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I put together a list of my some of my top guitar lick tunes. What the heck, it’s been a while since I blogged on music.

Here’s the rules-

1) Has to have a great guitar thing going- lead or riff, something I’d like play and that a guitar player would appreicate

2) A band or artist can only have one entry on the list.

 

25 songs.

So here you go, Sanks fav 25 Axe Grinders. Put these on in the car and I’m likely to max out the volume on the stereo without noticing.

Note, not in any order, except maybe the first song. 

 

 

Song	Artist	Why?
Statesboro Blues	Allman Bros	Because Greg Allman was the greatest blues guitar player evah! You’d have to be an American Idol Fan not to realize this.
Crossroads	Derek and The Dominos	Because Eric Clapton IS the greatest blues guitar player evah.. Wait I just said that. Hell your picking between Mozart and Beethoven here. This is Eric in his early years and it’s fantastic.
Sultans of Swing	Dire Straights	My favorite band bar none, my favorite song., that A Minor-C-B-F thing is more fun to play than most anything I know. A Barre Dream
Stay With Me	Faces	Ronny Wood is an amazing rhythm guy. After this song, the Stones came along and stole him away. Listening to this you can hear the influence he had on the Rolling Stones. Rod Stewert isn’t too bad on this one either.
My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama	Frank Zappa	Frank was a G-D. This is a great song and I live the live version on Cheap Thrills. Technically brilliant.
Maggot Brain	Funkadelic	Blows me away every time. Eddie Hazel was pretty underrated as a player. George Clinton, the brain trust behind Funkadelic (and Parliament) told him to play this 10 minute solo this way. Play first half is if you’d been told that your mother died. Play the second half as if you found out they lied to you about it.
Freeway Jam	Jeff Beck	Its F’n Jeff Beck that why. Come on. I think Jeff could possibly have the best technical skills in rock. Too bad he’s got no on stage presence. This is a great tune however.
Sunshine of your Love	Jimi Hendrix	This is off Live at Winterland. Jimi and the boys tell the crowd that the just heard that one of the "heaviest" groups around, the Cream is breaking up. This is their tribute and they destroy it.
Free Bird	Lynyrd Skynyrd	If you never played air guitar to this song, you didn’t grow up in America. Or you watch American Idol and think Kelly Clarkson has talent. Either way, ya missed a bus
One	Metallica	This is one of those songs that blew me away the first time I head it. I’m not a huge Metallica guy, but I am a huge fan of this one. For your literary guys, based on Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
Crazy Train	Ozzy Osbourne	Ozzy and Randy were like almonds and Hershey chocolate. Randy Rhodes was a classical guitarist who played heavy metal. And, he was a demon on the guitar. A real student of the instrument. This song is a great anthem rock anthem. BTW, died in a plane crash soon after this song came out.
Intersteller Overdrive	Pink Floyd	Floyd is one of my all time favorite bands, not known for killer guitar riffs. This song is an exception. This song is best described as psychedelic jazz. The improvs rock. This is one of those that makes you wonder where the band would have gone had Syd Barret not suffered his breakdown. Model improv here people, that’s Miles Davis stuff!
Keep Yourself Alive	Queen	Come one, that opening riff, rocks baby. Early Queen was fantastic, all Queen was fantastic, but early Queen was some hard rock’n stuff. Love this track. Nuff said.
Cooksferry Queen	Richard Thompson	Richard might be the best song writer in this list. He also may be the most unknown great guitar player of all time. His style is fingerpickn.. This is a great song as it has that rock and roll attitude.
Won’t Get Fooled Again	The Who	Really, you haven’t listened to this song and not started up the windmill thing that Pete Townsend does? Really? Pull yourself away from Idol.
Bastille Day	Rush	I can’t tell you how hard it was to limit myself to ONE Rush song. Geddy Lee and I being soul mates and all. I picked this one because A) the opening hook rocks B) it’s early Rush so you still get the rock and roll thing going and not the later progressive rock.. These guys were flat our players, and this is a great representation of an earlier version of the band.
Who Made Who	AC/DC	AC/DC, and Malcom Young specifically are riff factories. Too stink’n many to name, most of which are played in every sports stadium in the country. I kind of like this song as it’s not quite as over played as Back In Black or some of the other ones. And, like most of their stuff, it rocks with extreme prejudice.
Mississippi Queen	Mountain	One hit wonders here, made one of the great anthems of Southern Rock. Love this song, and it’s made Guitar Hero. There ya go.
Stray Cat Blues	Rolling Stones	This is my all time favorite Stones song. Has the attitude, not only in the lyrics but in Keith Richards nasty-ass riffs on this. This is open G easy stuff, but man he makes sound soo deliciously evil. Bad Boy Rock man!
Little Wing	Los Lobotomys	And, you don’t just have to be a bad boy to rock, here we find Toto front man Steve Luckather jamming on a Hendrix tune in Japan, and it’s fantastic stuff. Fusion jazz almost, with out the pretentiousness. Love it. Thanks to Eric at Eric has issues for the recommend here.
Ah! Leah	Donny Iris	The opening riff, which runs through the whole song.. Masterful. This is another Rock Anthem. This defines One Hit Wonder, but what a stink’n hit it was. Thanks to John C for this one. He’s the best.
Debaser	The Pixies	I love this song, love the band too. This is their harder rock’n deal but the guitar riff.. Underrated and brilliant.
Stranglehold	Ted Nugent	You can’t not have the king of riffs, motor city madman hizzelf.. Has one of the great fret slides of all time in the solo section. This is my favorite Ted Song. Although… Free For All was a close second.
Icky Thump	White Stripes	Another Detroit Native, Jack White and his dumming sister have a pretty good groove going… this is funky power chord thing that rocks.
Paradise City	Gun’s and Roses	This one gets me going every time I hear it. Way what ya want about lifestyle and so forth.. This is a great rock song.

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