# Emergency! guitar solo

> John McLaughlin's guitar solo on Emergency! by The Tony Williams Lifetime (1969). From the album Emergency!. Watch from the solo, plus the story and gear.

Canonical URL: <https://greatestsolos.com/song/the-tony-williams-lifetime-emergency/>

The Tony Williams Lifetime, 1969, from *Emergency!*. Solo by *John McLaughlin*.

An organ trio played at rock volume, with McLaughlin's raw, distorted solos in the middle of it.

Emergency! was the debut of Tony Williams Lifetime, an organ trio played at rock volume. With Tony Williams on drums and Larry Young on organ, John McLaughlin's guitar is raw and distorted, cutting through a dense, turbulent sound. His solos are fast and fierce, mixing jazz harmony with the sonic intensity of rock, and they often sound on the edge of chaos. The album was a key early step toward fusion and showcased McLaughlin before his work with Miles Davis became widely known. Listen for how the guitar, organ and drums overlap and collide, creating a thick wall of sound rather than a neat trio arrangement.

Emergency! by The Tony Williams Lifetime is featured in our Fusion (#14) list. The solo is played by John McLaughlin and the song was released in 1969.

## In our lists

- [The 25 Greatest Fusion Guitar Solos](https://greatestsolos.com/list/fusion/) — #14
- [The Best John McLaughlin Guitar Solos](https://greatestsolos.com/list/john-mclaughlin-guitar-solos/) — #11

## Sources

### Who played the guitar solo on Emergency!?

John McLaughlin played the solo on The Tony Williams Lifetime's Emergency! (1969).

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