There was a time when the Lead Guitarist was God, everyone admired and wanted to either be him or with him or her. There is just something iconic of a Lead Guitarist banging away at his guitar, it is the image of rock and roll. Although lead guitar solos are prevalent in every genre of music, including jazz and blues among others, we generally think about the Rock and Roll Lead Guitarist. The Rock and Roll guitarist's very sound, taking advantage of Harmony's and melody's bends and hammers, screeching a piercing note to the awe of the audience is what a rock and roll concert is all about. The lead guitarist is also a generally Type A personality, he stands out in front, often with his other type A friend the Vocalist and just rocks out. His solos are all about the dramatic effect of the performance, a singularly decided moment to either go nuts or stay controlled, either way he is decidedly the lone man with the gun. Whether he is banging out a wailing solo loud enough to pop a listener's ear drum with a distortion inspired solo or a more subtle harmonized, soothing riff, it's his right and domain.
The Lead Guitarist has always been somewhat of a front man, for example, it's not often that a bassist or drummer takes a leading role onstage, and often, the crowd tend to forget they exist. With the exclusion of say, Getty Lee from Rush or Flea from the Chilipeppers, Bassists, for example, are known for their support of the rock and roll melody. They don't generally stand out, and in fact, most bands don't want bassists to stand out too much. A poorly executed bass run can be just as bad as a poorly tuned stage band. Similarly, the Rock drummer is also a bit of lone man out, he sites in the back, often hidden by the drum rack and most people don't think twice of him. The drummer has one roll (pun intended) and that is to keep the rhythm and make sure that everyone is on the ball. Although a drummer is arguably the most important part of the band, his crusade is often a thankless one, and more often than not, the better he is the less he is noticed.
But you can't say that about a lead guitarist, in fact, his very presence is all about the show. A lead guitarist would be a failure if he didn't stand out and wow the audience with some great riffs, melodically and harmonically. The lead guitarist is probably one of the least essential parts of the band, I mean, the rhythm guitar does all the harmonizing, lead guitar just sits around for the most part and wailing in from time to time. And yet, he is essential to the energy of the music, his solos can bring positive or negative anticipations in the listener, her can make a listener happy, sad, angry, contemplative and so on.
If you think about Lead guitarists like Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, David Gilmour or Brian May, these guys made sense and became the energy of the band. But generally, a lead guitar solo is very very short, and often only as an alternative to a verse or chorus line, in fact, the lead guitarist is a virtual minimalist when it comes to over-all presence within a song. Solos can happen anywhere in a song, either at the beginning, middle or end, but generally you hear them after the first or second verse, and often in place of a chorus. Generally, Lead Guitar solos are played in place of a chorus which is generally where the emotion and power of a song is generally stored. But this isn't always the case, especially when you consider blues rock artists like Clapton who will play small guitar hooks and solos anywhere they feel like it. For these artists, a guitar solo has the same right as the vocalist and therefore can and should be played whenever the guitar feels that it's voice should be heard.
The Lead Guitar Solo is and will always be the heart and soul of a rock band, even though it's importance may have waned a little over the years, his roll is no less important than it was 30 or 40 years ago, and the audience will still admire him because he embodies the essence of rock and roll.
