# Shoot Out the Lights guitar solo

> The guitar solo on Shoot Out the Lights by Richard & Linda Thompson (1982) starts at about 1:56. From the album Shoot Out the Lights.

Canonical URL: <https://greatestsolos.com/song/richard-and-linda-thompson-shoot-out-the-lights/>

Richard & Linda Thompson, 1982, from *Shoot Out the Lights*. Solo by *Richard Thompson*.

Thompson's jagged, dissonant solo turns the title track into one of his most distinctive electric performances.

Shoot Out the Lights is Richard Thompson at his most menacing. The song simmers on a tense, minor-key groove, and his solo arrives like a burst of shattered glass: jagged, dissonant phrases, sudden leaps and bent notes that refuse to settle into comfortable blues shapes. He draws on the modal sounds of British folk but plays them with a raw, almost violent attack, and the feedback-tinged tone adds to the unease. It remains one of the clearest demonstrations of why so many guitarists regard him as a singular voice. Listen for the moments where a phrase seems about to resolve and he veers off instead; the lack of release is what makes the solo so unsettling.

Shoot Out the Lights by Richard & Linda Thompson is featured in our Folk Rock (#4) list. The solo is played by Richard Thompson and the song was released in 1982.

## In our lists

- [Beyond the Canon](https://greatestsolos.com/list/beyond-the-canon/) — #26
- [The 25 Greatest Folk Rock Guitar Solos](https://greatestsolos.com/list/folk-rock/) — #4
- [The Best Richard Thompson Guitar Solos](https://greatestsolos.com/list/richard-thompson-guitar-solos/) — #2
- [Top 20 Guitar Solos of 1982](https://greatestsolos.com/list/best-guitar-solos-1982/) — #10

## Sources

### Who played the guitar solo on Shoot Out the Lights?

Richard Thompson played the solo on Richard & Linda Thompson's Shoot Out the Lights (1982).

---

GreatestSolos ranks the greatest guitar solos by consensus across published lists. Agent guide: [llms.txt](https://greatestsolos.com/llms.txt) · [Sitemap](https://greatestsolos.com/sitemap.xml) · [Dataset (CSV)](https://greatestsolos.com/data/greatest-guitar-solos.csv) · [How we rank](https://greatestsolos.com/method/)