Favorite Guitar Solo

It would be hard for me to come up with just one.

So many of my favorite guitarists, Like Allan Holdsworth, John McLaughlin, Alex Machacek, Jan Zehrfeld etc. hardly ever play the same solo twice. They are improvisors, based on a deep knowledge of musical language. They do not play set solos in the same song. 

I could name dozens of Gong, Bruford, UK, and Holdsworth tracks that are drop dead incredible. 

There are a few others that stick out, though that are played more less the same each time. 

Steve Hackett -The Lamia
Steve Howe - Awaken
Franco Mussida -  L'isola di niente

@oldaudiophile -- 

Bert Jansch, John Renbourn and Doc Watson are among my greatest acoustic guitar influences, along with my two top influences John Fahey and Paul Simon.  Whenever I pick up one of my acoustics, my fingers instinctively do tunes by them. I've seen all of them at various venues. I actually saw Pentangle at the Troubadour.  It might have been my last date with my high school girlfriend who, among other things, taught me how to finger pick, Merle Travis style.

And how could I forget? Mississippi John Hurt.

I do have to echo millercarbon. Roy Clark was amazing, especially that Youtube clip where he's in a duet with Glenn Campbell.

I love many of the guitarists listed here, and it’s like a Sophie’s Choice situation to pick a favorite guitar solo.

That said, if I was threatened with execution for not picking the best solos of all time, it would be a coin toss between:

Kid Charlemagne by Larry Carlton
or
Comfortably Numb by David Gilmour.

These would be my objective save-my-skin guesses.

Then, as they haul out the gallows and I realize I’ve muffed it, I’d say, Oh crap, it was:

Sultans of Swing by Mark Knopfler
Statesboro Blues by Duane Allman
Bohemian Rhapsody by Brian May
Chain Lightening by Denny Dias
My Old School by Skunk Baxter
Crossroads live by Eric Clapton

Then they’d kick away the chair. "It was Stairway to Heaven, you fool."