5 Favourite Instrumentals

Chris Propfe at ‪@ChrisPropfeMusicallyObsessed‬ did a video about five of his favorite instrumental tracks. ‪@MGKBOSTON‬ , ‪@alltheworldsastage899‬ , and ‪@EmbryonicRobot‬ have jumped on so far and I'm sure there are plenty others I don't know about. So now I'm making my contribution, super long-winded style as always.

[@ChrisPropfeMusicallyObsessed]

Great response, Peter!!!!!!!! I’ve never heard of Colosseum. Love Don Airy’s work. Gonna check them out. Iron Butterfly rules!!!! That theme is killer!

[@musicisajourney]

Don Airey has some great instrumentals on his solo albums, too. Have you heard “A Light in the Sky”?

[@ChrisPropfeMusicallyObsessed]

@@musicisajourney I have not!

[@musicisajourney]

@@ChrisPropfeMusicallyObsessed Check out that album. It's from around 2007/8 I think. He also has K2 from around 1987/8 and there was another solo album some years back which I missed.

[@alltheworldsastage899]

Hey Peter! Thanks for the shout out! You are correct sir, there are few instrumentals I like. I'm a lyrics guy, even though I do like extended instrumental breaks in much of the prog rock I listen to.

[@musicisajourney]

Extended instrumental breaks can be very tasty!

[@EmbryonicRobot]

Hi Peter - Really interesting choices. I'll have to follow up on some of these. I love instrumentals too, as you now know. I am always surprised when people say that they don't like them. It's mysterious 😳

[@musicisajourney]

I’m with you. I always enjoy a well-crafted instrumental.

[@duringthemeanwhilst]

interesting video Peter 🙂 I do enjoy an instrumental, and particularly a good jazz quartet / quintet / trio, etc And of course a bit of Kraut Rock - Ash Ra Tempel, Tangerine Dream, Can, etc Maiden did a couple of instrumentals on their early records, and for us in the UK of a certain age who grew up with the Friday Rock Show there were the jingles - Theme One by Van der Graaf Generator and Take it from the Top by the Dixie Dregs that are memorable.. I also had a Cozy Powell instrumental record called Over the Top which I really enjoyed. Hocus Pocus? OK I guess yodelling doesn't count as singing!!!

[@musicisajourney]

I had that Cozy Powell album. I don’t now. I like Iron Maiden’s old instrumentals, but I guess they decided to just insert them in songs. I was considering a Dixie Dregs track, The Great Spectacular. But again, as I thought about it, the options tumbled down upon me.

[@duringthemeanwhilst]

@@musicisajourney did you have an equivalent to our Friday Rock Show? 10 until midnight every week, It was legendary here, hosted by the late and very great Tommy Vance. I think every UK rock fan used to listen to it. It was like a rite of passage!

[@musicisajourney]

@@duringthemeanwhilst You mentioned it in your last music video, and yes, even I have heard of Tommy Vance, though it was probably through some NWoBHM documentary. By my time, we had a rock radio station that played both new and old (video related to that on the drawing board). But there was the Monday Night Metal Show which was produced somewhere in the U.S. I think, and the local rock radio used it in their programming schedule. I wasn't a regular listener but I did catch a few episodes and learned of a couple of bands I still have in my collection.

[@benrankins4446]

Thanks for quoting me & helping me fight the war against drum solos! 👍They must be stopped!I ’m currently trying to Australianise this thread! I have so many bands which are just instrumental. I love it, but Embryonic Brian felt that was cheating using those bands. It’s hard to not mention Neu!, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream & and billion more of the amazing bands from that era. Even music with words I’m drawn to the music first. The words are always secondary to me unless they’re incredibly terrible. Steve is an old fuddy duddy with music. He abides by so many self imposed rules. I’m sure he’ll read this & tell me off 😂 You must keep yourself up at night overthinking these threads 😂 Man you did a deep dive with the Purps! Trust me nobody wants their head inside the drums. My friend when we were teenagers learned the hard way by literally stick his head inside my kick drum & well…I just couldn’t help myself 😳 Some interesting choices which I’ll have to investigate. Cheers…Ben

[@musicisajourney]

Your Led Zeppelin ranking the albums for Steve might have been the first video of yours I watched, and I remember you holding up LZII and simply saying, "Who loves a drum solo? I don't." Then you placed the album aside without another work about it. It thought it was brilliant! So many albums from those golden years include either drum solo tracks or drum solo breaks in otherwise good tracks. Ian Paice did it best by making the drum solo part of the music. Yes, I went all out with Deep Purple in 2006/7: The Maze with Rod Evans and Ian Paice, Nicky Simper's Fandango, Steven Morse in Kansas, Ritchie Blackmore in The Outlaws, Jon Lord solo albums, Tommy Bolin with Zephyr... I tried to scoop it all! I'm looking forward to your Aussie-fied take on this. Let's see what you got!

[@benrankins4446]

@@musicisajourney Oh yeah I forgot about the LZ ranking. It was to mainly annoy Steve 😂 I’ve put together my instrumental playlist now, just gotta do the vid👍

[@musicisajourney]

@@benrankins4446 Oh, cool! I'll check back for it tonight. I don't... uh, what do they say... "Smash that Like button... hit Subscribe, and... Castrate that bell"? I don't do the bell thing because I would be getting notifications every few minutes. I'll check in on you later. Looking forward to your list!

[@benrankins4446]

@@musicisajourney Hold ya horses, I'm not that fast!!

[@kevinputry5655]

Howdy Peter! Now you're really talking about my main interest in music. I love instrumentals more than any other music. I could actually make a list of at least 100 tunes of favorites instros but if I must narrow it down to 5... right now(and this could change later on) they are: Rush-La Villa Strangiato, Goblin-La Caccia, Sensations Fix-Map, Steve Tibbetts-Ur and Focus-Bennie Helder. Yeah, I don't really get the lack of interest in instrumentals. Tere's much freedom in instrumentals. No need to engage your brain in a logical way to try and figure out what a song is about. With instrumentals you can let your imagination soar! By the way, good call on the Iron Butterfly Theme!

[@musicisajourney]

A good instrumental track can be an album highlight, and I think La Villa Strangiato is a great example, as is YYX. People keep talking about these! Of the five you listed, four I don't know. But I have heard of Goblin (checked them out several years back) and I have a couple of Focus CDs. I want to listen to your Goblin pick and a couple of the others. I think instrumentals have to be engaging because they can't rely on a vocalist to keep everyone's interest. The band has to play something that will keep listeners focus on the music throughout the track. Thanks re: Iron Butterfly Theme. As I said, that track still thrills me and keeps my blood churning.