Guitar Tournament - The Champion

After 41 days and 13 rounds of voting, from a field of 320 songs, one has emerged triumphant in the Greatest Guitar Solo Tournament.

America has spoken -- although not quite to the tune of 30 million votes, as per American Idol ... but close!

Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" claims the top spot.

This is incredibly surprising to me -- I don't think of the solo as being one of the best known; or one of the most technically proficient; or one of the most audacious. But, consistently, this song dispatched its competition, so convincingly, that there can be no doubt.

I had thought a Pink Floyd song would be in the finals -- although, I had thought it would be "On the Turning Away," which was eliminated earlier on. Clapton's "It's in the Way that You Use it," was another contender in my eyes, but it ran up against "My Sharona" (which, as I posted about last time, was my top choice).

In retrospect, this was *a lot* of work -- and it was overly ambitious. And, the limits placed (to make it at least manageable) didn't work the way I'd hoped (there are many, *many* amazing guitar solos in songs that never  hit #1 on a chart; but then, this survey would never be over!)

I think I'll stick to significantly smaller surveys from now on -- maybe 128 total entries (and, preferably 32 or 64) -- the sheer number wasn't even what made it so lengthy; it was also the amount of days. 41 days is a long time to hold interest -- and the tournament definitely saw voting interest wane towards the middle and pick up at the end.

Thanks again to everyone who stuck with it; and -- if you're one of those who voted in *every* round ... you may need help!

(Tomorrow, I hope, I'll be returning BACK to the focus of this blog again -- with a post on networking and the need for a wingman)

Guitar Tournament -- the Championship

The next-to-last round of the Guitar Solo Tournament is up: The Final Four! You can access the survey now.

This round will continue through Tuesday, May 21 (in the evening), with the winner announced that night!

For me, my #1 choice was finally eliminated. The impetus for this tournament was to prove a theory to myself -- that "My Sharona" was the most underrated guitar solo ever (because for an extremely "poppy" song, it definitely has one of the most energetic solos). However, Pink Floyd (which was my #2 choice, overall -- although not this song (the "On the Turning Away") song, ousted The Knack for a spot in the finals.

The other song is Tom Petty's "Runnin' Down a Dream," which handily won its matchup against The Black Crowes.

Here is the updated bracket!

Thanks for playing. The round will end Tuesday evening, with the winner announced that night!

Guitar Tournament - Round 7 - The Final Four

The next-to-last round of the Guitar Solo Tournament is up: The Final Four! You can access the survey now.

This round will continue through Saturday, May 18 (in the evening), and a championship matchup will be announced that night!

This has been an interesting tournament. We will definitely have one "Southern"-influenced song in the finals (as one matchup features The Black Crowes and Tom Petty). The other matchup pairs Pink Floyd (the most 'prog'-group remaining) against The Knack, with the poppiest-song in the tournament.

Van Halen, with its 11 songs in the tournament, is eliminated.

Here is the updated bracket!

Remember, this round will end Saturday evening!

Guitar Tournament - Round 6 - Elite 8

The sixth round of the Guitar Solo Tournament is up. We're up to the Elite 8! You can access the survey now.

This round will continue through Wednesday, May 15 (in the evening).

No band has more than one song remaining. It's truly anybody's guess at this point.

Definitely, a case could be made that some of the songs have gotten this far due to some favorable match-ups. That being said, "Jump" was eliminated, which certainly indicates people aren't just voting favortes.

Here is the updated bracket!

Remember, this round will end Wednesday evening, with the Final Four posted that evening!

Guitar Tournament - Round 5 - Sweet 16

The fifth round of the Guitar Solo Tournament is up. We're down to the Sweet 16. You can access the survey now.

This round will continue through Sunday, May 12 (in the evening).

Continuing our comparison (in the first round, there were 28 bands with 3+ songs in the tournament), here's the current list of bands with 2+ songs):

2: Van Halen

Some big surprises (to me) last round ...  Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" eliminated "I'm No Angel;" "Light My Fire" eliminated "Caught Up in You" (as two big western-rock songs fell hard), and "Here I Go Again" took out "Hotel California" - which may be one of the shockers, so far.

This round is bittersweet, as my two early favorites (what I would've thought might have ended up 1-2 if they had the opportunity to play) face off against each other. Only one will continue.

Here is the updated bracket!

Remember, this round will end Sunday evening (and the Elite 8 will be posted that evening!)

Guitar Tournament - Round 4 - Round of 32

The fourth round of the Guitar Solo Tournament is up. You can access the survey now.

This round will continue through Wednesday, May 8 (in the evening). With fewer songs (down to 32 now), the amount of time for each round is minimized, as well.

Continuing our comparison (in the first round, there were 28 bands with 3+ songs in the tournament), here's the current list of bands with 2+ songs):

3: Van Halen
2: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

And that's it -- and, Van Halen is going to lose one this round (since they're facing off against each other).

The biggest "surprise" in the tournament (to me) is Muse's Uprising, which continues to march on; but I think the 32 songs here are all solid contenders (and two of my three early favorites are still in the tournament; although they *cannot* face each other for the championship, due to the bracket setup (my third favorite was eliminated two rounds ago)).

Here is the updated bracket!

Remember - this round will end Wednesday, 5/8.

Guitar Tournament - Round 3 - Round of 64

The third round of the Guitar Solo Tournament is up. You can access the survey now.

This round will continue through Saturday, May 4 (sometime in the late afternoon). We're down to 64 songs in total; but you can always do some of the survey and save your work, and come back to it later.

From here, it just gets easier (in terms of time) - we'll be halving the number of songs each round. On the other hand, the choices, almost certainly, will become more difficult.

For comparison sake - remember that in the first round, there were 28 bands with three or more songs. Here's the current list of bands with 2+ songs:

5: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Van Halen
3: Eric Clapton
2: Def Leppard, Pink Floyd, The Beatles

ZZ Top - went from 5 songs to just 1. The Black Crowes went from 4 songs to just 1. And a whole lot of surprises happened in the last round.

One of my *favorites* to win the tournament was bumped (Pink Floyd's "On The Turning Away" -- in fact, it got only ONE vote (mine!)). Other surprising eliminations included No Rain (Blind Melon), Be Yourself (Audioslave), Let's Go Crazy (Prince) and Rest in Peace (Extreme), as well as Kenny Wayne Shepherd's "Blue on Black."

But, ultimately, they all would have fallen at some point. Only one can be the champion, and now, we have one bracket to track.

I'd be lying if I told you it was getting easier.

Remember - this round ends this Saturday!

Guitar Tournament - Round 2 Kicks Off

The second full round of the Guitar Solo Tournament is up. You can access the survey now.

This round will continue through Sunday evening (4/28) -- remember, even though there are a decent amount of songs (128 in total) -- you can always stop and continue the survey later (from the same computer). No need to do it all in one sitting.

From here, it just gets easier (in terms of time) - we'll be halving the number of songs each round. On the other hand, the choices, almost certainly, will become more difficult.

For comparison sake - remember that in the first round, there were 28 bands with three or more songs. Here's the current list of bands with 3+ songs:

8: Van Halen
6: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
5: ZZ Top
4: The Black Crowes
3: Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones

Guitar Tournament - Play-In Round

The second play-in round is up  -- this is where we see if the Modern Rock tracks can match up with their Pop/Mainstream Rock counterparts.

This survey closes Sunday evening, with the next round up Monday.

Guitar Tournament - First Round - Part V (the last part)

The link to the survey for the final batch of 64 solos vying for the title of "Greatest Guitar Solo Ever" is up now.

Why are there now FIVE groups? Turns out, I'd forgotten one chart -- the Alternative/Modern rock chart. So, there are now 64 more songs, courtesy of that chart. I don't think many of them will advance particularly far; but a few of them may surprise.

Interestingly - today's Modern Rock chart is basically the closest to the 80s guitar rock that inspired this poll. Mainstream Rock (which used to be guitar rock) has transformed. Back then, it used to be Huey Lewis and the News; today, it's Godsmack.

Modern Rock - early days - had a lot of synth, and, truth be told, there's not a lot of all-out guitar solos (in many cases, the guitar work is happening while the singer is singing).

In any event, the addition of these songs means there'll be one more round -- these winners will be merged into the field for "play-in games" - and then we'll resume with a new field of 128 (total) and head towards our Final Four.

These songs also change the "leader board" for bands with the most songs in the list. Here's an updated tally (only those with 3+ songs):

11: Van Halen
8: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Petty (and Heartbreakers)
6: Beatles, Black Crowes, U2, ZZ Top
5: Rolling Stones
4: Bon Jovi, Collective Soul, Eric Clapton, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Pink Floyd, REM, Shinedown
3: Aerosmith, Bryan Adams, Bush, Def Leppard, Green Day, Huey Lewis and the News, Jane's Addiction, John Mellencamp, Nirvana, Richard Marx, Rush, Stone Temple Pilots

Remember - you're voting on the guitar solo; not the song, itself. You should be listening to the solo, because you may be surprised that some songs you remember had some pretty great guitar solos. You may like one song more, but find the guitar work is better in the other song. Of course, you can listen to the whole song as well, but the poll isn't about the song; just the guitar.

Why would you listen to the whole song?
1. You want to rediscover the song.
2. You want to learn something new about it.
3. It's reminiscent.
4. You have nothing better to do than listen to 320 songs (this is a judgment-free zone).
 
Here is the bracket for this group (the New Order division):

So, at last, here are ALL the links to all the surveys. These surveys will close on Wednesday, April 17, around 10:30pm EST.

Hendrix Division (part I)
Satriani Division (part II)
Emmett Division (part III)
Malmsteen Division (part IV)
New Order Division (part V)

Guitar Tournament - First Round - Part IV

The link to the survey for the next batch of 64 solos vying for the title of "Greatest Guitar Solo Ever" is up now.

You can access the survey, here.

Here is the bracket for this batch:

This constitutes the full 256 "songs" vying for the crown  ... or so I thought. I realized, late last evening, I may have overlooked one chart. I'll know for certain tomorrow if there'll be one more round, merging those songs (if there even are any) with these. In either event, the next round will kick off with 128 songs.


Stay tuned!

Guitar Tournament - First Round - Part III

The link to the survey for the next batch of 64 solos vying for the title of "Greatest Guitar Solo Ever" is up now.

You can access the survey, here.

Here is the bracket for this batch:

Guitar Tournament - First Round - Part II

The link to the survey for the next batch of 64 solos vying for the title of "Greatest Guitar Solo Ever" is up now.

You can access the survey, here.

Here is the bracket for this batch:

Introducing: The All-Time Greatest Guitar Solo "April" Madness Tournament!

I mentioned on Facebook about a week ago that I would be starting a pretty indepth "survey" again. We'd done this a few years back, when we elected Freddie Mercury the all-time greatest frontman for a rock band.

I've had this idea for a while, and I just knew it would be a lot of work (and it was a LOT of work). Trying to nail down the all-time greatest guitar solo is a daunting task.

So, there were a few guidelines. The song had to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 *OR* the Mainstream Rock 100 charts (that still left more than 1300 songs). I narrowed that down to 256, and rated them (which is how the seeding is established). Originally, I'd thought I could have room for some darkhorses, but eventually, mostly just the cream of the crop remained. I did remove any songs that essentially constituted nothing more than screaming (goodbye most of the Mainstream Rock from the past decade) and also any where the videos were simply disturbing (thankfully, there weren't many of those left, once the screaming songs were discarded).

The survey is set up into FOUR groups of 64 (which will be combined into one, after the first two rounds). I'll put up ONE group of 64 each day for the next four days, and all of them will close NEXT Wednesday. You can save and continue at a later time.

Clicking on the song title will bring you to the video of the song; or you can click on the next link and see JUST the solo (which, after all, is what we're talking about). I urge you to listen to the songs (or at least the solos) - you may be reminded of some long lost memories; or you may even find that songs had pretty sick solos that you wouldn't have expected. I was also surprised at which bands aren't even really represented (either because they didn't end up with a lot of #1 songs (Kiss) or because they weren't really guitar-driven bands (Nirvana, Linkin Park)

Here's a little trivia before we get started (future posts will simply have the link to that day's survey). Here is a list of the bands that had more than one song on the list (no surprise at the top):

11: Van Halen
8: Tom Petty (and Heartbreakers)
6: Beatles, Black Crowes, ZZ Top
5: Rolling Stones
4: Bon Jovi, Collective Soul, Eric Clapton, Metallica, Pink Floyd, Shinedown, U2
3: Aerosmith, Bryan Adams, Def Leppard, Huey Lewis and the News, John Mellencamp, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Richard Marx, Rush
2: Audioslave, Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen, Cars, Chicago, Creed, Dire Straits, Don Henley, Eagles, Grand Funk, Green Day, Hall & Oates, Heart, Ozzy Osbourne, Pearl Jam, REM, REO Speedwagon, Santana, Soundgarden, Steve Miller Band, Stone Temple Pilots, Theory of a Deadman, Three Dog Night, Tommy James and Shondells, Velvet Revolver, Yes

And, with that, here's the link to the first group of 64.

Here are the brackets for this first group:

P.S. - Regular blog posts, of a more professional nature, will return, once this contest/tournament is completed!