50   "Debaser"
Pixies (1989)

Joey Santiago was a guitar hero to the punks who followed the Pixies' jet stream, and his trebly surf leads on this tribute to surrealism are part of the reason: His overdubbed tangle of guitars perfectly matches frontman Black Francis' fuzzed-out rhythm guitar and hoarse shout. "I should have been in that band," Kurt Cobain said in 1994, "or at least in a Pixies cover band."


"Debaser" from Doolittle (4AD)


The Pixies performing "Debaser" live

51   "Crazy Train"
Ozzy Osbourne (1981)

The son of two music teachers, the late Randy Rhoads offered a more precise, classically trained version of hyperspeed guitar than the other virtuoso of his era, Eddie Van Halen. Rhoads' impossibly clean-picked solo here — painstakingly composed while listening to tape loops of the backing tracks — helped kick off a shredding arms race.


"Crazy Train" from Blizzard of Ozz (Epic)


Ozzy Osbourne singing "Crazy Train" live

52   "My Iron Lung"
Radiohead (1995)

Hardened by touring and sick of their first hit, "Creep," Radiohead recorded the instrumental track to this sarcasm grenade at a London show in 1994. The moment that announced them as a great guitar band: when Jonny Greenwood and Ed O'Brien crank it up and bury Thom Yorke in an avalanche of bent phrases — perfect for a song about a guy gasping for air.


"My Iron Lung" from The Bends (Capitol)


Radiohead performing "My Iron Lung" live

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