10 Greatest Rock Music Guitar Solos Of The 1990s

3. Paranoid Android - Radiohead

"You like great guitar solos, huh?” said Radiohead in 1997. “Well, have two then! See how you like it!”

And people did like it. Very much.

Paranoid Android is one of the standout songs on Radiohead’s standout album, OK Computer, and one of the group’s best known numbers from across their long and varied career.

Split into four distinct segments, the tune’s first solo comes in its second part. Jonny Greenwood plays the section out with a fast-paced, pretty standard sounding arrangement. And then, in the final section, things go mad.

This solo is much dirtier, with a filthy effect stuck over the top of Greenwood’s playing. It sounds like he’s strumming underwater whilst also having a fight with an octopus at the same time. The wishy-washy tone is absolutely staggering; the only problem is that it’s far too short. More octopus-fighting, Jonny! More!

For both of its epic solos (and Greenwood’s excellent guitar work in general) Paranoid Android is rightly remembered as one of the best guitar songs of the whole period, even if they did steal the title from Douglas Adams.
 
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Contributor

Jacob Simmons has a great many passions, including rock music, giving acclaimed films three-and-a-half stars, watching random clips from The Simpsons on YouTube at 3am, and writing about himself in the third person.