Where is our "Freebird"?

Where are our killer solos? Do we need them anymore? Have they disappeared? If so, when? and why?

Were they not a cathartic experience? Don’t we need that in our lives? If they’re gone, what have we replaced them with? Is our catharsis now being provided by the drop of a dubstep bassline? By a howling Chris Martin chorus? By the drone of My Bloody Valentine guitars? By heavy metal riffs? By a man in a large mouse-head, on his laptop? By a particular dude in a headband, on his laptop?  

Where are the minutes-long meanderings? Where’s the artistry inherent in taking a song to a whole other plane? Where is our divergence from the expected? Is it with Animal Collective’s fire-side yelps and shouts? Even when they showcase it, aren’t they using a Grateful Dead sample? Where is our 21^st century staple?

Are we past the days of guitar solos? Have we evolved past them? Have all the good ones been done already? Would we only be rehashing the past? Is “Freebird” maybe best experienced through the lens of a high-school cover band? What about the other great guitar solos? What about any seminal solo, of any kind? Doesn’t everyone want to play air drums when “In The Air Tonight” is on? Didn’t Mike Tyson?

Don’t you wonder sometimes?