Sometimes there are cool things being said before a guitar solo. While doing research for this list, a lot of other people in the online community had a lot of other examples. But they are not Takin’ A Ride. These are Takin’ A Ride’s Top 10 Things Said Before Or During A Guitar Solo. Certainly not anyone else’s Top 10. Nor the best. Nor is it definitive, by any means. It’s just my Top 10 for right here and now at this present time.
Thanks to my wife Amy and Ronnie from The Muffs for ideas and advice on some of these.
Click on the names of the songs to hear the “shout out”.
10. The Darkness – “I Believe In A Thing Called Love”: Yeah, it’s just “Guitar!” before the guitar solo and a lot of bands say that. But Justin Hawkins says it so clearly and with such passion, this is the one that makes this list.
9. Jimi Hendrix – “Red House”: Jimi Hendrix says things before a guitar solo on many of his songs. Any why not? He has every right to, being one of the greatest guitarists of all time. Before the solo in “Red House”, he goes “That’s alright, I still got my guitar. Look out now!” (photo: David Redfern)
8. Blondie – “Rapture”: The best part of this song is the guitar solo, and Debbie Harry builds it up beautifully with “‘Cause the man from Mars stopped eatin’ cars and eatin’ bars
And now he only eats guitars. Get up!” in the first rap song to hit the Top 40. Although not generally a fan of rap or even this song, I would still wait for this part when MTV showed it.
7. Poison – “Talk Dirty To Me”: CC Deville actually is on this list twice. Don’t blame me! This list is subjective and can change at any time. But Bret Michaels saying “CC pick up that guitar and talk to me” in this song is a good one and that’s why it’s on the list!
6. The Clash – “Complete Control”: Saying what I’m thinking any time I hear a good guitar solo: “You’re my guitar hero!”
5. The Muffs – “Silly People”: I always thought this was a very odd pairing, but it works! This is the other CC Deville appearance on this Top 10 list. Yeah, it’s a demo, from a band he was just guesting on, but he played it and Kim screams “Hit it, CC!” loud and clear, so it makes the list at #5.
4. Motorhead – “Metropolis”: From a live performance. It counts. It happened and things were said before the guitar solo. Actually this could have three places on this list. There are three guitar solos and Lemmy says something before each one. “Fuck you!”, “Come On!”, and then another “Fuck You!” before the final solo.
3. Chixdiggit – “I Wanna Hump You”: The funnest band to ever exist. You can literally pick any song from them because it’s mandatory they say “Let’s Rock!” before every solo. And almost every song has a solo. Here it is before “I Wanna Hump You”.
2. AC/DC: “Live Wire”: Angus Young always has the best guitar solos. Always. And Bon Scott would usually have something to say before them. This is my favorite thing he says before the guitar break: “Holy smoke and sweet desire!” and then before the solo he goes “Stick this in your fuse box!”
#1 The Humpers: “Run Run Rudolph”: Guitar solos are a way to show off. And if you got it, you got it. The Humpers’ version of this Chuck Berry classic shows they got it! And they know it, especially when Scott “Deluxe” Drake says “Check this shit out!” before a smokin’ solo. We hear this song many times every Christmas and this year, I got the idea to do this list after hearing this version of song for the 100th time. So this is #1!
HONORABLE MENTION:
Leave a Reply