10 Eternally Fresh Rock Guitar Solos

Emotionally Charged, Brilliantly Performed – What’s Not to Love?

“What are the guitar solos you never get tired of hearing?” Over the decades, I’ve been asked this countless times. Having spent nearly a half-century listening to and writing about guitar-intensive music, I could write a book on the subject. So many great players, so many genres to choose from!

Today’s post spotlights ten rock guitar solos that still pack a wallop every time I hear them. They inspire, exhilarate, and make me grateful to have ears that hear.

Before we start, though, please take note: This is not a list of the “10 Greatest Rock Guitar Solos,” although a few of my choices would be heavyweight contenders for such a list. Instead, they are ten examples of stellar solos that stand the test of time. They’re presented in chronological order from the date of their recording.

Jimi Hendrix, “The Star-Spangled Banner”

With Jimi, there are so many tracks to consider! My favorite solo of all time, regardless of genre, occurs during his studio version of “All Along the Watchtower,” with its unsurpassed sonic majesty, beautifully constructed layering, and ping-ponging headphone mix. After initially choosing this one, I recalled something Ry Cooder pointed out when we were speaking about pre-war blues guitar styles. Ry cited Blind Willie Johnson’s 1927 recording “Dark Was the Night – Cold Was the Ground” as the single most “transcendent piece in all American music.” I definitely see what he’s getting at.

If I were asked to name the most transcendent rock guitar performance of the 20th century, my vote would go to Jimi Hendrix’s “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock. When he performed this in August 1969, just about everyone in the audience was familiar with the tune. After all, it had routinely been played at the start of major sporting events. But no one had ever before heard it played like Jimi at Woodstock. Hendrix pulled out all the stops, recasting and amplifying the song’s passionate message through the sheer force of his personality and playing. He used feedback, distortion, whammy, and unexpected tri-tones to sonically simulate the lyrics’ glaring rockets and bursting bombs.

To many socially aware listeners, the Woodstock “The Star-Spangled Banner” captured the spirit of war-torn America and the us-versus-them mentality of the hippie culture that had claimed Jimi as one of its leaders. As Al Aronowitz wrote of Jimi’s performance in The New York Post, “It was the most electrifying moment of Woodstock, and it was probably the single greatest moment of the Sixties. You finally heard what that song was about, that you can love your country but hate the government.” According to drummer Mitch Mitchell, neither he nor the rest of Jimi’s backing musicians that day were aware that he would perform the song. To this day, every time I hear a performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” I imagine those tri-tones coming in right after “Bombs bursting in air.”