Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee
Extreme, 1990, from Pornograffitti. Solo by Nuno Bettencourt.
A short Nuno Bettencourt solo feature on Pornograffitti, all tapping and picking precision.
Nuno Bettencourt packs a lot into well under a minute here, running tapped figures and razor-clean picked runs into a quick, show-off sprint that sits on Pornograffitti as a lead-in to the heavier material around it. The title nods to Rimsky-Korsakov's famous perpetual-motion piece, and the joke is that the bee is wounded: the lines stagger, stop and restart rather than simply buzzing along. What makes it more than a party trick is the rhythmic snap Nuno brings from his funk-rock playing, so even the fastest phrases feel locked to a pulse. It showed a generation of shred fans that speed could come with wit. Listen for how cleanly each tapped note speaks, with almost no stray string noise between the phrases.
Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee by Extreme is ranked #294 in our consensus of 79 guitar-solo lists. The solo is played by Nuno Bettencourt and the song was released in 1990. It appears on 2 lists, placing as high as #31 (DigitalDreamDoor).
In our lists
- The 25 Greatest Guitar Instrumentals — #25
- The 25 Greatest Shred Guitar Solos — #10
- Tapping — #13
- The Best Extreme Guitar Solos — #3
Sources
- DigitalDreamDoor: 200 Greatest Metal Guitar Solos — #31
- Digital Dream Door: 250 Greatest Rock Guitar Solos — #116
- Guitarhabits: 50 of The Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time
Who played the guitar solo on Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee?
Nuno Bettencourt played the solo on Extreme's Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee (1990).
Where does Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee rank among the greatest guitar solos?
#294 in the GreatestSolos consensus of 79 published lists; it appears on 2 of them.