What ever happened to guitar solos? Not that I’m really a big rock fan anymore, but strange when you think such a staple of 60s-80s music could basically become passé and disappear.
Listening to the guitar solo in Stairway to Heaven at the moment (Led Zep getting me through a day of organizing my office). I’ve always thought it’s one of the greatest of all time, not because it’s perfect but because it’s got such a raw, yearning humanism to it. Like you’re not even sure Page is going to make it through, but he does. Almost brings a tear to your eye. Even the standard speed-riff flourish at the end is charmingly scrappy and uplifting compared to, say, the effortless acrobatics of Free Bird (if we’re sticking to the period).