Favourite Guitar Solo? | Page 3 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

I have a book “Complete Beatles guitar music”.  It is about twenty years old now so hopefully this has been fixed in the more recent editions but in the introduction it singles out the While my guitar solo as an illustrating what a great guitarist george was.  I remember the 1978 Rolling Stone also singled the solo out for praise.

How ironic that George would play lead guitar on nearly every Beatles record and yet would be so remembered for a solo that he never played!

Having said that, Eric’s playing is terrific on While My Guitar.

I agree with the OP that the solo for Something stands out.  It is so lyrical.  A lot of guitarists are just noisy but George can play very delicately without sacrificing any intensity and never more so than on Something .  

I also think that the backwards guitar solo on I’m Only Sleeping stands out – really innovative and works really well – sounds as if the notes are being sucked out of the guitar.  Wow.

Also love the guitar on And Your Bird Can Sing .  Was this John?  Not sure.

John is underrated as a guitarist.  I never realised until seeing the rooftop concert on Youtube recently that he played the lead on Get Back .

I also never knew until recently that he played the jazzy solo on Honey Pie which surprised me.  To be honest I’m amazed John agreed to play on it at all because Honey Pie is the epitome of what John always described as “Paul’s granny s**t”.

The guitar playing on Yer Blues is interesting.  First you have John inventing minimalistic guitar playing with a 2 note solo(!) and then you have George come in with a bizarre guitar tone which makes this into a kind of psychedelic blues record.

When John played Yer Blues on the Rock n’ Roll Circus, Clapton played outstanding lead guitar, but then the blues is Eric’s forte.

I believe John suggested getting Clapton to join the Beatles after George walked out.  I’m glad this never happened.  Although Eric’s contribution to While My Guitar was splendid and worked on that particular track, I wouldn’t have liked to see the Beatles become like a Cream or Jimi Hendrix Experience with extended 20 minute guitar solos etc.  It would have got in the way.  George was the perfect sideman who concentrated on enhancing the song in an unobtrusive manner rather than massaging his ego with big solos.