Welcome one and all to the Guitar Wars. These battles feature songs nominated by you, the folks from the Realms. This isn’t about who the better guitarist is, or what band is better. This is about the instrument and the song. Great solos are something that make us sit up and take notice, but the guitar is more than that. There are great riffs like the one in Beat It, which was not done by Eddie Van Halen. You know, that awesome riff that permeates the song is also the part that EVH had nothing to do with.

There are ways that the guitarist wraps his playing around the melody and makes a perfect fit that’s so subtle and imperceptible that most times it gets missed. And of course, there are the solos, some with blinding speed and some played so eloquently and with so much feel that you can get lost in one sustained note after another.

You are hear! Hendrix, Clapton, Lifeson, Atkins, Page, Abasi, Santana, Morello and a host of others will be popping up. Come on in and check out the virtuosity of these and others. Find new songs you can add to your shuffle or just reminisce on songs you may not have heard in a while. Enjoy.

Listen to each song and pay attention to the guitar part and vote for the song whose guitar part you liked better. Maybe you’re a fan of the slide, or finger-picking or electric solo, but give each song a chance and then vote for the performance that you liked better. We’ll go round by round and match by match until we have a winner. That song will be crowned best overall guitar song to listen to on the Realms. All the songs will have the main guitarist or guitarists listed along with the band’s name and the name of the song. Critique it if you want, and judge it as you will, but keep in mind, this isn’t a battle of what band or artist is better. I for one may not be a fan of a certain band or solo artist, but that will not keep me from voting for a song of theirs if that song has one of the most gorgeous guitar solos ever heard.

Matchups will close on the fifth day after they are posted.

So, without further adieu, hear we go:

OPEN INVITATION – Carlos Santana

YELLOW LEDBETTER – Mike McCready/Pearl Jam

ROUND 1 MATCHES:
1 Chet Atkins (Orange Blossom Special)Vs Buddy Guy (Baby, Please Don’t Leave Me) Chet Atkins wins 11-9
2 Clapton/Allman – Derek & the Dominos (Layla) Vs Joe Satriani (Oriental Melody) Satriani wins 13-8
3 John Mayer (Slow Dancing in a Burning Room Vs Duane Eddy (Rebel Rouser) Duane Eddy wins 11-10
4 B.B. King (The Thrill Is Gone) Vs Alex Lifeson – Rush (Working Man B.B. King wins 16-5
5 Jimmy Page – Led Zeppelin (Black Dog) Vs Eric Clapton – The Beatles (While My Guitar Gently Weeps) Eric Clapton wins 12-7
6 Adrian Smith – Iron Maiden (Sea of Madness) Vs Mick Jones – The Clash (Lost in a Supermarket) Adrian Smith wins 12-9
7 Pete Townshend – The Who (Pinball Wizard) Vs Friedman/Becker – Cacophony (Concerto) Friedman/Becker wins 8-7
8 Ronnie Montrose – Montrose (Space Station #5) Vs Allen Collins – Lynyrd Skynyrd (Free Bird) Allen Collins wins 13-6
9 Angus Young – AC/DC (Fling Thing/Rocker) Vs Steve Clark – Def Leppard (Switch 625) Angus Young wins 12-9
10 J Mascis – Dinosaur Jr (Pick Me Up) Vs Snakefinger (Climbing the Ladder) J Mascis wins 16-4
11 George Lynch – Dokken (Mr Scary) Vs Henry Paul – The Outlaws (Green Grass and High Tides) Henry Paul wins 14-7
12 Yngwie Malmsteen (Arpeggios from Hell) Vs Brian Setzer (Switchblade 327) Brian Setzer Wins 12-9
13 Sterling Morrison – Velvet Underground (Oh! Sweet Nothin’) Vs Daniel Ash – Love and Rockets (Yin and Yang and the Flowerpot Man) Sterling Morrison wins 12-7
14 Zakk Wylde – Ozzy Osbourne (No More Tears) Vs Robin Trower (Day of the Eagle) Robin Trower wins 16-4
15 Ronaldo/Moore – Sonic Youth (Total Trash) Vs Tosin Abasi – Animals As Leaders (CAFO) Tosin Abasi wins 13-7
16 Jerry Cantrell – Alice in Chains (Man in the Box) Vs Mick Ronson – David Bowie (Moonage Daydream) Jerry Cantrell wins 11-8
17 Larry Reinhardt – Captain Beyond (Dancing Madly Bacwards Vs Gary Moore (Parisienne Walkways) Larry Reinhardt wins 12-9
18 Jim Heath – Reverend Horton Heat (Galaxy 500) Vs Tony Iommi – Black Sabbath (Dirty Women) Jim Heath wins 11-10
19 Chuck Berry (Johnny B Good) Vs K.K. Downing/Glen Tipton – Judas Priest (Breaking the Law) Chuck Berry wins 17-3
20 Alvin Lee – Ten Years After (Working On the Road) Vs Kurt Cobain – Nirvana (Smells Like Teen Spirit) Alvin Lee wins 14-6
21 Randy Bachman – BTO (Blue Collar) Vs Alexi Laiho – Children of Bodom (Kissing the Shadows) Randy Bachman Wins 11-6
22 Joanne Shaw Taylor (Kiss the Ground) Vs Chris Cheney/The Living End (E Boogie) Chris Cheney Wins 9-7
23 Billy Thorpe (Tangier) Vs David Gilmour/Pink Floyd (Comfortably Numb)
24 Bryant/Menuck – Godspeed You Black Emperor (East Hastings) Vs Tom Scholz – Boston (Foreplay/Longtime)
25 Viv Campbell – Dio (Stand Up) VsBalsac & Flattus – Gwar (Immortal Corruptor)
26 Carlos Santana (Open Invitation) Vs Mike McCready – Pearl Jam (Yellow Ledbetter)

This is a good heavyweight match-up. Santana for years was one of top 3 guitarists from America. Mike McCready was one of the best and tastiest players to come out of the 90s guitarists.

Carlos does his thing in Open Invitation and there's some real nice playing where you can really hear his Wes Montgomery influence here. But for me, this solo and the rest of Carlos' playing lacked something. PS, In person, he's a really good guy and LOVES Cuban Cigars. I know, I know, illegal in the US, but my buddy never had a problem getting them for him.

Yellow Ledbetter. All I can say is wow. When Eddie says "Make me cry," McCready delivers. This is as good as the solo in Comfortably Numb. Filled with character and soul, but it's also the beginning with it's Little Wing like start (By the way, NO ONE nominated any version of Little Wing? WTF!) that halps make this song even better. Top to bottom, the better song for me and the one I could listen to if just for the guitar...made me cry.

YouTube is acting very froggy for me today and refuses to connect.
Going by memory, I was never very impressed by Open Invitation and Yellow Ledbettor is tied with I Got Id as a favorite Pearl Jam song.

Guitarist vs guitarist though, I lean toward Carlos. I would have picked something from Abraxas though. Probably Samba Pa Ti.

Something about the way Carlos Santana plays guitar just annoys me. I understand that he is very good at it, but his music is so bland to me that it actually makes me angry, to the point that I will actually leave a store if he comes on. On the other hand Yellow Ledbetter is one of my favourite Pearl Jam songs and that is almost entirely because of the guitar work of Mike McReady (it sure can't be the vocals, as I only understand the words Yelow Ledbetter in the whole thing). SO this is a pretty darn easy one for me.

Mike Mcready

YouTube finally kicked in.

Song vs song I've still got to go with Mike Mcready

had the Santana song been this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSECQtF58BU
my vote would have been different.

I'm going with Mike McCready in a relative walk. While I recognize Santana's virtuosity, he's never really done much for me.

I never could understand what Vedder says in this song

"hhhheeeeeeey yaaaahhhhhh I dissaydeeyam. Im on a freeway yyyyyeaaahhh"

That said...

YELLOW LEDBETTER – Mike McCready/Pearl Jam

I think I read somewhere that the song name is partly attributed to Huddie Ledbetter AKA Lead Belly. His version of Gallows Pole is even better than Zeppelin, but you have to love the really old blues to think that.

Other picks of his that I'd recommend; Black Girl (AKA Where did You Sleep Last Night - also done by Nirvana), Cotton Fields, Black Betty, Pick a Bale of Cotton and John Henry.

Lyrics from Lukin.com for Yellow Ledbetter:

Unsealed on a porch a letter sat.
Then you said, "I wanna leave it again."
Once I saw her on a beach of weathered sand. And on the sand I wanna leave it again. Yeah.
On a weekend I wanna wish it all away, yeah.
And they called and I said that "I want what I said" and then I call out again.
And the reason oughta' leave her calm, I know.
I said "I know what I wear not the boxer or the bag."

Ah yeah, can you see them out on the porch? Yeah, but they don't wave.
But I see them round the front way. Yeah.
And I know, and I know. I don't want to stay.
Make me cry...

I see... Ooh I don't know why there's something else.
I wanna drum it all away... [ ;-) ]
Oh, I said, "I don't, I don't know wheather I was the boxer or the bag."

Ah yeah, can you see them out on the porch? Yeah, but they don't wave.
But I see them round the front way. Yeah.
And I know, and I know. I don't wanna stay at all.
I don't wanna stay. Yeah.
I don't wanna stay. (x2)
I don't... Don't wanna, oh... Yeah. Ooh... Ohh...

Add my vote to the Mike McReady landslide.

I vote Yellow Ledbetter. Not much to say that hasn't been said here already.

Pearl Jam sucks and I don't much care for blues music, so my choice is incredibly easy.

Carlos Santana.

i guess i will join in the minority vote for OPEN INVITATION – Carlos Santana.....