Guitar Worlds 100 worst guitar solos

[Lev]

Man these guys are harsh...

http://www.guitarworld.com/article/100_worst_guitar_solos?page=0%2C0

The comment on Warrants 'Cherry Pie' made me almost choke on my coffee! :rotflmao:

[Algonquin]

Wow, they certainly write with an aire of superiority don't they. I'm not famillier with a lot of the songs they picked, but I think they were right to include the solo from Twisted Sisters 'We're not going to take it' I always thought that one had a cheesey odour to it.

[bigoldron]

What's the big deal? All I have to do is pick up a guitar and start playing and I'll EASILY make that list. :rotflmao: :whatever: :thwap:

[Ro3b]

What a sad bunch of failed-musicians-turned-music-critics. :whatever:

[R_of_G]

Vernon Reid's solo on "Cult of Personality" is one of the best solos of it's time because it was so ahead of it's time. Obviously these guys don't get it, but they don't seem to get a lot of things. They also pick on J. Mascis for the Dinosaur Jr. version of "Show Me the Way" another solo I think is fantastic. Of course they pick on him for not knowing the chords to the song, not what he plays in the actual solo which always sounded pretty damn interesting to me.

I have no problem whatsoever with negative lists like these, everybody is entitled to criticize whatever they want. However, I'd like to criticize the poor comedy writing these guys employed in their construction of this list. It's the same tired hackneyed jokes that have been used for years. Can anybody critique Jerry Garcia without using the phrase "noodling"? It's just so standard at this point that it makes me feel like some of these people don't even know what the word means, they just know when they criticize Jerry that they are supposed to say that.

[Lev]

I absolutely agree on Cult of Personality. Guitar World is not a magazine that I buy, it seems geared towards younger readers for whom Dragon Force and Trivium are the heros of the day (not that there's anything wrong with that). I'd take it with a pinch of salt but I did think the CC Deville quips were amusing.

[tunghaichuan]

What a sad bunch of failed-musicians-turned-music-critics. :whatever:

Bingo. Those who can, do. Those who can't, write about how they could have done it much better in half-a$$ed guitar magazines.

tung

[R_of_G]

I absolutely agree on Cult of Personality. Guitar World is not a magazine that I buy, it seems geared towards younger readers for whom Dragon Force and Trivium are the heros of the day (not that there's anything wrong with that). I'd take it with a pinch of salt but I did think the CC Deville quips were amusing.

Definitely. It's one of the reasons I don't buy GW either. Some of the stuff was moderately amusing, but I'm as much a critic of comedy writing as I am of guitar. These guys could use a lesson or two in both it would seem.

[snoglobe]

I don't understand what the fuss is about. I thought it was funny, fluffy reading. I'm in no way offended, as I don't rely on any magazine to tell me what is good or what is bad.

I think everyone who is all uptight over this should check themselves, as if they've never sat at a concert or show, leaned over to a buddy and said, "man, that guy's play is brutal," or "I just can't stand that solo, love the band but hate the solo."

I thought it was a harmless article taking the p@ss out of some of the guitar greats and not so greats, and that they prefaced the article well.

That's just my two cents, don't spend it all in one place.

[Robert]

How come none of mine are on there? :whatever:

[Tone2TheBone]

That's why I started buying archery magazines instead.

[Fab4]

There's a difference between funny and just snide. For a really GOOD "worst" list, check out Time magazine's 100 Worst Cars.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1658545_1657686,00.html

If I was George Harrison playing my "All You Need Is Love" solo live on the first-ever worldwide satellite broadcast, I'd play it safe, too. Poor old George, never got no respect...

For my money, the solo from "Boogie Oogie Oogie" by A Taste of Honey (whoever they were) may not have been the worst-ever musically, but certainly it has to be one of the worst guitar TONES ever recorded. (Was that on the list? I didn't get very far before I gave up on the writing style.)

[marnold]

For some reason every year GW does an article like that. The first time you read one it is moderately entertaining. The next 75 times it just gets old.

[duhvoodooman]

Aw, c'mon guys--lighten up! This thins is obviously tongue in cheek, with each writer trying to come up with more outrageous prose to describe the next object of their derision. And they manage to poke fun at almost everybody, whether guitar gods or third-rate hacks. I got tired of it by the 2nd page, but the desciption of Lenny Kravitz' solo on his cover of American Woman (#10) by itself was worth the price of admission! Man, I hate the feeling of coffee in my sinuses.... :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao:

[Brian Krashpad]

Wow.

I don't care about them criticising these solos, most I've never heard. I like well-written humor and criticism. I've even written for several local and regional magazines, about rock music and musicians.

But this is just extremely poorly written and mind-numbingly unfunny. Reminds me of morning show radio DJs who laugh at everything each other says and think they're hilarious. But they're not.

These guys aren't either.

[duhvoodooman]

I agree that much of it is unfunny and it quickly gets tiresome. But there are a couple of genuinely funny lines in there. I think it's pretty clear from the intro to the article that it doesn't take itself very seriously--and neither should anyone who is reading it! BTW, the original article is 4 years old....

[R_of_G]

Wow.

I don't care about them criticising these solos, most I've never heard. I like well-written humor and criticism. I've even written for several local and regional magazines, about rock music and musicians.

But this is just extremely poorly written and mind-numbingly unfunny. Reminds me of morning show radio DJs who laugh at everything each other says and think they're hilarious. But they're not.

These guys aren't either.

Thank you. That is precisely what I was trying to say. I'm all for criticism, especially when it is delivered with well-crafted humor. This just struck me as guys who aren't nearly as funny as they think they are. Sure, there is a good joke here and a good joke there, but there's 100 little pieces, so it's like 1000 monkeys at 1000 typewriters. With a large enough sampling, something's going to work.

I also stand by what I said about the Vernon Reid solo. I don't get what people don't get about it.

[Andy]

POISON
“Every Rose Has Its Thorn”

I'm glad someone else agrees on this one, that has to be the worst thing ever to play on that song, I don't really care for the song but that guitar is so over the top and out of tune and downright rediculous, I can't believe they didn't try annother take atleast!' :thwap:


edit*well I just looked up the video and thats not the one afterall:whatever: , it's one of their other ballady things, I'll find it and post it.see what you guys think

[Spudman]

What a sad bunch of failed-musicians-turned-music-critics. :whatever:

Exactly what I was thinking. The writers are stuck looking at 2D girls on their computers in their one room apartments while the guys that played the solo are touching double D's for real all over the world. Wanker journalists.

[Tibernius]

Just one of about a hundred leaden, meandering Cure songs that are made even more annoying by Robert Smith’s intentionally out-of-tune 12-string guitar. Make it stop, Fat Bob! Please, make it stop!

These guys sound really mature don't they. :rolleyes:

[Suhnton]

Thank you. That is precisely what I was trying to say. I'm all for criticism, especially when it is delivered with well-crafted humor. This just struck me as guys who aren't nearly as funny as they think they are. Sure, there is a good joke here and a good joke there, but there's 100 little pieces, so it's like 1000 monkeys at 1000 typewriters. With a large enough sampling, something's going to work.

I also stand by what I said about the Vernon Reid solo. I don't get what people don't get about it.

I'm surprised you made it that far into the list. I only searched for the comments on C.O.P since you mentioned it in a previous post. I agree with you on Vernon Reid, he's incredible live, especially in his use of delay.

[Andy]

I'd like to see someone attempt the tab for that solo. it's all over the place , no rhyme or reason to it , but somehow it fits.

I can think of much worse solos

[ibanezjunkie]

in my opinion, the worst solo ever has to be the solo in Paranoid - black Sabbath. The solo as a solo is great, but when its screwed around with loads of fuzz and editing stuff, its little more than a load of tone lacking fuzz noise.

[kiteman]

I'm not sure I get it. Are they panning the songs for the way they're made or for sessions that didn't work out?

Anyway, I feel better about my playing (I can barely play anymore) knowing that guitar gods can screw up big time. :whatever:

[Shredd Ed]

Hi,

I'm surprised there isn't a long list of thrash/death metal solos there. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this stuff and the noisy, messy solos are an essential ingredient to this, but most non-metallers don't usually appreciate that the solos HAVE to be atrocious. :rockon:

Ps. You could tell they were running out of jokes after a while. Maybe they should have stuck to the top 10!

Ed