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Music: Great One-Note Guitar Solos

Sure, everybody loves a guitar show-off, melting picks and blistering fingers as they break barriers of time and space to send billion-note hyperspeed solos out into the cosmos like a rock Big Bang. But for those of us who came of musical age under the fuzzy blanket of shoegaze, the anti-rockist banners of punk, or the tripped-out tie-dye of psychedelia, Yngwie Malmsteen-style pyrotechnics not only seem excessive, they also kind of hurt our ears. So, let's take time to celebrate guitarists at the other end of the spectrum, musicians who have found that a single note, played at just the right moment, can stand up to the most complicated finger gymnastics. Now, sure, you may ask, "if it's just one note, how can you tell if it's a solo and not just, well, a note?" There were two basic criteria: one, the position of the solo at a climactic moment in the song, generally just after the second chorus (disqualifying "You Keep Me Hangin' On"); and two, when the solo is finished, you feel like standing up and cheering, or at least you would if you weren't so cool.

U2 – "Love is Blindness" (solo at 2:17)
Okay, maybe this one doesn't quite satisfy the second rule, but since this devastatingly bleak number from Achtung Baby is about as far from a "picker-upper" as you could get, I'll let it slide. While The Edge has been known for his straightforward guitar work, this may be his most minimal statement: a single scraping tone, played exactly twice.

The Who – "I Can See For Miles" (solo at 2:21)
Psychedelic freak-out jams, you rule. You've got enough kooky chords and nutty vocal harmonies going on that the craziest thing that a guitarist could do would be to just play one note over and over really really fast.

The Pixies – "Bone Machine" (solo at 2:37)
This also is a bit of a stretch: Joey Santiago is playing a weird chord here, not just one note, but considering it's the same chord for at least four or five measures, I think it qualifies. In this live version he seems to go a little wild, adding one or possibly two notes to the solo, but still, you get the idea.

Ramones – "I Wanna Be Sedated" (solo at 0:54)
Funny, if you "can't control your fingers," you'd think you would play more than one note, although maybe you're just gearing up for the key change. Either way, this is about as pure of a single tone as you can get out of a guitar.

Neil Young – "Cinnamon Girl" (solo at 2:54)
The acknowledged king of the one-note solo, "Cinnamon Girl" somehow managed to enter the Great Solo Canon (landing at #20 on a Rolling Stone list of "coolest" solos) while also being a complete nose-thumb to the very idea of a guitar solo. But what a spectacular moment in a great song: "your baby loves to dance," Young sings, and then the single guitar note propels you into ecstasy without overwhelming the driving rhythm—how could anyone help but dance?

Okay, guitar nerds: any one-note solos I missed? I spent some time sifting through my collections of Dandy Warhols and Oasis records but it seems like they always manged to throw in a second or third note. On the other hand, maybe there are brilliantly complicated solos that don't burst your eardrums. Weigh in, Riffers, if you're out there.

Comments

My favorite one-note solo is in the Melvins' "If I Had An Exorcism" off the 'Bullhead' album. King Buzzo starts hitting eighth notes about 1:20 in and stays in that rhythm and note for the rest of the song.

Posted by: Clambeard on 05/24/08 at 10:37 AM Respond

The one "silver lining" to the HIGH GAS PRICES, is that since I've changed my driving habit of being a lead footed speed demon aging hippie Grandma, to being an easy ridin' "YES I CAN!" drive 55 mph's, cruising aging hippie Grandma, listening to MUSIC in my CAR is really a TRIP again! Which really SAVES GAS!!!

I turn my RADIO DIAL to the Channels which play the classic slow ballads & psychedelic rock operas from the late 60's, & actually ENJOY the DRIVE 100% more!

Well, maybe not 100% more: too bad we Baby Boomers can't relive those days when "WOODSTOCK" meant not a proposed MUSEUM, which old GROUCHY gramps JOHN McCAIN ridiculed the idea of, by the way, WHAT A TOTAL JERK!!

Remember back when the music used to GLOW and Vibrate inside our Brains & bodies in really new & interesting ways? Well, we can at least listen to the MUSIC & bring back those good memories!

Too bad all the drunked up stupid-ass Neanderthal college "jockstraps", like George Dubya BUSH & DICK Cheney, didn't just keep on DRINKING their damn BEER & Whiskey, just STAY Alcoholic LOSERS, & leave AMERICA the HELL Alone!

But Noooo, dumb Dubya Bush had to become a "DRY DRUNK" brain damaged megalomaniacal headcase, who wanted to become PRESIDENT of a NEW AMERIKA!

John McCain doesn't want a Museum about WOODSTOCK to be built, it would have those damn PEACE signs, & hippies. McCain actually LIKES Bush's fascist "Amerikan" Way!

God forbid we might elect an intelligent President who cares about creating a climate of PEACE, not WAR, like BARACK OBAMA, who has had, by the way, really decent MUSIC during his Presidential Campaign!

Pink Floyd, The Who, The Grateful Dead, Jethro Tull, their music is still just as awesome to listen to, as the day I first heard them, & it's so cool to see a NEW Generation discover their music. I see a 20-something wearing a T-Shirt with the Graphic Image from "Dark Side of the Moon" & think, yeah, how cool is that?

TODAY's young Musicians I find just as cool, true Artists like "Gnarls Barkley" group, Green Day, etc., fascinating to watch their Music EVOLVE.

So--DRIVE SLOW, listen to the Music & save GAS; better yet, if you're an aging hippie like me, re-create a version of your old hangout from your College years; park your ass down, & DON"T DRIVE AT ALL, anywhere, unless you have to, like for Work, UNTIL we get BOZO out of the White House & bring our TROOPS Home from IRAQ!!

Then we can drive a stake through the damn fascist right-wing's "Culture War" vampire & the OIL Barons Oligarchy, that have been draining our Nation of it's very LIFE BLOOD & very SOUL, for decades!

If we DON'T, guess who will control & decide WHAT MUSIC we are "allowed" to listen to, when we get too old or too sick to live at home?

I sure don't want to be stuck in a Nursing Home, forced to listen to the likes of Toby Keith or mediocre American Idol contest winners, or Rev. PAT HAGEE's Gospel Music Choir!!

Posted by: Atomic War Baby on 05/26/08 at 12:35 AM Respond

In a rare Yardbirds track, a b-side called The Nazz Are Blue, Jeff Beck demonstrates that he was the first guitarist to hold a single note on a solid body guitar until he stopped it. He sustains a D for 10 bars.
He was using experimental fuzz-boxes by the guy who started Electro-Harmonix, I believe.

Posted by: jimdowning on 05/27/08 at 9:26 AM Respond

What about the subject at hand? Are you on the right page?

Posted by: Jim Downing on 05/28/08 at 7:06 AM Respond