Led Zeppelin
"Heartbreaker"
From Led Zeppelin II [1969]
I wish I could shred.
I want to be able to walk into a guitar shop, pick up an ax, whip out Jimmy Page's solo from "Heartbreaker," set it back down and walk right out of the store with everyone going, "Who the (bleep) was that guy?"
Yeah. That's the dream. Right there.
"Heartbreaker" was one of the first songs to come to mind because that solo is so distinct and its riff is so monstrous.
If you're gonna melt some faces, "Heartbreaker" is the one to do it. It's almost like two different songs, the way the chugging blues section comes to a halt about halfway through and Page puts on his speedy solo with all those hammer-ons and pull-offs.
All right. But anyone can pull stuff off through studio trickery. Let's see if Page could do it live.
Huh. Whaddya know? He sure could. Even better, actually.
Think of all the songs I could play if I could shred like that.
"Purple Haze" would definitely be high on the list, too. Truthfully, I would like to do that one like Hendrix did at Woodstock, tearing a hot, white hole in "The Star-Spangled Banner" and then segueing into "Purple Haze," but let's take this one guitar landmark at a time.
From that pendulum-swinging, tick-tock, tick-tock riff that kicks off the song and never returns to the psychedelic conclusion, "Purple Haze" is so classic that I would only even attempt to do it if I thought I could even touch it, which might never happen.
Plus, if all I'm doing is playing the riffs, that's great, but there's much more to the pure rocking power of "Purple Haze" than Hendrix's monster riffage.
Though it doesn't require massive guitar chops, "Tumbling Dice" is one of my favorite songs. If I join a band in my 30s, we're covering "Tumbling Dice." No question.
And no list of monster rock shredding would be complete without mentioning "Eruption."
Doesn't anyone who wishes they could play guitar dream of tearing it up like Eddie Van Halen on "Eruption?"
Honorable mention
· The Beatles, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" from The Beatles [1968]
· Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Purple Haze" from Are You Experienced [1967]
· Metallica, "One" from ... And Justice for All [1988]
· Radiohead, "The National Anthem" from Kid A [2000]
· The Rolling Stones, "Tumbling Dice" from Exile on Main St. [1972]
· Smashing Pumpkins, "Cherub Rock" from Siamese Dream [1993]
· The Strokes, "Take it or Leave It" from Is This It? [2001]
· Van Halen, "Eruption" from Van Halen [1978]
· The White Stripes, "Seven Nation Army" from Elephant [2003]
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