Queen: Don’t Stop Me Now has always been my favourite guitar solo. In this article, I’m going to try to explain why.

Queen: Don’t Stop Me Now. The song.

Queen: Don’t Stop Me Now is the penultimate track of Queen’s 1978 Album Jazz, and was released as a single on 26 January 1979.  It also appeared on various compilation albums, including Queen’s Greatest Hits in 1981. The single peaked at number 9 in the UK charts and remains one of their best-loved songs, still popular to this day.

The Structure of the Don’t Stop Me Now Guitar Solo.

As with a lot of Brian May’s work, he plays for the song as opposed to going off-tangent with an inappropriate and forgettable technical lead break, starting with a simplified and repeating riff on the vocal with just enough bends and unique-to-the-guitar phrasing to make it stand on its own. From there, it moves up a register, teasing a new melody and threatening to break loose, before teasingly but tastefully rounding it off with enough subtlety to allow Freddie back in.

It is an exercise in the simple, effective and memorable.

Getting the tab and learning the solo seems like simplicity itself, with the phrasing, speed and length as easy as it gets. But we are forgetting there is a genius at work here because, although it’s easy to learn the notes and get through the solo, getting it to sound like the record is impossible, and that’s why I love it so much!

Don’t Stop Me Now. My Favourite Guitar Tone.

The first factor that separates us, mere mortals, from Brian May is his incredible guitar tone. And the solo for Don’t Stop Me Now is the best guitar tone I’ve ever heard. It’s cutting, with that sixpence providing a biting, metallic edge, but there’s also incredible weight and woody body to the tone provided by the chambered Red Special and the Vox AC30s. It’s massive, in your face and makes a statement every bit as effective as Freddie’s legendary 4-octave vocal range. The ultimate blend of clarity and sustain that we all search for but never attain.

Obviously, this is a tone crafted through years of experimentation, and you can hear it in the effortless confidence of this solo. Of course, even pursuing Brian May’s tone doesn’t come cheap. As a starting point, you’ll need some form of Red Special, a sixpence, a Treble Booster, and a Vox AC30. But you’ll never own the Red Special, and sadly, you still won’t be able to replicate this solo because there’s another factor that cannot be replicated. But before we get into that…

Queen: Don’t Stop Me Now Solo Pickup Selection.

There are various reports on this. In my view, this is not the famous out-of-phase neck and middle screeching tone we hear on Bohemian Rhapsody. This is thicker and warmer, possibly neck and middle in-phase, with the bite coming from the sixpence. What do you think? Drop me a comment below.

The Don’t Stop Me Now Guitar Solo Is More Difficult Than You Think.

As I said earlier, reading tab and learning the notes of the solo is easy; it takes about 10 minutes for any reasonably able player. But after the realisation that you can’t sound like Brian May kicks in, there’s something else: it’s also impossible to replicate his playing!

Right from the first bend. Brian May’s signature rake of the sixpence. Adds a huge amount of emotion that is very difficult to replicate and, unfortunately, is a big reason why the solo is so effective. In fact, most of the bends are given this treatment to ensure maximum impact. This unique effect comes from lightly stroking the serrated edge of the sixpence across the strings into the bend. A sixpence is something the vast majority of players wouldn’t consider as a plectrum. Who wants the string breakages? But Brian holds this most unforgiving of materials softly, giving himself the widest range of tones possible at his fingertips and prioritising inconveniences like string changes well below tone. But it’s not just the bends. Every single note is wrung to within an inch of its life, to the point where you could almost visualise Brian putting everything into them. No tab can ever convey this.

Why is the Queen: Don’t Stop Me Now Solo So Great?

Because a simple, short lead break has been put out of reach by a genius of guitar tone. It’s an exercise in how effective a simple idea can be when executed with ultimate guitar tone and maximum passion. It gives us non-guitar wizards hope in that it has stood the test of time while the technique players of the 80s have faded. This is what I aspire to; this is how I want to sound.

But the main reason I love this solo so much is that I’ve given up on it. I appreciate greatness for what it is, with my ears, not trying to fumble about with my own efforts trying to replicate a work of art that can’t be replicated.

It is what it is. Perfect.