Songs with no guitars EXCEPT for a guitar solo

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So I heard "Send Me an Angel" by 80's synth-pop aussies Real Life. It struck me that the song has no guitar parts in it. Then out of nowhere comes this guitar solo. That bothers me for some reason I can't quite put my finger on. What other songs have no guitars, except for guiar solos? Does this irk anyone else?

― bsj30, Thursday, 22 September 2005 13:28 (twenty years ago)

interracial dating by l'homme run

― craptain crunch, Thursday, 22 September 2005 13:35 (twenty years ago)

not 100% sure but I think "jump" by van halen fits...

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Thursday, 22 September 2005 13:39 (twenty years ago)

oh no, wait, i've just remembered there are other gutiar parts in there... just not the main riff !

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Thursday, 22 September 2005 13:40 (twenty years ago)

maybe a Cars tune or two?

― Old School (sexyDancer), Thursday, 22 September 2005 13:49 (twenty years ago)

That bothers me for some reason I can't quite put my finger on.

Lie down on the couch and let's talk about it. Do you yourself play guitar? If yes, what's bothering you may be the image of the song being performed live - with the guitarist standing motionless for two thirds of it, then suddenly breaking out into an enthusiastic solo, only to finish it with an awesome bend and... patiently wait for the rest of the song to end.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Thursday, 22 September 2005 13:51 (twenty years ago)

I've done this.

But only because I was recording on a 4-track and I didn't have the space to record a guitar through the whole thing, and punched a guitar solo in where there were no vocals.

It's an interesting idea. I mean, no one complains when there's a sax solo "but there's no sax on the rest of the song!"

― The Brocade Fire (kate), Thursday, 22 September 2005 13:52 (twenty years ago)

Van Halen's "Jump" comes to mind. It's not a literal fit, but it has to be the most classic "Guitar" song to feature so little guitar.

― Maxwell von Bismarck (maxwell von bismarck), Thursday, 22 September 2005 13:52 (twenty years ago)

I think that guitarist might be playing the keyboard or something like that before and after the solo... or just be backstage, get in for the solo and then leave back. that'd be kinda cool...

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Thursday, 22 September 2005 13:53 (twenty years ago)

about "jump", yeah that's always kinda struck me how "guitar anthemic" it is while it's actually a monster synth song !

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Thursday, 22 September 2005 13:56 (twenty years ago)

Kate, I complain every time there's a sax solo :)

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Thursday, 22 September 2005 13:56 (twenty years ago)

Aren't lots of New Order songs like this? Although Bernard's strumming solos aren't quite the anthemic solos you probably have in mind.

― mrjosh (mrjosh), Thursday, 22 September 2005 14:00 (twenty years ago)

do sax solos even exist anymore !? i often wonder what happened to all these guys who played sax solos in the 80's !

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Thursday, 22 September 2005 14:00 (twenty years ago)

There must be a Prince song that does this.

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 22 September 2005 14:03 (twenty years ago)

i often wonder what happened to all these guys who played sax solos in the 80's !

A lot of them were temporarily slumming jazz guys, so they went back to their normal jazz repertoire.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Thursday, 22 September 2005 14:07 (twenty years ago)

A lot of them were temporarily slumming jazz guys, so they went back to their normal jazz repertoire.

hum... and they must tell the new sax players about that golden age that the 80's were... (well, even presidents of the US don't play sax anymore).

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Thursday, 22 September 2005 14:28 (twenty years ago)

OK, what about all those post-rock CELLO SOLOS during the 90s? What happened to them? Did they stop slumming and go back to the Montreal Symphony Orchestra or something? ;-)

― The Brocade Fire (kate), Thursday, 22 September 2005 14:31 (twenty years ago)

"Life's What You Make It" by Talk Talk, I'm pretty sure.

― owen moorhead (i heart daniel miller), Thursday, 22 September 2005 14:41 (twenty years ago)

isn't purple rain or sign o the times one of the prince songs that do this?

― simon 803 (simon 803), Thursday, 22 September 2005 14:48 (twenty years ago)

Talk Talk - "After the Flood", if I'm not mistaken. I don't think there's any guitar at all aside from that brilliant one-note squall that sounds like a violent orgy of Muscovy ducks fucking in a pond.

― Ian Riese-Moraine: Let this bastard out, and you'll get whiplash! (Eastern Mantr, Thursday, 22 September 2005 14:56 (twenty years ago)

xpost: Purple Rain starts off with guitar alone

― Old School (sexyDancer), Thursday, 22 September 2005 14:59 (twenty years ago)

OK, what about all those post-rock CELLO SOLOS during the 90s? What happened to them? Did they stop slumming and go back to the Montreal Symphony Orchestra or something? ;-)

The answer to that is that ALL rock cello work in the 1990s was done by Jane Scarpantoni.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Thursday, 22 September 2005 15:14 (twenty years ago)

Laibach's "Leben heisst Leben", perhaps?

― OleM (OleM), Thursday, 22 September 2005 15:46 (twenty years ago)

DEVO - "It's A Beautiful World"

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 22 September 2005 15:47 (twenty years ago)

There's a Matmos song but fuck if I know the title.

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 22 September 2005 15:48 (twenty years ago)

I was going to say "10:15 Saturday Night" by the Cure....until I realized that said song has limply strummed guitars all over it. My bad.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 22 September 2005 15:51 (twenty years ago)

James Ingram, "I Don't Have the Heart," I think. The gtr solo sounded really out of place, which is what called it to mind here.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Thursday, 22 September 2005 15:57 (twenty years ago)

happens all the time in MOR pop songs - the ultimate example being "Goodbye To Love" by The Carpenters (one of the greatest records ever)

does it irk? not at all

― zebedee (zebedee), Thursday, 22 September 2005 16:04 (twenty years ago)

digital love?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 22 September 2005 16:10 (twenty years ago)

Postal Service "Such Great Heights"

― Jeremy (Jeremy), Thursday, 22 September 2005 16:13 (twenty years ago)

I've done it too ("The Minus 5" on Stars Forever comes to mind). I think it only irks people who insist on a fixed link between arrangement and band personnel. In fact, it might even represent a "fear of arrangement" in which song parts are considered to fall into place "naturally" thanks to the (usually four) members of the band "feeling it" and "doing their thing" rather than an arranger consciously choosing tone and line, colour and shape according to artistic and emotional criteria. It's the "employment school of arrangement"; let's listen to "men at work".

― Momus (Momus), Thursday, 22 September 2005 16:17 (twenty years ago)

digital love has many guitar parts i believe, yes ?

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Thursday, 22 September 2005 16:21 (twenty years ago)

actually, XTC comes to mind, particularly late-period XTC, but not sure which song(s)

― Dominique (dleone), Thursday, 22 September 2005 16:21 (twenty years ago)

there must also be a beck song like this.

― AaronK (AaronK), Thursday, 22 September 2005 16:30 (twenty years ago)

Maggot Brain by Funkadelic?

― Edward III (edward iii), Thursday, 22 September 2005 16:36 (twenty years ago)

The Ass Rimmers song call "Clamp your lips on my A-Hole"

― Johnny Walker, Thursday, 22 September 2005 16:46 (twenty years ago)

actually, XTC comes to mind, particularly late-period XTC, but not sure which song(s)

I think one of them might be Wonderland; it's entirely synth save for a guitar solo-ish part in the middle.

― D.V. Caputo, Thursday, 22 September 2005 22:52 (twenty years ago)

Momus: "Love on Ice" true or false?

― OleM (OleM), Thursday, 22 September 2005 22:59 (twenty years ago)

Dead or Alive remixes to thread

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Friday, 23 September 2005 00:59 (twenty years ago)

my immediate thought is chicks on speed "we don't play guitars" but it's probably not the case

― jimmy glass (electricsound), Friday, 23 September 2005 01:13 (twenty years ago)

Stevie Wonder, "Maybe Your Baby" (Soloist: Ray Parker Jr.)
The Residents, "Electrocutioner" (Soloist: Snakefinger)
Queen, "We Will Rock You"

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Friday, 23 September 2005 03:20 (twenty years ago)

When Doves Cry by Prince only has the guitar solo at the beginning, then no more guitar at all, if I remember right...

― Neil Stewart (Neil Stewart), Friday, 23 September 2005 08:10 (twenty years ago)

...and no bass either (though there's a bit more guitar towards the end).

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 23 September 2005 08:12 (twenty years ago)

God, I hate agreeing with Momus. But this is true - when you are working as a solo musician or composer, there's much more emphasis on "what would be an interesting textural break here?" rather than "oh yeah, this is the bit where the guitarist always has to have their wank". One day I didn't feel like playing a guitar solo at all, and composed an 8 second symphony to fill the interlude where there were no lyrics.

I think it's noticed more with guitars, because it's rather more compulsory to have ELECTRIC GUITAR on every song within rock (and even pop) music. I mean, what about songs where there's suddenly an acoustic guitar solo when the rest of the song is electric ("I'm Almost With You" by The Church springs to mind)?

― The Brocade Fire (kate), Friday, 23 September 2005 08:15 (twenty years ago)

LA Woman by The Doors? Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd?

― Neil Stewart (Neil Stewart), Friday, 23 September 2005 08:19 (twenty years ago)

Now you're just being silly. Some Eno perhaps? I would say "St. Elmo's Fire" but that's got guitars most of the way thru it.

― Raymond Douglas Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 23 September 2005 08:29 (twenty years ago)

Kraftwerk - Autobahn!!!!!!!!!!!

― Raymond Douglas Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 23 September 2005 08:37 (twenty years ago)

Uuuhh... My own "Change The World" to thread :)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 23 September 2005 10:16 (twenty years ago)

happens all the time in MOR pop songs - the ultimate example being "Goodbye To Love" by The Carpenters (one of the greatest records ever)

OTMFMx1000

― Banana Nutrament (ghostface), Friday, 23 September 2005 10:22 (twenty years ago)

Agreed but I very much doubt there's NO guitar on the rest of "Goodbye to Love"

― Raymond Douglas Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 23 September 2005 10:23 (twenty years ago)

Portishead 'Glorybox' for sure !

― runaway sample (idle hands), Friday, 23 September 2005 10:26 (twenty years ago)

Does "Eruption" by Van Halen count? I mean, the entire song is a guitar solo. :)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 23 September 2005 10:27 (twenty years ago)

Van Halen had a song on the radio (that was not Jump) about a month ago that totally fit this bill and I said to my gf, "notice there is no guitar in this mighty Van Halen song."

― Unchained, Friday, 23 September 2005 10:39 (twenty years ago)

... such words of courtly romance would woo any a fair lady

― Raymond Douglas Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 23 September 2005 10:40 (twenty years ago)

I wooed her so well 7 years ago, that this was just more icing on the cake.

― Unchained, Friday, 23 September 2005 10:52 (twenty years ago)

"Alone Again Naturally," I think.

(That's not a comment on the above post; it's the song title. Acoustic guitar solo.)

― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Friday, 23 September 2005 13:34 (twenty years ago)

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