10 Greatest Hard Rock Guitar Solos Of All Time
4. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
When people talk about Queen, there's a good chance they're going to bring up Freddie Mercury. There's no real debating that the man was a musical genius and one of the greatest frontmen of all time. However, if Mercury had you on the edge of your seat, Brian May's guitar was what kept everything grounded.
That being said, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is probably the classiest form of shred that Queen had ever laid down. Throughout their album A Night at The Opera, the band wanted to present a certain amount of grandeur in their material, with this song being the centerpiece. With its multiple parts and operatic musical movements, May knew a typical solo wasn't going to cut it.
Once the guitar kicks in after the ballad section, the notes are in just the right place, with each phrase being held out for added effect. That's not to say that the solo is slow, with May bringing it up at the midpoint for shredding that sounds like it could have been arranged for an entire string section.
The elongated notes of the chorus are probably the closest the guitar has come to match the emotion of the human voice. And just like that, the solo is over, acting as a musical bridge between the depressing ballad and the dramatic operatic section.