Best instrumentals

[Led Zeppelin]

My favourite instrumental songs are


Rush - La Villa Strangiato
Allman Bros Band - Jessica
Led Zeppelin - White Summer/Black Mountain Side
Gary Moore - The Loner
Jimi Hendrix - Star Spangled Banner
Theme From The A-Team

I know Im Forgetting loads so

[Fenderblues]

d.t - ac/dc
wipeout - surfaris
tequilla - wes montgomery
any john williams
the call of ktulu - metallica
miseralou - dick dale
(anything with well played guitar)
tubula bells - mike oldfield

[Raskolnikov]

I'm partial to Hamburger Train by Primus, SRV's version of Little Wing, and Two Finger Todd vrs. the Army Ants (http://www.piratemusic.tv/boccewagon/) by The Bocce Wagon.

[eljison]

okay, first and foremost... Stevie Ray Vaughans cover of "Little Wing" still gives me goosebumps! ("Riviera Paradise" and "Lenny" are close seconds) Joe Satriani's "Always With You, Always With Me" shows that hammer-on/pull-offs CAN have soul, too! Now, as far as instrumentalists, I must say that one of my favorites is Phil Keaggy. His lyrics are peppered with cheesy christian themes (no offense) but his instrumental albums are very good. His earliest, "The Master & The Musician" blends classical, jazz and rock. I recommend "On The Fly" and "The Wind and The Wheat" for the more electrically inclined and "Acoustic Sketches" and "Beyond Nature" for some nice "unplugged" stuff. Clapton has some nice instrumental stuff on the soundtrack to the movie "RUSH"... especially "Tracks & Lines"...
cheers

[eljison]

HI folks,
I wanted to add a few more to my list of great instrumentals/instrumentalists:
1. Ted Nugent "Hibernation" (from "Double Live Gonzo" includes his famous line about his guitar "blowing the balls off a charging rhino at 60 paces"...always the avid hunter!) after about 5 minutes of feedback the song rips into some sweet guitar work! give it another listen...
2. Robben Ford's "Life Song (One for Annie)" from debut "Robben Ford and The Blue Line"
3. Move over Satch, has any heard Blues Saraceno? His "Plaid" CD has some phenomenal guitar work beyond his age 18 or 19 years at the time!
we should also mention Kenny Wayne Shepard and Johnny Lang.

[fendermonkey77]

Eric Johnson - Cliffs of Dover
- Zap
Joe Satriani - Summer Song
SRV - Little Wing
- Lenny
Eric Clapton - Signe (cool bossa nova song)

[Christoph]

Marooned - Pink Floyd, from The Division Bell

Surfing with the Alien - Satch

For the Love of God - Vai

SRV - Eric Johnson

---

Yes Eljison, I've heard Blues Saraceno. He did some technically impressive things on that album, but most of it was just mindless crap, with little melody and no musical value.

[Raskolnikov]

one addition to my above list: "Nun Chaka Kata" by Buckethead, and yes SRV's Little Wing makes less and less sense to me every time I listen to it, truely AWESOME work.

[Alan Moorhouse]

Hey Fendermonkey! Good call on the Eric Clapton "Signe" tune (I believe from the "Reptile" album). I saw him at the Arena in Manchester and he opened with it, playing a big fat ol' Gibson jazzer - what a sound!!

[eljison]

I forgot to mention Vinnie Moore's "April Sky" which heavily borrows from J.S. Bach's "Air on a G String" and "Piano Concerto No. 5 (2nd movement)". His cover of the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is nice, too. They are both on "Time Odyssey." Unfortunately, the production of the rhythm section is pretty weak throughout the CD.

[Led Zeppelin]

I forgot to mention Fleetwood Mac - Albatross and Oasis's ****in in the Bushes is good too

[Vertigo]

Metallica - To live is to die (a fue words are spoken...but i think you could call it intrumental

[letmedrown]

Satriani - Friends,Tears in the rain,Cool n.9,Always with me always with you,Love thing ans so many others...
Jeff Beck - Brush with the blues
Steve Vai - For the love of God
Alice in Chains - Whale and wasp
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Little wing


These are just a few...

[ekstasis16]

Vai - Melissa's Garden
Sarch - The Forgotten Part II
Eric Johnson - Cliffs of Dover
Liquid Tension Experiment - Paradigm Shift
Vai - Windows to the Soul
Clapton - The Edge of Darkness
Vai - I Would Love To

Now there's some good listening

[Stratman26]

Steve Vai- the entire Passion and Warfare Album
Eric Johnson- particularly Cliffs of Dover and Trademark
Frank Zappa- any song Vai played on
Joe Satriani- Most but particularly Day at the Beach, Ice 9, Satch Boogie, and Midnight
SRV- Little Wing
Metallica- The Call of Ktulu
So many more

[Purikah]

Orion - Metallica.
Planet Caravan - Black Sabbath.

[ibanezdude]

metallica - call of the ktulu
THIS SONG ROKS!!!
and the s+m version iz even beta! :)

[Stratman26]

Planet Caravan isn't instrumental.

[Peanucle]

My favorite instrumentals are:


Doyle Dykes: Birmingham Steele
All versions of Sleep Walk
The Ventures: Walk Don't Run
Junior Brown: Peelin' Taters (hehe that's a funny one)
SRV: Little Wing

Lots of others but i'm tired atm and cant think :)

[MorseRulez]

they are.....

1. la villa strangiato, and yyz (RUSH)
2. vista grande, on the pipe, tumeni notes, simple simon,
and highland wedding (STEVE MORSE)
3. the bells of lal part 2, love thing, echoes, power cosmic 2000 (JOE SATRIANI)
4. erotomania, hells kitchen (DREAM THEATER)
5. the dragon (NEAL SCHON)
6. the bash (DIXIE DREGS)
7. didacts and narpets (RUSH) *i know this is basically a studio drum solo that neal done on caress of steel, but if you havent heard it, "listen"

[guitar_dude18]

My favorite's are:
1. To Live Is To Die-Metallica
2. Without Wings-Corrosion of Conformity
3. Dee-Randy Rhoads
4. Orion-Metallica
5. Call of Ktulu-Metallica
6. Sisters-Steve Vai
7. For the Love of God-Steve Vai
8. Little Wing-SRV
9. Vampires-Godsmack even though some words are spoken I think of it as an instrumental

[Led Zeppelin]

Doees anyone else think that the words, few as they are, ruin Fade To Black by Metallica. I mean itds the only Metallica song I like and Id like it alot more a s an instrumental.

[Zeppelin]

here we go..

1)Vai - For the love of god
2)Satriani - always with you always with me
3)Deep Purple A 200
4)Anything by SRV

can't think of any others now

[THE PHYRGIAN LORD]

Heres are mine

For the love of god STEVE VAI
Extremist JOE SATRIANI
Hideaway (Eric clapton
eric johnson (zap)
carlos santana (europe)

[gibsonlp1960]

I'm dissapointed, damn, im downright heartbroken to see that no one has put this one up here yet. You should all feel ashamed after not honoring a great guitar legend who was lost before he even made thirty. I think its a beautiful work of guitar art, and it gives me chills just to listen to an amazing classical work done by a hard rocking guitar player.

Of course I'm talking about Randy Rhoads and his classical guitar piece "Dee". May Randy's soul rest in peace.

[gibsonlp1960]

whoa hey im sorry, i read over it again and Guitar_dude18 did mention Rhoads. Right on man, hes one of my favorite guitarists and I think he deserves alot more respect than he gets.

[Joseph]

Originally posted by Christoph



For the Love of God - Vai



There are so many instrumentals that come to mind, but with this song it definitely has a way of taking you on a strong and long journey. The God's of thunder were definitely with this man dutring the overal writing process. When you have the ability to reach someone through sounds (without words) that really say something special about what you're capable of as a human being.

-Joseph

[stratman42]

Black Star - Yngwie Malmsteen

A brilliant neoclassical work

[ChiBear]

SRV's "Little Wing" definitely!!

I'm a little torn between admitting to liking the neo-classical brilliancies of Yngwie J. Malmsteen, or keeping it to myself...as I've noticed there aren't very many mentions of his name here (I think I noticed one). Among my notable favorites are: "Black Star", "Trilogy Suite", "Flamenco Diablo", "Blitzkrieg", "Arpeggios From Hell", and "Echo Etude", with more to follow I'm sure...

Eugene's (Vai?) rendition of "Paganini's 5th Caprice" from the movie "Crossroads"====> I've been at this one for a couple 'o years and still haven't got it the way I want it....oh well, forge ahead...

All of Metallica's Instrumentals.

Paul Gilbert's made for guitar version of Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons"

[Superhuman]

My top 5 favourite instrumentals in no particular order...

Metallica - Orion
Jason Becker - Perpetual Burn
Vinnie Moore - Defying Gravity
Joe Satriani - War (or a track from Strange Beautfull Music which I forget the title of)
Steve Vai - Tender Surrender

There are a lot more I could mention seeing as I almost exclusively listen to instrumental music.... but anyway, these are the ones that jump to mind at this moment

[ren]

+1 for mentioning Vinnie Moore dude, I prefer 'As time slips by', but man he's good...

At the moment, my top 5 would be:

As Time Slips By - Vinnie Moore
Circles - Joe Satriani
Summer Song - Joe Satriani
Nottingham Lace - BucketHead
Apathy - Bumblefoot

[elklandercc]

I agree with just about everyone so I'm not gonna post the same stuff. So I'm gonna add Vai's Building the Church to the list. I perfer the live version he did with G3 because the ending whammy bar riff is longer and better.

[Mark Pav]

Here are a few I like, in no definite order. I also like a bunch of classical music that I haven't listed here, because then the list would be huge.

Tears in the Rain - Satriani
Revelation - Robben Ford
For the Love of God - Steve Vai
Blue Moon - Tommy Emmanuel
Always With Me, Always With You - Satriani
Samba Pa Ti - Santana
Little Wing - SRV
Villanova Junction - Hendrix

[jimmy_kwtx]

2 that pop to mind

Freeway Jam -- Jeff Beck

Testify - SRV

[jiujitsu_jesus]

Freeway Jam is the goods! Love the little keyboard solo at the end as well.

Two that come to mind for me are "Meeting of the Spirits" by the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Pink Floyd's "Careful With That Axe, Eugene".

[jimmy_kwtx]

OH MAN!!!!

Yo9u just reminded me of another great instrumental by Pink Floyd....

One of these days -- The works album -- The backward cymbal kicks A-uss!!

Freeway Jam has to be an all time fav for me. It's actually the bass that does it for me. I am working on a cover and since my keyboard playing sucks the big one I, unfortunately pay it no attention (I know shame on me:)

[earthman buck]

Just to name a few I haven't seen yet:

Interstellar Overdrive - Pink Floyd
Flying - the Beatles (very groovy song, it always relaxes me)
Moby Dick - Led Zep

And also, a bunch of Greasy Knots jams that turned out pretty cool, like "Separation," "Bassline AB200," and one we did last night with me playing bass and Michael playing guitar which I like to call "F-f-f-funk."

[ren]

Thanks for reminding me about the Floyd guys - totally forgot about 'Marooned'.... genius... whammy pedal use at it's best....

[jiujitsu_jesus]

Interstellar Overdrive - Pink Floyd

*kicks self for not mentioning this song* :)
I tried to rep you, but to no avail!

[z0s0_jp]

moby dick-zep
one of these days-floyd
La Villa Strangiato-rush
orion-metallica
take five-dave brubeck
losfer words(best title :D )-iron maiden
beck's bolero-jeff beck

[z0s0_jp]

Doees anyone else think that the words, few as they are, ruin Fade To Black by Metallica. I mean itds the only Metallica song I like and Id like it alot more a s an instrumental.
no.............

[aschleman]

Any solo violin piece written by Nicoli Paganini... he was the first true virtuoso.

[earthman buck]

*kicks self for not mentioning this song* :)
I tried to rep you, but to no avail!
Yeah, I wondered why you hadn't brought it up. :)

[Akira]

A few worth mentioning:

Where Were You - Jeff Beck
Time - Satriani
Friends - Satriani
The Extremist - Satriani
War - Satriani
Summer Song - Satriani
Flying In A Blue Dream - Satriani
The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing - Satriani
One Big Rush - Satriani
Back to Shall-Bal - Satriani
Rubina (live version) - Satriani
Just Like Lightnin' - Satriani
Redshift Riders - Satriani
A Cool New Way - Satriani
Theme For A Strange World - Satriani
A Love Eternal - Satriani
Always with Me... - Satriani
Jaws of Life - John Petrucci
Glasgow Kiss - Petrucci
Animate-Inanimate - Petrucci
Acid Rain - Liquid Tension Experiment
Biaxident - LTE
914 - LTE
Infact, LTE's two albums in their entirety
Night - Marty Friedman
Lift Off - Mick Neil
'Manda - Mick Neil
Scit Scat Wah - Racer X
Bad Horsie - Steve Vai
Juice - Vai
Die to Live - Vai
Tender Surrender - Vai
There's a Fire in the House - Vai
The Crying Machine - Vai
Warm Regards - Vai
Passion and Warfare, in general - Vai
Building the Church - Vai
Glorious - Vai
K'm-Pee-Du-Wee - Vai
Freak Show Excess - Vai
Lotus Feet - Vai (absolutely incredible)
Touching Tongues - Vai

[jiujitsu_jesus]

take five - Dave Brubeck

Hell yes, another one I forgot to mention! :cool: The drum solo in the John Coltrane collaboration version is sweet.
Speaking of John Coltrane collaborations, got to put in a good word for his and Duke Ellington's version of "In A Sentimental Mood".
Also, a lot of Marty Friedman's instrumentals, in particular "Forbidden City", and also "It's the Unreal Thing", which is great because it's nice to see a virtuoso lead guitarist other than Satch using a riff as something other than background noise for a widdly solo. :D

[rockonn91]

Yeah, I was gunna say Liquid Tension Experiment, but Akira beat me to it. good job, bud. hahah.

uh, Dream Theater has some great stuff.

[FireAndIce24]

Just about anything Becker has ever done. Just too insane for words.

and how could we have forgotten Eruption!? :eek: :rolleyes:

[Akira]

I forgot to add:

Hundreds of Thousands - Tony MacAlpine
Porcelain Doll - MacAlpine

Amazing musician.

[earthman buck]

Oh yeah, I forgot some too.

The Pink Panther theme - Henry Mancini
Goby - Kaki King (I friggin' love this song)

[ericthecableguy]

Stream of Conciousness- Dream Theater *Great, structured hooky, virtuosic instrumental*

Building the Church (Live @ Tokyo)- Vai *Beyond Amazing soul shattering piece*

Anything by Tommy Emmanuel. *Easily my favourite solo instrumentalist of all time*

Mind Storm, Devil's Slide and Crystal planet (live)- Satriani

[CW14]

-Call of Ktulu and Orion by 'tallica
-Sometimes I see by Pat Metheny
-Epilogue by Opeth

[waylonfairbanks]

steppin out, cream, best istrumental ever. period

[thebluesbreaker]

rodrigo y gabriella's version of stairway to heaven

actually anything thing by rodrigo y gabriella

[z0s0_jp]

rodrigo y gabriella's version of stairway to heaven

actually anything thing by rodrigo y gabriella
thanks for the intro...they kick booty :D they will be on cbs the late late show on oct. 6th i believe

[thebluesbreaker]

it's a shame i won't see it but i got to see a live bit off their cd it's also got a guitar tutorial with it
Worth the money

[jeffhx]

rodrigo y gabriella's version of stairway to heaven

actually anything thing by rodrigo y gabriella


yes yes yes!!! i absolutely agree!!

kaki king for the win as well...

trippy instrumentals are always awesome...stuff from explosions in the sky, album leaf, boards of canada, efterklang, ok im cut off probably...but yea :)

[jiujitsu_jesus]

Baden Powell's "Manha de Carnaval" is brilliant, he's one of my favourite acoustic guitarists.

And while I'm on Latin stuff, I know the Gipsy Kings are a bit corny, but "Inspiration" is just awesome IMO.

[guitar_tito]

Billy Cobham-Stratus
Mahavishnu Orchestra-Can't Stand Your Funk
Pink Floyd-Any Colour You Like
Pat Martino-Impressions
Wes Montgomery-West Coast Blues

[ChiBear]

Anyone hear "Canon Rock" yet??? Jerry C.
Check it out...You won't regret it.

[Glee]

no one put
"Clasical Gas" Mason Williams
I like "Imagine" done by David Hodge on the 12 string

[ChiBear]

You've heard "Arpeggios From Hell" right? I mean, who hasn't...?

Jerry C. does a retaliatory rendition called "Sweeping From Heaven".
I just started listening to this 'unknown' very recently. I'm one of those "asian people can't play guitar" kind of people, but when I saw this dude beating out his heart and soul through his strat, well, I'm not really one of those people anymore. THIS ASIAN CAN PLAY.

G3...make some room...there's another great moving in soon...

Please tell me what you think...

[gogogo]

SRV-Little Wing
SRV-Testify
SRV-Rude Mood
SRV-well anything lol reason I picked up guitar
George Benson-Affirmation
Jim Hall-Beautiful Love well alot of his stuff
Joe Pass-lotta his stuff
Freddie Green-lotta the stuff he did with Count Basie
Wes Montgomery-His rendition of Satin Doll
Wes Montgomery w/ John Coltrane-Summertime
paco de lucia-entre dos aquas
soooooo many other fabulous instrumentals!!!

[elklandercc]

I could sit here and repeat a lot of people so I'll just add a song.

John 5's Sugar Foot Rag (which I believe is a cover, correct me if I'm wrong.)

[ren]

I could sit here and repeat a lot of people so I'll just add a song.

John 5's Sugar Foot Rag (which I believe is a cover, correct me if I'm wrong.)

Red Foley?

[AIC]

Shawn Lane - Maria

It's not very technical but it truely is awsome for a home production (and him playing all the instruments) and it has a beautiful theme :)

cheers

[OSdave]

I guess I'm just one of very few people (if any) that is completely unimpressed with the sheer technicality and lack of true feeling in both Vai and Satriani's music. Yes, they are excellent guitarists and good at what they do, I'm just not into the whole "technical" thing. I'll take even a mediocre blues guitarist over either of them any day...

But, that's just my opinion...

That being said, I would also pick SRV's Lenny over Little wing - just because of the fact that Lenny was an original...

[earthman buck]

I guess I'm just one of very few people (if any) that is completely unimpressed with the sheer technicality and lack of true feeling in both Vai and Satriani's music. Yes, they are excellent guitarists and good at what they do, I'm just not into the whole "technical" thing. I'll take even a mediocre blues guitarist over either of them any day...

But, that's just my opinion...
Nah, that's pretty much the way I look at it too. I'm much more inspired by music that seems human to me.

[jiujitsu_jesus]

I guess I'm just one of very few people (if any) that is completely unimpressed with the sheer technicality and lack of true feeling in both Vai and Satriani's music. Yes, they are excellent guitarists and good at what they do, I'm just not into the whole "technical" thing. I'll take even a mediocre blues guitarist over either of them any day...

That's exactly the way I feel about Vai's music, but not Satriani's. I like the way that Satch bases his noodling on a synthesis of blues-rock and pop, it gives his music a lot more personality.

[jiujitsu_jesus]

Billy Cobham-Stratus
Mahavishnu Orchestra-Can't Stand Your Funk

Hell yeah! :cool: