David Gilmour’s Comfortably Numb Solo is Number 1

The Best Rock Guitar Solo of All Time is Comfortably Numb

Well, it should be. I did a search of the best guitar solos in google, and the first 10 results I got listed David Gilmour’s solo in at least the top 5. In the top 5 I usually found Jimmy Page’s “Stairway To Heaven”, Eddie Van Halen’s “Eruption”, and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” along with David Gilmour’s “Comfortably Numb” solo. At least half the sites referenced that he has the best solo of all time. About.com has him in 4th place. DigitalDreamDoor.com, Wanderlist, and Q4MUSIC all list the Comfortably Numb solo as #1. So why is David Gilmour of Pink Floyd considered the 82nd best guitarist by Rolling Stone magazine? That’s just not fair.

Gilmour has always been one of my favorite guitarists. His tone is so rich and smooth, it sounds like his fingers are gliding over the frets. The solo in “Comfortably Numb” is undoubtedly one of the best, if not the best ever. The second solo, that is. It is simply the most fitting response to the rest of the song. It starts out at a melancholy point in the song and carries the theme through many passages. In fact, this solo doesn’t even need to be described. You should just listen to the song and listen to the solo, which starts 4 minutes and 30 seconds into the song. The climatic high point always makes me shiver and cry as this is one of the most emotional and powerful rock solos written.