Winner: "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (53.35 percent)
Loser: "One" (46.65 percent)
The Sweet 16 Round kicks off with a good one — "One" Vs. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."
A few years ago, the editors of
Guitar World magazine compiled what we feel is the ultimate guide to the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time.
The list, which has been quoted by countless artists, websites and
publications around the world, starts with Richie Sambora's work on Bon
Jovi's “Wanted Dead or Alive” (100) and builds to a truly epic finish
with Jimmy Page's solo on "Stairway to Heaven" (01).
To quote our
"Stairway to Heaven" story that ran with the list, "If Jimmy Page is the Steven Spielberg of guitarists, then 'Stairway' is his
Close Encounters."
On June 10, we kicked off a summer blockbuster of our own — a no-holds-barred six-string shootout. We pitted
Guitar World's
top 64 guitar solos against each other in an NCAA-style, 64-team
single-elimination tournament. Every day, we asked you to cast your vote
in a different guitar-solo matchup as dictated by the 64-team-style
bracket. Now Rounds 1 and 2 have come and gone, leaving us with 16
guitar solos and eight matchups.
So ...
WELCOME TO THE SWEET 16 ROUND, where all 16
still-standing solos will go head to head before your eyes! As always,
you can vote only once per matchup, and the voting ends as soon as the
next matchup is posted.
In some cases (like today), genre will clash against genre; a thrash
solo might compete against a Southern rock solo. But please get real:
They're all guitar solos, played on guitars, by guitarists, most of them
in some subset of the umbrella genre of rock. When choosing, it might
have to come down to, "Which solo is more original and creative? Which
is more iconic or important? or Which one kicks a larger, more
impressive assemblage of asses?"
Results of the Final Round 2 Matchup from July 30
Winner: "Eruption" (78.99 percent)
Loser: "Stranglehold" (21.01 percent)
The Sweet 16 Round Begins (Matchup 1 of 8)
"One" Vs. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
How fitting it is that a song titled "One" is part of our very first
Sweet 16 matchup. Yes, Metallica's "One" (07), featuring a guitar solo
by Kirk Hammett, is squaring off against the Beatles' "While My Guitar
Gently Weeps" (42), which features a solo by Eric Clapton. Although
Jimmy Page alone is responsible for four guitar solos in our Sweet 16
group, "One" is Metallica's only Sweet 16 guitar solo (including both
Hammett and James Hetfield) and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is
Clapton's only Sweet 16 guitar solo.
HOW THEY GOT HERE
•
"One" defeated Clapton's
"Cocaine" (58) in Round 1 and Neil Young's
"Cortez the Killer" (39) in Round 2.
•
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" defeated Rage Against the Machine's
"Bulls on Parade" (23) in Round 1 and Joe Satriani's
"Satch Boogie" (55) in Round 2.
Get busy! You'll find the poll at the very bottom of the story.
07. “One”
Soloist: Kirk Hammett
Album: Metallica—
…And Justice for All (Elektra, 1988)
“I had a very clear idea of where I wanted to go with my guitar playing on
…And Justice for All,” recalls Kirk Hammett. “Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time for me to fully execute my ideas.
“We worked on basic tracks for six or seven months, and then I only
had eight or nine days to record all my leads because we were heading
out on the Monsters of Rock tour [with Van Halen, Scorpions, Dokken and
Kingdom Come]. To get that done, I had to do incredibly long, grueling
days—like 20 hours at a pop—and it took so much out of me. As soon as I
finished one solo, I had to do the next one. There was no time to
breathe, as the whole vibe was to do it the best you could and keep
moving. It was a pretty frustrating experience, to be honest.”
Despite these frustrations, Hammett was immediately pleased with most
of his work on “One,” which featured three very different solos. “The
first solo and the last solo were completely worked out in advance
because I had been playing them for months,” recalls Hammett. “So in
those cases it was just a matter of fitting in tone-wise. I elected to
use a clean sound in the intro solo, which was the first time we used
that kind of sound. I dialed it up on an ADA preamp and, once we found
the right sound, it just flowed.
"For the final solo, I used my conventional lead sound of the time.
That one flowed quickly, too—once I worked out the intro right-hand
tapping technique, a process I really enjoyed. I wanted a high energy
intro that would be different from anything I had done in the past. So I
got those two solos done quickly and was pleased with them. But the
middle one just wasn’t happening.”
Ultimately, Hammett was so displeased with the results of his second
solo that he returned to the studio in the midst of the Monsters of Rock
tour—spending a day at New York’s Hit Factory with producer Ed Stasium.
“I redid the entire second half of the second solo and worked to make
it all fit in,” Hammett recalls. “It was better, although I was never
totally satisfied with it. I guess I did a good enough job.”
Apparently so. The song would soon become Metallica’s first
legitimate radio and MTV hit, its solos firmly established as Hammett
signature licks.
42. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
Soloist: Eric Clapton
Album: The Beatles—
The Beatles (Apple, 1968)
“When we actually started recording this, it was just me playing the
acoustic guitar and singing it, and nobody was interested,” recalls the
song’s author, George Harrison. “Well, Ringo probably was, but John and
Paul weren’t. When I went home that night, I was really disappointed
because I thought, Well, this is really quite a good song; it’s not as
if it’s crap!
"And the next day I happened to drive back into London with Eric
[Clapton], and I suddenly said, ‘Why don’t you come play on this track?’
And he said, ‘Oh, I couldn’t do that; the others wouldn’t like it…’ But
I finally said, ‘Well, damn, it’s my song, and I’d like you to come
down.’ So he did, and everybody was good as gold because he was there.
"I sang it with the acoustic guitar with Paul on piano, and Eric and
Ringo. Later, Paul overdubbed bass. Then we listened back to it and Eric
said, ‘Ah, there’s a problem, though; it’s not Beatlesy enough.’ So we
put the song through the ADT [automatic double tracker] to wobble it a
bit.”
[[
When you're done voting, start learning most of the guitar solos in
this poll — and and a whole lot more! Check out a new TAB book from
Guitar World and Hal Leonard: 'The 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of All
Time: A Treasure Trove of Guitar Leads Transcribed Note-for-Note, Plus
Song Notes for More Than 40 of the Best Solos.' It's available now at
the Guitar World Online Store for $29.99. NOTE: Neil Young's "Cortez the
Killer" guitar solo (solo number 39 on our list) is NOT included in
this book. ]]
Voting Closed!
a photo gallery of Emily Bondy, the latest addition to the Girls of Guitar World.
