" at which point we realised we could do nothing but this). (And with much thanks to reader Iain Mathieson, who sent an email with the tempting claim "I don't think you can get much more pompous than. Dr Pepper have promised a free drink to every single person in the USA if it actually gets released this year I will match that with a can of Irn Bru for everyone in this office) those times will come again. Perhaps when new album Chinese Democracy finally surfaces (it's been 15 years in the making so far. But then, they don't really make rock ballads any more. They just don't make 'em like this any more. We all burst into spontaneous applause.Īlthough the video - still, apparently, the 13th most expensive ever made, and head and shoulders above most offerings in terms of cinematography - is ostensibly based on a short story by Del James called Without You, it is really just a retelling of that age-old tale: boy meets girl boy marries girl reception gets rained on girl gets shot in the face.īut my GOD it's bombastic. Axl has a bit of a cry, the song performance in the theatre, that we haven't mentioned much because it is comparatively dull, ends and then the video does too. In the ninth minute, in a triumph of symbolism, the bride throws her bouquet in bright sunlight, and as it passes through the air, the white roses turn pink, then red, then land on her grave in the dark and the rain. The action moves to the graveside, this time without Axl (apparently due to the fact that he didn't show up for the video shoot that day, rather than any plot-driven reason) but we see him later on. "Stairway" immediately became the defining track on "Led Zeppelin IV" and cemented itself as one of the greatest guitar songs of the classic rock era.Oh, no, that's Axl Rose. With about 2:07 left in the tune, Page switches to electric guitar and starts his gnarly solo filled with the bends, hammer-ons, and pull-offs that have made it a classic - all before crashing to the song's dramatic resolution. About halfway through the song, John Bonham's driving drums come in and Page begins building the speed and power of his playing, preparing listeners for the song's epic crescendo. Page begins his solo on a 12-string acoustic guitar and keeps things slow and mellifluous, the pastoral lilt of his playing fitting in perfectly with Robert Plant's smooth vocals. Since its release in 1971, "Stairway to Heaven" has topped numerous lists as the best rock song and best guitar solo of all time, and it's primarily thanks to the masterful architecture of Jimmy Page's guitar solo. He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using." He found things that other people wouldn't think of finding in there. "He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. It's no wonder the song became the anthem of the Vietnam War.Īccording to Rolling Stone, Bob Dylan told the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel in 1995 that he thought Hendrix improved his song. Through the song's four solos his distinct psychedelic tone mixed with his innovative playing style - in the third solo he used a cigarette lighter for the slides and his trademark wah-wah pedal is most present in the fourth solo - give "Watchtower" its frenzied spirit. The fact of the matter is that in 1968 when the song released, guitarists just weren't doing the things Jimi was doing. On the recorded version, the flamenco feel is re-emphasized by the band fading out against his nylon acoustics which, for many guitar players and fans, sits high among the album’s many highlights. It also gifted the world one of the best guitar solos ever. Jimi Hendrix loved Bob Dylan's body of work and played many of his songs throughout his career but his rendition of "All Along the Watchtower" is among his best playing. Despite the fact that a non-Beatle recorded it, I'd argue this is the best guitar solo in the band's catalog. Unsurprisingly the meaning still holds up well today. The song is summed up perfectly in the lyric "the love there that's sleeping."Ĭlapton captured the emotion of the song perfectly it's as if with each sorrowful string bend he is pouring out his heart through his guitar. Harrison wrote it as a social commentary about the abundance of hate in the world and humanity's inability to love one another. What makes this solo so poignant is the meaning behind the song. On the rare occasion when George Harrison tapped his friend Eric Clapton to play guitar on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," he surprisingly didn't want to record the track because "nobody ever plays on The Beatles' records." But after some convincing and a promise that it would sound "Beatles-y," he laid down one of the rock world's most legendary solos. Not counting session musicians, The Beatles almost never featured other artists on their records. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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