Music snobs love to gatekeep, but the best guitar solos aren’t always the ones everyone knows. The 1970s served up a buffet of underrated gems—those B-sides of shred that deserve a second listen, or maybe your first. These guitar moments make musicians go, “Damn, why didn’t I think of that?” where chops meet feel and personality explodes. This isn’t just about technical wizardry; it’s about those solos that make you feel something. Dig into the full list, and prepare to drop these tracks at your next music trivia night.
7. Have Mercy on the Criminal
Some deep-cut Elton John tracks remain buried treasure.
“Have Mercy on the Criminal,” from Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only the Piano Player, simmers with dark outlaw energy. Davey Johnstone adds a rare electric edge, proving that even piano men need a little guitar grit now and then. The melodic solo brings tension and drama, an unexpected but totally gripping surprise like finding a Tarantino flick in a rom-com marathon.
Picture rediscovering this solo on a late-night drive, the rain mirroring the song’s somber mood. Johnstone’s guitar weeps and wails, twisting a melodic arc that makes you pull over, the intensity washing over you. It matches the song’s dark outlaw energy, and this isn’t background music; it’s a reminder that legends often hide in the shadows, waiting for someone to crank up the volume.
6. Kid Charlemagne
Steely Dan’s jazz-fusion precision meets rock swagger in a perfectly calculated assault.
“Kid Charlemagne” feels like it was composed by a calculator with soul. Larry Carlton’s solo, slick and complex, demonstrates that jazz chops can be deadly in the right hands. Rolling Stone has frequently praised the solo as “arguably a song unto itself,” and that’s not just hype. This isn’t shredding—it’s seduction.
Initially skeptical listeners find themselves won over. Picture yourself stuck in traffic, flipping stations, when this solo sneaks up on you. At first, it’s just background noise, but before you know it, you’re picking apart every note. Some tracks just hook you, while others keep you guessing; this one does both.
5. 25 or 6 to 4
Chicago’s horn section gets a rock-and-roll kick in the teeth courtesy of Terry Kath’s fury.
Chicago’s “25 or 6 to 4” bursts in like someone kicked down the studio door, proving horns and raw rock edge can share a sandbox. Terry Kath rips on this track, with his guitar solo giving the song its distinctive, almost dangerous, energy. It’s less about showing off chops and more about injecting adrenaline straight into the band’s polished sound. This was Chicago’s first song to reach the top 5 in the US, climbing to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The solo punches you in the face with its intensity, a reminder that music can still surprise you—like finding out your grandma has a secret tattoo. “25 or 6 to 4” isn’t just a song; it’s a sonic Molotov cocktail disguised as a radio hit.
4. Lazy
Richie Blackmore and Jon Lord engage in a blues-rock duel that would make gunslingers jealous.
“Lazy” kicks off with a Hammond organ groove that’s as irresistible as free pizza at a dive bar. Richie Blackmore gets to stretch, unleashing a solo full of bluesy swagger and surgical speed, like Hendrix if he’d gone to medical school. The magic happens when Blackmore trades licks with Jon Lord, a precision-guided storm of blues rock fireworks.
Think of that moment when a mundane spreadsheet day suddenly transforms into something electric. It’s the kind of song that turns even the laziest afternoon into a blues-infused joyride. And just like that, even the most boring day gets a whole lot louder.
3. Cortez the Killer
Neil Young wields his guitar like a painter uses shadow—sparse, deliberate, devastating.
Neil Young is a master of mood, and “Cortez the Killer” proves it. The solo stretches out like the horizon, slow, sparse, and ringing with melancholy. It wields distortion like a poet uses silence, each note moving like distant thunder.
Picture yourself driving alone on a rainy night, city lights blurring in the distance. The solo comes on, and suddenly the whole world feels like a black-and-white movie. “Cortez the Killer” doesn’t just play notes, it paints them, creating a sonic landscape that’s as haunting as it is beautiful.
2. Maggot Brain
Eddie Hazel’s 10-minute emotional breakdown translated into the language of fuzz and feedback.
“Play like you just found out your mama died,” George Clinton reportedly told Eddie Hazel before laying down this track, and the result sounds like a guitar having an existential crisis. Hazel’s 10-minute solo isn’t just notes; it’s a haunting, emotional journey through grief in sound.
While it might not shred with laser-beam precision, “Maggot Brain” unloads raw emotion. Anyone who’s ever felt like their heart’s been run through a fuzz pedal knows exactly what’s happening here. Think of it as sonic therapy—ugly-cry version—but in a beautiful way. The solo’s true value is its ability to translate human sorrow into something you can feel in your bones.
1. We’ll Burn the Sky
Uli Jon Roth trades empty pyrotechnics for something that might actually melt your heart.
Guitar speed freaks can take a hike; Uli Jon Roth’s solo in “We’ll Burn the Sky” trades fireworks for feeling. Forget shredding—this is painting sound with heartache, each note a slow burn that builds through aching vibrato over long, sustained notes.
Picture this: stressed coder, headphones on, trying to debug 1,000 lines of spaghetti code. Then Roth’s solo comes on, with this understated beauty, and suddenly those syntax errors don’t seem so bad. Forget those pop songs that sound like a sugar rush; this is the guitar solo equivalent of a single-malt scotch, sipped slow.
