Rock 'n roll has plenty of songs featuring great vocals, from Janis Joplin's rolling tones to Napoleon Murphy Brock's engaging parodies to Captain Beefheart's amazing vocal range. Robert Plant's famous wail is always great. Vocals, in general, run the range from Steven Tyler's shrieks to Stevie Nicks' smokey voice to Karen Carpenter's butter-smooth singing. In my concert-going days, I've seen some great acts with some great singing, stage performances, and instrumentals.
There are a lot of great purely instrumental (no vocals) tunes in rock 'n roll, too. I've long thought that one of the real tests of a great band is their ability to perform a world-beater tune with no vocals, and I stand by that assessment. To that end, here are five great rock 'n roll instrumentals, in no particular order. Note that these are not necessarily the best five — just a great five. So, without further ado:
The Allman Brothers - Mountain Jam. The Allman Brothers did some great Southern rock tunes, but this has always been one of my favorites. This tune started, interestingly, as an improvised instrumental take on Donovan's song "There Is a Mountain," which was recorded in 1967; the Allman Brothers first performed "Mountain Jam" in 1969, and it was released on the 1972 album "Eat a Peach." It's a fun tune with the Allman Brothers' patented guitar riffs.
Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan - DFW. Jimmie Vaughan, while a competent musician in his own right — he had a great run with The Fabulous Thunderbirds — has always been somewhat in the shadow of his brother, Stevie Ray, whose untimely end just made his music more popular. Stevie Ray's style was unique; he blended inspirations from people like Jimi Hendrix with his own Texas twang. But Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan are above all guitar players, and the instrumental DFW, from the 1990 album "Family Style" (the only album the brothers recorded together) shows their guitar work to great advantage.
Sad side note: In early 1990, Stevie Ray Vaughan was doing a concert tour, and a couple of my buddies approached me about attending one show; I declined, being a little short of cash and figuring I'd catch Stevie Ray and Double Trouble on the next go-round. Then, this happened.
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Mason Williams - Classical Gas. It's hard to know where to begin with this one, other than to point out Mason Williams' smooth, intricate classical guitar work backed up by a full symphony orchestra. Released in 1968 on the rather unimaginatively-named album "The Mason Williams Phonograph Record," this quickly became William's signature piece. I'm not sure this really falls into "rock 'n roll," but it's worth the listen regardless of genre, and if it's not a rock tune, then I will invoke my author's privilege and just include it anyway.
Frank Zappa - Peaches En Regalia. Frank Zappa is (rightly) best known for the strange, off-beat nature of his music, but what people who are only casually acquainted with his work don't always realize is that Zappa was a classical composer — he wrote a complete symphony and conducted the London Symphony Orchestra performing his work for the 1983 dual album "London Symphony Orchestra - Zappa." Zappa was several different kinds of genius; a lyricist, a parodist, a showman — but he was also a brilliant technical guitarist, and his 1969 tune "Peaches En Regalia" from the album "Hot Rats" shows that off to good effect.
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Rush - YYZ. While many of these choices present great guitar work — and while Rush also has some great guitarists — where the 1981 tune "YYZ" (named for the airport identification code for Toronto Pearson International Airport) stands out in its presentation of the immortal Neil Peart's amazing drums. While there can be many and varied debates on the greatest lead guitar and bass players, the best vocalists, and the best keyboardists, when it comes to drummers, Neil Peart stands alone.
Instrumentals are perhaps most often associated with classical music, and that's understandable. But don't overlook the vocals-free side of rock 'n roll. This is, to my thinking, one of the greatest tests of a band — bear in mind that I like music but have no idea how it works — the other being the ability to present vocals only, an a capella performance being another great challenge — and, perhaps, the topic of another Friday music piece.
Have you any instrumental suggestions of your own? The comments are yours!
