Tournament of Maiden Solos: the Top 10 video!

Which guitar solo is your favourite?


  • Total voters
    32
  • Poll closed .
Just like the Dave's Powerslave vs ATG matchup, this one also features my #1 and #2 solos from a guitarist going up against each other.

Stranger in a Strange Land is my favorite Maiden solo, so going with that one. If things end as they are now, my Top 2 Maiden solos will be up against each other in the Final round, so I'm pretty satisfied.
 
Sometimes the spaces are more important than the notes.
Always the way you touch the strings is more important than the strings you touch.
Both these -very different - solos understand that. Stranger has the maturity to sustain it all the way though.
 
To me this is a bit of a Beauty vs The Beast scenario. I get what folks are sayin about the flow and the 'story' of Stranger and while I do enjoy a good story, sometimes I just wanna break the neighbours windows.

For this reason I choose The Beast that is CSIT, one of the most intense and driving bits of music that Maiden have ever done with a solo that compliments it in perfectly violent harmony. That is the genius of Adrian Smith, my least favourite guitarist in the band.
 
Did you intentionally pair solos by the same guitarist in the semis, Foro? If so, not good.
I did not pair anything in this stage. However, before the game started I had a scheme of 128 solos and I divided them in estimated strength categories (the two "best", the four, eight etc.). The goal was that solos in the same category would meet each other as late as possible via the scheme. The bigger the estimated strength, the later they'd meet.

The two strongest solo's (highest category):
These would meet not earlier than in the final, so I put these in the bottoms of each half of the scheme. They are one by Dave and one by Adrian. Not because I wanted one of each in the final: no, because I thought they two would be the most popular.

On the category of four strongest solo's:
Two in the upper half, two in the lower half. These four include two from the highest category I just mentioned, plus two more solos from a level I estimated to be (just) a little less successful. These two also happened to be one Dave solo and one Adrian solo. I put the Dave solo in the upper half and the Adrian solo in the lower. Should this have been done otherwise? E.g., should the strongest Dave solo have met the one but strongest Adrian solo in the semi final and the strongest Adrian solo should have met the one but strongest Dave solo? I don't know. I didn't think of it that way. By the way, if I would have done that, then the second semi final could easily have been Powerslave vs SIASL. I guess we'd have a lot more protest if that would happen. :) As it turned out, these two solos are (probably) going to reach the final. ..... Wait a minute, I hear some of you think.... Powerslave was not estimated as one of the two most successful (highest category of the tournament)? Indeed. I thought Dave's Alexander solo would be slightly more popular. But no, the other one won in the semi.

The bottom half of the scheme:
I put the two estimated strongest Adrian songs in the bottom half, in the same way that they would not meet before the semi final. But I estimated wrong. Before the game started, I thought Adrian's Alexander the Great would be more successful than his Caught Somewhere in Time solo. The former I put in the "best 4 category" and the latter in "the best 8 category". Then I noticed how easily CSIT won. And along the way it got so much praise. And then I realized that CSIT and SIASL would already meet in the Quarter Final if I wouldn't change anything. So before round 4 started, I decided to switch the positions of Adrian's Alexander the Great with Adrian's Caught Somewhere in Time. Because of this, ATG met SIASL in the quarter final, and Caught Somewhere in Time met SIASL in the semi final. I could also have switched CSIT with another best 8 category solo from the other half of the scheme. That would be Wasted Years or Sea of Madness. Perhaps it would have been better, but also these solos had lots of praise (more than Adrian's Alexander the Great, in my impression). But there would be another downside to this: by then, I felt that CSIT was best 4 category (more so then Adrian's ATG), so if it would have met Powerslave or Dave's ATG solo, that would not have solved the problem. I'd still have 2 best 4 category solos meeting too early. In hindsight, perhaps the best thing could have been a CSIT switch with H's Rime or Dave's Fear of the Dark. But then H's CSIT could have met his ATG solo in the Quarter final, and one of these would meet SIASL in the semi final (same result).

You see, everything is connected. If a solo would be somewhere else, that would mean another solo would also be somewhere else.

I hope you're not too disappointed about this. I did what felt right and I hope you understand how it was prepared and how it worked out.
 
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To me this is a bit of a Beauty vs The Beast scenario. I get what folks are sayin about the flow and the 'story' of Stranger and while I do enjoy a good story, sometimes I just wanna break the neighbours windows.

For this reason I choose The Beast that is CSIT, one of the most intense and driving bits of music that Maiden have ever done with a solo that compliments it in perfectly violent harmony. That is the genius of Adrian Smith, my least favourite guitarist in the band.
"Beauty and the beast" is the perfect description!
 
I thought this one was going to be harder than it was, however even though these are my two favorite Adrian solos, Stranger has always been my favorite. Listening to them back to back numerous times reminded me that even though CSIT contains all of the wizardry and technical attributes that make Adrian a great guitarist, the Stranger solo, although not nearly as fast nor technical as CSIT, is just so emotional and beautiful, like it has ethereal meaning. Vote is for Stranger.
 
I voted Stranger by mistake...but then again perhaps my subconscious is telling me something and overruled my ears' and brain's devout worship of Adrian's CSIT solo. SIT was the album when both Adrian and Dave grew extra fingers on their left hands...the quality of soloing on CSIT, WY, SOM, HCW, TLOTLDR, SIASL and ATG is another level from any album before or after.

SIASL for me!
 
Result of Semi Final 2: Adrian Smith's Caught Somewhere in Time solo (038) is eliminated. 043 advances to the Final!
 
This became a tradition :p

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I think I will vote for CSiT for bronze but I'll wait and listen with open ears.
(Would you believe this game has made me pay so much more attention to some of the solos, some of which I did not recognize at first that now for several of the songs when I hear the solo I say "ah, I recognize that from the tournament" instead of the other way round?)
 
(NOTE: If this game is new for you, and if you would like to participate, please check the opening post of this thread, before you vote)

Bronze Medal match!:

 
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