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5.40am
Moderators
27 November 2016
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I was trying to find a thread about the worst Beatles guitar solos, but apparently there isn’t one!
Has anyone got any guitar solos they really hate?
I’ll start the ball rolling with Can’t Buy Me Love (Anthology).
*It should be noted that my dad despises the official Can’t Buy Me Love solo, he labeled it as his least favourite solo by any band.
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10.10am
14 December 2009
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I think guitar solos that simply replicate the vocal melody are almost completely pointless, so something like “Should’ve Known Better” is near the top. (“And I Love Her ” almost does this but modulates to a lower key, a nice touch.)
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10.13am
Moderators
15 February 2015
Offline Awwww, I like the Can’t Buy Me Love solo, it’s gloriously sloppy. (Don’t remember the Anthology one, looking it up now)
Oh my god, you’re right, it really is awful. 
I’ve never liked the solos in ‘Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby ‘ that much.
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10.40am
14 December 2009
Offline Yeah, George threw a similar Carl Perkins lick into too many 1964ish recordings, whether it fit the song style or not, it seems to me. “She’s A Woman ” in particular feels inappropriate or just lazy.
I like the CBML solo! And always wonder whether the not-quite-erased earlier take was that much worse. Might’ve been cool (and groundbreaking) to hear ’em both simultaneously mixed together…
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11.00am
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline The erased-but-still-on-the-track guitar solo can be heard thru the ‘Rockband’ isolations.
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12.45pm
Moderators
15 February 2015
Offline Von Bontee said
Yeah, George threw a similar Carl Perkins lick into too many 1964ish recordings, whether it fit the song style or not, it seems to me. “She’s A Woman ” in particular feels inappropriate or just lazy.
I actually kinda liked that one until now. Thanks a lot VB 
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1.16pm
10 August 2011
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I don’t hate or even dislike any solo.
That said, I do agree that simply repeating the melody is useless + when Harrison bends one of the notes in the “Baby’s In Black ” solo it sounds painfully flat.
Also, the solo on the album version of Let It Be is awfully boring while the one on the single is excellent! – keeping in mind that the 2 solos (the one on the single and the one on the album) were supposed to appear together. (Still waiting for someone to create that ultimate version of the song. Should be easy.)
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1.45pm
Moderators
15 February 2015
Offline Into the Sky with Diamonds said
Also, the solo on the single version of Let It Be is awfully boring
Ah, yes INDEEd. It always irritates me that it’s the single version that gets played on the radio, when the album solo is vastly superior.
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2.00pm
10 August 2011
Offline @Beatlebug Oops, made a mistake (now corrected), and now you’ll disagree with me.
The single version is the one I like – the solo is a nice melody in and of itself. The album version sounds to my ears like it was meant to be playing in the background.
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2.55pm
Moderators
15 February 2015
Offline Oh, oops. I now disagree with you. 
(Also @ewe2 if my memory serves)
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5.26pm
15 May 2015
Offline @Into the Sky with Diamonds said — “keeping in mind that the 2 solos (the one on the single and the one on the album) were supposed to appear together. “
Do you mean sequentially? Like the album solo followed immediately by the single solo (or vice versa)?
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9.34pm
10 August 2011
Offline Simultaneously – I’d love someone to put the two together to see what it would have sounded like.
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3.45am
24 March 2014
Offline Into the Sky with Diamonds said
[…]
That said, I do agree that simply repeating the melody is useless + when Harrison bends one of the notes in the “Baby’s In Black ” solo it sounds painfully flat.
[…]
I agree. I think George’s guitar sounds awful in the whole song
I quite like the “She’s A Woman ” solo, it’s also pretty fun to play.
Anyway , i’d choose “I’ll Follow The Sun ” and “All You Need Is Love ” as two of their worst solos…
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4.08am
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline Into the Sky with Diamonds said
I don’t hate or even dislike any solo.That said, I do agree that simply repeating the melody is useless + when Harrison bends one of the notes in the “Baby’s In Black ” solo it sounds painfully flat.
Also, the solo on the album version of Let It Be is awfully boring while the one on the single is excellent! – keeping in mind that the 2 solos (the one on the single and the one on the album) were supposed to appear together. (Still waiting for someone to create that ultimate version of the song. Should be easy.)
The two ‘LIB ‘ guitar solo’s have been put together in the one and same mix, it can be found on Purple Chick’s ‘Let It Be Deluxe’ collection, and no doubt a thousand other bootlegs. Might even be online.
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10 August 2011
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11.09pm
Moderators
27 November 2016
Offline ^^The album solo dominates that for me.
Another awful solo that needs to be namechecked (imo) is Roll Over Beethoven . Starts out a little wonky, then gets caught up in the same riff/idea for too long, then falls downstairs for the final few bars.
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4.05am
8 January 2015
Offline Von Bontee said
I think guitar solos that simply replicate the vocal melody are almost completely pointless, so something like “Should’ve Known Better” is near the top. (“And I Love Her ” almost does this but modulates to a lower key, a nice touch.)
If the first phrase had have been different, it would have been ok, it does rely on octave phrasing a bit much but the end sounds pretty. I don’t think the boys at that stage cared overmuch for perfection in solos and would probably have hurried George up about it. But the Perkins charge is valid: it’s one of those weird things that Harrison could have picked up a Telecaster much earlier in his career and that would have suited that style perfectly. I think there’s an irony here that George’s soloing dramatically improved once they stopped touring, and not so much that he was driving that change, but that he was being allowed to because the others wanted something different.
Beatlebug said
Oh, oops. I now disagree with you.(Also @ewe2 if my memory serves)
It’s not that I hate the album version, I was more accustomed to the single version when I first heard it, and so it was harder to appreciate the album version, which is very George. Did he play the Tele on all three versions? Also with that dual solo video, if I’m hearing it right, he’s getting the single version wrong.
But for me, the single solo is more thought-out and has that nice Leslie effect that suits the song. It’s more professional than emotive perhaps. Those contrasts are pretty interesting, that the same guy applied two very different approaches to the solo (and a third but no one likes that one), don’t you think?
Another take on it:
Or perhaps this is more definitive (but it sounds slower to me):
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