The 6 Grunge Songs Listed in Rolling Stone’s Top 100 Guitar Solos in Rock History

This week, ‘Rolling Stone’ posted the top 100 guitar solos in rock history which spanned the entirety of the rock n’ roll era.  Of the 100, 6 guitar solos are from grunge (or proto-grunge).  Here are the five artists and songs.

#92 Smashing Pumpkins, “Mayonaise” (Billy Corgan)

With a thick swirling tone that sounds like its sucking everything out of the room, Billy Corgan masters distortion and feedback though keeps the song’s humble musicality intact.

#84 Pearl Jam, “Alive”, 1991 (Mike McCready)

A total guitar hero of a solo, Mike McCready rears up and delivers an exhilarating with vicious twists and turns, searing Hendrix-like sustains lined with urgency on one of Pearl Jam's biggest hits.

#70 Nirvana, “Heart-Shaped Box”, 1993 (Kurt Cobain)

A very short circular guitar solo with tremendous use of distortion tone, Kurt Cobain was not usually known to want a solo in Nirvana songs, with this sparse break trying as hard as it can to not call too much attention to itself.  It still is long enough to break up the verses and choruses satisfactorily.

#67 Helium, “XXX”, 1994 (Mary Timony)

Helium’s 1994 debut E.P. ‘Pirate Prude’ was messy grunge, with lots of distortion, abrasion, and density.  Mary Timony, the band’s singer, plays guitar.  The solo is described as a "wild nightmare" and "powerfully cathartic," by Rolling Stone and they used a Mary Timony quote to explain how she played some of it - often playing with one finger and detuning her strings. Timony noted that for this track.

#55 Dinosaur Jr., “Freak Scene”, 1988 (J. Mascis)

A bit lo-fi and a bit high-pitched, the proto-grunge noise rock of “Freak Scene” was typical of Dinosaur Jr. for the majority of the 1980s and this song is considered one of their best as well.  (At The Rock Lair, we would have chosen “Out There” or “Get Me”.)

#29 Neil Young, “Powderfinger”, 1979 – (Neil Young)

He performs the solos on "Old Black," his heavily modified 1953 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop.  The first has some higher register picking and then halfway through, it gets crunchy.  Throughout, they both cry out for sympathy then moan, then sigh.