Really? All the great instrumentals by Herb Alpert (“The Lonely Bull,” “Tijuana Taxi,” “Spanish Flea,” “Carman,” et. al.) and that’s what comes to mind first?
Everything on The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Rick Wakeman
“Don and Dewey” by It’s a Beautiful Day
Fanfare For The Common Man by Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Camel - “The Snow Goose”. The entire album.
OK but you can’t have words to an instro. It needs to stand, walk and stop on it’s own. Also it ought to be original material. So no fanfare and no Can’t You Hear Me Knockin.
Also it needs to have melodic contour and not be an excuse for noodling. I never got into VH I must admit. That’s really where rock went past classic and became whatever the 80s were, to me. I just listened to eruption again now. I have heard VH described as “Insensate fretmath” and that’s fair to me. From its rep I thought it would’ve gone more places somehow.
Of course Peaches En Regalia is the bomb.
The Camel LP is all Instrumental?
Does the yodeling take it out of the Instrumental category?
White Summer/Black Mountainside by Led Zeppelin
Any Colour You Like by Pink Floyd
Yup. The album is “inspired by” a novella by Paul Gallico (the same guy who wrote “The Poseidon Adventure”). There is one track with some “doo doo doo” scat vocals, but no lyrics.
A couple from Rick Derringer’s “All American Boy”: Joy Ride and Time Warp
Not particularly great but quite amusing: Deep Purple’s And The Address
These big decisions…
I’ll say that some nonsense syllables or yodelling can still count as an instrumental. It’s a good choice. I left them out cause they were one hit wonders in the US.
I was hesitant to name Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll Part Two” because of the “heys,” so I’ll go ahead and name it now.
Yes, I know he’s a pedo, but it’s a good song, nonetheless. It’s the rally song for numerous sports teams, though they’ve gone to using cover versions.
My oldest guitar friend played a straight-on version of this for me when we were sophomores in high school. That’s when I knew I wouldn’t go full pro. Totally rocked.
Sandalphon - Jefferson Starship
the Sheltering Sky - King Crimson (Discipline line-up)
Where the hell is Jessica by The Allman Brothers Band? Did somebody mention it upthread and I missed it?
They’re in the OP and I soaped them up later on in the thread.
To me they’re winning the thread. I think they’re the greatest group of the era for instrumentals.
I plead that it was late, and that the mention of Jeff Beck somehow reminded me of “Rise.” You’re right, of course. And, as my parents were big Alpert fans, I grew up listening to those albums! I guess I must not have thought of them in terms of “the Classic Rock Era,” as per the OP.
Ted Nugent - Homebound, because it’s one I used to hear on classic rock radio.
Tubular Bells and Ommadawn by Mike Oldfield. (Excluding On Horseback, of course.) Voices there are musical instruments, not words, as Viv says in the Master of Ceremonies bit.
Inner Mounting Flame and Birds of Fire by the Mahavishnu Orchestra, led by John McLaughlin. Especially One Word, but most of the songs are fantastic.
The yodeling takes it out of the music category.
Here are great two post punk instrumentals
The Minutemen Hammers and Sickles:
The Lilac Time - Trumpets Over Montparnasse
It looks like they were trying as hard as we are to think of everyones great instr. and not finding a lot either.
I don’t think ‘Foreplay’ by Boston has been mentioned yet.
Also ‘Bourée’ by Jethro Tull.
mmm