# What are the great Instrumentals of the Classic Rock Era? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 22, 2017, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930 "2017-09-22T01:01:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930/81 "2017-09-24T02:25:39Z")
Welp, there goes the rest of MY night. I’m off to make an instrumental playlist, largely consisting of the songs here. I have yet to read the entire thread, but DAMN, you guys racked up a shitload of my classic picks. Here’s one I don’t THINK will be in the thread above. If so, forgive me. The Red Elvises - El Niño [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBFLATloe0I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBFLATloe0I) ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930/82 "2017-09-24T02:28:26Z")
Ronnie Montrose hasn’t been mentioned yet. Here’s one from his first solo album:[Mandolina](https://youtu.be/qy4SGHhT8Ik) ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930/83 "2017-09-24T02:36:23Z")
Alan Parsons - I Robot, Sirius, The Gold Bug, Mammagamma Billy Preston - Outta-Space Booter T & The MG’s - Time is Tight, Green Onions (probably mentioned) ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930/84 "2017-09-24T02:44:52Z")
If we are still entertaining a few (spoken) words in a song, then this is a little known gem by Roy Buchanan: [The Messiah Will Come Again](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgOLDAWu6OY) ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930/85 "2017-09-24T02:51:03Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > If we are still entertaining a few (spoken) words in a song, then this is a little known gem by Roy Buchanan: > > [The Messiah Will Come Again](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgOLDAWu6OY) Saw Roy perform this once. ALMOST put that in my post, but it has several sentences as a spoken intro. I think it should count though. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930/86 "2017-09-24T03:24:33Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > you mean 68-9 or later? I linked to the version I meant, the one by Paul Mauriat, excessively popular in 1967-68. I was a kid and I loved it back then. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930/87 "2017-09-24T03:42:56Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > If we are still entertaining a few (spoken) words in a song, then this is a little known gem by Roy Buchanan: > > [The Messiah Will Come Again](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgOLDAWu6OY) That’s over the line dude. Love the song but the words are really important to me. ---
**Author:** ![Club\_33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@Club\_33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Club_33)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930/88 "2017-09-24T03:45:51Z")
I don’t recall the names, but I know that both The Doobie Brothers and Heart had instrumental acoustic guitar tunes on their albums. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930/89 "2017-09-24T03:46:54Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > I linked to the version I meant, the one by Paul Mauriat, excessively popular in 1967-68. I was a kid and I loved it back then. 🙂 Don’t I know. We used to sing it in 5th grade, along with Sloop John B, Jean, and raindrops are fallin on my head. ---
**Author:** ![Club\_33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@Club\_33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Club_33)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930/90 "2017-09-24T03:48:40Z")
Also, I’m not sure that the earlier mention of"Rise" by Herb Alpert is completely appropriate on a classic rock list (purists would call it disco or pop). if you include that song, however, you also have to add “Feels So Good” by Chuck Mangione (which has a downright amazing guitar solo in it). ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930/91 "2017-09-24T04:28:31Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > Lots of great ones already mentioned. I reviewed the thread and hopefully didn’t miss it, but I’m surprised no one has yet named [Love is Blue](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjsNNcsUNzE). Similarly good but short-lived were the themes from “Summer of 42” and “Midnight Cowboy.” ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930/92 "2017-09-24T04:31:54Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > I don’t know if it counts as rock, but Meco’s _Star Wars_ medley was huge. It outsold the soundtrack recording by John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra. In fact, the [single version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWRWYYt47RI) (a cut-down version of the [15 minute album version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ3kV3Icm28)) was #1 on the U.S. pop chart for 2 weeks in the fall of 1977. Meco captured the two things that the country was absolutely crazy for at that moment in time – Star Wars and disco. If the Wikipedia entry on the song is correct, it’s the biggest-selling instrumental single ever, and the only one to have gone platinum. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930/93 "2017-09-24T06:17:29Z")
A couple surf-rock instrumentals: - [“The Lonely Surfer”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o_5z6-OIPY) - Jack Nitzsche - [“Out of Limits”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXyeb8ND89M) - The Marketts and an R&B/New Orleans selection: -[“Cissy Strut”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_iC0MyIykM) - The Meters ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930/94 "2017-09-24T10:41:19Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > A couple surf-rock instrumentals: > > - [“The Lonely Surfer”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o_5z6-OIPY) - Jack Nitzsche > > - [“Out of Limits”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXyeb8ND89M) - The Marketts > > and an R&B/New Orleans selection: > > -[“Cissy Strut”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_iC0MyIykM) - The Meters **Jack Nitzsche**?? Cool!! Legendary right-hand-man to Phil Spector and producer for Neil Young and so many others. No idea he did this surf track. **The Meters** - that’s master-class New Orleans funk right there. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930/95 "2017-09-24T13:40:38Z")
> [@Club\_33](#): > > Also, I’m not sure that the earlier mention of"Rise" by Herb Alpert is completely appropriate on a classic rock list (purists would call it disco or pop). if you include that song, however, you also have to add “Feels So Good” by Chuck Mangione (which has a downright amazing guitar solo in it). True, but with some of the other examples given in this thread, I too wasn’t sure if the OP was just interested in songs from that era, or specifically only classic rock songs from that era. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930/96 "2017-09-24T17:24:03Z")
“Always With You, Always With Me” by Joe Satriani. It was nominated for a Grammy. Also, Steve Vai’s “For The Love Of God” ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930/97 "2017-09-24T17:56:08Z")
Just to give Roy Buchanan his due for performing proper instrumentals [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-J8BBzCVY6c/hqdefault.jpg "Roy Buchanan / After Hours") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J8BBzCVY6c) The Blues standard “After Hours” originally written for piano. “The Heat of Battle” And then there is “Godzilla Sneaking Through the Alley”, voted #19 on [http://www.guitarworld.com/100-worst-guitar-solos](http://www.guitarworld.com/100-worst-guitar-solos) I’m not sure I have ever listened to the whole thing - certainly not more than once - and I will not be linking to it lest I taint this otherwise mighty fine thread. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930/98 "2017-09-24T18:54:48Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > I think the line between what an instrumental is and is not is defined by Archie Bell’s Tighten Up. Is is a song without the vocal? > > But I don't know if T.U. is or not. It's on the line. Yeah, where the dividing lines are is always a weird question, where does the work stop being rock? Mancini has been brought up as being on the line already. Similarly, I love the [1st movement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84vHsMlpTZw) of Branca’s symphony no 1\*. It’s instruments are rock instruments, mostly guitars and inventive percussion with some horns, but he presents it as a classical symphony. The Tighten Up\*\* would certainly qualify as having vocals if you used the same amount of words to tell a story. But since the vocals in that song are mostly instructions to the band, about the music, I’d give them a pass. Oddly, if the vocals are intentionally completely indecipherable, such as in The Butthole Surfer’s [The O-Men](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pULFMj81euo), they don’t get a pass from me - that song has vocals. But, once you’ve gotten to things like [Mark Says Alright](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5P0WLLFxto), I’m not so sure. We know those noises are made by Gibby’s mouth, but I wouldn’t call 'em vocals. \*Drum fill fans: check out the fill that starts around 11:01 \*\* And since the advent of YouTube, I gotta watch [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN7vm-k-AaA) version of that song. Those backup singers have moves! ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930/99 "2017-09-24T22:49:46Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Yeah, where the dividing lines are is always a weird question, where does the work stop being rock? Mancini has been brought up as being on the line already. Similarly, I love the [1st movement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84vHsMlpTZw) of Branca’s symphony no 1\*. It’s instruments are rock instruments, mostly guitars and inventive percussion with some horns, but he presents it as a classical symphony. > > The Tighten Up\*\* would certainly qualify as having vocals if you used the same amount of words to tell a story. But since the vocals in that song are mostly instructions to the band, about the music, I’d give them a pass. > > Oddly, if the vocals are intentionally completely indecipherable, such as in The Butthole Surfer’s [The O-Men](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pULFMj81euo), they don’t get a pass from me - that song has vocals. But, once you’ve gotten to things like [Mark Says Alright](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5P0WLLFxto), I’m not so sure. We know those noises are made by Gibby’s mouth, but I wouldn’t call 'em vocals. > > \*Drum fill fans: check out the fill that starts around 11:01 > > \*\* And since the advent of YouTube, I gotta watch [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN7vm-k-AaA) version of that song. Those backup singers have moves! I went to see the Surfers, in @ 1986, and was waiting in line when someone came up and said that they had gotten busted. Show was cancelled. I saw them later on at a different, much larger venue. I meant to say before that I saw Roy Buchanan too, opening for Carl Perkins in the 80s. He was mumbling some stuff about 666. Weird billing. But I hear “the messiah” as of a piece with it’s words. He was a little messianic. I don’t worry too much about what’s not rock, even though this thread I saw as rock. I listen to WFMU freeform. But this I vow: Feels So Good is not on the list however it may be compiled. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930/100 "2017-09-24T22:54:04Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > I don’t think ‘ **Foreplay** ’ by Boston has been mentioned yet. > > Also ‘ **Bourée** ’ by Jethro Tull. > > mmm Was Tull the first artist to think of doing this piece in the pop era? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-great-instrumentals-of-the-classic-rock-era/796930.md?page=6)