I was listening to some old Cream live stuff today and it occurred to me i couldnt remember the last time i went to see a band and the guitarist played a solo. i mean a real solo, not just a couple of lead breaks. Leslie West kinda stuff.

maybe some of the modern guitar heroes do, and i maybe just outta touch here, but time was you'd go see any respectable rock band and the guitar player would cut loose with at least one decent solo during the set. is it just not what bands play anymore, or is it that people dont want to listen to it? or maybe i'm seeing the wrong bands...

I saw Jane's Addiction last night. You would love it. Dave Navarro takes LOTS of guitar solos. He was very impressive.

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I listen to a band called Disciple, and they have way more good guitar riffs and solos than many other modern bands I can think of. They're much heavier than most classic rock bands, but I still like it. There's one song they have in particular called "Lay My Burdens" that is absolutely the most rockin' song of 2008 IMO. Great guitar parts all though out the song, check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rScdVXqnzyk

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yaagghhh, apparently they are coming down to Australia to play some gigs but not over here to NZ. good to hear the guitar solo ain't dead!

Check out Joanne Shaw Taylor. http://www.joanneshawtaylor.com/

Cute, blonde, 21... and a great blues player! Lots of great lead breaks here.

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Bucket Head did the Jordan solo to Guitar Hero. I doubt there is any young kid that hasn't heard that. He studied under Paul Gilbert another great soloist. There are a lot around you just have to find them and hope they find a band that can use them.

could it be because their boring?
The drug excesses of the 60's manifested themselves as musical excesses in the 70's leading to some of the most mind numbingly boring songs. I think the music buying public just gave up on guitar at that point leading to the electronic rubbish of the 80's.

Ban the guitar solo i say. Only guitarists are interested in them.

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I'm not so sure about that. Sometimes I hear a riff that puts a lump in my throat and I get teary eyed. I saw a blues player explain that one day. He played the same riff twice. But when he put his heart in it you felt a connection.

I'm not going to criticize any particular band but what but connection do you feel with the current radio bands. I feel the majority are just commercialized posers of what some marketing grad thinks is rock and a record company can make money on.

i agree with about 3/4ths of what your saying. i do think there are good solos that i love to hear but they arent very long, maybe 30-45 sec each.

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Here are some concepts you can use to come to grips with this matter:

1. Modern rocks bands, bland and hollow as they may be, or bright and exciting as they may be, are not the product of evil, calculating MBA's stiching fabricated humans together in a lab. Everyone of those bands, regardless of what you may think of them, is made of up of young musicians who really love what they play, and busted their asses on cheap stages night after night, selling their homemade CDs out of the back of the van, to get signed. If you don't like it, fine, but what you are hearing is the sound of real people trying to make music. You think the music business wasn't run by evil money-grubbers in your time? Get real and look at, say, Don Kirschner.

2. When guitar players say "guitar solos," they don't mean short, neat catchy little bursts like George used to play: they usually mean long, drawn out, navel-gazing excursions into the minor pentatonic, which is the most BORING (nikininja nails it) damn thing in all of Christendom. I love this quote from Wynton Marsalis, on the subject of why be-bop killed jazz as pop music: "You know that music that's real loud and fast and self-absorbed? Nobody wants to hear that stuff, man." I'm a guitar player and I don't want to hear it.

3. The kids are on different drugs. That mellow weed from the 60's that made a sitar sound good is long gone. This modern stuff is the chronic, Jim.

4. And finally, the first and most important fact: Long, wank-y guitar solos aren't new anymore. Back when Cream and Jimi did it, it was a new idea. But it's played. SO played. "Freebird" is the final nail in that coffin.

Wow this post blew my mind.First Nickininga I usualy respect and keep an eye on what you say Nick but I have to disagree with the no solos.When done right a solo is a song within a song which everyone is waiting to hear.I am not going to list a 1,000 songs but lets take say Bohemian Rhapsody and leave the solo out or Sweet Child of Mine and minus the solo big change.And who ever said the minor pentatonic is usless SRV should of been a plumber then.The thing is that in the 90s you had a lot of grunge bands who could not play let alone play lead guitar,so you had a whole generation of kids grow up listening to songs with either no solos or very badly played ones Now I am not really a big fan of metal but at least these guys can play their guitars and bringing it back to the kids.And as for Free Bird Allen Collins ,and thats his jam alone on the record is a masterpiece of major pentatonic soloing and if that doesnot get you pumped you should be playing the tuba.

Mustang, I feel no connection with any band ever. There are some classic guitar moments commited to tape. I dont connect with them. I connect with my wife and kids. I think zappa had it right in the youtube link posted of his opinion. 'The 60's werent that much better. It was all new and we had free reign to experiment because no one knew what worked or didnt'. To loosely sum up what he said. Theres a lot of hype around the 60's from what i can make of it. Just the same as today for every great song there were 99 rubish ones (bonzo dog doo dah band or lilly the pink keeping hey joe off christmass no1).
I do however draw on many influences, from the 30's/ 40's up to slayer. I just dont try to copy them. I dont want to play like eric clapton, he's already done it far better than i could.

Myself i try and keep a solo to 8 or 16 bars (8 if its a slow song) and dont use many different notes. Much like the blues player you mention i suspect. Say it all in a short statement then get back to the rocking, thats where the good stuff is.

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Entirely true. Its when they go on and on. Its like listening to a kid nag for sweets. 14 minutes of dire strait's telegraph road oh my. If they'd used that torture at guantanamo bay i suspect amnesty international would of handed Saddam over. Just to stop the cruel and unusual torture. (JK)
I'm a knopfler fan as much as i'm a fan of anyone or anything, i just cant take more than 4 minutes of song before i skip to the next one.

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I don't know...the last 2 shows that I saw were Jeff Beck and The Allman Brothers Band and I heard some ripping solos all over the place.

On the other hand, the band Phish, from Vermont, is together again and I can't stand their jam songs that seem to go on forever.

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Hear, hear. Guitar solos are, for the most part, boring and self-indulgent. I'm a huge Queen fan, and I think Brian May is a brilliant guitarist. I saw them perform live three times back in the 1980s. About 30 seconds into one of Brian's cacophonous solos, I'd start looking at my watch. But they usually went on for 10 minutes or more. Much as I love well-executed guitar music, I am no fan of long guitar solos.

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