David Gilmour has the Kwan

It’s easy to find countdowns to the best guitar solos ever. And it’s often the same guitar heroes you see and hear on these lists. Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Page, Jimmy Hendrix, Slash, Kirk Hammet, Yngwie Malmsteen, Eric Clapton, Brian May, Tom Morello and many others (this list is by far exhausted).

But we seldom hear why this solo is so fantastic, that it deserves a place in the great hall of fame. I’ll try to tell you in words why I value one solo above any other. I hope that you will challenge me in the comments.

What is a great guitar solo?

It’s never easy to define what makes craftsmanship so great that it could be determined as art. These days art is a term that are used way too lightly, and just about every bohemian freak on Myspace calls himself an artist. But I think Aristotle said it best:

All art is concerned with coming into being

Aristotle also said that:

Art completes what nature cannot bring to finish. The artist gives us knowledge of nature’s unrealized ends.

These two quotes gives me a way to grasp art from a ancient Greek philosophers point of view. The only thing I’m lacking is the love. We have a becoming from the first quote, and a fulfilling a potential in the second. I’m just missing the feelings of art, or the feeling that it awakes in me.

Well enough theory, let’s get practical.

Comfortably numb is the best guitar solo ever!

Why this bold statement one could ask? The answer is simple. Because the solo makes me feel like no other guitar solo can.

Every time I hear David Gilmour play this piece of great craftsmanship, I feel humble, baffled, sad and just about any feeling you can think of. It can still bring tears to my eyes even though I’ve heard it more times than I can think of. I’m especially fond of the version from the Pink Floyd live album Pulse.

I don’t think this solo is as difficult as some of the stuff you could hear Al Di Meola, Paco De Lucia or other great jazz guitarist do. neither is is probably harder than some of the solos, that the guys I mentioned in the beginning of this articles has done. But it has the Kwan (to quote Rod Tidwell in Jerry Maguire).

See and hear if you can disagree (the solo start around 4:45 into the video, but don’t fast forward please!):

So let me know what is your favourite guitar solo? And more importantly WHY?