An introduction for those in need

Hello.

The title of this blog should be self-explanatory, but for those who want some sort of road map, I'll oblige. I am a 21-year old student, writer and musician who can usually be found posting here, on a variety of subjects ranging from politics and religion and mathematics to music and art. The purpose of this blog is a bit more specialized. I have considered myself a connoisseur of the many dimensions that a guitar solo can take: as a philosophical rejoinder to a song's melodic or lyrical content; as an expression of creative virtuosity; as an attempt at achieving new and previously unattainable levels of expression; as an opportunity to mess with structure or melody, to "kick out the jams," if you will, the guitar solo is a malleable creature that remains as relevant to the art of music-making as ever. Plainly put, there are just some that I like listening to a lot, for a bevy of different reasons. This blog is intended as a celebration presented in periodic essays.

Structurally, it's pretty simple: I will generally focus on one song, and more particularly the guitar solo within that song. The art of soloing is something I don't think is written about very often, or at least very well. You can read about the latest meathead rocker or classic rock relic talking about their tuneless and exhibitionistic wonking in articles and interviews with Guitar World and (the slightly less offensive) Guitar Player magazine, but all they do is basically teach aspiring worthless guitar showoffs to play exactly like whatever 70's icon or flavor of the month is on the cover (I mean, seriously, how many times can they put Jimmy Page on the damn thing?). I plan to try something more authentic. I have a reasonably strong background in music theory as well as critical theory; additionally, I was a guitarist and songwriter in my own band, and I've played a few solos in my time, so I have some idea of what it's like to pull off something fantastic. Conversely, I know what it's like to sink like a dead weight when one's ideas outstretch one's technical ability, and vice versa. You shouldn't expect anything written here to be too esoteric, but occasionally I might get caught up in some subject that you might find to be less than relevant to the matter at hand. Such is the ineffable nature of music.

I will take careful consideration as to what constitutes a guitar solo, and occasionally I may have arguments with myself as well as others as to what qualifies as a full-blown solo and what is merely a longish guitar riff or something else entirely. I believe it's fairly well-established that guitar solos can be both scrupulously pre-written (as was the standard practice of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, who devised many of his solos first as vocal melodies) and completely off the cuff (as was the case, apparently, with Eric Clapton's "Sunshine of Your Love" solo, as well as a lot of punks like Johnny Thunders), so the notion of the guitar solo being completely an improvised art is pretty much a dead one. Yet, other questions can muddy things a bit. What about something like Joey Santiago's brief interlude in the Pixies' "Hey"? What about Johnny Ramone's solo for "I Wanna Be Sedated," which according to Slate is the same note played 65 times? Surely, there's no rule as to how many notes a solo needs to be in order to qualify, nor is there any specified length. Yet, I wouldn't argue that, say, the last few seconds of Prince's "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" wouldn't qualify, being the same note played twice. Additionally people will sometimes talk about Robert Fripp's "chord solos," which barely count in my book, but who knows? What about when two guitarists try soloing at the same time? Does it count as "a solo"? What about the occasional bass solo (I may talk about one I particularly love, from Blondie's "Atomic")? These are all questions I will have to wrestle with. I hope I am up to the challenge, and I hope that people here will try disagreeing with me.

I will choose, I admit, from a very hegemonic and male-oriented pool of guitar pioneers. However, don't expect me to feature typical meathead "rawk" songs. While there's no way I can go about this blog without discussing the holy trinity of Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton (although you can expect severe criticisms of Clapton to be leveled, particularly post-1970) I don't think it is necessary to devote one iota of processing power to that wildly overinflated and overplayed "Freebird" solo. While many may think that Van Halen's "Eruption" is among the greatest guitar solos ever, I would much sooner include more esoteric choices from the Vibrators, the Band, John McLaughlin, Built To Spill, and Public Image Ltd. Expect me to do a lot of genre-crossing, particularly in the areas of funk (with indisputable greats like Prince and Eddie Hazel, the latter of whom will be the subject of my first real post), folk (Richard Thompson) and even rap music (Outkast's "B.O.B." counts!). Similarly, expect me to consider recent music as well as music from classic rock's heyday, and I may even dip my toes into earlier 50's music as well. I think, however, I will limit myself to only covering stuff written after the advent of the electric guitar. This is not a Guitar World-sanctioned blog by any means, and expect me to talk a lot of shit about onanist guitar icons like Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen. I will probably have little, if anything, to say about them. On the other hand, I will probably talk about Zappa a lot.

This should be a fun exercise. Critics don't talk about solos a lot, but for a lot of us they hold a particular expressive power which is alien to most segments of the population that prefer more immediate and obvious pleasures; with that in mind, I dedicate this blog to the brave guitarists that took the instrument one step further, courting controversy and making enemies along the way, but ultimately emerging successful and inspiring millions. To them, and to those who love them, is this blog meant for.