As Rolling Stone updates its ranking of the 100 greatest guitar solos of all time, modern guitar star St. Vincent has weighed in on her personal favorite — and why the “sacrosanct” solo should never be altered.
Her pick is “Kid Charlemagne,” from Steely Dan’s fifth studio album, The Royal Scam. The track lands at an impressive No. 8 on the list, and its solo is so revered that St. Vincent says she only wants to hear it played exactly the way guitarist Larry Carlton recorded it in 1976.
By the time Steely Dan made The Royal Scam, bandleaders Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were relying heavily on session players. The album ultimately featured a formidable roster of guitarists, including founding member Denny Dias as well as veteran session ace Dean Parks.
But for St. Vincent — born Annie Clark — “Kid Charlemagne” stands above the rest.
I want to hear the Larry Carlton solo note-for-note. That’s the testament to how great it is. It’s sacrosanct, compositionally.”
— St. Vincent
“Those guitar solos on The Royal Scam are so iconic that I want to hear them verbatim,” she says (via Rolling Stone). “I don’t want to hear someone improvise and stretch out and be completely extemporaneous — even the great guitar players that they’ve had onstage.
“I want to hear the Larry Carlton solo note-for-note. That’s the testament to how great it is. It’s sacrosanct, compositionally.”
The story goes that Carlton initially recorded several takes of the solo on a Fender Stratocaster before finally being allowed to switch to his favored Gibson ES-335. On the track, his prized semi-hollow is believed to have been paired with a late-’50s Fender Tweed Deluxe amplifier rather than the Fender Princeton combo he used two years earlier on Joni Mitchell’s “Help Me.”
Carlton himself has always been somewhat bemused by the solo’s reputation.
“I’m honored that people talk about this middle guitar solo so much,” he told Guitar Player. But he admits he didn’t initially view it as anything extraordinary.
I thought it was good when I played it, but I didn’t think, ‘Yeah, I played the shit out of that tonight.’”
— Larry Carlton
“I thought it was good when I played it, but I didn’t think, ‘Yeah, I played the shit out of that tonight.’ When the record came out, there was a wonderful review of the tune in Billboard, and they raved about the solo. I put the record on and listened to it with my wife, and at the end of it I said, ‘I don’t know. It just sounds like me.’”
Even so, the improvised take has clearly earned its reputation, edging out another classic moment, Eric Clapton’s solo on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” by the Beatles, which lands at number 10.
St. Vincent herself also appears on the list. Her 2015 track “Rattlesnake” comes in at No. 50. The solo — recorded on her Ernie Ball Music Man signature electric guitar — channels some of her favorite sonic antiheroes, including Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew and Marc Ribot. They’re the kind of players, she says, “who make the hair on the back of your neck stand up because the note is, like, hurty.”
Speaking previously to Guitar Player, St. Vincent said she values musical instinct over sheer virtuosity — a philosophy shared by newly inducted Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Jack White, another guitarist known for embracing unconventional instruments.
Meanwhile, Mark Knopfler has recently recalled the grueling 10-hour session he spent recording with Steely Dan — a marathon that ultimately yielded just seconds of music — while longtime Dan guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter has reflected on some of the strangest studio gigs of his career.
