@relax_inn said:

@BrotherJoe said:

I also think that some of the riffs are just moved to different parts of the songs.

I just listened to the Mexico WGTYM on the drive in, and there is a GREAT riff in the guitar break section...opposed to something like Free, which leads with the riff.

Are you talking about an improvised line in Trey’s guitar solo for WGTYM? I can’t think of any composed guitar parts in that song, but maybe I’m forgetting something.

This thread is just about guitar composition, not improv. Trey still crushes the improv game….the irony being every single night he’ll improvise beautiful, unique, catchy melodies on stage but when he sits down to write a song very rarely does an interesting guitar line appear

What I'm saying is that there are still composed guitar lines, they just don't take precedence over vocals and lyrics these days.

This is the version I was referring to, and this clip starts on the section I mean. I can't say that I've exhausted every version of this song, but it seems to me like no matter what improv follows, he's going to play a guitar line that is close to this melody.

It might not be exactly this every night, but that's a recognizable, consistent, hummable riff that he plays in most versions of this song. I wouldn't consider that improv; to me that's a composed line. (EDIT: what I'm really trying to say is that since that guitar melody is basically the vocal melody, I consider that a composed guitar line)