A gnarly, over-the-top precursor to punk that was never really outdone by punk.
The Playlist Special: Top Artists Pick Their Personal Top 10
The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach: Badass Guitars
"Guitar bores the shit out of me 99 percent of the time," says the Black Keys frontman. "A solo has to be strange: There's gotta be that little 'crack' element, where it sounds like part of the song has been smoking crack."
Listen: Dan Auerbach's Top Songs With Badass Guitars
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1."Shot Down" | The Sonics, 1965
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2."Dearest" | Mickey & Sylvia, 1957
Mickey Baker was underrated magic.
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3."I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know" | Blood, Sweat & Tears, 1968
It's very much like an Isaac Hayes song, but with fuzz guitar way up front. It's just cool.
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4."Heart Full Of Love" | The Invincibles, 1965
My favorite soul song of all time. It's perfect.
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5."Your Body, Not Your Soul" | Cuby and the Blizzards, 1966
Completely bonkers. They're a Sixties European garage band, and everybody's bashing in unison.
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6."All Night Long" | Junior Kimbrough, 1992
He'd play the rhythm part, locking in with the drums in a hypnotic way. It's not blues; it's weird North Mississippi soul.
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7."The Spook" | Pete Drake, 1964
It sounds like Ethiopian music recorded at Stax.
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8."Commotion" | Creedence Clearwater Revival, 1969
Fogerty played a fucking miniature Rickenbacker through a solid-state Kustom amp. Nobody used that shit; his whole sound was unique.
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9."Some Kinda Nut" | Moon Men, 1963
The most aggressive, I-wanna-kill-you guitar ever put to tape. It's like Link Wray's trying to destroy people's minds with the solos in this song.
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10."Space Guitar" | Johnny "Guitar" Watson, 1953
He used to have, like, a 50-foot guitar cable, and he'd go through the audience playing guitar on his buddy's shoulders. He was a total showman, and you hear that on this song: crazy, showy, with wild studio effects.
