The solo, not the singer

[Paul McEnery]

So I'm listening to a Stockhausen opera, and the way he triples the singing roles with a dancer and a soloist (like a trumpet). That way he can show several sides of a character at once.

And then I'm thinking about Simply Red's Holding Back the Years, for some reason. Mostly because it's a great song from a band I've got no time for, which blows it on the final line. "That's all I've got to say. That's all I've got to say." Can you see what's wrong with this picture? Stop with the first one, on that rising note, and you leave a void and a sense of yearning which the listener would have to fill in. But if you could bear to leave that hole, fill it instead with more of the solo trumpet (it is a trumpet, isn't it? Oh God, maybe it's a sax or a guitar and I'm completely losing it.)

After all, the solo fills in for all the emotions that the singer can't put into words. Except if you've got stupid Eric Clapton showing off. (Jimi Hendrix showing off is acceptable.)

So what songs blow it with the solo? And what songs does the solo really make the song?

[Adam C]

Hm, I'll need to think of the solo blowing the song part. The closest I can think of is Dinosaur Jr.'s "We're Not Alone". And listening to it again I don't even think that fits. (Even if the solo could stand to be shortened.)

Now as for making a song, well Television is probably an obvious example, but I don't think "Guiding Light" can really work without the solo. The arrangement actually works perfectly with the guitars tracing out doo-wop chordal patterns while a piano tinkles along. Verlaine turns nice vocal about getting over an relationship couched in his usual symbolist inclinations, but it does seem rather slight and airy compared to the rest of the songs on the album. But then the solo breaks out after he intones the Guiding Light line through the piano. And with that the song explodes with a release of triumph and what sounds like religious ecstasy, Richard Lloyd riding the sustain of the guitar like Coltrane riding the sustain his breathe gives to the sax. This same solo closes the song to give it a proper coda, and the song wouldn't be anywhere half as poigniant without it.

[berk]

Too many negative examples to mention, to my taste; like most of the Hendrix-derivative stuff, with a few notable exceptions - I love Robin Trower's Hendrix-pastiches, for instance. And I still like a lot of Hendrix's own material, though nowadays mostly the quieter, more dreamy stuff, like Little Wing, Angel, much of Electric Ladyland. zlove the chord sstructures all through the background of Little Wing, for example, more than the actual solo break itself (which is still a good one, though, but a little cliched-sounding after all these years of being imitated to death).

But for the ones who get it right, to my ears - well, lots of those, too.

One technique I like is where you have a sort of dialogue between the singer and the soloist, sometimes with the instrumentalist punctuating each vocal line of a verse, as if it's musically talking back to the singer. The guitar on Van Morrison's Natalia (from Wavelength) comes to mind, I think it was Bobby Tench. And multiple instruments on Troubadors (Into the Music)- trumpet, fiddle, I think tin whistle ... two of the best things Morrison ever did, IMO, which is saying a lot. Or the same effect can be achieved with the soloist playing at the same time as the singing - a good example escapes me at the moment, though. Maybe Justin Hayward on the Moody Bluess Land of Make Believe (Seventh Sojourn).

Another thing I like is when the soloist fits in seamlessly with the whole atmosphere and musical feel of a song. Steve Howe on Yes's To Be Over is one of my favourites for this. The vocals, the playing, the melodies, everything fits together you don't really notice the different elements as separate lines unless you concentrate.

That same song reminds me - one thing I like in a traditional solo break, where the spotlight is on the soloist, is for the solo to display shifts in emotional tone and musical colour, if you know what I mean. A long solo works better if it incorporates this kind of variety, for me.

And thinkg of that album reminds me that another thing I like in longer, tradional, show-offy solos is for it to exhibit a sort of narrative structure, with a beginning, middle & end, often with a discernible climax and resolution, leading back into the song proper in an effective way. The song that made me think of htis is Soundchaser, from the same Relayer album. Another good example is Mick Ralphs's solo on Mott the Hoople's Hymn For the Dudes - although, like the Hendrix example, it sounds very cliched now, because that style of solo became the dort of thing every Rawk band was trying to do in through the 70s & 80s, and usually failing badly.

You can see I'm not bothering to try to be cool with my examples - Moody Blues? Yes? Shurely I jest! Nope, I'm dead serious. Try listening to it without thinking about the embarrasing non-musical trappings - the pretentiousness, the lame hippie mysticism, etc. The music - as pop music - still stands up.

[edit:] remembering the Mott thing more clearly, the solo doesn't really go from climax to resolution: the climax of the solo leads directly into the climax of the song proper, which is only then followed by its (the song's) resolution. Oh, and for those unfamiliar with this particular song, "Hymn For the Dudes" isn't to be confused with the better-known "All the Young Dudes".

[jesse_custer]

The newest guitar solo I've fallen in love with is featured on Modest Mouse's We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, the specific track being "Little Motel." The melody is simple enough, and as the picking becomes more whimsical and careless, surprisingly it remains just as peaceful.

[Pól Rua]

And what songs does the solo really make the song?

'Levi Stubbs Tears' by Billy Bragg. I mean, shit, it's a great song, but that trumpet solo at the end.
Holy shit.

[mattx110]

The Beatle's "For No One" trumpet solo. Plus, completely kills when you do it in an open-mic. A great way to cut into the middle of a polite pop song about what seems to be a failed marriage or some affair of the sort in a way that seems slightly hopeful.

Also, listen to Richard Thompson's "Shoot out the lights", kinda self-explanatory. Great interaction between the singing and guitar-playing. Not at all polite.

[berk]

... love the chord structures all through the background of Little Wing, for example, more than the actual solo break itself (which is still a good one, though, but a little cliched-sounding after all these years of being imitated to death). ...Listening to it again, I see everyone was kind enough not to point out to me that Hendrix isn't really playing that many chords in Little Wing, he's playing mostly individual notes all the way through.

But it reminded me of a couple other things from conventional rock guitar guys:

Jimmy Page on Led Zeppelin's Ten Yera's Gone - love the playing all through the background of that one; one of the best things Zeppelin ever did.

And Clapton on things like Bell Bottom Blues, where his playing is understated and again largely in the background where you have to listen for it to really appreciate it. I like a lot of Clapton's stuff up to and maybe including 461 Ocean Blvd. Even when he was lifting licks directly from people like Albert King, he did it with style and intelligence, e.g. Strange Brew. He's kind of like Rod Stewart, though, in that his career as a sell-out is now so much longer than the early, good period, that you naturally start to question just how good even that earlier stuff was.

[mlcm]

It's such a simple song, with simple lyrics and a simple chorus and a simple guitar solo, but "Talk" by Coldplay is so irresistible because of the solo. Somehow the solo punctuates the discord inherent in not communicating.