The guitar solo that Slash said is one of his favorites of all time

The Guns N’ Roses co-founder Slash is one of the last real guitar heroes of Rock and Roll music since during the past decades not many influential guitarists appeared. He was a fundamental part of the band’s sound and inspired countless generations of guitar players all over the world, not only for his work on the famous Hard Rock group, but also for the albums recorded with Velvet Revolver and as a solo act.

Over the years he talked about many musicians and bands, including revealing which are some of his favorite guitar solos of all time.

The guitar solo that Slash said is one of his favorites of all time

Slash is a big fan of bands from the 60s and 70s, especially the ones formed in the United Kingdom, where he was born. That can bee seen in an interview with Le Novel Obs (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). The musician was asked to choose some of his favorite guitar solos of all time and he mentioned solos by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Gerry Rafferty and Led Zeppelin.

“This is a tough question because there is not one solo that stands out to me as being like the essential guitar solo of all time. There is a lot of important ones. But I think, one of the solos that have probably really inspired was a song called “Blinded By The Light” by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. There was a solo in that song that was really very sort of epic in its arrangement. The way that came into the song and all that kind of shit. So yeah, that would be one that people would probably not expect,” Slash said.

Curiously, “Blinded by The Light” was actually written by Bruce Springsteen. It was released on his debut album “Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.” in 1973. Manfred Mann’s Earth Band covered the song in 1976, being featured on their album “The Roaring Silence”. Their version became a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100. At the time the band was formed by Manfred Mann (Organ, vocals, piano), Chris Hamlet Thompson (Vocals, guitar), Dave Flett (Lead guitar), Colin Pattenden (Bass) and Chris Slade (Drums).

He also loves Gerry Rafferty and Jimmy Page’s solos

The second guitar solo mentioned by the Guns N’ Roses guitarist was the one in “Baker Street”, classic song by Gerry Rafferty.

“Then another one was Gerry Rafferty in ‘Baker Street’. It was another same kind of very 70s, sort of epic solos of big song arrangement. I don’t know who those guitar players were or anything,” Slash said.

The guitarist Dave Flett was the one who played the solo in Manfred Mann’s version of “Blinded by The Light”. In “Baker Stret” the guitar solo was played by Hugh Burns, not Gerry Rafferty who played the rhythm guitar. The song was featured on Gerry’s second solo album “City to City”.

The third guitar solo mentioned by Slash was from Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love”. It is one of their most famous and influential songs which was released in 1969 on “Led Zeppelin II”.

Another one would have been, fuck it’s tough because there is so many good ones. But I would say probably the guitar solo in ‘Whole Lotta Love’ was pretty cool. One of the great things about Jimmy Page’s playing is that he played… At least on record, within the context of the song. So it really complimented the guitar as opposed to it just being a guitar solo,” Slash said.

Slash said many times that Led Zeppelin was one of the bands that influenced the most when he was kid. He even got really nervous when Jimmy Page went to see Velvet Revolver playing when they were touring in England.