10 Guitar Solos That Changed The Face Of Rock Music Forever

For every guitarist that came up in the mid '60s, there was no other guitar lick that hadn't been thought of by Chuck Berry beforehand. From the minute that every aspiring guitarist heard Johnny B Goode, the vocabulary of the instrument was always going to be defined by Berry's trademark double stops and swagger behind the fretboard. That was the rock and roll of the past, and Jimi Hendrix practically kicked down the door to your brain the minute that Purple Haze started.

Although Hendrix had already been lighting it up on the blues circuit before Are You Experienced hit store shelves, the tone of Purple Haze was about something far greater than the blues. Coming out just as the Summer of Love was about to kick into high gear, this was the sound of rock opening up to something new, sounding both aggro with some of Jimi's fiery lead licks and also slightly seductive at the same time with the different bends that he put into the mix as well. For any aspiring guitar player, this is practically a litmus test of what can be done on the instrument, from the different lead breaks to Hendrix always keeping things in the pocket, no doubt inspired by his time working as a sideman for Little Richard.

Some may be into guitar to try and create some of the most impressive licks they can think of, but Hendrix felt like he was doing something that he had to do. It wasn't a case of become a guitar player for living... this was a man who was channeling all of his emotions into beautiful electric music.