If you’re going to mention Pat Methany, then everything pales before Last Train Home, which is on any short list for best song ever in any category.
The Electric Light Orchestra created a double album called ‘Out of the Blue’.
It is a real treat with only a very few clunkers.
One of the best songs on it is The Whale.
Pat’s my favorite artist, but I never felt the love for LTH. It probably wouldn’t make my top 50 of his songs. Sorry.
There have been an incredible amount of excellent musical selections in this thread and I agree with a great many of those.
Being one of the elderly Dopers, let’s go back to 1963 when the Rockin’ Rebels did Wild Weekend.
Yes, in the 49 years that have intervened since that recording, rock and roll has undergone a great many changes. Musicianship has improved dramatically, and melodies have been composed with greater musical sophistication.
Still, there is something about “Wild Weekend” that seems to proclaim “THIS is rock and roll”.
Not that exact one, but close. I do have “traditional” versions with violins, accordions, mandolins, etc. I don’t even know what language they’re sun in. One of the cover artist bands uses the clever band name “The Jewrhythmics”. 
There’s even a version on Rhapsody crediting Dinah Shore as the artist, which is weird because I listened to most of it and there were no vocals at all. There is a Chubby Checker cover as well.
Not sure but I am confident it came from Jeff Beck’s “Blow by Blow” or was done by the Dixie Dregs. Course you could argue neither is out and out “rock,” so…
I dunno. 
If you don’t get busted for speeding listening to this in your car, you need a faster car.
Yeah. Generally Metheny rubs me wrong, but I love Last Train Home, and rank it even with Jessica. It’s nearly as much rock as the surf instrumentals. As soon as I saw the Metheny reference upthread I was ready to mention it, but you already had it covered.
Water Song (Hot Tuna) Hooray for Jorma!/Katie
This is an admittedly liberal interpretation of the definition of instrumental, but I think the intro to Sweet Jane from Lou Reed’s Rock N Roll Animal deserves mention.
mmm
“Time is Tight” is better.
Rush, “YYZ”.
Isn’t that the one that got a “Parental Advisory” sticker because it had a song called “G-Spot Tornado”? :rolleyes:
“Sirius”, Alan Parson Project
On a long drive recently I played a compilation CD of late50s/early 60s instrumentals that had a lot of tracks that show up in that list.
Those who brought up the Chantay’s “Pipeline” are absolutely correct. It’s 2:11 of perfection. Every note is distinct, necessary, and awesome and the production puts them together like a Pointilist masterpiece.
[Theme from] Midnight Cowboy by the horrifically underrated Faith No More.
Ides of March by Iron Maiden.
No, that was Jazz from Hell. And it’s tempting to think that the real reason it got stickered was as payback for Zappa’s campaign against just that sort of labelling.
One of my faves:
Beatles: Flying
maybe it doesn’t count as instrumental because vocals at end?
On the Fillmore East album the drum break in “Elizabeth Reed” is 16 seconds long. No matter how much you hate drum solos I hope that doesn’t ruin the song. (Live these days it’s usually much longer.) Anyway that would be my choice.
Do the Dregs count? If they do, then anything from the “Unsung Heroes” album would be my choice.