Your 3 favorite keyboard solos?

Shine on you crazy diamond intro solo by Richard Wright
Frost* - Black Light Machine

Rick Wakeman  (roundabout, awaken, birthright, the revelaing science of god, Merlin The Magician and so many others)

Keith Emerson (lucky man, trilogy title track and tarkus)

Honorable mentions:

Tomas Bodin 

Martin Orford

Neal Morse/ Ryo Okomoto

The whole 'Solo' term is a little nebulous for me, As stated above, some keyboard licks are considered solos while others are sweeteners or just parts of the composition.

I'll go with anything by Emerson, Wakeman, Moraz, Fritz or Duncan Mackay to start, but even Kansas, Styx or Saga have great keyboard breaks.

Hi,

Hopefully you won't think this is against the "solo", but in general, for me, a musical piece is always "one" and a solo is not necessary, or a part of the whole thing.

As an example, let's take TARKUS, and suggesting that Keith is soloing is a bit on the nuts side of things, as the piece is not a song, but a keyboard concerto with the synthesizer being used as an instrument itself, rather than a sit-in for another orchestra piece. At that time, the synth still had a life of its own, and was not exactly used as a replacement for an orchestra as is the case today with most rock bands.

Another example, is listening to YES in TFTO and even CTTE. It's a serious shame to consider that Chris is "soloing" because he seems to do so many touches that appear almost independent from the whole thing, or even comment on Steve as solo'ing for the whole thing ... it's a complete "Symphony" by its definition and the elements (the instruments) are all a part of the whole, and complete thing.

I, personally, don't like the idea of a "solo" since it tends to imply that the guitarist (or otherwise) is on his/her own, and for me, the unity of the piece falls apart ... it's all about this, and then a solo that has nothing to do with that at all ... a bit weird for me, and this is very loud and clear in a large majority of rock musicians.

Now, if we take "thrashing" and some "metal", this line is blurred even more since the whole thing comes off as a non-stop solo, and listening to DREAM THEATER, it sure seems that way, with a few guys supporting the guitar which seemingly creates the imagined idea and thoughts of what the piece is about via a couple of lyrics. This is bad in many ways. If you have done live theater, you know that no 2 nights are the same and tomorrow the audience won't laugh about this line or other moment. So, expecting the audience to fall for the same thing night after night is something that bands work on ... by making sure their "fans" are up front first, and love everything they do.

I am not sure that the word is right ... for example, I don't consider that John McLoughlin is soloing his way through a piece of music! And this is the hard part of deciding what a solo is, and how it should be used ... if it is "apart" from the actual piece of music ... that's another story, but for us to sit here and consider a "solo" as a part of a rock song ... means that we hate music history and think 500 years of definitions and studies are all stupid because a rock band does this ... and us, the fans, think it's better than what history has shown us ... in the end, the "solo" has nothing to do with the piece itself that it is on.