Whilst the Rhythm Guitar is playing, the Lead guitar plays some simple octave chords and powerchords over the top. In fact, the Lead guitar is easy throughout the song until the solo begins.

Start by playing some octave chords (which follow the school kids' melody line of 'We don't need no education')...

D - E - F - E - D - E - F - E (hold)

Notice there is sometimes brief muting between those chords.

Each time that lick is played, it ends on either the E or F.

At the end of the verses play G then G5 (the first is an octave chord, the second is a powerchord, they're very similar). Then...

F5 - C5 - D5 (hold)
F5 - C5 - D5 (stab and mute)

Repeat the whole thing again for the middle part of the song, then break into the epic solo at the end.

The solo is typical Gilmore. Not blisteringly fast, but full of lovely little phrases and sweet touches. He usually sticks to the pentatonic minor or blues scales (D in this case). He is a master of long bends. As you can hear in the ActionTab, he loves to bend a note, and then bend it even further. That can be hard - if you have a whammy bar, you can bend and then apply the whammy (lift up) to further the bend!