Most Underrated guitar solos of all time

C.C Deville, Life goes on solo! Cheezy, but very musical! Tone is great and feel is obvious! One really inderestimated guitar solo! Try to get close you fellas!!
 
What qualifies an underrated guitar solo? I mean if you like a solo in a song and no one else critically acclaims it is it under rated?

There are songs that are super popular but the guitar solos in them are really bad, The Kinks "You really got me" comes to mind. Then you have songs that are totally under the radar and get zero air play that have killer solos in them, just about every Dream Theater recording after "Pull Me Under". Is that what qualifies an under rated solo? a song that doesn't get any air play to make it become popular? Just trying to get a handel on what that means.
 
Steve Howe Album: Relayer Song: Sound Chaser Solo: Starts at 3:00 into the song. One of my favorite Yes songs and one of his best solos, great Phrasing and Tone.. He used a Telecaster, brilliant solo..
 
What qualifies an underrated guitar solo? I mean if you like a solo in a song and no one else critically acclaims it is it under rated?

There are songs that are super popular but the guitar solos in them are really bad, The Kinks "You really got me" comes to mind. Then you have songs that are totally under the radar and get zero air play that have killer solos in them, just about every Dream Theater recording after "Pull Me Under". Is that what qualifies an under rated solo? a song that doesn't get any air play to make it become popular? Just trying to get a handel on what that means.

Well, first of all, I think the original solo to 'you really got me' is THE HEART of Rock and Roll! I friggin' LOVE it! I think once Dave Davies learned what the Fu#k he was doing, he started to suck.

But regardless of our divergent tastes, perhaps I should have said 'unappreciated'. So, this can be an amazing solo that most people have never heard from someone no-one's ever heard of - or at least, few people here (Sleater-Kinney's A Quarter to Three is a song that comes to mind with a great, simple solo in it by Carrie Brownstein - someone with a unique voice). or perhaps an amazing solo from someone most of us have heard of, but a song we haven't heard - like Frank Zappa's Inca Roads - a song that never gets played on the radio (all that seems to get played of Franks are novelty songs like Valley Girl and Yellow Snow, unfortunately) - or it can be a popular song with a solo by someone not known as a 'guitar god' - Chris Stein's totally apocalyptic solo on Blondie's 'One Way Or Another' comes to mind. It does not include things like 'Do you Feel Like We Do', 'Whole Lotta Love', 'Purple Haze' and other great solos that are pretty much acknowledged by masses of people as such to the point that they are now cliched examples of guitar prowess. Certainly ANY song that's 'under the radar' - whether by a well-known band or a virtually unknown one, would apply, if you think the solo was stellar.

Most of all, for me, it's also about uniqueness. Another 'heartfelt electric blues solo that starts slow and builds to a dramatic, searing crescendo'... well, it may be incredibly well done, but it's a cliche within a cliche, and hard to do in an original fashion (hard, not impossible, I grant you).

But nobody ever sounded like Zappa before Zappa, or Jeff Beck, or Carrie Brownstein. Originality is the ultimate coin of the realm for me - much, much more so than technique (John Lee Hooker was not a technical whiz, but he sure could PLAY!).

I have really enjoyed being turned on to artists I've either always discounted (Buckethead) or not known of (a whole slew on this thread), and have also enjoyed being reminded of greats like Ray Gomez and Buck Dharma. And that's what this thread is for - to turn each on to stuff that turns others on that they probably have never heard, or maybe have heard but never really listened to from a 'guitar solo' point of view.

I thank each and every contributor. Keep it up!

Hope that helps.
 
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The keyboard solo in that song also rips in an awesome fusion kinda way.

Yep that's Patrick Moraz he's amazing..!! There's Synthesizers on that album that were just being developed and some that were never even released to the public..
 
Hey.....its not that bad! I like the 1964 version, very cool! :)


Hum, let's see...





Well, we will have to agree to disagree on this one. To me it sounds so simplistic that it has a childish or I'm new to the guitar quality to it... no imagination at all... kind of like the chord structure :lol.

Just not the WOW factor I like in order to dub something as under rated. Sorry man but it took Eddie to make that song sound the way it should.
 
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Oh come on! You have to look at the times when it was written and performed! Plus they are often credited with inventing the power chord - this being the prime example. This was before Hendrix, Cream, Marshall amps. Everything has a beginning. I was living in London when this song came out as well as the first hits from The Who "Cant Explain!" Top of The Pops, baby! "Ready, Steady Go!" The Kinks rule!
 
+10000000% !!!!

Oh come on! You have to look at the times when it was written and performed! Plus they are often credited with inventing the power chord - this being the prime example. This was before Hendrix, Cream, Marshall amps. Everything has a beginning. I was living in London when this song came out as well as the first hits from The Who "Cant Explain!" Top of The Pops, baby! "Ready, Steady Go!" The Kinks rule!
 
Oh come on! You have to look at the times when it was written and performed! Plus they are often credited with inventing the power chord - this being the prime example. This was before Hendrix, Cream, Marshall amps. Everything has a beginning. I was living in London when this song came out as well as the first hits from The Who "Cant Explain!" Top of The Pops, baby! "Ready, Steady Go!" The Kinks rule!

Yes, I understand the song was done way back when most guitar players were still simmering in the pot of style, flash and technique. Work with me here, I'm just trying to understand what makes a solo underrated and to me it was a perfect example of a well known group that has a "popular song" that contains a solo that is very basic in nature and pretty boring, at least to me anyway... part of what I'm getting at.

I happen to like the Kinks but if the fact that I used one of their songs to make a point makes you feel a little defensive then use any group you want for this example, it really doesn't matter to me.

The question still remains and needs to be qualified, What deems a solo to be "underrated"?
 
Well I'm not defensive and I'm not saying the solo was good. I think it's pretty terrible, but I'm not judging it by the standards of today. Plus that was a live TV broadcast. The Kinks were never known for their skill at playing live, at least not THEN. I know. I was there.

I'm not part of the argument or discussion about what makes a solo underrated. I haven't thought about it. I'm not so much interested in that argument/discussion, not that it's not a worthy one. I was just responding to your comparison of that to EVH's version. Unfair.
 
I'm into 80's shred but here's one I loved even before I picked up and fell in love with guitar.

The solo in a song called Baker Street
Or at least I think that's what it was called.
 
Well I'm not defensive and I'm not saying the solo was good. I think it's pretty terrible, but I'm not judging it by the standards of today. Plus that was a live TV broadcast. The Kinks were never known for their skill at playing live, at least not THEN. I know. I was there.

I'm not part of the argument or discussion about what makes a solo underrated. I haven't thought about it. I'm not so much interested in that argument/discussion, not that it's not a worthy one. I was just responding to your comparison of that to EVH's version. Unfair.

Ok fair enough ;).

Any one else want to take a crack at it?
 
Johnny Winter ! Solo from Rock Me Baby on Still alive and well . Or especially slide work on "Highway 61 " as the song fades out he's just ripping it whooh gives me chills just thinking about it . Not underated , perhaps overlooked or forgotten lately .
 
Like I said before (somewhere)

The solo in this song always rustled my jimmies. The song was my personal theme song when I sold my Ultra.

 
Here's a not so well known solo of a definitely not underrated guitarist :


Solo start at 0:42


I've always like that solo and song. Shame it is recorded/mixed so poorly. For sure a psychedelic song that is maybe linked to what was reported to be an early musical influence on Jimi : B SciFi movie of his days.

Anybody like that solo/song ? Or I am the only one who's gone ... out of sight.
 
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