Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Killer Instrumentals

This week's list over at The Onion A.V. Club is "29 Terrific Instrumentals By Bands That Usually Sing." They recognize Rush with "YYZ" (I would've gone with "La Villa Strangiato"), Genesis with "The Brazilian" (my choice - "Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers . . . in That Quiet Earth"), and Pink Floyd with "Interstellar Overdrive" (a fine choice), but overlook several favorites of mine. Stretching "usually sings" to its broadest meaning, some additions to the list:

King Crimson - "Lark's Tongues in Aspic, Part II" (double trio version):


Dream Theater - "Ytse Jam" (apologies for the drum solo):


Mike Keneally - "Dolphins":


And, of course, Frank - "Strictly Genteel":


Rock!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

...but Genesis has far more instrumentals in their songs than vocals, at least in the older stuff.

Paul said...

Genesis has brazillion instrumentals (or at least instrumental interludes) that are much better than "The Brazilian."

Frank has a ton of good instrumental stuff too.

Anonymous said...

Well, instrumental to me means "song without words." With that definition, there are only a few real instrumentals in the Genesis catalog - "After the Ordeal" and "The Waiting Room" from the Gabriel days, "Wot Gorilla?" and "Unquiet . . ." from Wind and Wuthering, "Duke's End" and "The Brazilian." Even "Los Endos" and "Duke's Travels" have words, albeit just a few.

But, yeah, there are lots of extended instrumental bits in the Genesis catalog that blow "The Brazilian" away. If it were a separate track, the back half of "Cinema Show" would get my vote.

crystal dawn said...

Yeah, the second half of Cinema Show is prolly one of my favorite instrumentals evah.

I would also add (off the top of my head):

Aqua Marine - Santana
Disco Suicide - Brand X
The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus) - Yes

Paul said...

I'm also quite fond of "Firth of Fifth" and "Second Home By the Sea."