10 All time Best Guitar Solos

On the last post I told you about 50s 60s or 70s rock bands. Today I'll talk about guitar solos.

I realize that I may be opening up the Pandora's box on this one, after all, guitar solos are subjective correct? I mean, who am I to tell you what is and isn't the best when it comes to good ole rock n roll guitar solos. Many questions may arise, for example, 'Have I heard every song there is to hear? Of course not. That is why I'm laying it out for you up front, I don't want to upset the greater good that exists in your special place. The point is, alltime greatest guitar solos means absolutely nothing, nada, zilch. It is a completely personal and subjective preference on my part, and in no way is it intended to be the end all and say all of what is and isn't a great rock n roll solo. You are free to disagree or agree, I don't really care either way. Should you like what I'm putting out here? Of course you should, and you should accept it and love it, but once again, you can remain a contrarian and that's cool with me too, hell dude, whatever floats your boat is cool with me. Rock n Roll is so speculative, especially these days that everyone can have a legitimate viewpoint on what is good and what isn't. In fact, I could even support you if you told me that 'I love Nickleback man, they rock', More power to you if that is your thing, frankly I can't stand the band, I call them the Beavers (The animal on the back of a Canadian Nickel).

Ok, enough about me, let's talk about the 10 All time Best Guitar Solos. As you may know by now, I have a preference of 70's rock n roll music over other eras, so it will be no surprise to you that I have included most of the all time greatest Rock n Roll Guitar solos from the 70's, once again, it's all good. As is my customary thing, all of the solos are going to be randomly entered, so therefore, no one guitar solo takes precedence over another. Simply, they're all given equal weight. There's nothing better than seeing and hearing your favorite artist pluck away at a rocking Gibson or Ibanez guitars it's just cool dude.

As per popular request, my 10 All time Best Guitar Solos:

1. Eruption by Eddie Van Halen (Van Halen)
   
2. Stairway to Heaven by Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin)
3. Hey Joe by Jimi Hendrix
4. Hotel California by Don Felder/Joe Walsh (The Eagles)
5. Layla by Clapton/Allman (Derek and the Dominoes )
6. Bohemian Rhapsody by Brian May (Queen)
7. Wish You Were Here by David Gilmour (Pink Floyd)
8. Sweet Child O' Mine by Slash (Guns n' Roses)
9. One by Kirk Hammet (Metallica)
10. Won't Get Fooled Again by Pete Townsend (The Who)

There you have it, my 10 All time Best Guitar Solos. There are so many more great guitar solos out there, but I would need a 100 or 1000 All time Best Guitar Solos for a list like that, so 10 will suffice for now.

50's, 60,s or 70's Rock Bands

On the last post I told you about the all time greatest rock singles. Today I would like to talk to you about Rock Bands from the 50's, 60,s and 70's.

There's always been a debate circling which era produced the best Rock n Roll, some say it's the 50's with rock greats like Elvis, or the hippie inspired 60's rock bands, some will go on and prop up the 70's hard rock bands and so on and so forth. When someone asks me which generation of Rock n Roll artists I think were the best, my answer is always the same, 'That depends on your frame of reference'.

Ok, I admit that answer is a bit aloof, and rightly so, on rare occasions I can get away with saying that one liner while my victim looks on, perplexed. I smile and pat myself on the back, feeling all full of myself for stunning another unsuspecting customer. But because I love talking about rock music I usually elaborate, 'That depends on your frame of reference. Every generation will embrace whichever music is popular at the time. And because it's all based on a frame of reference, you can never really support an argument that one generation of music tops another."

Although my explanation seems a little legalized, to me there's no other way. You can't reference an emotional state, as it relates to the music, if everyone has distinct personal likes and dislikes. No one can ever win an argument when it comes to talking about the unknown realm of feelings, unless that is, you've got none.

All of the above mumbo jumbo aside, for me, the 70's Rock bands were the best. Although I loved Rock n Roll of the 50's I always found the music a little too safe. I think the music back then was safe because there was an entire nation of up-tight conservatives who did not let the music evolve freely, so that if a rock artist wanted to get his or her music played, they ended up playing by the rules of the political mood at the time. That said, the 50's Rock n Roll artists were the ones who turned the lights on. They made it happen in a big way, laid the foundation for the next generations.

Moving on to the 60's Rock n Roll bands, I do love the music, have no doubt. But, I always felt that the artists of the 60's were still restrained by the political mood at the time. Whether it be the anti-war campaigns, or the constraints of a conservative American home life. For me, the 60's built on the foundation of the house of rock, but they were more involved in the frame of the house.

In my opinion, it wasn't until the 70's Rock bands came into the scene that rock n roll took that big leap forward into the unknown. With the foundation laid out by the 50's rock n roll pioneers, and the framework of the 60's inspired hippie scene, the 70's rock bands could no go ahead and add volume and texture to what had been created before them. The house of rock became a textured, multi-dimensional structure that you could see, touch and feel because it was finally standing on its own.

Below is a list of my all time favorite Rock n Roll bands that, in my opinion, were at their greatest in the 70's.

Led Zeppelin
Pink Floyd
The Eagles
Heart
Rolling Stones
AC/DC
Kiss
Boston
Black Sabbath
Deep Purple
Van Halen
The Who
Rush
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Styx
Genesis
The Doobie Brothers
Allman Brothers
Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Bad Company
Blue Oyster Cult
America
Fleetwood Mac
Supertramp
Queen
The Velvet Underground
The Clash
Wings

And the list goes on and on and on. But there you have it, in a nutshell, the bands that in my opinion changed the sound of Rock n Roll music forever, embracing their own brand of individuality. The 70's, in my opinion, is where the texture of rock n roll was formed and it was in the 70's rock bands that we owe for today's rock n roll sound.

My Rock Collection

In the last post on You Rock Collection, I told you a little about the history of Rock & Roll. Although I'm not a music history teacher, I felt that it was important to give you a little background on the History of Rock.

Today's post on You Rock Collection promises to be a little less educational, but just as serious. I wanted to tell you my all time favorite Rock and Roll albums. This is not an easy task because there are just so many great albums and rock bands past and present, where do you start? I'll start at the beginning.

Before I begin, I feel that it's important to lay down a few rules on my rock collection. Basically, to keep the list short, I will only choose one album per band. In this way, It will make the list easier to read and much smaller than it would be otherwise. The list is not in order and therefore no one album takes precedence over another, although we've all got our favorites and this is a personal thing. The list is not an end all and say all, and I'm sure I've missed many great bands, so feel free to remind me and I'll put it on the list. Lastly, some of the albums here stray a little from what we can classify as Rock, but I just couldn't resist. So here goes my Rock Collection.

White Album, The Beatles
Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys
Highway 61 Revisited, Bob Dylan
London Calling, The Clash
The Sun Sessions, Elvis Presley
Are You Experienced?, The Jimi Hendrix Experience
In Utero, Nirvana
Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen
The Great Twenty-Eight, Chuck Berry
Live at the Apollo (1963), James Brown
Rumours, Fleetwood Mac
The Joshua Tree, U2
Who's Next, The Who
Physical Graffiti, Led Zeppelin
Ramones, Ramones
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, David Bowie
Hotel California, The Eagles
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, The Sex Pistols
The Doors, The Doors
The Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd
The Band, The Band
Appetite for Destruction, Guns n' Roses
Moondance, Van Morrison
After the Gold Rush, Neil Young
Back in Black, AC/DC
Imagine, John Lennon
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John
20 Golden Greats, Buddy Holly
Green River, Creedence Clearwater Revival
Disraeli Gears, Cream
Paranoid, Black Sabbath
The Bends, Radiohead
Pretenders, The Pretenders
Closer, Joy Division
My Aim Is True, Elvis Costello
Ten, Pearl Jam
Buffalo Springfield Again, Buffalo Springfield
New York Dolls, New York Dolls
The Queen Is Dead, The Smiths
A Night at the Opera, Queen
Automatic for the People, R.E.M.
Some Girls,The Rolling Stones
Crosby Stills and Nash, Crosby Stills and Nash
The Cars, The Cars
Call Me, Al Green
Weezer (Blue Album), Weezer
Odelay, Beck
Avalon, Roxy Music
Nothing's Shocking, Jane's Addiction
BloodSugarSexMagik, Red Hot Chili Peppers
Rock Steady, No Doubt
Ghost in the Machine, The Police
Boys Don't Cry, The Cure
Superunknown, Soundgarden
Aqualung, Jethro Tull
Stop Making Sense, Talking Heads
Brothers in Arms, Dire Straits
Siamese Dream, The Smashing Pumpkins
Pyromania, Def Leppard
Elephant, The White Stripes
Eliminator, ZZ Top
Van Halen , Van Halen
Band on the Run, Wings
Fly Like an Eagle, Steve Miller Band
Destroyer, Kiss

I hope you enjoyed my Rock Collection. Feel free to tell me your favoriate album and i'll add it to the list.

You Rock Collection

This blog is dedicated to my love for rock music, it's a Rock Collection. It is by no means a professional opinion but a personal one, I love Rock & Roll. I am not a music critic, but a music lover and I provide my sincere opinions on music that feels good to me. This isn't a blog based on music appreciation either, in fact I am not going to give you any new insight that you have probably already figured out for yourself, but that doesn't mean that there aren't things that I can tell you that are meaningful, all exposed in You Rock Collection. This blog isn't about the history or music, hidden meanings of music, music throughout the world although I may add commentary on everyone of these topics mentioned.

In essence, this blog is a personal view of music. I intend to give you a little insight into which music I think is cool and which isn't, but this is just opinion and I'm sure there will always be people who disagree with me and that's cool too. After all, music affects each one of us in a special, unique way that is meaningful to each one of us. We cannot and should not expect that everyone feels the same about rock music as you or I do.

what I will be discussing is music that primarily ranges from the 60's music scene through progressive and glam rock of the 70's, punk and new wave music of the late 70's and 80's, hair-bands, glam-bands, metal, grunge, and everything Rock and Roll. Will I accomplish this massive undertaking, I don't really expect to, and that really isn't the point. You will find that my posts may jump a few years or a few decades and that's cool. You see, this isn't about giving you a concise insight into Rock, but a personal journey through my love for Rock and Roll.

So sit back and get comfortable, The Rock Collection Blog is now on the Air.