Guitar Solos   

It's been a while since I've posted a straight-up face-melting concert video here so in the spirit of getting back to my roots, I dug up a video of one of my favorite songs, Stranglehold by Ted Nugent.

Love him or hate him or love to hate him, there's no denying that The Nuge rips the Gibson Byrdland with a stage presence few can rival.

He gave you your moneys worth. Two hours of hard kick ass rock. Man he was so loud tiles were falling from the rafters.
— TVC17

Apparently I'm not the only one who loves Stranglehold. Here are some quick facts courtesy of Wikipedia…

• Stranglehold was ranked the 31st greatest guitar solo of all time on Guitar World's 100 Greatest Guitar Solos (You can listen to 87 of the greatest guitar solos on Rhapsody or watch the top 20 greatest guitar solos on YouTube)
• Stranglehold has been featured in the films Dazed and Confused, Rock Star, Invincible, Superbad, and Bad News Bears
• Stranglehold is the intro music for the Detroit Tigers and New York Jets placekicker Mike Nugent (no relation)
• Stranglehold was also used as entrance music by WCCW wrestler Kevin Von Erich
• And who could forget that Phish teased Stranglehold during Mike's Song at the Murat Theatre in '93

For what it's worth, this isn't my favorite Stranglehold on YouTube, but that one doesn't allow embedding and this one is still a tour de force of psychedelic rock & roll.

Want a piece of The Nuge? Shop for Ted Nugent Memorabilia.

Here's a few minutes of face-melting guitar work from Dave Murray of Iron Maiden.

Maiden played the first night of the original Rock in Rio, a 10-day-long festival festival in 1985 attended by about 1.4 million people, during their World Slavery Tour. The performance celebrated the release of Maiden's classic album, Powerslave.

There's plenty of great close-ups so you can steal Dave's licks... if you dare try!