Annie Clark, known as St. Vincent, has named the guitar solo in Steely Dan's 1976 track 'Kid Charlemagne' as her favorite of all time. She shared the pick in a recent interview, praising its compositional precision. Clark also discussed her new orchestral live album.
Annie Clark, the musician known as St. Vincent, revealed her top guitar solo pick in an interview with Rolling Stone. She selected the solo in Steely Dan's 'Kid Charlemagne' from their 1976 album The Royal Scam, performed by guitarist Larry Carlton on a Fender Stratocaster. The track, which runs four minutes and 38 seconds, ranks number 8 on Rolling Stone's list of greatest guitar solos. St. Vincent's own song 'Rattlesnake' also features on that list.Clark explained her admiration, saying, “Those guitar solos on The Royal Scam are so iconic that I want to hear them verbatim.” She emphasized wanting to hear the 50-second solo note-for-note, calling it “sacrosanct, compositionally.” The solo's outro was improvised in one take after multiple studio attempts directed by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. She noted Steely Dan's later track 'Peg' as another strong contender.The solo's creation involved about two hours in the studio, with Carlton re-recording several times at Becker's insistence before switching back to his preferred Gibson ES-335. Much of the material was discarded, but the final improvised outro made the cut.Clark recently released Live in London!, a 19-song orchestral recording from her BBC Royal Albert Hall concert, produced with conductor Jules Buckley and Rachel Eckroth. The digital album, out since March 20, features arrangements of tracks like “Los Ageless” and “New York.” She described the shows as “glorious and civilized,” contrasting her prior intense tour for All Born Screaming.
