With about 2:07 left in the tune, Page switches to electric guitar and starts his gnarly solo filled with the bends, hammer-ons, and pull-offs that have made it a classic - all before crashing to the song's dramatic resolution. About halfway through the song, John Bonham's driving drums come in and Page begins building the speed and power of his playing, preparing listeners for the song's epic crescendo. Page begins his solo on a 12-string acoustic guitar and keeps things slow and mellifluous, the pastoral lilt of his playing fitting in perfectly with Robert Plant's smooth vocals. Since its release in 1971, "Stairway to Heaven" has topped numerous lists as the best rock song and best guitar solo of all time, and it's primarily thanks to the masterful architecture of Jimmy Page's guitar solo. He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using." He found things that other people wouldn't think of finding in there. "He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. It's no wonder the song became the anthem of the Vietnam War.Īccording to Rolling Stone, Bob Dylan told the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel in 1995 that he thought Hendrix improved his song. Through the song's four solos his distinct psychedelic tone mixed with his innovative playing style - in the third solo he used a cigarette lighter for the slides and his trademark wah-wah pedal is most present in the fourth solo - give "Watchtower" its frenzied spirit. The fact of the matter is that in 1968 when the song released, guitarists just weren't doing the things Jimi was doing. It also gifted the world one of the best guitar solos ever. Jimi Hendrix loved Bob Dylan's body of work and played many of his songs throughout his career but his rendition of "All Along the Watchtower" is among his best playing. Despite the fact that a non-Beatle recorded it, I'd argue this is the best guitar solo in the band's catalog. Unsurprisingly the meaning still holds up well today. The song is summed up perfectly in the lyric "the love there that's sleeping."Ĭlapton captured the emotion of the song perfectly it's as if with each sorrowful string bend he is pouring out his heart through his guitar. Harrison wrote it as a social commentary about the abundance of hate in the world and humanity's inability to love one another. What makes this solo so poignant is the meaning behind the song. On the rare occasion when George Harrison tapped his friend Eric Clapton to play guitar on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," he surprisingly didn't want to record the track because "nobody ever plays on The Beatles' records." But after some convincing and a promise that it would sound "Beatles-y," he laid down one of the rock world's most legendary solos. Not counting session musicians, The Beatles almost never featured other artists on their records. Because you’re tuned to a chord, most notes will sound good!ġ6.Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. If you have a slide, just experiment with it in each of those areas. The other chord, F, is two frets higher again. The first chord is Bb with the open strings (or 12 frets higher) the next chord is Eb, five frets above the capo. For a more authentic sound, tune to open G (DGDGBD) and place a capo on the 3rd fret. If you’re in standard tuning, put a capo on the first fret to play along with the most famous early recording, and play a 12- bar blues in A (I is A7, IV is D7 and V is E7). His slide playing, learned from Mississippi innovator Son House, remains stunning. Almost single-handedly defining the Delta blues genre, Johnson’s Crossroad Blues helped cement modern blues vocabulary.įor a more authentic sound, tune to open G (DGDGBD) and place a capo on the 3rd fretĪlthough his version didn’t use a straightforward 12-bar pattern, it does use the classic I-IV-I-V-IV-I chord progression often found in blues songwriting.
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