Self Care – Great Guitar Solos: Styx and James Young Play Renegade Live in 1996

Admittedly, I don’t like a lot of Styx (just personal preference in this case… nothing against ’em, and they are talented), but there are two Styx songs I love: Come Sail Away and…

Renegade

This one is live in 1996 at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. For something that I’m guess is supposed to be an official release, this isn’t the greatest quality (some unofficially released Led Zeppelin pro-shot videos have better quality, and those were recorded in the 70s). However, it’s pretty darn good.

I was trying to find video of Styx playing it live in 1978 or 1979, but that’s okay. This works rather nicely…

The first guitar solo starts at 2:51 and ends at 3:47. The second solo starts at 4:21 and ends at 5:31. The third, and final, solo follows up a rather cheesy lyrical call-and-response section and a shout-out to “I Shot the Sheriff”. It starts at 6:56 and ends at 7:13.

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Self Care – Nick and the Grooves Play Don’t Talk

Nick Edelstein is actually a family friend, and one of my all-time favorite guitarists. I even got to play with him at a number of shows. The following song is one of my absolute favorites by him. It also, incidentally, features drums written and played by my brother Aaron.

The guitar solo is one of those that builds… it starts slow and easy, and becomes stronger and stronger until it shreds. It starts at 4:00 and ends at 5:59. It’s so damn good…

Self Care – Great Guitar Solos: Dire Straits Play Sultans of Swing Live

Man I’m doing great keeping up with series, aren’t I? *sigh*

Sorry. This was supposed to go up yesterday at 12, and the dog was supposed to go up on Thursday… all well. I’ll put this up, now, despite there already being a Self Care post today…

Anyways…

This is Dire Straits playing Sultans of Swing live, and jamming it out. I rather enjoy it. A couple amazing guitar solos from Mark Knopfler, too. The first one starts at 3:23 and ends at 4:06. The second one starts at 4:50 and ends with the end of the video at 10:46.

Enjoy!

Self Care – Great Guitar Solos: Sister Rosetta Tharpe Plays “Didn’t it Rain”

Far too many people credit Elvis Presley with “inventing” Rock n’ Roll. Now, we can talk about the merits of his music (I’m not a fan, personally), but if you still think this is true, then you really don’t know Rock n’ Roll, and you perhaps need a course in how, just like with everything, white people stole music from black people.

But it’s not that simple, see, because people who think they do know will then point to Chuck Berry. I mean… better, but you still need to make your way back. You see, it actually wasn’t a man who invented Rock n’ Roll at all. Because before Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Elvis, there was…

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

As far as I and many others are concerned, the moment the Blues transformed into Rock was the moment this woman, a gospel singer, picked up the guitar.

Never heard of Sister Rosetta Tharpe?

Well… let me (and the Daily Beast) introduce you…

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My Recordings! Two Songs I Covered and One I Wrote in 2006

I entirely forgot about these.

This is really fascinating. Turns out I do have three songs recorded. Two are covers, and one is an unfinished original. I’m trying to remember the context. I know I recorded them back in 2006 (holy shit… I wasn’t even 21, yet!), but that’s about it.

The last one, the original, is what fascinates me the most. I managed to find two different versions of lyrics I wrote for it, neither I identify with now (and will not be sharing, because they’re both terrible). But I’ll get more into that with the track.

I’ve been asked in the past when people were gonna hear me sing and play guitar. Well… here you go. They’re from 2006, so it’s been a long time since I put these down, but this is what I actually have recorded…

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Self Care – Pink Floyd Plays Money Live on P*U*L*S*E*

We’re visiting P*U*L*S*E* again. This whole show is actually a really great source of amazing guitar solos.

Because David Gilmour.

Obviously.

This one is the song “Money”. I’m giving you two videos, here, because the solos on the DVD are different from the solos on the CD. So you’re getting both…

What’s really cool about the song “Money” live is that they break down the middle section. Instead of just the three solos as in the studio song, they jam it out, giving everyone a chance to shine.

On this first video, which is actually video (so there’s something to watch), the first and second solos start after an epic saxophone solo at 3:07 and end at 4:35. After a break down, which does include Gilmour noodling around on his guitar, the third solo is actually played by Tim Renwick, starting at 6:05 and ending at 6:40. Gilmour then comes in with the fourth solo, which starts at 6:44 and ends at 7:22…

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Self Care – Great Guitar Solos: Led Zeppelin Plays Since I’ve Been Loving You

Jimmy Page again! This solo is yet another amazing one from Page. Powerful and emotional, it definitely soars.

Of course, I’m talking about the second solo. There are actually two, here, the first one opening the song. And that one is really good, as well, setting the tone of the song quite nicely.

The first solo starts right at the beginning and ends at 1:12. Page continues to play lead licks underneath Plant’s singing, so the lead playing continues. But the second, and main, solo starts at 3:37 and ends at 4:52.

Enjoy!

Self Care – Animals As Leaders Play CAFO

As I mentioned when I shared some Orianthi, I’m not anti-shredding. When it works, it works incredibly well. And this is yet another example of it working extremely well…

Tosin Abasi is absolutely incredible. His playing is definitely powerful, and he does something some of those shredders I don’t like don’t do… he injects quite a bit of emotion into his near-perfect playing. He’s not afraid of effects or space, and it shows.

I’m not going to put a time stamp on the guitar solo, because this song is an instrumental. So it’s the whole song.

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Great Guitar Solos – Steven Wilson and Guthrie Govan Play Porcupine Tree’s “Radioactive Toy”

(You probably noticed how this is not part of the Self Care series. There’s a reason for that…)

Remember back on February 24th, when I posted about how Agent Orange wants to expand the US’s nuclear arsenal? Well, now you know where the “radioactive toys” in the title comes from…

It reminded me of this song. Written by Steven Wilson, and originally recorded and performed by his band Porcupine Tree, this is a song that is, basically, about a nuclear holocaust. Here, it’s Steven Wilson’s solo band that performs it. It’s dark, but very much apropos…

Perhaps it needs to serve as a warning…

And, as it happens, it also has an incredible guitar solo…

There’s a short solo played by Steven Wilson himself that starts at 2:45 and ends at 3:10. But the solo that I really want to highlight is played by Guthrie Govan. It starts at 10:08 and ends with the end of the song.

Enjoy, and don’t let it get you too down or scared…