Top Ten Steely Dan Songs with the Best Guitar Solos
Steely Dan, always the band who took pride in studio excellence, had some of the best musicians contribute guitar solos to their songs. These include, but are not limited to, Walter Becker himself, Jeff Baxter, Denny Dias, Larry Carlton, Rick Derringer, Jay Graydon, and Elliot Randall. It's kinda hard to do an accurate top ten list since there are so many awesome guitar solos on Dan records, but I'll do my best. Feel free to add more examples.
Larry Carlton plays the solo here. It's considered by most to be not just one of the best Steely Dan solos, but one of the best solos of all time.
I wouldn't know if it's the best guitar solo, I just know that this is my favourite Steely Dan song. And I'm glad it's pretty high on this list.
Played by Elliot Randall. What makes this song even more awesome is that he nailed it in an individual take.
Denny Dias plays the jazzy guitar solo in the middle, and Jeff Baxter plays the pseudo-rockabilly licks at the end. Both solos are tremendously awesome (though I have a stronger preference towards Jeff's solo).
Jeff Baxter plays the solos in this one. It's got a bunch of double stops, pinch harmonics, and it still works very melodically.
Another Jeff Baxter solo. This probably fits in the most melodically compared to other Steely Dan solos.
Walter Becker plays the solos. It's a weird mixture of blues and jazz chops.
Jay Graydon plays the solo here. It's got two bends in the beginning; the first time I heard it, I thought it sounded really cool.
Denny Dias plays the solo to this one on an electric sitar, which is basically a guitar made to buzz like a sitar.
Yet another Jeff Baxter solo (his playing is all over the Pretzel Logic album). I think the guitar solo in the very beginning of the song is a perfect introduction.
Walter Becker plays the guitar solo in the outro. It's a set of straightforward, bluesy playing that reminds me of the outro to "Have A Cigar" by Pink Floyd (I don't think that's what Walter was going for but it sounds that way to me).
A Walter Becker solo. This solo has some great string bending; very well placed and great technique.
This solo is one of the more complex, jazz-like solos in their catalogue. It's played by Denny Dias.
