The guitar solo; odds are, if you've been a music fan for long enough, you've seen and heard quite a few of them, ranging from some ragtag handfuls of notes to minutes of fret-jumping logistical mastery. Your opinion of the guitar solo may also vary. Some of you may see them as the emotional lean and swoop of a song's backbone that carries a tune from the swamp to the stratosphere. Others, perhaps, might view the guitar solo as a mindless strut of technical noodling - the show-off's sonata, if you will.

But it's difficult to ignore the lifeblood that exists between music and guitar solos, especially when it comes to the foundations of rock and roll. From the blues to the bayou, the brooding bleed of sheer shred, and every step in between, guitar solos and the innovation of their inventors have looped into almost every genre, from classical to contemporary. They were born and bred by astute students of the game and are just one of many reasons why music has advanced from a walk to a full-blown marathon sprint.

8 Guns N' Roses, November Rain (1992)

'92 MTV Video Music Awards

Guns N' Roses has long been one of music's great "what if" bands. What if egos hadn't gotten in the way? What if drugs and other vices hadn't been such an issue? The question looms even larger after seeing performance videos like this, with GNR absolutely wailing through one of their signature ballads, "November Rain," during the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. There's a huge orchestra, a brass section, and even Elton John sitting in on the piano, and everything from lead man Axl Rose's vocals to guitarist Slash's work on the six-string is jaw-dropping.

"November Rain" is already captivating, but even more so once Slash hits multiple solos, and he makes them look simple. Dressed shirtless in a matching jacket and pants with his signature long curled hair, cigarette, and top hat, Slash calmly takes center stage and riffs the listener into the heavens. Having him easily vault up to Rose's piano for the final crescendo just feels like the conclusion of perfect theater in action. He makes it look easy, sound hard, and look fantastic.

7 Eric Clapton, Layla (1991)

Live At Royal Albert Hall

Recorded by guitar virtuoso Eric Clapton in 1970 for his only album under the Derek and the Dominoes moniker, "Layla" has stood the test of time as one of Clapton's biggest songs, becoming a hit both as an electric band and acoustic unplugged cut 20 years apart from each other. Written in part by the inspiration of Clapton being secretly in love with his friend, ex-Beatle George Harrison's wife Pattie Boyd (whom Clapton would marry for a time following her divorce from Harrison), "Layla" is also known for its iconic sweeping guitar solo.

"Layla" has stood the test of time as one of Clapton's biggest songs, becoming a hit both as an electric band and acoustic unplugged cut 20 years apart from each other.

That solo not only comes out in full glory in this clip but is backed by the ornate workings of a full band and orchestra that gives the tidal wave ups and downs of the outro of "Layla" even more golden-throatedness and filigree. Clapton looks every bit of his "Slowhand" nickname here, making this solo look easy as a cigarette hangs off the headstock of the guitar. This is truly the essence of a classic rock star persona at work.

6 B.B. King, The Thrill Is Gone (1993)

Live At Montreux '93

Written in 1951 by Roy Hawkins and Rick Darnell and turned into a major blues standard hit by B.B. King after he covered it on a recording in 1969, "The Thrill Is Gone" was a classic example of King taking someone else's song and making it so uniquely his own it'd be impossible to view it any other way. It also became a significant staple of King's work on the live stage and showed the masterful way that King didn't need extremely technical guitar leads to still play with supreme emotive quality.

That was no exception during this Live in Montreux set. Backed by King's always-cracking back band of players, his trusty guitar "Lucille," and his deep, gravelly vocal belt, "The Thrill Is Gone" starts as a slow, burning scorn before roaring up into a fiery shout. His guitar solos around the track with precise emotional , outlining the lyrics like a ive, trusting friend. B.B. King always knew how to get right into the aching heart of what made the blues so blue, and this is the night sky of great guitar solos.

5 Chuck Berry, Johnny B. Goode (1972)

Live On The Midnight Special

Musician Chuck Berry wrote and recorded "Johnny B. Goode" in 1958, and over the years it has become a hallmark of rock and roll, guitar music, popular culture, and musical influence around the world and beyond. Legions of bands have covered the song; Berry's tune takes a prominent role in a scene of the 1985 movie Back to the Future and was even sent into space on the Voyager craft as part of the Golden Record of musical samples and sounds in 1977.

This is for good reason, not only because of the foundational place "Johnny B. Goode" has in the realm of rock and roll, but also for Berry's musical showmanship and guitar wizardry. It's easy to see why the loose autobiographical feeling of the song ended up being a reflection of Berry himself. Between his splits, signature duck walk, commanding voice, and charming presence in this Midnight Special video, Berry not only had the guitar solos but the rock-star entertainer persona to sell every second of them.

4 Jimi Hendrix, All Along The Watchtower (1970)

Isle Of Wight Festival

The great Jimi Hendrix covered the Bob Dylan song "All Along the Watchtower" on his 1968 double album Electric Ladyland, the year after Dylan had put his original version to tape on his 1967 LP John Wesley Harding. Hendrix had long had a fascination with Dylan's work and wound up putting a stamp on "Watchtower" that, much like B.B. King with "The Thrill Is Gone," made the track feel like Hendrix's own rather than Dylan's work. A big part of that was because of Hendrix's mountainous guitar.

Hendrix had long had a fascination with Dylan's work and wound up putting a stamp on "Watchtower."

Bristling with acid-headed solos and a -lined trademark level of intensity, Hendrix slams this arrangement of "Watchtower," presented here in 1970 at England's Isle of Wight Festival. At his ever-present level of calm and control, Hendrix rains down wriggling riff after riff at a rate that feels nearly mythical in stature. But that fits Hendrix exceptionally well; his presence and his skill have always felt at a level nearly ten feet tall.

3 Van Halen, Eruption (1986)

Live At Veteran's Memorial Coliseum

Originally conceived for Van Halen's 1978 self-titled debut album, "Eruption" was a short yet iconic instrumental VH guitarist Eddie Van Halen randomly created in-studio that their producer Ted Templeman overheard and wanted to record. "Eruption" wound up making the album as a lead-in to the band's cover of The Kinks' "You Really Got Me," which helped introduce the world to the idea of guitar tapping. But in this live video from a 1986 Van Halen show in New Haven, Connecticut, Eddie Van Halen takes "Eruption" to a new level of guitar solo.

Looping in licks from a variety of songs, Van Halen is given center stage for over ten minutes of riffs, licks, taps, and bends, with a cigarette smoking away near the guitar's headstock, similar to Eric Clapton in the earlier "Layla" video. There's every style mixed in, from blues to punk to metal to pure 80's sheen, and it's evident that Eddie Van Halen is having fun with every second of pure improvisational mastery. Watch pure musicality go to work, and make it into joy.

2 John Mayer, Gravity (2007)

Where The Light Is, Live In LA

You're probably reading these words and immediately getting ready to doubt the inclusion of John Mayer. How does the guy who wrote "Why Georgia" and "Your Body is a Wonderland" get inclusion with guitar killers like Hendrix, Slash, and Van Halen? Well, look no further than Mayer's evolution with drummer Steve Jordan and bassist Pino Palladino in the John Mayer Trio or his 2006 breakout studio album Continuum to see the startling difference. Think what you will of Mayer the person, but Mayer the musician has leaped forward over the years.

Take "Gravity," for instance. This Continuum, cut from Mayer's 2007 Where The Light Is live concert in Los Angeles with Jordan and Palladino, is a soulful, bluesy revelation compared to the acoustic troubador Mayer started in the early 2000s. He truly captures the feeling and essence of the blues in his strings, and it winds and undulates through "Gravity" in his solos with a raw grace that might once have seemed incapable of Mayer. It's a true transformation.

1 Prince, While My Guitar Gently Weeps (2004)

2004 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Inductions

As part of the 2004 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductions for George Harrison, musicians including Prince, Tom Petty, Steve Winwood, Jeff Lynne, and others covered The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." What started as a decent, if altogether unremarkable, cover of the song kicks into another plane of existence once Prince takes center stage for the guitar solo. With a smile on his face, The Purple One practically levitates as he erases the other musicians from the song with sheer, towering presence.

The Purple One practically levitates as he erases the other musicians from the song with sheer, towering presence.

It comes as no surprise that Prince can shred. Evidence of that was available as early as his song "Bambi" from 1979's Prince album, and Purple Rain was undeniable in that regard. As much as Prince could be the pop star, the funkadelic fuse, the soulful balladeer, and the boundary-pushing experimentalist, he still knew how to rock. The way he tips off the stage perfectly here, and throws his guitar up in the air at the end, never to be seen again. It isn't just guitar playing anymore; it's art.