Rolling Stone has unveiled its list of the 100 greatest guitar solos of all time, placing Prince’s Purple Rain in the top spot.
The purple one beats out stiff competition from the likes of Maggot Brain, Steeley Dan’s Kid Charlemagne, Stairway to Heaven, Eruption and Hendrix’s generation-defining leadwork on Machine Gun to nab number one.
Article continues belowThat initial decision allegedly led a fired-up Prince to give it both barrels at the 2004 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame ceremony – producing an iconic off-the-cuff solo during a tribute performance of While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
The list is otherwise notably less controversial than RS’ 2023 list of Greatest Guitarists, but still contains a few conversation starters, Prince positioning aside.
There are some slightly tokenist bungs to modernity, most notably with band-of-the-moment Geese’s Getting Killed, which takes number 98 and MJ Lenderman’s Knockin’ (81) – which are both fine compositions, but seem odd placing ahead of AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long, the sole Angus Young nod, at 100.
One choice GW has no trouble endorsing, though, is Mdou Moctar’s Afrique Victime entering the list at number 53.
That said, aside from the aforementioned Rock & Roll Hall of Fame live performance – a 2004 cover of a 1968 composition, albeit one beautifully elevated by Prince’s intervention – there is nothing in the top 30 that was written or released after 1990.
There’s certainly been no shortage of guitar solos in the last 35 years or so, but cutting Rolling Stone some slack, perhaps it does say something about the solo’s position drifting outside of the mainstream.
Music listening and production has certainly fractured into a mosaic of niches in that period and while the RS list offers a diverse and relatively comprehensive coverage of genres (at least compared to its controversial Greatest Guitarist picks), it still has a bit of a blind spot for contemporary metal and hard rock.
For instance, Extreme’s headline-generating shred renaissance Rise is nowhere to be seen (nor is any Nuno outing, for that matter – something we’re sure he is absolutely fine about) – let alone Plini or any of the more bleeding-edge progressive players.
It wouldn’t have been a bad time to give Mastodon’s Brent Hinds a nod, either – a little Crack The Skye perhaps.
Still, there’s always 2046. At least Prince can rest easy, knowing his protest was noted.
To view the full list, head to Rolling Stone.
