Favorite Instrumental Songs?
 

What instrumental songs do you like? It can be anything from classical to metal to swing to blues to videogame music, etc.

Some songs I like are:

Booker T. and the MG's - "Green Onions"
Glen Miller Orchestra - "In The Mood"
Mastodon - "Elephant Man"
Obituary - "Redneck Stomp"
Corrosion of Conformity - "Without Wings"
System of a Down - the hidden track after "Aerials", it has some vocals in it (sounds like some weird chanting) but I still mostly classify it with my instrumental music.
Days of the New - the hidden track on their first cd after the last song. It sounds like a rainstorm, and it's pretty cool.

Of course, I also like many of the songs Nobuo Uetmatsu composed for the Final Fantasy series, and I like the music from Chrono Cross and Tekken 3.

Oh and I almost forgot. I like the Pink Panther theme too, and "Frankenstein" from The Edgar Winter Group.

Ravel's Bolero.

My favorite classical (and therefore instrumental) piece.

16 minutes of steady additions, a soft rise until every piece is playing to beat the band.

lol

the bolero was a very ahem... *instrumental* part of the movie 10. Back in university it was my favourite as well, and i timed it to be 17 mins & 32 seconds. From then on, whenever i was asked what my favourite number was i would say 17.32. (i know it should be 17.501 or something due to the conversion of vernier measure... but i was a kid)

Not

The two that jumped to mind when I saw this were "Frankenstein" by Edgar Winter Group and "'Cause We've Ended As Lovers" by Jeff Beck. I'm sure there are others, but that the duo I thought of first.

Frank Gambale, Stuart Hamm, Steve Smith - November
Uncle Tupelo - Sandusky
Nickel Creek - Smoothie Song
The Go! Team - Everyone's a VIP to Someone
Sondre Lerche - Love You
Lars Horntveth - Pooka
Of Montreal - October is Eternal
Mogwai - You Don't Know Jesus
Do Make Say Think - The Landlord is Dead
Sufjan Stevens - Year of the Rat

That's what comes to mind at the moment as my favorites.

I left out classical music (in the broad sense, not the era) to whittle down the list considerably.

"Rockit", Herbie Hancock
"Fun Zone", Weird Al Yankovic
"Cliffs of Dover", Eric Johnson

I immediatly thought of:
Classical gas - Mason Williams
Take the "A" Train - Duke Ellington
Day Tripper/Lady Madonna - Tommy Emmanuel
Star Trek: The Next Generation - Opening Theme - Ron Jones/Jerry Goldsmith
And anything by Craig Chaquico

Yea, "Frankenstein" was great too!

(Pssst ... not all classical music is instrumental. Unless you are categorizing the human voice as an instrument. Which it is. So in that case all classical music <i>is</i> instrumental.

I don't think that's what this topic is about though. I think lindalove meant, "favorite pieces of music in which the human voice is not a featured instrument.)


My favorite instrumental pieces are probably some of Tony Levin's stuff. Or Jesse Cook ... yeah ... or Strength in Numbers.

"Blue Men of the Sahara" by Strength in Numbers is one of my favorites.

(Pssst ... I used to sing a lot of a cappella. My biggest peeve was the question "Oh, you sing without music?" No, that's called shouting.)

The Great Collapse
Ripe (With Decay)
The Way Out is Through
A Warm Place
The Downward Spiral (The Bottom)

-all by NIN

Metallica - Call of Ktulu
Eric Johnson - Cliffs of Dover

I'm gonna have to go with just about anything by Chuck Mangione. Especially "Feels so Good."

/Man does this compilation, so far, make feel like a freaking geezer! Old guy signing off for now,

-bear

Les Brers in A Minor - The Allman Brothers Band
Always with me, always with you - Joe Satriani

FoolThemAll - Indie much? Not that there's anything wrong with that; the E6 Collective is host to some seriously good stuff.

I'm not very good at picking favourite songs, as they tend to change with my mood. But just now I'm going to say Closing Time (the Tom Waits one, not the Semisonic one). Very haunting. If I still played the trumpet I'd want to find a pianist to duet on that with.

how about favorite label? why, ninja tune, of course.

http://www.ninjatune.com/images/menu_main_image.gif



also i listen to a lot of library music

Explosions in the Sky - Your Hand in Mine

It's the song that brings me closest to crying. /emo

Very much :)

In Flames: Dialogue with the Stars
Pretty much any Warmen song that doesn't have guest vocals(Neo-Classical metal, almost any fan of classical music and/or melodic metal will love it)
Stratovarius: Stratofortress
Every black mages song ever made
Iron Maiden: Losfer Words (Big 'Orra)
Edit: Almost forgot about Apocalyptica

You're a Tommy Emmanuel fan??? Cool! I just was introduced to his stuff this summer. Very cool.

For the record, this list is not complete without the following contributions:

Jessica - Allman Bros.
Moby Dick - Led Zeppelin
Mapleview 33% Rag - Arlo Guthrie

A Saucerful of Secrets - Pink Floyd
Careful With That Axe, Eugene - Pink Floyd
Atom Heart Mother Suite - Pink Floyd
Big Sky, The Prophet Stomp, Bullet, Marijuana, Happy Camper, etc. - Reverend Horton Heat
To Live is to Die - Metallica
All The Instrumentals off Check Your Head - Beastie Boys

Explosions In The Sky - First Breath After A Coma

I like a lot of stuff by Explosions In The Sky, but this has to be my favorite.

"Poison" by Prodigy (The English guys who sang "Firestarter" and "Smack My Bitch Up")

Definatly "A Warm Place" by NIN

and

Brian Eno's "An Ending (Ascent)"

Prodigy is the name of the band not just that one guy.

Listen Here - Eddie Harris
The Cat - Jimmy Smith
Groove Holmes - The Beatsie Boys
Return of Django - The Upsetters

Dueling Banjos from the movie "Deliverance"

Hey Jim Kata, that might be why I used the term "guys" instead of "guy" to describe Prodigy bro. No worries, I'll assume you were either drinking a ton of bourbon when you read it or need to bump up the prescription on those glasses. You can say whatever you want anytime in my book, you have my respect just by using that kick ass George "The Animal" Steele avatar...

The Lark Ascending -Vaughan Williams
Birdman of Alcatraz - Rick Wakeman

Both pieces put me in mind of the fluttering of the wings of birds before they lift off and take flight...

Pali Gap--Jimmy Hendrix.

Anything by Miles.

I'd say "the final countdown", done by the German Brass...absolutely amazing (orders of magnitude better than Europe), urge any of you to download it if you can find it.

Also, God rest ye merry gentlemen by Manneheim steamroller.

I'll go with glasses :thumbsup:

Grant Green's version of sex machine.

Good one! Yes, I am in the midst of recording all of my vinyl onto CDs, and went down memory lane with "Feels So Good" over the weekend. Brought me back to days in residence at university, when we would put that disk on repeat, and drink a 12 pack to it.

I wanted to add to this list some of the works by Focus. Not really the yodelling song (Hokus Pokus) as I think that it self-disqualifies itself by way of that afformentioned yodelling (not that the base line doesn't rock) but I really like the instrumental called Focus III.

This band is essentially vintage 70's prog rock, and it's flute and renaissance inspired melodies pre-date Beck. But they sure rocked!

PS, J8, you're not that old. I bet that we could trade some trivia back and forth...

Rush - YYZ

Top of my list would have to be:
Little Wing - Stevie Ray Vaughn

When I think instrumental songs, I immediately think of "Classical Gas". I'd also have to throw in some Dream Theater: "Dance of Eternity", "Paradigm Shift" and "YTSE Jam"

Medeski, Martin & Wood - The Dropper
Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
Mahavishnu Orchestra - The Noonward Race

And here I thought it was called Rap.
// I Keed :lol:

Seriously though and more or less in order:

For the Love of God - Steve Vai
Race with the Devil on a Spanish Highway - Al Di Meola
Bouree - Jethro Tull (Also the live instrumental version of Coronach they do)
On Earth as it is in Heaven - Ennio Morricone (From The Mission soundtrack. Used it as the recessional in my wedding)
The entire Passion Grace and Fire album - Paco de Lucia, John McLaughlin, Al DiMeola
Fault Line - Los Mel-Tones
Baby Elephant Walk - Henry Mancini
2112 Overture - Rush
Foggy Mountain Breakdown - Flatt & Scruggs
The Sinister Footwear - Frank Zappa
East St. Louis Toodle-oo - Steely Dan (Walter Becker can make a wah-wah pedal sing.)

And props to the following:
Always with Me, Always with You - Satch
Frankenstein - Edgar Winter
Hocus Pocus - Focus (What the hell is wrong with Yodelling)
SRV's Little Wing
Call of Cthulu & Cliffs of Dover (love your avatar, Redjake)
Rock-it - Herbie Handcock
Feels So Good - Chuck Mangione

Mike Oldfield's Guitars and Tubular Bells III albums. Awesome awesome awesome.

Also Apocolyptica. I mean, Metallica wrote some awesome music. They just ruined it by singing.

"resolution" - john coltrane
"pitter patter goes my heart" - broken social scene
"passacaglia no.6" - handel
"love you" - sondre lerche
"peaches en regalia" - frank zappa
"portrait of tracy" - jaco pastorius
"doing the wrong thing" - kaki king
"four seasons: winter" -vivaldi

NIN - Complication
Tool - Triad
Stone Temple Pilots - Press Play (it's just over a minute long, but it's so friggin fuckin cool)
The Prodigy - Voodoo People (Pendulum Remix)

to name a few...ugh, my mind went blank.

Did you happen to see them perform that on SNL? I happened to catch it on one of their classic show broadcasts really late on Saturday (since the original airing was well before my birth). It had to be one of (if not THE) best musical performances I've seen on Saturday Night Live.