best rock guitar solos and licks - my musical aesthetics

[gusl]

I'm looking for some rock guitar solos and licks to add to my MP3 collection. A lot of rock doesn't seem to have any reasonable melody: the prevailing aesthetic seems to be a rather static rhythm and timbre, i.e. "feel", however I have heard some very cool rock licks in my lifetime, so you if can name some, please let me know.

My prevailing musical aesthetic is a rather "intellectual" one: complex melodies, improvised solos that impressionistically paint the theme, cool-sounding chord changes, rather than "feel", "atmosphere", "trance" or "emotion".
For this reason, I like much jazz, bluegrass, Bach, Chopin and Mozart, frevo, chorinho, Irish music, and most of the harmonically-complex MPB (samba, bossa nova, etc).

I also enjoy simpler folk music with a strong melody, such as Old-Time Country, Forró, Israeli music and Chinese music.

I dislike Emo, most singer-songwriters, heavy metal, dance music, hip-hop and other music that relies solely on emotion. I'm inviting fans to argue with me here.

However, I *am* into the music-as-poetry aesthetic (which explains why I like some rap), but that's something else altogether, since I'm talking mostly about instrumental tunes. A lot of what I like about Chico Buarque is his intelligent word play and his dramatic lyrics.

Admittedly, I like a country blues with a strong beat. The emotion can be an essential part of a good tune, even for me. So I guess this is one example of where rhythm/emotion is an important aspect of my music appreciation.

So, back to my rock melody collection project, "Eric Johnson - Cliffs of Dover" has the only good, non-oldies rock melody I've downloaded so far. What's your favorite?

Comments

[candid.livejournal.com]

I also like "Cliffs of Dover." Joe Satriani and Steve Vai play some pretty similar stuff.

And, of course, Yngvie Malmsteen rocks straight out of the pages of Guitar magazine.