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When Words Are Unnecessary: The Rate-A-Record Instrumental Edition
Sometimes you don’t need lyrics
When most people think of rock and roll instrumentals, they immediately think of surf rock, and with good reason. That early 1960s subgenre provided us with more iconic yet wordless songs than I can list here. For a full treatment, check out the superb series Jessica Lee McMillan did last year for The Riff.
Great rock instrumentals go well beyond the beach, however. Booker T. and the M.G.’s “Green Onions,” Duane Eddy’s “Rebel Rouser,” Santana’s “Soul Sacrifice,” and “Moby Dick” by Led Zeppelin are all classic instrumentals that people often forget. I thought for my final Rate-A-Record of the month I would give you two of my favorite instrumentals and see what you think of them. My most recent Rate-A-Record article was technically all instrumentals (being just bagpipes and banjos), but those were covers. What about instrumental originals that rock out as well?
As always, we’re using the American Bandstand-inspired scale of 35 to 98, so leave your rating in the comments.
