Old thread is old.

The Sono Mirai Wa Ima solo doesn't sound insanely hard [i]relatively[/i] speaking (amongst terms of compared against other music recorded by professional musicians). Though it is one of Manabe's faster solos. And I imagine really fucking hard for someone who's not a very proficient guitar player.


Carnival is definitely my favorite solo.

I could go on naming other ones I love all fucking day. I've always liked Crazy Sunshine's. I almost want to say something like Beautiful Picture, but I think I just have a weakness for solos backed by awesome Kashima bass. And be trendy, I'll add Lesser Hamster in Blue. The newest hotness is without doubt Mochinushi No Nai Guitar.

Sono Mirai's solo isn't that tough. I don't consider myself a brilliant guitarist and I can play it easily enough. It is certainly a good, solo, though.

A few that I like...

Rosy Head: The song's decent, but the solo is flat-out awesome. There are none of those pointless blues-scale filler notes that show up at the end of a lot of Manabe's solos.

Smile: This is easily one of Manabe's most powerful solos, one of the few (along with Crazy Sunshine) that can really be described as "epic."

Ki ni shitenai yo: I love the tone of this solo, and how Sawao's picked playing compliments it so nicely. I feel that Manabe had a more unique voice back then, before he started throwing in blues scale stuff all over the place.

Over Amp: This is a great example of one of Manabe's fast solos. It's obvious that he composed this one very carefully and didn't just play the first notes that came to mind in a jam session.

I Know You: This solo has an almost country-like swagger to it, but unlike some 2000s-era Pillows experiments, it works really well.

Lesser Hamster no Yuutsu's solo is probably my favorite, but there are a ton of runners-up. A question like this is too hard to answer. There are simply too many good ones to narrow it down to a select few.

My favorite is probably One Life. Honorable mention goes to Swanky Street.

Special shout outs go to:
She's My Sister
Borderline Case (I love the tone of the guitar.)
Sha-la-la-lla
Nowhere

Lorelai

I know I'm likely to catch a lot of flak for this, but I don't like Swanky Street's solo that much, except for the last bit. To me, it feels like the ultimate "Manabe fires off a lot of haphazard blues notes and calls it 'emotional'" solo.

I like the idea of doing the solo after the first chorus, but it sounds like it's taken right out of another song, and playing the solo to a totally different set of chords doesn't work nearly as well here as on, say, Fool On The Planet. The only way that I can enjoy it is if I take it as a deliberately noisy interlude that's supposed to sound like cars slamming on the brakes and skidding around, rather than the sort of melodic soloing I love.

Maybe listening to these songs a thousand times has just made me really prone to over-analyzing everything.

Lorelai, on the other now... now that is a smokin' hot solo. Every note rocks.

[quote="ThinlineTele"]To me, it feels like the ultimate "Manabe fires off a lot of haphazard blues notes and calls it 'emotional'" solo.[/quote]

I feel the same way. Especially during a lot of live performances. To me, it seems like sometimes he just smacks at his guitar for the sake of making noise while thrashing around the stage. The end of the solo makes it all worth it, though. It ties up that prior messiness very neatly.

[quote]Lorelai, on the other now... now that is a smokin' hot solo. Every note rocks.[/quote]
The solo, the chorus, Sawao's delivery on the verses... there isn't a bad note in the entire song.

I believe there shouldn't be a rule to playing guitar solos, if it sounds good, why change?

Swanky Street's solo can be interpreted as emotional or not depending on who you ask, unless it's Manabe himself. I will say that Swanky Street is emotional, but not anymore emotional than other solos he has done for other songs.

Interesting discussions here! I agree with Thinline that there are other solos that much more fit the chord progression and tone of the song - I've also felt that Swanky Street's solo is kind of disjointed - it's multiple parts smashed into one solo, rather than a melodic, flowing solo. There's the fatty bend, the low E-string fumbling into the high slides, the hammer-on, pull-off riff, the cool "scratching" blues box in the middle of the neck, the rhythmic strumming on the high notes, the descending lick with the droning note, then the final little line that falls into place. Now that you mention it, yeah it's kind of a mish-mash and the bluesiness doesn't really fit the song...Huh!

I probably wouldn't notice as much, but I love how Manabe plays the rest of the song: the intro and verse with its spacey, suspended-sounding melodies is what really makes the song for me.

If you ever listen to the Live Beat '97 version of Swanky Street, the arpeggio he plays at about 2:18 is slightly different from the original, and dang is it beautiful.

Full disclosure: with very few exceptions (Cream, Led Zeppelin) I don't like blues-scale rock very much, and that's why I've always been a big fan of Manabe's more melodic style of playing. I can't help but be disappointed when he takes the easy way out and plays the blues scale instead of something more... unique, I guess.

I also hate blues scale rock. But I have always loved the Swanky Street solo.

I find the explosive nature of the solo to really complement the song thematically, personally.

[quote="Marekenshin"]I find the explosive nature of the solo to really complement the song thematically, personally. [/quote]

[quote="[Mr. Lostman]"][quote="Marekenshin"]I find the explosive nature of the solo to really complement the song thematically, personally. [/quote][/quote]

Yeah, that. ^
To me, the solo represents the "crash" that sawao sings about since it's so chaotic.
I don't know if it's expressed effectively, but I always thought it was neat.