Russell Hall at Gibson.com has put together his list of the top 10 Great guitar outros. Here is his intro and the top 3 picks: A great guitar outro can serve as the sonic equivalent of an exclamation point, something to drive home the power of a song in an emphatic way. Some outros exude subtlety and ambiance, while others bite and sting like an angry hornet. Below are 10 of the very best."Layla" – Derek And The Dominos The soaring blues anguish that drives this masterpiece finds release in the song's majestic coda. Recorded three weeks after the main track was put down, the outro finds Duane Allman delivering poignant slide work, with Eric Clapton's acoustic guitar and drummer Jim Gordon's piano composition riding on top. The "crying bird" sound at the end of the track, a great touch by Allman, is said to have been done as a tribute to jazz great Charlie "Bird" Parker.
"Hotel California" – The Eagles Joe Walsh often gets credit, but actually it was Don Felder who came up with the main parts for the outro that powers this classic. "[I was] tinkering around with an acoustic 12-string when those 'Hotel California' chords just oozed out," Felder once told Guitar World. "I added some electric guitars, [and] mixed down to mono, ping-ponging back and forth on a little four-track. I wound up with a cassette that had virtually the entire arrangement that appeared on the record, verbatim, with the exception of a few Joe Walsh licks on the end." Felder's Les Paul never sounded better.
"Free Bird" – Lynyrd Skynyrd Allen Collins fashioned his lead on a Gibson Explorer for this sensational outro, while Gary Rossington handled rhythm duties on a Les Paul and added slide fills with an SG. The band's record company tried to persuade Skynyrd not to include the song on their debut album, insisting the track was too long. Fortunately, the group held its ground. The extended live version that appears on the 1976 album, One More From the Road, sealed the song's classic status. - Did you favorite song make the list? Find out here
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