And for bands with no vocals whatsoever, I recommend:
Man or Astroman
Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet (they’re best known for doing the theme and incidental music for Kids in the Hall).
And of course, The Art of Noise!
That DOES have spoken words in it, though. “When a man lies, he murders a part of the world…” I can’t remember the rest right off the top of my head.
Allow me to add Woodpecker from Mars by Faith No More
Everclear had one that wasn’t too bad, but I can’t remember the name.
Jeff Beck - Cause we’ve ended as lovers.
“Lenny” – SRV
Zappa has many, several mentioned in this thread already. Off the top of my head, including seconds of the ones already mentioned:
Son of Mr. Green Genes - Hot Rats (Favorite song of all time, by any artist.)
Watermelon in Easter Hay - Joe’s Garage
Invocation & Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin (?) - Absolutely Free
Peaches En Regalia - Hot Rats
Apostrophe (’) - Apostrophe (’)
RDNZL - ?
Sofa - Live In New York
Muffin Man - Bongo Fury (Has a couple lines to start, but it’s so damn good it counts.)
Willie the Pimp - Hot Rats (Same caveat as Muffin Man)
Stevie’s Spanking - That unofficial bootleg album originally. Also on a concert video.
I can’t think right now, so that’s all I got. If I perused his discography, I’m sure I could add dozens more.
Does anybody know where that version of Stevie’s Spanking can be found? It a live guitar duet with Frank and Steve, and Dweezil might even be involved.
Earth’s Earth 2 is a nice instrumental album. Nightwish did “Moondance”.
The Alan Parsons Project have recorded quite a few instrumentals.
Green Onions - Booker T. and the MG’s
Oh, and we mustn’t forget Popcorn, by Hot Butter…
Almost all of Dick Dale!
“Pipeline” by the Surfaris.
Djed from Tortise’s “MIllions Now Living Will Never Die” is an instrumental, and it warps my mind in the middle of it.
“Strangers Die Everyday” and “Mark Says Allright” by the Butthole Surfers have vocals, kind of, but they really are not discernable as even human noises.
Noone has mentioned Hendrix? “Third Stone from the Sun” counts IMHO, it has one spoken line. For someone who was such a guitarist, and hated his own voice, why did he not do more instrumentals?
Black Flag has an instrumental ALBUM, “The Process of Weeding Out”, if you are into that sort of thing. It kinda lends creedence to the idea that Greg Ghinn knows what he is doing, but I think you have to like his soloing style. I have lots of friends who like Black Flag, but I am the only person I know of who listens to it.
If you can enjoy noise rock I HIGHLY reccomend Glenn Branca’s Symphony #1 (Tonal Plexus). He writes the only rock symphonies that I know of, and they work as both.
Husker Du’s Recurring Dreams from Zen Arcade, and Dreams, Recurring (part of Recurring Dreams played backwards.
Adrian Belew’s Final Rhino, which is a recording of his daughter tinkering on the piano with his guitar overdubbed on top. And his entire album “Desire Caught by the Tail”
Buckethead’s Big Sur Moon from Colma
Instrumentalyst by Dr. Octagon
Hot Tuna’s The Water Song
IIRC, “Stevie’s Spanking” was a track from the *Them Or Us *album, and it had vocals.
I would highly recommend the album [Music Inspired by] The Snow Goose from the British band Camel.
There is a live version of * Stevie’s Spanking* on You Can’t Do That on Stage Anymore Volume 4 with Steve taking a solo, then Frank solos, then they both solo for a while. I don’t know if it is the same one that you are talking about, but it is still quite good.
My tastes run very much to instrumentals, especially prog metal and jazz.
Nobody’s mentioned King Crimson yet, so here goes:
[ul]
[li]Lark’s Tongue In Aspic, Parts I and II, and Talking Drum from Lark’s Tongue in Aspic[/li][li]Fracture from Starless and Bible Black[/li][li]Red and Starless(mostly instrumental] from Red[/li][li]The Sheltering Sky and Discipline from Discipline[/li][li]Industry from Three of a Perfect Pair (or a better version from Absent Lovers)[/li][li]Vrooom from Thrak[/li][li]Dangerous Curves and The Power To Believe II from The Power To Believe[/li][/ul]
They also have done numerous instrumental improvisations.
Other candidates:
Jazz in general - if you’re strictly into rock, fusion jazz may be a good entry point for you. Try Weather Report, Jean-Luc Ponty or Chick Corea/Return to Forever as a way in.
Mike Keneally is currently the closest anyone’s come (IMHO) to continuing the work of Frank Zappa. He just released a CD called The Universe Will Provide which rather effortlessly combines orchestral with rock music. Amazing, at least if your tastes run toward Varese or Stravinsky. He has put out other CDs of mostly instrumental stuff, and then there’s my favorite, Dancing, which mostly has lyrics but also includes some inspired intrumental stuff. A must-have CD for FZ acolytes.
Others: Mike Oldfield’s first 4 albums (although Incantations can go on and on), Jean-Michelle Jarre, Joe Satriani, Trey Gunn’s Joy of Molybdenum, on and on…
No one has mentioned my favorite, Mood for a Day by Yes.
“El Distorto de Melodica” from the album So Much for the Afterglow
Thanks, that is the exact track I was thinking of. The “Guitar Duel” version – it’s a classic. That performance was caught on video and released by Barking Pumpkin; it’s on the same video release that has the You Are What You Is video-for-MTV that never got airtime because it had Ronald Reagan getting the electric chair in effagy. (sp?)
The unofficial bootleg it was “originally” on was Guitar Hernia. I finally remembered the name of that this weekend. I remember calling 818-Pumpkin in the early nineties asking if that album was ever going back into print, because I’d lost my copy. They informed me it was unsanctioned, and that there was litigation or something regarding it. I expressed disappointment, asking if I could get Stevie’s Spanking version anywhere else, and they directed me to that video which I promptly ordered. It just came to me; I think it was called Video From Hell, but I’m not positive.
I’d like to add a couple more Allman Brothers songs; “Instrumental Illness” from the most recent (two) CDs Hittin’ The Note and One Way Out - live at the Beacon Theater and “Pegasus” from Enlightened Rogues
“November Hotel” by Mad Season, along with all the above mentioned Yes track. Also, all of Steve Howe’s solo stuff without vocals. Easy to find.