Setting the Tone: Functional Guitar Solos
How your favorite solo does more than just melt your face
1997. Game 6. Tie game.
If you know you know. And if you know, you know that everyone knew Michael Jordan was going to take that shot. The clock counted down, the crowd held its breath, and then…
He passed! He passed the ball to Steve “Not Michael Jordan” Kerr, who put up a jump shot that changed the world forever. You see, at that moment, society suddenly understood the importance of the role player: someone who is there to do a specific job really well.
Role players are everywhere: in the real world, in books, in movies, and in music. Today, we’ll focus on the latter. We’ll look at those times when a song desperately needed someone to come in and hit the game-winning 15-footer, and so they turned to music’s most dependable role player: the guitar solo.
In my mind, the most important aspect of the guitar solo is something that may go overlooked (overheard?): its function. You see, guitar solos (along with every other component of a song) serve a purpose. If you think of a song as a vehicle to tell some sort of story, a good guitar solo fits into that story in a specific, intentional way.
In this way, solos are a tool that the songwriter employs. They can kick off the song to offer an immediate jolt of energy, they can come in halfway through to transition the song from one energy level another, or they can end the song in a climactic moment of resolution.
PART 1: THE INTRO
Some songs throw in a guitar solo immediately as a kick starter—a way to inject energy into the track right when the needle drops. These guitar solos have a very clear mission: establish the tone of the song as fast as possible. There’s not much to discuss with these ones, so I’ll just leave you with a few examples.
“I Want It All” – Queen (Brian May)
It’s loud, showy, selfish, and bold. For a song called “I Want It All,” it’s no surprise that the opening guitar solo would be an in-your-face shred-fest delivered with the force of a category-five hurricane.
“Bat Out of Hell” – Meat Loaf (Todd Rundgren)
Although a searing piano riff opens the song, it’s the guitar, erupting out of that piano like a bat out of hell, that really fully the tone for the song and album. Todd Rundgren delivers a soaring, reverberating guitar solo that will make non-believers fall to their knees. And apparently, he did it in one take.
“Aftermath” – Muse (Matt Bellamy)
Of course, solos don’t always have to be high-energy sonic blasts. Here, we have a song that is a complex rumination on the end of the world as we know it. As a result, Bellamy crafts a solo that starts out tentative and wavering (hear how he eases into the first few notes by turning his volume knob up as he plucks the string?) but then grows strength as he transitions to playing double stops (two notes at a time) and even full chords by the end of the brief solo. This arc of growing confidence is continued throughout the song (the guitar will come back throughout), but it is established here, right at the beginning.
PART 2: THE BRIDGE
The next function of a guitar solo is to bridge two areas of a song. I’ve talked about the importance of energy levels in a song—how the best songs will find a way to constantly increase the drama and energy as the song develops. Bridging solos are perfect for this; they take the song from one level to the next.
“Fix You” - Coldplay (Jonny Buckland)
This is a perfect guitar solo. It’s not virtuosic or clever or revolutionary. It’s not flashy at all; in fact, it’s comprised of only three (count ‘em) notes. But it’s perfect because of how well it performs its function: Jonny Buckland gives the song exactly what it needs to elevate from a soft, organ-dominated snooze fest to a rocking climax. Let’s be clear here: the guitar is not working alone. Will Champion on the drums also carries this song in a major way. But Buckland’s note choice is crucial to the success of this song. He could have played a more complicated solo if he wanted to show off, but instead he kept it simple and allowed the song to build in a natural and meaningful way.
“Free Bird” – Lynyrd Skynyrd (Allen Collins)
I didn’t mean to pick two songs that start with organs, but here we are. What would a newsletter about guitar solos be if I didn’t mention the song that every gigging guitarist fears above all others1? Unlike “Fix You,” this is an incredibly complex solo. However, despite the difficulty of Allen Collins’ playing, I don’t think the reason this song sticks out in the zeitgeist of epic solos is because of the note selection or level of virtuosity. And I don’t think it’s because of this scene, although it certainly helps. No, it’s because it unequivocally nails its role as bridge. It kicks the song’s energy up about 50 levels and then keeps going higher and higher.
PART 3: THE CLIMAX
What’s the point of building in energy if there’s no release? The climax of a song is the ultimate point of the song; it’s why the songwriter just asked you to invest three minutes of your time. This resolution can take many forms (we analyzed some of those forms in a previous newsletter). Today, we’re looking at songs where the big climactic moment occurs in a victorious, epic solo in which the guitarist concludes the thematic and motivic material that has been developed throughout the track.
“The Chain” Fleetwood Mac (Lindsay Buckingham)
I know I’ve already analyzed this one in a previous post, but what can I say? Lindsay Buckingham knows how to end a song. Similar to Buckland of Coldplay, the beauty of Buckingham’s solo is not how complicated it is, but how well-suited it is for the role. This song is about a rough break-up; as such, it is basically an airing of grievances. What better way to end it, then, than for an angry, searing guitar solo that is more focused on being loud and angry than being particularly eloquent? It’s exactly what the song needs to take us up another level and reach a satisfying conclusion.
(For more, listen to this live version of "Rhiannon")
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” – The Beatles (Eric Clapton)
This solo faced an impossible task. They basically named the song “This Is the Best Guitar Solo of All Time,” put a guitar in Eric Clapton’s hands, and prayed he would deliver.
Needless to say, he did.
This song features George Harrison ruminating on the state of the world. In his eyes, it’s asleep, corrupted, and distracted, all at the same time. But what can he do about it? He looks out and sees all this while his guitar gently weeps.
What do these lyrics mean? Perhaps music transcends the human experience; we all suffer in ignorance while the guitar weeps on our behalf. Perhaps there’s nothing to be done about society’s shortcomings besides pluck a tune. Perhaps it’s something else altogether. Whatever the case, Clapton puts all that despair into an emotional solo that spans almost the entire song. He comes in and out to fill gaps in the lyrics, but the final solo is when the guitar really starts weeping. Clapton uses a wah pedal to dial in that soft, tearful tone and then he dances around Harrison’s vocalizations to craft a perfect climax to the song.
“Comfortably Numb” - Pink Floyd (David Gilmore)
Again, it wouldn’t be a newsletter about guitar solos if I didn’t discuss what is perhaps the greatest solo of all time: David Gilmore’s face-melter that concludes “Comfortably Numb.” Before getting into the solo itself, I would like to draw your attention to that one extra measure at the end of the second verse (4:28, in the linked audio), when the electric guitar comes in with a power chord that says “Mr. President, you’re gonna want to hear this.” It’s like Gilmore knew he was about to play the most iconic solo of all time, and so he gave it a short intro to give the audience a moment to prepare. Anticipation builds until Gilmore lets loose and doesn’t let go.
This solo marks the climax of the song’s narrative: the speaker feels lost to the world and therefore succumbs to the allure of drugs. To convey this, Gilmore uses minor chords (as opposed to the major tonality of the first solo of the song) and beats out a relentless solo that doesn’t come to a clean conclusion (Gilmore chooses to fade out instead). It’s the emotional resolution of the song; the biggest, most dramatic section that we have heard so far. But, as discussed in the Drama Queen newsletter, Gilmore finds a way to take things even higher. The guitar soars up an octave, screaming out in desolation. It’s powerful, epic, and a perfect thematic conclusion.
Guitar solos are cool. They can be complicated, musical, emotional, and epic. However, the greatness of a solo does not depend on any of those things; rather, all that matters is how well the solo performs its assigned task. Does it set the tone properly? Does it transition well between sections? Does it conclude the song in a meaningful way?
In other words, does it get Michael Jordan his fifth ring?
I used to play bass guitar for a bluegrass band, and yes, even then, I was once asked to “play Free Bird!”