Sometimes the singer just needs a break. Or a line. Or sometimes the players want to demonstrate their virtuoso skills — quite often the drummer. And sometimes there’s this super-fun groove that you don’t want to blow. Well, that’s what the instrumental is for.
Ladies and gentlemen, since this will be a guitar-and-drum heavy selection, might I ask you to rise and remove your hats as we pay tribute to our nation as we begin the performance?
Led Zeppelin, Moby Dick:
A classic from Dick Dale, Misirlou:
More after the jump, including one for all the haters…
Here’s the new inductees to the Rock and Roll Hal of Fame, Rush, with the drum-solo indulgent glory that is YYZ:
One of my favorite bits, Mark Knopfler’s Two Brothers And A Stranger:
Equally thoughful, Heat Miser from Massive Attack:
There’s some good football on this weekend. Nothing better for it than Gary Glitter’s Rock And Roll Part 2:
Now, the twang of Duane Eddy, the sound of Art of Noise… Peter Gunn!
But really it’s about the guitar. Eric Johnson’s White Cliffs Of Dover:
Or Joe Satriani, Flying In A Blue Dream:
And to end it, I give you Jeff Beck, Keith Moon, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones. I don’t know if it’s Rod Stewart on tambourine. Beck’s Bolero:
Thank you and good night. Feel free to offer your own selections in the comments, and drive safely home.
These are awesome. (And the soundtrack of my teens, too.)
Vocal vs. instrumental music uses differing parts of the brain; without words to cling too, we have to use something else; grasp differently. It’s good for ya.
Led Zeppelin II was the first album I purchased (I was poor, and a late bloomer when it came to purchasing stuff. Still a reluctant consumer.) Water Babies the second.
And then I met my sweetie, and he played this one for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv_bkS5VVaA
We’ve been together ever since.Report
George Thoroughly Good: Manhattan Slide
Also, when I saw Fleetwood Mac in concert, Mick Fleetwood’s solo on The Chain was awesome.Report
In the 90’s, there was a Chapel Hill rock band that was known for its jagged postpunk, sitting at a sonic midpoint between IRS-era REM and Sonic Youth.
Then they went and released an album that had these two lovely instrumentals nestled in it:
“Acromegaly”: Shimmering & hypnotic –
http://youtu.be/mRa94LXEwrA
“Bombs Away”: Hauntingly beautiful –
http://youtu.be/9yHVsfPrn38
I repeat, this is not their normal stock in trade – while there are other hidden corners of strange beauty elsewhere in their discography, their more dominant noisier mode often features two intertwining snarling (in both senses of the word) guitars that sounded like they’d been strung with rusty barbed wire, and strangled hoarse vocals (though with great rhythmic sense) fighting through the din.
But man, are these songs just plain pretty.Report
ELP’s version of Copland’s Hoedown, from Rodeo. This album version drags along compared to the tempo they used for live performances. Always wondered how much speed Keith Emerson was on to manage that live tempo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFCniNYZoFgReport
Liked the inclusion of Eric Johnson. I was going to link to it before I saw you featured it. So instead I add this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji_J3_uNSKQReport
The Who’s The Ox is undeservedly obscure. Green Onions is deservedly famous.Report
I was going to call Dick Dale a bit of a cheat, since he worked solely (or primarily, if there are any exceptions I am unaware of them) in instrumental rock, and I thought this was more for instrumentals by rock artists that normally incorporate vocals.
But, I’m glad you did include him, because I went over to wiki to see if he ever used vocals; and I there learned that Dale is of Lebanese descent, and this heritage is the source of the eastern scales he (and therefore, all subsequent surf music) used.
Which is the sort of really interesting (and in retrospect, should-have-been-obvious) thing that I can’t believe had never really occurred to me before.
So thanks!
Here’s another instrumental surf rock tune – “Cecilia Ann”, originally by the Surftones, here covered by Pixies:
http://youtu.be/k0Djte6kBLUReport