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I have after much effort tried to narrow down my musical tastes to specific genres, styles, and artists, but in this case to no avail. As a kid I was never really exposed to much music and I'm only just now discovering four decades' worth of rock, a pretty big task for sure.

I have perused classic rock, hard rock, heavy metal, whatever. But no specific subgenre of rock really gives me what I'm looking for in music. Occasionally I'll stumble on a piece I love, but then looking at similar pieces by the same artist or time period or whatever don't have those elements that I like.

The best I can narrow it down is... the screeching guitar solo. The meedley-meedley-meedley-meeeeees, as Strong Bad would put it. It's not even confined to true rock, being present in a lot of pop too. So I beseech the learned and wise denizens of SD.net for assistance in locating specific songs that might appeal to my tastes. Here are examples of my favorites of what I'm looking for:

Jimi Hendrix - All Along the Watchtower
Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water
Deep Purple - Child in Time
Judas Priest - You've Got Another Thing Comin'
Black Sabbath - Iron Man
Kenny Loggins - Highway to the Danger Zone
ZZ Top - Sharp Dressed Man
Cheap Trick - Mighty Wings

Well, immediately after looking at your list I thought of Two Minutes to Midnight by Iron Maiden. It's similar to You've Got Another Thing Comin' in my opinion. Also, when I think of screeching guitar solos I think of Sweet Child O'Mine by Guns 'n Roses. I'll try to think of some more...

I was able to locate a tribute rendition of "Two Minutes to Midnight" - I like, thank you.

Brother-Captain Gaius wrote:I was able to locate a tribute rendition of "Two Minutes to Midnight" - I like, thank you.

Yeah, there are a lot of tributes. Who's it by?

It's from some compilation album of various artists. I don't think it says short of on the hardcopy itself.

Get some Pantera if you know what's good for you, Dimebag is widely regarded as one of the best soloists and guitar players in general.

Get these:

Walk
Five Minutes Alone
This Love
Cowboys From Hell
Hollow
I'm Broken
Becoming
Domination
Cemetery Gates
War Nerve
Revolution is my name

Also, get some Children of Bodom, specifically:

Downfall
Follow the Reaper
Hatebreeder
Hate Me!
Sixpounder

Rye wrote:Get some Pantera if you know what's good for you, Dimebag is widely regarded as one of the best soloists and guitar players in general.

I had heard good things about Pantera and I bought Vulgar Display of Power after Christmas. I really wasn't all that impressed, to be honest. Unmusical ramblings being yelled into a microphone to distorted noise vaguely reminiscent of a guitar just doesn't do it for me. That said, I'll try out some of your suggestions.

Brother-Captain Gaius wrote:

Rye wrote:Get some Pantera if you know what's good for you, Dimebag is widely regarded as one of the best soloists and guitar players in general.

I had heard good things about Pantera and I bought Vulgar Display of Power after Christmas. I really wasn't all that impressed, to be honest. Unmusical ramblings being yelled into a microphone to distorted noise vaguely reminiscent of a guitar just doesn't do it for me. That said, I'll try out some of your suggestions.

Well, from the sounds of it, you want a more classic sound to the guitar, for that I would advise the whole cemetery gates album, it's less heavy, full of technicality, Phil's doing his high notes rather than shouty vocals, but it's still got enough groove for me to listen to.

EDIT: Oh, you might want to check out dragonforce, too, cheesy as all fuck, but guitar soloes that can rape a donkey from 50 paces.

Jimi Hendrix - All Along the Watchtower is one, but really too many to count. The Star-Spangled Banner and Voodoo Chile are two of the best.

Beat It - Michael Jackson (but Eddie van Halen does the guitar solo)

Ozzy Osbourne (well, Randy Rhodes was the guitarist) - Bark at the Moon, Crazy Train

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Freebird

Eric Clapton - Layla

Rye wrote:Well, from the sounds of it, you want a more classic sound to the guitar, for that I would advise the whole cemetery gates album, it's less heavy, full of technicality, Phil's doing his high notes rather than shouty vocals, but it's still got enough groove for me to listen to.

EDIT: Oh, you might want to check out dragonforce, too, cheesy as all fuck, but guitar soloes that can rape a donkey from 50 paces.

I gave those that I owned a second try, and I should clarify. It's not that I really dislike it, but it's just not what I'm looking for here. Of all of them, I like "Hollow" the best, but again, not in the way of the examples I listed in the OP. Thanks for your help, regardless.

Joe wrote:Jimi Hendrix - All Along the Watchtower is one, but really too many to count. The Star-Spangled Banner and Voodoo Chile are two of the best.

Beat It - Michael Jackson (but Eddie van Halen does the guitar solo)

Ozzy Osbourne (well, Randy Rhodes was the guitarist) - Bark at the Moon, Crazy Train

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Freebird

Eric Clapton - Layla

Yeah, I'm a Hendrix nut and have just about every song of his. I like "Crazy Train" too but I find it a little... off, somehow. I think it's the nauseatingly happy key change after the intro and opening riff. I hear the unforgettable intro sequence, picturing this demonic conductor and sinister engine, then the riff starts up and I'm seeing this utterly hellish, black, spiky train hurl through scary woods... and then augh. It's almost traumatizing, now I see The Little Engine That Could of all fucking things, travelling over the horizon into the sunset... with a rainbow. For Neo.

But I do like "Layla."

I'll try to check the others out, thank you.

Few more:

Iron Maiden - The Trooper
Queensryche - I Don't Believe in Love
Queensryche - Breaking the Silence
Saxon - Crusader
Diamond Head - Am I Evil?
Van Halen - Right Now

All have great guitar solos.

I'd suggest "Somehow somewhere someway" by Kenny Wayne Sheppard for more bluesy meedly-meedly stuff, as well as pretty much anything by Steve Ray Vaughn... But most specifically "Scuttle buttin'".

While it's not perhaps a classic suggestion, but if you really love guitars, and just instruments in general, I have to suggest the soundtracks to Guilty Gear. The best choices are Guilty Gear, Guilty Gear X Heavy Rock Tracks, and Guilty Gear XX. Sure, you can get the games too, but the soundtracks are just so very sweet.

May I suggest some Slash, some Angus Young and some Jimmy Page? Try "Paradise City" and "Stairway to Heaven" for some awesome solos.

Dude! Where's Dire Straits in any of that? EVERYONE knows when "Money For Nothin'" starts playing within 1/5000th of a nanosecond of it starting. that is some rockin' shit right there!

Chardok wrote:Dude! Where's Dire Straits in any of that? EVERYONE knows when "Money For Nothin'" starts playing within 1/5000th of a nanosecond of it starting. that is some rockin' shit right there!

It has a cool riff, but, uh, it's not really what I'm looking for. Don't get wrong, I love "Ride Across the River" and Dire Straits in general, but they're a much softer rock.

Try some Joe Satriani, the "Surfing with the Alien" album's a whole CD of guitar goodness, the title track & "Circles" have the meedley-meedley-meedley-meeeeees in abundance.

Metallica's "Ride the Lightning" and "Master of Puppets" albums are also nice, if the playing seems somewhat familiar it's because the guitarist (Kirk Hammet) was Joe Satriani's student for a whle.

Or if you want to hear guitar notes played so fast that you can barely follow them, check out "Rising Force" by Yngwie Malmsteen.

For something really weird & out there, try Steve Vai's "Passion & Warfare" album.

Blind Guardian have a boatload of them. My favorite is on "Beyond the Ice" from the "Follow the Blind" album, but really that whole album rips shit up. Slayer has plenty of them, particulary on "Reign in Blood". Also, even though they are "softer" music, the last solo on Gordian Knot's "Rivers Dancing" is frickin' amazing.

Steve Vai and Beck are the two solo guitarists that come to mind for this.

Sepultura has some very distinctive guitarwork - it's a bit rough, and if you didn't really like Pantera, you might not like this either. A couple Ministry songs are in the same vein - loud and aggressive. Moving onto some more melodic stuff - the older stuff by In Flames is nice as well. Oh, before I forget, Unearth too has nice guitarwork (Two five-strings). Arch Enemy is recommended as well. If you're looking for something more pop-ish, I'd suggest looking into Prong and Clutch. Regardless of your tastes, I'd highly recommend looking into Opeth (Blackwater Park and Morningrise would be a good place to start).

LadyTevar wrote:Steve Vai and Beck are the two solo guitarists that come to mind for this.

Would that be Beck or Jeff Beck? I only have one Beck album and there's not much solo guitar on it while Jeff Beck's albums are full of guitar goodness.

aerius wrote:Try some Joe Satriani, the "Surfing with the Alien" album's a whole CD of guitar goodness, the title track & "Circles" have the meedley-meedley-meedley-meeeeees in abundance.

"Crushing Day" is my favorite track off that album. "Surfing" is great too, and always reminds me of Twisted Metal music hah.

"The Extremist" by Satriani is also pretty damn amazing too. Almost all the tracks are phenominal.

How about Brighton Rock Solo from Queen. A whole song of nothing but Brian May Solo. Probably want to go for one of the later versions since he kept extending it throughout the years.