This pretty much coincides with my definition (which is, I guess, not really a definition because it’s not definite). There is a category of musical pieces, like “Tequila” and “One Step Beyond”, that are essentially instrumentals but have these spoken interjections. The spoken parts generally consist of either a single word or a short phrase; however, something like “What’s in the Bag, Goose?” pushes the boundaries by using several phrases and then tossing in a longer segment in the fade-out, a la “I Am the Walrus”. I still consider it an instrumental because the words are spoken and used almost as a sort of incidental sound effect. At this point, the category fades into a sort of gray area, on the other side of which are recitations with musical accompaniment, such as “Desiderata” and rap music. The difference, I guess, is in the emphasis: Are the words the primary focus of the piece or not?
Then there’s that whole other category of music with wordless vocals… I generally tend to think of those as instrumentals too, but there is a point at which that starts to seem wrong. I guess maybe it’s a question of primary focus again.
(By the way, “What’s in the Bag, Goose?” is by the T-Bones, the same group that did “No Matter What Shape Your Stomach’s In”. Both were originally jingles from commercials.)
Ha! I’ve always remembered that there was a commercial with the product described as “Interesting!” “Well seasoned!” “Provocative!” but I never remembered what the product was. That title clued me in that it was Granny Goose potato chips. Incidentally, the tune is not from the actual commercial, which has no music–only the verbal interjections are from the commercial.
I’d say that any song with lyrics that are long enough to tell a story (whether or not they actually do tell a story) are not instrumentals, so the 9th does not count as an instrumental as a whole. Neither does Echoes which has around the same singing to instrumental ratio. “Silence in the studio” is not a story and so AHMS is an instrumental.
Now, would pieces that have lots of vocalized non-words, or repetitive actual words that are not even in sentences but are just for the music effect “instrumentals”? I guess I’d say it’s more volume than the actual storytelling: if there are enough vocals to tell a story then it is not an instrumental. I guess that also leaves out The Great Gig In The Sky. It’s not really an instrumental or a story telling song since I wouldn’t be able in good faith to include it if someone asked me for a mixtape and specified only songs or only instrumentals.
Some others for the not-quite-completely-instrumental list (no links because no YouTube at work, sorry):
Rockit, by Herbie Hancock
Close to the Edit, by Art of Noise. Actually, a lot of Art of Noise fits this category.
For me, I’d consider it as a matter of proportion. If there are vocals over, let’s say, 5% or less of the song? Still instrumental.
Also a factor is are the vocals “live”? Because it seems to me that words sampled from elsewhere are being used more as an instrument than as lyrics, y’know what I mean?
Nonsense words, ejaculations, etc are also more voice-as-noisemaker than words, so they wouldn’t count.
It’s totally legit to announce the title of an instrumental on the record: Aurora by Neil Young and The Squires is one. Laughter etc it’s all OK. Making ex post facto rules for elimination from the definition seems not in the spirit of the material.
Eh, just my opinion, but it’s if the vocals are part of the focus of the song. Songs like Rock’n’Roll and Tequila the minor vocals are more the cherry and sprinkles, a sundae is still a sundae without them. Something like Tutti Frutti or scat singing, the vocals are more like the sauce.
One of These Days is an instrumental in my books.
Terrible analogy, I know.
I enjoy a lot of electronic music, (I know that pushes some people’s definition of even being “instrumental” in the first place…) and it’s more than common for a song to use a sample of lyrics multiple times and still “feel” very much instrumental.
Block Control by Noisia uses a DMX sample at least 3 times: “If a dog’s off the leash, then a dog’s gonna bite… If a dog’s in the ring, then a dog’s gonna fight.” And a sample I don’t recognize of a guy saying “IT’S GOING DOWN!!!” I personally would not consider it to be a vocal track in any way, shape or form. There is even a VIP version with a chunk of an Eminem song used at the start, still personally “feels” like an instrumental as soon as the song gets going.
I’d discount the number of words entirely, actually, and look at the percentage of the song they take up. If 98% of the time is instrumental, and 2% has words, I’d be happy to call it instrumental.
We can argue over the relevant percentages, of course.
