Skip to main content

Top 5 ... Guitar Solos to Blast With Your Windows Down

The next time you're cruisin' through town with your windows rolled down, crank up the volume with one of these awesome guitar solos!    


1) Quiet Riot - “Cum on Feel the Noize” – A solo that people recognize when you drive by. And, whenever I have a chance to put this song on a Top 5 list, I DO IT! (Also featured on Top 5 lists such as Best Drum Intro, Best Mid-Song Scream by a Lead Singer, Songs I’d Like as My Plate Approach Theme If I Were a Baseball Player, and Favorite Songs That Passively-Aggressively Urge People to ‘Feel the Noize’.)


2) Dio – “Rainbow in the Dark” – People don’t know what the hell is happening when they hear this cranked up to 11 on the street! Lots of speed-picking and other good heavy metal shit going on, it sounds like Satan in a speaker!  I had a frail old woman look on with fear as I drove by one time. Just give her the Devil Horns and tell ol’ blue-hair to drop dead, I say! 


3) Metallica – “Enter Sandman” – I find this one to be a crowd-pleaser, which means people on the street hear it and don’t tell me to ‘Turn it the fuck down!’ 


4) Scorpions – “Rock You Like a Hurricane” – People might not know what the song is when they hear the solo full blast; But they WILL know they just got hit square in the face with a heavy-metal bomb filled with pick scrapes, leather pants, and whammy bars! Suck on that, innocent bystanders! 


5) Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Freebird” – Make sure you crank this to full volume if you ever drive through the Deep South, where you’re likely to otherwise get your face caved in by a tire iron just because those drunk hillbillies don’t recognize you, therefore hate you.

Comments

  1. No Nazareth "Hair of the Dog"?! That is a great song to blast while driving past a family walking out of a small-town supper club and pointing at them while singing the chorus!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Haha! Good call, Otis! "Hair of the Dog" has that rockin' talk-box solo and could easily have made the list.

    I remember that cruise past the supper club like it was yesterday. If that nice-looking family thought they could enter the diner without getting an earful of cowbell and someone shouting "Now you're messin' with a SON OF A BIIIITCH!" at them... well, they were wrong. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm surprised the solo from Bon Jovi's "You Give Love A Bad Name" or "Living On A Prayer" didn't make the cut. Maybe if they were longer. (That's what she said.)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Haha, you're right Tone! It's rare that Bon Jovi doesn't make a guitar solo list for me, since I do love Richie Sambora.

    Of all their solos, I think "You Give Love A Bad Name" would be the best one to blast with your windows down. It's got whammy bar dive bombs, some pick-tapping, and the solo ends with a Jon Bon Jovi "Ohhhhhhh!" scream... all of which sound awesome at high-volume.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The "My Sharona" Guitar Solo

THE "MY SHARONA" GUITAR SOLO - Am I crazy, or is the big guitar solo on "My Sharona" one of the best solos ever recorded? There was a time in my life (not long ago, actually) where I'd watch this video 20 times a day. It's the best live performance of this song I've seen, check it out! The Knack - My Sharona RANDOM THOUGHTS... Of course, the main guitar riff in this song is classic. The octave-jumping bass riff heard in the intro is also doubled by the guitar, and it was written by guitarist Berton Averre. I also think the first guitar break (you could probably call it a solo, Mr. Technically) at the 1:17 mark is really good. Today, however, I want to focus mainly on the full-blown celebration of life that is the big guitar solo... THE GUITAR SOLO (2:35 to 4:06) ... ... I'm almost appalled that this song is not mentioned in Guitar World's Top 100 Guitar Solos list. I mean, what the hell?! I'm sorry, but the "My Sha...

Great 80's Videos ... Cinderella - Shake Me

Cinderella - Shake Me - 1986 - Here's an excellent song and video from Cinderella. "Shake Me" was the first single off their multi-platinum selling debut album, Night Songs , and it's probably my favorite Cinderella song. Shake it! RANDOM THOUGHTS ... This song has it all: Great guitar riffs, awesome cowbell, and kick-ass vocals. A " foot-stomping rocker " if you will. Cinderella is one of my favorite bands from that era, I saw them live (with Poison, Dokken, and Slaughter on the Power To The People Tour in 2000) and they put on a great  show, doing all of the cool guitar tricks they display here in this video. And of course, Tom Keifer is a great singer, one of my favorite rock and roll voices. It captures the energy, so showing them playing the song live in the video works pretty good here, I think. ... Bands, and people in general, don't talk about "shaking" like they used to. Back in the day, there were songs about "shaking...

Great 80's Videos ... Zebra - Tell Me What You Want

Zebra - "Tell Me What You Want" - I heard this on Dee Snider's House of Hair recently and it blew me away!  It's got killer vocals, a killer guitar solo, and a kick-ass descending chord progression.  And, as you'll see, the video is everything you'd expect from Zebra... which probably isn't much.  Enjoy!  Zebra - Tell Me What You Want RANDOM THOUGHTS - This is the opening track off Zebra's self-titled 1983 debut album.  I've always wondered why bands opt for no album name?  Just make something up, for crying out loud!  How about this: Heaven Ain't For Sinners .  That's a perfectly good album title for a hard rock band, and I've got a hundred of them like that!   0:19 - Enter the mysterious tigress.  As far as I can tell, there are four main elements to this "narrative":  The tiger-woman, lead singer Randy Jackson, a mannequin, and a red door.  What does all this symbolism mean?  Well, it probably means they...