# Best Rock Instrumentals

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-instrumentals/520956>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [December 12, 2009, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-instrumentals/520956 "2009-12-12T03:38:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-instrumentals/520956/61 "2009-12-15T02:36:35Z")

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One of These Days - Pink Floyd

I love The Atom Heart Mother Suite, but it’s a bit too weird for most folks to call the best.

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**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-instrumentals/520956/62 "2009-12-15T02:39:03Z")

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Metallica - _Orion_  
Hendrix - _Star Spangled Banner_  
Randy Rhoads - _Dee_  
Rush - _YYZ_ and _2112 Overture_

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**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-instrumentals/520956/63 "2009-12-15T16:03:52Z")

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I would also like to mention “Sparks” and “Underture”, from _Tommy_.

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**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-instrumentals/520956/64 "2009-12-15T18:06:47Z")

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Tossing in “Talybont” by Gentle Giant and “Kashmir” (The Led Zep song) by The Ordinaires.

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**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-instrumentals/520956/65 "2009-12-15T18:49:26Z")

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> [@Krokodil](#):
>
> “Tubular Bells,” Mike Oldfield, _The Exorcist_ soundtrack

This always reminds me of the passage in High Fidelity where he is inspecting the album collection of some girl he has been set up with:

\<\<So I wander over to the shelf, and turn my head to one side and squint, and sure enough, it’s a disaster area, the sort of CD collection that is so poisonously awful that it should be put in a steel case and shipped off to some Third World waste dump. They’re all there: Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Kate Bush, Pink Floyd, Simply Red, the Beatles, of course, Mike Oldfield (\*Tubular Bells I \*and _II_), Meat Loaf…I don’t have much time to examine the vinyl, but I see a couple of Eagles records, and I catch a glimpse of what looks suspiciously like a Barbara Dickson album.\>\>  
[I adore Meat Loaf so I think he’s a big fat snob. :p]

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**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-instrumentals/520956/66 "2009-12-15T19:13:03Z")

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What’s wrong with Pink Floyd and the Beatles?

These are the kinds of music snobs that bug me. They’re music snobs who don’t actually understand anything about music. It’s just about posturing and fashion. They’re the kind of guys who become music critics, and then praise the Knack as a revolution in music while dismissing Led Zeppelin as “druggie music.”

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**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-rock-instrumentals/520956/67 "2009-12-15T19:29:01Z")

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> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#):
>
> What’s wrong with Pink Floyd and the Beatles?
> 
> These are the kinds of music snobs that bug me. They’re music snobs who don’t actually understand anything about music. It’s just about posturing and fashion. They’re the kind of guys who become music critics, and then praise the Knack as a revolution in music while dismissing Led Zeppelin as “druggie music.”

Not to mention Kate Bush. How big of a snob do you have to be to look down on Kate Bush? Peter Gabriel seems to think she’s OK…

That did seem like an odd collection of artists to use as examples of an awful music collection. I mean, if it had been something like “Heart, Foreigner, Kansas, Journey, Styx, Boston, .38 Special…”, it would at least sound like the sort of thing a snob would despise.

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