I Heard Her Call My Name

The Velvet Underground, 1968, from White Light/White Heat. Solo by Lou Reed.

Reed's solo is a burst of atonal, overloaded noise that many later indie and punk players took as permission.

I Heard Her Call My Name, from White Light/White Heat, contains one of the most violent guitar solos of the 1960s. Lou Reed unleashes a burst of atonal, overloaded noise, the notes breaking up into distortion and feedback so extreme that they barely register as pitches. The solo abandons conventional structure, turning the guitar into a tool for chaos and intensity rather than melody. Many later indie and punk players took it as permission to embrace noise and imperfection. Listen for how the solo seems to tear through the song, the mix buckling under the pressure of the sound.

I Heard Her Call My Name by The Velvet Underground is ranked #262 in our consensus of 79 guitar-solo lists. The solo is played by Lou Reed and the song was released in 1968. It appears on 1 lists, placing as high as #45 (Rolling Stone).

In our lists

• The 25 Greatest Indie Rock Guitar Solos — #9
• Rolling Stone vs. Everyone — #8
• The Best Lou Reed Guitar Solos — #1

Sources

• Rolling Stone: The 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time — #45