Whats the best solo of the 80s??

best solo of the 80s??

  • Every Rose Has Its Thorn

    Votes: 2 6.5%

  • other

    Votes: 29 93.5%
  • Total voters
    31
So we've established there were lots of great solos in the 80's. The burning question now - is there actually a greater decade for solos? I love 70's rock but think the 80's may win this round.
 
braintheory said:
Well I don’t necessarily disagree with any of that, but this thread is only about leads/guitar solos. I agree he had cool riffs (not the best ever to me, but some very cool stuff (especially “I’m The One”)), excellent sense of rhythm and syncopation, I don’t really care honestly how he was at other instruments or jumping (unless he was actually top notch at them), but anyway this thread is just about solos, which as you already know I don’t like in EVH and I really don’t like how many other guitarists started adopting that noodly style and made it worse than him. That’s my main issue. It made leadwork as a trend take a turn for the worse imo. To be honest, that first guitar solo alone in Mr Crowley, which is not even 1 minute long, I feel is light years ahead in the emotional & musical depth it conveys to me over anything I’ve heard from EVH. I think other solos are in a similar league like Tornado of Souls, No More Tears, Comfortably Numb, Stairway To Heaven, All Along The Watchtower (Hendrix version), but I really don’t see any leadwork by EVH as belonging in the same conversation as those solos. Just my opinion. I want a story and emotional depth in leads. Those solos I mentioned all gave me goosebumps and were cinematic in nature. EVH’s solos imo don’t do that at all for me

It's also perfectly ok for us to disagree. My friend's in person highly disagree with lots of my opinions and I don't mind when they call me names for it. I kinda like it actually. It's all part of the fun. I have strong opinions and everyone once in a while my friends will come around and either see my point or even agree later on and those few times make me feel like sharing to them my strong opinions was well worth it and I also love hearing their views on my end. If anything I feel disrespected or like I'm not really friends with someone when we can't openly discuss our real opinions/thoughts
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Yep. We can agree to disagree :cheers:
I respect your opinion.
I have close friends that agree with you 100%.
I would say most in this thread, and on this board, find that the 1980's was one of the greatest decades for rock guitar and guitar solos.
And a lot of that music was inspired by EVH.
So you're saying you don't like a lot of that. That's cool.
And yeah - Ed could never have pulled off a solo like the ones in Comfortably Numb.
For me. Deserted island? EVH all day.
 
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311splawndude said:
Yep. We can agree to disagree :cheers:
I respect your opinion.
I have close friends that agree with you 100%.
I would say most in this thread, and on this board, find that the 1980's was one of the greatest decades for rock guitar and guitar solos.
And a lot of that music was inspired by EVH.
So you're saying you don't like a lot of that. That's cool.
And yeah - Ed could never have pulled off a solo like the ones in Comfortably Numb.
For me. Deserted island? EVH all day.
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Not to further beat a dead horse, but I basically just don’t like the direction leads took after EVH came about. Besides that I mostly like the way he influenced others that came after. I have nothing at all against show off-y playing as long as the quality of the music is there, but that’s what tends to get sacrificed in those situations. It’s very difficult to write music/leads that are both. Randy Rhoads and Marty Friedman had solos with both, which is why I refer to them as flash with class. A very rare find imo. I think very high quality music is actually rare period, but much more so when it’s faster and meant to be more show off-y

With being show-offy also, there were guys like Shawn Lane that were so far ahead of EVH technically that he didn’t really have to try as hard to be show off-y because his skill set in playing itself was just a lot higher. If only we had a good composer to write stuff for him to play we could then have the cake and eat it too

Actually, in the romantic era of classical music, there were lots of pieces that were very show off-y, but still had lots of substance. There are guys that dismiss it as being show off-y and they’re missing out there
 
311splawndude said:
It's cool that you have your own opinion. Ed's influence though went much further than mindless gobble gook. In addition to interweaving his mastery of the fretboard into otherwise simple songs, he had great rhythm chops, excellent timing and phrasing, could sing, could jump around, could play piano, could play many instruments actually, and could write riffs and songs like it was nobody's business. Not to mention the fact that he pushed electric guitar and amps into new territory on that quest to get more gain and capability - something that has benefited us all.

That's my thinking.
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EVH was a master in the art of playing rhythm. Some of the raddest stuff he played were glorious rhythm parts.
 
Always thought this was one of Kirk's best. The RTL solo is pretty great too. (not too much of his amazing vibrato on show. fortunately)

 
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braintheory said:
Comfortably Numb came out in 1980, so I take it back. That has to be up there with the best of any of them
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Actually it came out late November 1979. I checked it and posted earlier itt that had it been a little later it would be in the running.

I agree with Push Comes to Shove but there's a few EVH that could be in the running.

I also agree with Rising Force take-your-fucking-pick.
OK...Now Your Ships Are Burned is my pick.

 
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