Instrumentals

MOONDOGGY · Post by **MOONDOGGY** » Sunday May 09, 2004

My first Topic!! This is a topic that I love and it is also a topic that TGrimey cannot legitamately critique. That is the topic of INSTRUMENTALS. My thoughts:

Music just isn't music without instruments. However, a song without lyrics, can be as powerful, and often is more powerful, complex, and TGrimey-proof as a song with lyrics. That being said, what is you favorite instrumental group/insrumental song? My dads favorite is a late 70s-early 80s jazz fusion type band called Madura. Mine of course is Liquid Tension. The song When the Water Breaks is a masterpiece.

What's your favorite???

tornandfrayed · Post by **tornandfrayed** » Sunday May 09, 2004

I would lean towards jazz. Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, stuff like that. I also love Joe Satriani. Classical music of course requires a different mood...

Killjingle · Post by **Killjingle** » Sunday May 09, 2004

Malmsteen's first album. Black Star still gives me chills. The old shrapnel releases from Becker and Friedman were pretty cool too. But to this day my favorite instrumental has to be Rumble by Link Wray.

daveb · Post by **daveb** » Sunday May 09, 2004

I like instrumentals just fine as long as the artist doesn't get to high on his own perfume. I always thought Eric Johnson did a good job as far as structuring instrumentals like they were standard songs. That way when he did go on a tear, it had more impact than other guys who tore it up from the get-go. That's just my opinion. I prefer an economy of notes anyway. Jeff Beck does a good job at that too. Bands that are traditionally vocal based tend to do cool instrumentals : Aerosmith, Led Zep, Dave Matthews, Allman Bros. I am a big fan of modern electronica. bands like The Crystal Method, Aphex Twin do great instrumentals. I hate to bring up the "T" word, but it's pretty much what ever your musical taste is.

tonefight · Post by **tonefight** » Sunday May 09, 2004

I like instrumentals as long as they are structured and not just 5 minutes of wankin off. I would have to agree with the Eric Johnson and Satriani replys, I think both of those guys structure an instrumental into a song without words. I always thought George Lynch was a good player and loved his leads on Dokken songs but when he came out with the instrumental Mr. Scary it didn't do much for me. I was also a big Malmsteen fan but I haven't listened to anything by him in awhile and only a few parts stick out in my memory so I guess he was probably just impressive for the "Flash" factor

DMFJ03 · Post by **DMFJ03** » Sunday May 09, 2004

Rush's La Villa Strangiato always rocked my socks.

FatVin · Post by **FatVin** » Sunday May 09, 2004

To me, instrumentals are all about mood. "Jessica" by the Allmans creats a mood, an attitude, "Flying" by the Beatles, Their only instrumental sets a mood. I don't know if it qualifies but the last 3/4 of "Can't you hear me knocking" by the Stones, is a good one, Most of "Shine on you crazy diamond" is in that catgory.

"There is an old 50's track (I can't remember who recorded it) called "Sleepy time" I think it was in the movie 'La Bamba" set a mood.

I've never been much of a metal head so the Yngvie, satriani thing, never really grabbed like I know does some of you, so the whole jack up the distortion, kick the double bass, crank the amps to 11, play as fast a humanly possible, modern day guitar hero stuff doesn't do anything for me with a few rare exceptions.

the instumentals I like tend to be mellower, for my experience, the measure of a band is not how well they play fast but how well they play slow, to me, it takes more patence and timing (and therefore skill) to play the medium to slow stuff, than it does to crank up the tempo.

maybe that's just me being old

My favorite is the long instrumental version of "Wicked Game" that Chris Isaak did for the movie "Wild at Heart" It's all about mood and attitude. Moody and dark and just cool, real old school cool, accept no substitutes.

byndrsn · Post by **byndrsn** » Sunday May 09, 2004

DMFJ03 wrote:Rush's La Villa Strangiato always rocked my socks.

Good one Jae!!

I've always liked the older stuff. Duane Eddy had several kick ass instrumentals! Also, I've always liked some of the upbeat "Surfer" tunes that were instrumentals.

But I have to go along with Jae and Rush. I've always liked YYZ (especially the live version with the drum solo). Besides Tom Sawyer (YUCK), YYZ was one of the first Rush songs I was exposed to.

Beyond Reason plays a few instrumentals, I love doing them- I think it can be a lot of fun (plus it gives Dan's voice a break! - Right buddy!)

Urbs

RobTheDrummer · Post by **RobTheDrummer** » Sunday May 09, 2004

Lyrics will always be an essential part of music because vocals are the first instrument ever made. But, I feel that a true musician should be able to express themselves without lyrics to back it up. I mean if a guitarist can play a song that evokes a certain emotion without having said anything, they are true.

Banned · Post by **Banned** » Sunday May 09, 2004

This thread kind of crosses over with the favorite soundtracks thread. A great piece of music is even better when mated to the emotional context of a great story. Or something like that.

Anyway, I'm a sucker for a good guitar ballad. "Cause We've Ended As Lovers" by Stevie Wonder, performed by Jeff Beck, is awesome. "Where Were You" is another great Beck piece; that's from another planet.

Satriani has done a lot of nice ones, too. If I had to pick one favorite, it would be the title track from "Flying in a Blue Dream". That has a great floating feel.

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Monday May 10, 2004

I also listen to a lot of Jazz and Electronic music.

When it comes to my favorite (non-fusion) guitar based instrumental though, it would have to be Riviera Paradise by Stevie Ray Vaughn. It really shows, just how talented of a musician he was.

Freedom by Robben Ford comes in at a close second. Speaking of that, maybe I should pull out my Tiger Walk album tonight.

ZappasXWife · Post by **ZappasXWife** » Monday May 10, 2004

My favorite instrumental has to be Maggot Brain by Funkadelic. Really psychadelic. Also, on the Santana box set, there is a version of Toussaint L'Overture that is great, especially this little part that you can miss if you don't pay attention...he plays this one distorted part from Jimi's version of All Along the Watchtower note perfect in the middle of the song. It gives me chills!

aMindBesideItself · Post by **aMindBesideItself** » Monday May 10, 2004

I have to agree with the Hatt on this. That song by Jeff Beck is incredible. I would love to hear FatVin cover that song some time...that's right up his alley. Also, Jeff Beck has another song called "Brush with the Blues" that just melts your face. Again, FatVin...that's all you, man.

I'm a huge Satch and Vai fan, and I'm pretty biased when it comes to accepting everything they do. However, two of my favorite instrumentals have to be "Love Thing" off of Crystal Planet (Satch) and "Jibbom" off of Ultra Zone (Vai). They are just sick, and I wish I could play that. However, nobody gets chicks by playing Vai+Satch. It's a cruel cruel world.

The Dixie Dreggs have some amazing stuff as well.

Punkinhead · Post by **Punkinhead** » Monday May 10, 2004

Black Star is an awesome song. I think that Vai's For the Love of God is the best instrumental song ever written. Ever since the first time I've heard that I wanted to play guitar.

My favorite instrumental stuff right now though is mostly from the classical and baroque eras. Paganini's 24 Caprices are amazing and Bach's Tocatta and Fugue in D minor is a great piece.

The Carmina Burana is a great piece itself, it's really dark and moving.

HurricaneBob · Post by **HurricaneBob** » Monday May 10, 2004

Wow, forgot about black star. When i played with Jeff Wallach years ago we used to cover it. Man would he go off on that tune.

Lenny is also an awsome tune by SRV.

Punkinhead · Post by **Punkinhead** » Monday May 10, 2004

hurricane, your avatar kicks ass dude.

HurricaneBob · Post by **HurricaneBob** » Monday May 10, 2004

Thanks bro!

Transylvainia and Genghis Khan from Maiden!
Miss playing them tunes...

dayzichick · Post by **dayzichick** » Tuesday May 11, 2004

I know this is a little off the topic of picking my favorite instrumentals but I must share a recent occurence in good ole Johnstown. My husband's jazz trio played a private club here and after the first couple of songs the manager that hired them asked if they could stop playing "that elevator music." Ok, you hired a Jazz trio buddy, what did you think they were going to play? My husband was actually getting ready to sing These Boots because they ended up just winging the rest of the night to appease the manager, but didn't have a lot of material that all three of them knew. I told him I would have loved to have seen him sing Nancy Sinatra, what a hoot! Elevator music, Hmmf. Some people's kids.

SUperstar · Post by **SUperstar** » Wednesday May 12, 2004

Little Martha- Allman Bros. Band
Superczar- Black Sabbath
Mountian Jam- Allman Bros. Band

Staceman · Post by **Staceman** » Friday May 14, 2004

Los'fer Words - Iron Maiden
The Crush of Love - Joe Satriani
Liquid Mercury - Jimmy Page
Fluff - Black Sabbath (not really rock, but really neat anyway)

Honorable mention:
Don't Start (Too Late) - Black Sabbath. There's just something about that little 2 minute filler between Hole in the Sky and Symptom of the Universe...

lonewolf · Post by **lonewolf** » Friday May 14, 2004

Instrumentals! Yep! As many instruments as possible with well written music. Some examples would be:

Kansas: Magnum Opus, The Spider

Yes: Too many to mention

Emerson, Lake and Palmer: Selections and passages from Tarkus and Brain Salad Surgery

Jethro Tull: Long passages from Thick As A Brick and A Passion Play

To a lesser extent, The Who: Quadrophenia from Quadrophenia

This is all well written polyphonic music that goes way beyond drums/bass/guitar doing complex "semi-monophonic" progressions.

Anyone heard of any new bands doing this kind of stuff? I'd really be interested.

I really like the double guitar work in some of the country/southern/mountain rock bands like the Allman Bros., Lynyrd Skynyrd, Wishbone Ash, etc.

Post by **Jim Price** » Friday May 14, 2004

Some of King Crimson's instrumentals in the early 70's really blew me away. Consistent with much of their catalog, Crimson were masters of implementing tension and release into their music, and some of their instrumentals gave me chills when I first heard them. I'm especially thinking of "The Talking Drum" and "Larks Tongue in Aspic Part II" from the Lark's Tongue In Aspic album; but there were others, too.

I've always been a big fan of Focus' hit instrumental, "Hocus Pocus," from 1973. That instrumental has some sentimental value to me; when I was a kid and taking accordion lessons, that song was the only rock song on the radio at the time with an accordion in it!

Van Halen's "Intruder" is another instrumental favorite of mine; you can close your eyes listening to that instrumental and mentally picture the 'intrusion' taking place.

lonewolf · Post by **lonewolf** » Friday May 14, 2004

Dittos Jim, especially on Hocus Pocus.

And guess what!

I found hocuspocus.mid on the web a couple of weeks ago. Haven't had a chance to massage the file yet, but I'll probably add it this sometime this summer.

ZappasXWife · Post by **ZappasXWife** » Monday May 17, 2004

Flame Sky does this type of thing very well...check them out

Possessed · Post by **Possessed** » Monday May 17, 2004

Rik Emmett from the Canadian power trio Triumph wrote some very moving modern classical pieces my favorite being "Midsummer's Daydream" from the album Thunder Seven and the live version is smokin.
As far as other instrumentals go I would pick anything from Satriani, Vai, Eric Johnson.
Metallica's "Call of Ktulu"(I think I spelled it right) is also one of the most bitchin instrumentals of all time.
I love instumentals. I could be here for a long time going into all of my favorites.

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