On Jackson Browne’s Nothing But Time, there’s someone accompanying the acoustic guitar solo by playing Tour-bus Engine (on key, too!).
And John (Cougar) Mellencamp tends to include accordion prominently on a lot of his stuff. For that matter, Kansas included electric violin on a lot of stuff.
And Joe Walsh used a mandolin on a few updated renditions of Eagles tunes.
Am I unusual in thinking Sax, Mandolin, and violin (electric or mic’d acoustic) are not weird instruments for Rock N Roll?
Didn’t Midnight Oil include some didgeridoo on a few songs?
And (speaking of Aussie bands) I thought Men At Work’s Land Down Under started out with someone pounding on milk or beer bottles.
And, as far as bits of sound go, I think I’ve heard Kenny Loggins’ HeartLight starting with a cardboard box containing rocks, and a heavy chain. And I vaguely recall the Scorpions *Breakout *ending with the clattering of shards of glass.
–G!
Stop!
Hey!
What’s that sound?
…–David Crosby (Buffalo Springfield)
…For What It’s Worth
The prog-rock/proto-heavy-metal band Uriah Heap used a whistling kettle in one of their songs (I forget which). IIRC (I heard the band tell the story at a gig, but it was over 40 years ago) this was originally a studio accident. They were recording in a home studio, someone left the kettle on the stove by mistake, and it went off in the middle of a take. However, it happened to be in tune and sounded good, so they left it in on the record, and, I think, found a way to reproduce the sound on stage too.
John Sebastian (Lovin’ Spoonful" also played one on “She Is Still A Mystery”; in studio on the record, and “live” (on stage but miming) on Hollywood Palace.
In the song “Chunga’s Revenge” Frank Zappa had Ian Underwood play a saxophone solo through a wah-wah pedal. The result was interesting for the first six seconds, then underwhelming.
One of Brian Wilson’s more interesting “instruments” was an empty water bottle (5 gallon, IIRC) on “Caroline, No.”
Lovin’ Spoonful again: in “My Gal” Zal Yanovsky performs a gargling solo.
Keith Emerson blew on a Zoukra (middle eastern flute) in the into to “Endless Enigma.”
Rather prominently. Paul McCartney was inspired to use it for FOTH when he heard Brian Wilson’s “I Know There’s An Answer” which has a bass harmonica solo.
Paul Simon’s “Papa Hobo” also features Charlie McCoy (I think) playing one.
Not to be a pedant, but with the exception of electronic devices like keyboards and theremins, aren’t all of these instruments used in “traditional” music, therefore not non-traditional?
80 years ago it was the bazooka, whence the anti-tank weapon took its name. Notably played by Bob Burns (that’s him in the linked photo) and Skyrocket Sanford Kendrick.
The bodhran isn’t exactly a non-traditional instrument in Celtic music. You’ll hear a bodhran in the music of Black 47, or the Cranberries, or even Great Big Sea.
The Roots come to mind – they have a sousaphone player. Now there’s something you don’t see often, or ever, in rock/pop.
