My continuing effort to learn, play and record Guitar World magazine's top 100 guitar solos of all time.

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Long solo deserves a long rant, so that's just what you're going to get. There's a lot to digest here. You can read it all, or just watch the solo. I'm happy either way.


First thing first... I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that few people in this world have listened to the entirety of Maggot Brain as much as I'VE listened to the entirety of Maggot Brain in the past 2 to 3 weeks. It'll be etched in my brain until the day I die. I can't complain about that.

Second thing second...The opening minute has no solo. It's all build up and me being silly mimicking George Clinton. You can skip to the one minute mark if you like. Or not..

The Solo:

It's just so bloody long. 10 minutes. 9 of them nothing but solo. Needless to say, there was a lot to soak in and a hell of a lot to learn. Then I had to actually play the thing. At first I didn't know how to tackle this beast. How the hell am I supposed to remember it all? After initially listening to it about 100 times (mostly in the car), I set to work. I decided to break it into chunks. 4 minutes solo. 2 minute solo, then 3 minute solo. It's actually the natural feel of the piece anyway. As the original was heavily modified in post production with tons of effects by George Clinton, there was no way (that I could find) to cover all the different tonal changes and effect changes on the fly were I to do the whole thing in one take, so I broke it into 3 solos and recorded it that way, all in one late night session while everyone else slept.

Eddie Hazel:

"I want you to play as if you just found out that your mother died". These were the instructions in the studio to Eddie from head Funkadelic George Clinton. Eddie took that emotion and drowned in it for over 9 minutes. It's just a brilliant, moving and devastating solo to listen to in it's entirety. 20 years old and he put this whole thing down in ONE take. Immense talent. The drugs may have helped I suppose, haha. They would eventually kill Eddie Hazel as they killed so many others in the business.

Backing up to when Jimi Hendrix died in 1970 there was a natural inclination to crown his successor. Who would be the NEW Jimi Hendrix? There were a hell of a lot of talented players out there vying for his crown. Turns out that no one could ever replace Jimi Hendrix, but God damn if a young Eddie Hazel wasn't going to give it his best shot with this monster of a solo. I suppose one could call it a eulogy to Jimi Hendrix, the styles are so comparable. Eddie Hazel never did go on to become a world famous guitar god in his own right (though he was in 70's funk/rock circles), but he certainly left his mark with this piece. A solo that in the guitar world at least, is nearly as famous as any that Jimi put down himself. It defines the legacy of Eddie Hazel. He would never produce anything else to match it. Thus it's obvious inclusion on this list. I would personally put it much higher than 71. Top 30 perhaps.

It's not a technically difficult solo per se. It's mostly E minor pentatonic. It's just that's there's so much of it and Eddie managed to do some absolutely incredible things with those 5 simple notes. Plus, just playing the notes in this piece is hardly enough. It's feel, emotion, rising, falling, screaming, quiet, moving. Plus one's foot is hammering away on the wah pedal nearly non stop for the first 4 minutes. It's a roller coaster of a solo from start to finish. Watching my own video back after I finished it, I was surprised to find that my eyes were closed for nearly the entire piece. I guess I was feeling it.

Hope you like this one. As always, thanks for watching and following along.

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