Top 10 Beatles Guitar Solos

[materamagic]

It would be interesting to see which 10 songs people consider to have the best guitar solos. It may be your favourite or one that you can't get out of your head. For guitarists perhaps you can provide reasoning as to technical aspects, etc....

I will list my top 10.....

Something: George worked hard on this one all by himself 100% Harrison with no input from anyone. It is an elegant solo representative of his understated style

Let It Be: Packs alot of emotion and really brings this song to life before the tension builds up to bring the classic song to a close

While My Guitar Gently Weeps: Eric Clapton played a sizzling solo on this song, perhaps the best, in my assessment slightly below the above two

I Wan't You: Bluesy and soulful guitar playing throughout that fits in so well with this Zeppelinesque Lennon number. As an aside to guitar, listen for Paul's bass playing.

Birthday: Great riffage, done on the spot too. Double tracked guitars on the solo by the sounds

And Your Bird Can Sing: Paul and George playing the biting guitar solos simultaneously, one of the lesser known tracks from Revolver.

Octopuses Garden: The catchy intro, solo and guitar fills throughout are a joy to listen to, fluent playing.

And I Love Her: nice acoustic solo from the early days with a latin flavour

I Me Mine: Displays Harrison's peaking guitar prowess in the late 60's, a real lost gem with great tempo changes

Drive My Car: I just love the solo.

 

[Truck Rutten]

Great work mm! You've picked some absolute gems there.

Another one I really like is George's classical guitar solo in Till there was you. Do you know if he wrote it, or was it included in the original version of the song?

 

[ManWithNoName]

I love the solo in Tomorrow Never Knows. It's a good solo on it's merits, then you have to take into consideration that George is playing it backwards.

 

[lihei]

Great topic and great choices.

I would add:

A Hard Day's Night/I Should Have Known Better- simple, but catchy
Across the Universe - Opening on acoustic guitar
Back in the USSR - Pure r'n'r riff
Bad Boy - Fun to play
Come Together - Bass and Lead; particularly on the Coda
Day Tripper -'yeah!'
Dig a Pony - Bass and Lead both follow the same riff. Fun to play.
Dear Prudence/Blackbird/Two of Us/Michelle - Great little acoustic riffs and arpeggios
Here Comes the Sun - challenging with the capo all the way up on the 7th fret
Hey Bulldog - Piano/Bass/Guitar classic
I Feel Fine/Taxman - classic opening riff
Lady Madonna - walking bass line
LSD/Penny Lane/Baby Your a Rich Man/Old Brown Shoe/Yer Blues - Bass Guitar delight!

So many damn good riffs by these guys. Is it any wonder they are/were the greatest musical group of all-time.

 

[lihei]

Great work mm! You've picked some absolute gems there.

Another one I really like is George's classical guitar solo in Till there was you. Do you know if he wrote it, or was it included in the original version of the song?

According to some of my books, this song is McCartney's arrangement of the original. I assume from this that he would have had a big say in the guitar solo, notwithstanding George's input whilst practising the tune.

 

[materamagic]

According to some of my books, this song is McCartney's arrangement of the original. I assume from this that he would have had a big say in the guitar solo, notwithstanding George's input whilst practising the tune.

Ah forgot to mention that one, it is a great solo, I'd like to think it was George all the way on that one. Paul did play some of the guitar solo's, Taxman is one of them and this loop was reversed and they put it on Tomorrow Never Knows, so Paul is technically playing that one.

The best Ive heard George on any stringed instrument was his amazing uke solo at a live appearance at a Uke Convention in the early 90's. He really could play guitar. There was a clip of it somewhere on the net.

George played bass on some songs such as Taxman and Old Brown Shoe, now that will suprise some people.