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Blah songs with killer solos


mwestenberg

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This thought occurred to me while listening to the radio the other day; sometimes I like otherwise bland or boring tunes because they have a killer solo. A couple that come to mind are Audioslave's Like A Stone and The Knack's My Sharona. Of course bland and boring are all very subjective. :) Anyone else have any?

Lyrics. Wasted space between solos.

I can't tell you, but I can play it for you.

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Thin Lizzie's Cowboy Song.. was an early learn for me and it was just because it balanced my dislike of country with a need to play something with the word cowboy in it. (In Hicksville sometimes you play what you gotta play)Great double leads (in the old style)

 

On Audioslave... take 'I am the Highway' and push that lead 4 fold and you can make a moment out of it.

Sometimes you just fill space.

 

Derringer, Still Alive & Well off the live LP!!!

I still think guitars are like shoes, but louder.

 

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I haven't thought about this one ion a long time... on the live recording from Derek and the Dominoes, there's a song called "Things Got To Get Better In a Little While," with very squirmworthy lyrics like

 

Revolution all across the land

Just like Sly we got to take a stand

But please don't hurt nobody or knock 'em down

Just give 'em a helping hand to get off the ground

 

Great guitar solo, though.

 

The same record has some other songs with very lame words like "Blues Power," where there occurs one of Clapton's all-time great moments in the last solo section...

 

Not to mention the song "Roll It Over," with tasteful lyrics that appear to be somewhat decorously (it that's possible) touting anal sex... though the solos on that song are lesser than the two I already mentioned...

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Another one just occured to me.. there's this old Santana record named Borboletta and there was a song titled "Life Is Anew." It was at the height of Santana's Devadip period and the song is just one of those terribly unctuous paeans to his guru Sri Chinmoy (written in a way that almost sounds like a love song, which I always find vaguely creepy).

 

Nothing is new

They say

Under the sun

But then again

My soul feels a change

It feels so new

Life is a open vision of the highest

Being

Because of you

Life is anew...

 

etc. etc., cringe cringe. Then good old Carlos proceeds to play one of his best solos of his entire recorded career...

 

Now I'm on a roll...

 

Speaking of Sri Chinmoy, have you heard Narada Michael Walden's first solo album, The Garden of Love Light? Now, NMW is a kick-ass drummer, an interesting composer, and a solid record producer. On his first recording is a long piece called "The Sun is Dancing," which begins with a syrupy-sweet atempo string-section pad (a real string section, of course, in those days), while NMR intones

 

The Sun

is dancing

The moon

Is dancing

The stars

Are dancing

And I

Am dancing

 

with the fruitiest childlike voice imaginable... then the band kicks into this absolute killer of a fusion vamp with thundering Cobham-esque fills and guitarist Ray Gomez doing his best Jeff Beck on steroids imitation...

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A band called Bleach, from their 1996 debut album "Space", had two songs that I really liked the solos to. I might not call either song bland, but the solo significantly helps and/or makes both songs. One is called "Crystals & Cash", but the better example is "Cold & Turning Blue". If you have a chance, check out the latter. The solo is almost clichéd in a sense, but it just works. It builds perfectly. I really like the song, but without the solo it would be merely above average.
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Originally posted by AlChuck:

Another one just occured to me.. there's this old Santana record named Borboletta and there was a song titled "Life Is Anew."

 

...etc. etc., cringe cringe. Then good old Carlos proceeds to play one of his best solos of his entire recorded career...

 

I love that solo too, AlChuck. Also on the same album is "One with the sun" where Carlos also plays an very inspired solo on another somewhat mediocre tune.

 

Paul

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Dude you TOTALLY stole this topic out from under me-If I hadn`t been so busy I would have just posted something very similar-which was prompted by the 80s song `I wanna be a cowboy` by Boys Don`t Cry. It`s not lame exactly, just a synth-heavy midtempo dance number-but somebody kicked ASS on the guitar in the middle of it.

Same old surprises, brand new cliches-

 

Skipsounds on Soundclick:

www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandid=602491

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Originally posted by billster:

Originally posted by antimatter:

She's Only 17 - Winger. Just heard it on the radio! Lame ass song with a mean shredding solo.

What station was playing THAT? :freak:
We have this station on Long Island that plays lotsa 80s metal, hence an occasional Winger or Warrant tune.
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There was a song that the pop group The Carpenters released as a single around the early 70's--I believe it was called "Goodbye To Love." The song had a right interesting semi-fuzz guitar solo on it (no idea who the guitar player was).

Robert J. ("Bob") Welch III

 

"If you were the only person who ever lived, God still would have sent Jesus His only Son to die on the cross for YOU, because that is how much HE LOVES YOU!"

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