Okay, longtime readers of Pencil Storm know the Ricki C. litany: I’m entering my EIGHTH DECADE of rock & roll (1950’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s, 2010’s, 2020’s.) I’ll be 68 years old later this month, and because my dad’s second job in the 1960’s was at Central Ticket Office (an early forerunner of Ticketmaster) I got to see The Doors, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, Janis Joplin and The Who (plus dozens of others, pretty much every major 60’s act other than The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, neither of whom played Columbus in the 60’s) all before I was 17 years old in 1969. That direct application of sonic anarchy to the brain cells will irrevocably electrify the heart, mind & soul of a formerly shy, sensitive, book-reading West Side child.
Also, that experience doesn’t mean I necessarily have a love of Guitar Heroes, it’s more like a healthy respect.
But I DO know my way around a guitar solo. Here’s my Top Five.
RICHARD & LINDA THOMPSON / “CALVARY CROSS” / live 9/27/1975
There’s gonna be a couple of anomalies in this list, the 13:27 “Calvary Cross” is one of them. I’m a dyed-in-the-wool 3-minute song guy. One of my favorite memories of the end of the 1960’s is when my best friend & bandmate Dave Blackburn would come up to me in the 18th minute of some interminable half-hour Jagoff Rock Extravaganza, hold up a 25-cent coin and say, “I’ll bet you a quarter this song ends someday.”
So what does Richard Thompson have here, that, say, Yes or Rush or – God help us – Kansas didn’t have?
Allow me to enumerate: 1) A rock-solid and INTERESTING rhythm section – Dave Pegg on bass, Dave Mattacks on drums, with a few accordion(!) flourishes by John Kirkpatrick – to anchor the guitar mastery. 2) A finely-honed sense of power, PASSION & taste to stay interesting over the length of the tune. 3) A Fender Twin Reverb amplifier with a gorgeous tremolo. Folks, I don’t listen to 13-minute guitar solo tunes, and I’ve listened to this one DOZENS of times since 1982 when I first heard it. (blogger’s note: Incidentally, Richard Thompson also holds the title for my favorite ACOUSTIC guitar solo of all time, at the end of “Dimming Of The Day,” a heartbreaker of a ballad and possibly one of my ten favorite songs of my lengthy rock & roll listening career. see addendum below.)
BUDDY HOLLY & the CRICKETS / “PEGGY SUE” / 12/29/1957
My very FIRST favorite guitar solo; registered when I was 5 years old and it was blasted into the back seat of my sainted Italian father’s Oldsmobile from a tinny dashboard radio. I have loved the rhythm guitar solo engendered by this tune from that day to this. (Second-greatest rhythm guitar solo of all time, though not good enough to crack the Top Five: Lou Reed on “What Goes On” from The Velvet Underground 1969 Live. again. see addendum below.)
video note: Check out those smokin’ hot rock & roll babes behind Buddy Holly & the Crickets on the Arthur Murray Dance Party. This was my childhood.
THE VELVET UNDERGROUND / “I HEARD HER CALL MY NAME” / 1968
Seventeen words: Lou Reed. Nineteen sixty-eight. “I heard her call my name / And then my mind split open.”
pictured here, John Cale…….
NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE / “LIKE A HURRICANE” / live 10/22/1978, from RUST NEVER SLEEPS
Our other anomalous 9-minute tune: Do I like my guitar solos psychotic? Well, yeah………
THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE / “THE WIND CRIES MARY” / LIVE IN STOCKHOLM, 5/24/1967
One word: sublime.
Honorable Mention
(This song missed my top five favorite guitar solos by INCHES…….)
BLUE OYSTER CULT / “I AIN’T GOT YOU” (MASERATI GT) / LIVE 1974
addendum: two bonus videos:
RICHARD & LINDA THOMPSON / ‘DIMMING OF THE DAY” / 1975
THE VELVET UNDERGROUND / “WHAT GOES ON” / LIVE, 1969
video note: Whoever posted this tune didn’t do their homework or pay very close attention. This song is from the lean ‘n’ mean LATER Velvet Underground after Nico and John Cale had departed for grayer pastures. This version features Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison, Doug Yule & Maureen Tucker.