I’m looking for some songs that are basically just someone wailing on a guitar, with little or no lyrics. Something like Hendrix or Eddie Hazel or Bluesy like Shuggie Otis.
What do you recommend?
a lot of things come to kind but here’s this.
I already had Watermelon in Easter Hay, but that’s the only Frank Zappa I found that was mellow enough.
Got more?
From Zappa maybe you’d like this one,
mellow makes me think maybe even,
This whole album is full of amazing instruments and guitar solos.
free form guitar by chicago
Prince’s solo on ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ at the tribute to George Harrison is both incredible and a masterclass in, well, class. He blows Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne completely out of the water, but doesn’t try to overshadow them while clearly having a good time playing with them, and then quietly leaves so as to not make it about himself.
Start watching at 3:20 for Dhani Harrison’s face. He’s so happy with what’s about to go down:
Peter Frampton Do you feel like we do - There are lyrics though. (from both him and his guitar)
Sweet Widow by Spin Doctors, with a bonus epic bass solo. There’s lyrics, but only for the first few of the eleven and a half minutes.
Or, for something lyrics free, how about The Werks?
The solo starting at 3:45. I like the harmony and how it has a feeling that sounds “sleezy”, perfectly portrays a dirtbag with a powerful car (in the nicest way possible), and how it escalates along with the chord progression.
John Petrucci from Dream Theater has several bangers. My current favorite is in the latter half of the song The Shadow Man Incident
The 5 second one from “sempathy for the devil”. It’s all you need.