The three best guitar solos of all time, according to Slash
Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash has forged an immense reputation for his cinematic solos, which have been blowing the minds of audience members for decades. Slash knows there’s no way to guarantee a solo will be successful, and being technically proficient isn’t enough. Instead, the solo must connect on an emotional level with the listener.
To be an expert on a subject is to be completely immersed in the field. It makes the arts a difficult area to be judged. That is why so many music critics have very little in the way of technical knowledge. Music can be as loved, enjoyed and indulged in by a skilled technician as a layman, and being able to play the notes doesn’t necessarily mean you have a better understanding of how those notes are expressed or can be received by an audience. But if anybody was well-equipped to judge the merit of a solo, it’s Slash.
With Guns N’ Roses, his contribution to the band was crucial in making ‘November Rain’, ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ and ‘Paradise City’ triumphant. His solos provide Guns N’ Roses with their unique sound, and without this vital ingredient, the DNA of the band would be lost.
While the success of Guns N’ Roses doesn’t rest solely on the shoulders of Slash’s impressive array of solos, they’ve certainly played their part. Slash has rarely stood still in the world of guitar. Able to draw on a broad range of influences, his music has always veered across the emotional spectrum as he added layered expression to the lyrics of Rose. He’s cultivated many influences into his sound, largely drawing from the 1970s, as is highlighted by his list of three favourite solos.
In 2019, the Guns N’ Roses guitarist spoke with the French magazine L’Obs, who asked him to rank his favourite solos, which was an impossible task for Slash, who instead named the three pieces that had the greatest impact on him.
He began: “This is a tough question because there is not one solo that stands out to me as being the essential guitar solo of all time, y’know what I mean. There’s a lot of really important ones, but one of the solos that really inspired me was a song called ‘Blinded By The Light’, which was done by Manfred Mann. And there’s a solo in that song that’s really kind of epic in its arrangement, the way that it came into the song and shit. That would be one that not many people would probably expect.”
For his second selection, Slash named ‘Baker Street’ by Gerry Rafferty, stating: “This is another very ’70s epic solo as part of the big song arrangement. So those two solos, I don’t know who the guitar players were or anything.”
However, with his final choice, Slash is well aware that Jimmy Page was behind the masterful solo work on the Led Zeppelin classic ‘Whole Lotta Love’. Explaining his decision, Slash said: “One of the great things about Jimmy Page’s playing is he played, at least on record, within the context of the song, so it really complemented the guitar as opposed to it just being a guitar solo.”
Earlier this year, Slash recalled hearing ‘Whole Lotta Love’ for the first time as a child and credited it with being responsible for his decision to become a guitarist. “I specifically remember hearing ‘Whole Lotta Love’ from ‘Led Zeppelin II’ when I was seven years old,” he told Total Guitar.
Slash continued: “I attributed that sound – from what I felt was the coolest record I’d ever heard at that point in my life – to the Les Paul…I knew it was a Les Paul making those guitar tones because I saw pictures of Jimmy Page holding one – so that’s what made me associate the Les Paul with that kind of sound.”
It might not be everybody’s choice, but given the sheer volume of music Slash has both played and enjoyed, then we can say his picks for the thre greatest solos of all time are worthy of listening to even if you don’t agree.
Listen to a playlist of Slash’s favourite solos below.
Slash’s favourite guitar solos:
- Manfred Mann’s Earth Band – ‘Blinded by the Light’
- Gerry Rafferty – ‘Baker Street’
- Led Zeppelin – ‘Whole Lotta Love’
