I didn't want to vote for Man In The Box simply because I like the song so much, but wanted to let the guitars decide, and it is tough. Very tough. I listened to each several times. The critiques have already been made above by others, and in a close one for me, my vote is for MAN IN THE BOX – Jerry Cantrell/Alice in Chains.

Man in the Box on a coin flip for me.

Moonage Daydream.

I'm a huge David Bowie fan, and Moonage Daydream is a better composition...

HOWEVA: When I first heard this song back when it came out, it was on this thing called MTV (a tv channel that used to play music videos). I was sitting at home, minding my own business, and this song comes on. I thought it was a pretty cool, pretty chunky riff, so it had my attention. The guitar solo hit, and I literally fell out of my chair. I was used to everyone just trying to play as fast as possible, or as distorted as possible, or as short as possible (for the radio), and here was this guy throwing in all these wahs and bends and still punching me in the face with his guitar. Then I think the solo is over, and he totally changes his style up and comes at it from another direction. It's not the most complicated solo I've ever heard, but in a sea of copycats he was a tornado of fresh air. I still think this solo holds up today.

I think Ronsin did a great job on Moonage Daydream, giving it that cool spacey feel with his (now classic) sound effects, and he has his subtle touches all over the place, but it just doesn't stand out as much to me (probably because Bowie is so powerful a presence on his songs).

JERRY CANTRELL - MAN IN THE BOX

addendum - Velvet has been really cool about this. I originally nominated a Tom Morello song, thinking no one else had nominated him. Well after the nominations were over, and the seedings were planted, I realized that Spike had nominated a RATM song. Wanting a mix of guitarists, I asked Velvet if he would change it to this Jerry Cantrell song. He graciously did so, which is even more gracious once you realize that Ronson is his nomination.

This match will close tomorrow.

Jerry Cantrell (Man in the Box) leads Mick Ronson (Moonage Daydream) 11-8