo John Lennon ever played?

What people often forget about The Beatles is that they cut their teeth as a live band first and foremost.

Play enough all-night sets in the red light district of Hamburg, and anyone gets a good guitar solo in them. Lennon proves this with their 1964 cover of ‘Long Tall Sally’, where he takes the first solo while McCartney steals the show with his spectacular take on the Little Richard classic. It may be a little haphazard, but that perfectly matches the sheer energy that their version has in spades.

After that, Lennon more or less stuck to his rhythm playing for the next couple of years. That was until 1968, when the band took to the studio to record what would eventually become The White Album. Infamously, during the making of this album, McCartney and Lennon’s creative relationship got so tense that they took to their own studios to work on their own material. Lennon, left to his own devices, began developing his skills as a lead guitarist, which led to the player he was by the time they made Abbey Road.

Joining ‘The End’ is the greatest moment John Lennon had as a lead player and arguably as a guitarist in general. ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ is a blues-rocker, somehow both anvil-heavy and sleeker than an alley cat. It also happens to contain one of the most outstanding vocal performances Lennon put down in his entire career. After lighting the song up with lead lines that follow his vocal line, he uses that same vocal line as the basis for a solo just as understated, seductive, yet subtly threatening as the rest of the song. Perfectly setting up for the son,g releasing the hounds mere moments later.