Video: 'Journey of the Guitar Solo' Traces 50 Years of Soloing History
It's time once again to share something fairly interesting that wound up in my inbox this morning.
This time it's a just-posted YouTube video called "Journey of the Guitar Solo."
Here's the info posted with the video:
"In this video, we focus on the electric guitar solo in its mainstream form. The electric guitar was and is still doing wild stuff across unprecedented amounts of sub-genres. The acoustic guitar has also been doing amazing things for hundreds of years, but this video focuses on what happened to electric guitar in mainstream Western music."
In the video, guitarist Mark Sidney Johnson leads the viewer through 28 songs spanning more than 50 years in a medley that takes a look at the evolving roll of the guitar solo. Despite some issues with chronological accuracy (Why does the Shadows' "Apache" from 1960 follow the Beatles' "Day Tripper" and the Stones' "Satisfaction" from 1965 and, even worse, the Who's "Pinball Wizard" from 1969? I could go on about this ...), it has its nice moments.
But Fact Man might want to brush up on his facts.
This video was posted by CDZA.
Get The Pick Newsletter
All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!
Damian is Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine. In past lives, he was GW’s managing editor and online managing editor. He's written liner notes for major-label releases, including Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'The Complete Epic Recordings Collection' (Sony Legacy) and has interviewed everyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to Kevin Bacon (with a few memorable Eric Clapton chats thrown into the mix). Damian, a former member of Brooklyn's The Gas House Gorillas, was the sole guitarist in Mister Neutron, a trio that toured the U.S. and released three albums. He now plays in two NYC-area bands.

“Who doesn't want to hear the recording of Ted Nugent and Eddie Van Halen jamming?” Ted Nugent's colossal archive includes sessions with EVH, Billy Gibbons and the Mothers of Invention
![Adrian Smith [left] and Richie Kotzen pose with an HSS S-style and Telecaster respectively.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/DqivbKgc2aXLoykDT3h5mN-840-80.jpg)
“I started on guitar because I wanted to be in a band and meet girls. Richie wanted to be a guitar player, because he wanted to play guitar”: Adrian Smith and Richie Kotzen come from different worlds, but it all comes back to the blues