Talk:List of rock instrumentals

Pruning the list
I really think this article should be cut back to a list of notable songs as defined at Notability (music). Per Stand-alone lists, "Each entry on a list should have its own non-redirect article in English Wikipedia, but this is not required if the entry is verifiably a member of the listed group, and it is reasonable to expect an article could be forthcoming in the future". While all of the songs are probably instrumental (and that's debatable, especially since there are no references whatsoever), few of them are (or ever will be) notable enough to warrant their own articles. Hell, some of these bands aren't even notable enough to have articles. I wouldn't object to including otherwise non-notable songs if they are referenced by reliable, third-party published sources with a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy as required every else on Wikipedia. Opinions? Ideas? Wyatt Riot (talk) 01:22, 18 January 2009 (UTC)
 * ✅. Wyatt Riot (talk) 10:03, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I think that, if we're going to prune discriminately, it should be explicitly stated that we removed more obscure tracks. I feel uncomfortable without a disclaimer on a list that could go ostensibly without end. Sother (talk) 04:30, 19 February 2010 (UTC)

Buckethead ?
I don't think every Buckethead track should be listed in this article. First because he made thousands of them but mostly because he's an instrumental guitarist, listing his instrumental tracks would be as useful as listing the instrumental tracks of Satriani or Steve Vai...

82.122.101.186 (talk) 17:43, 15 July 2009 (UTC) Anahkiasen 15/07/09

Just why?
Does no-one else think this article should just flat-out not exist? It will never ever be anywhere near close to complete, unless you cut it back to only the most notable of artist, and then what would be the point? Not that there's a point to the list just now either mind you. You may as well start an article 'List of Rock songs with vocals' or 'List of Jazz songs featuring a flute'.

There's nothing wrong with artist-specific lists for artists particularly noted for their instrumentals, like the one for Rush, but I really just fail to see the point in this one. Jh39 (talk) 09:19, 9 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Yeah. This is stupid. There will never be a complete list of every rock instrumental song ever —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.241.118.40 (talk) 15:55, 17 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Actually, I would support 'List of Jazz songs featuring a flute'. You just can't mention Rahsaan Roland Kirk enough no matter how hard you may try.RadioKAOS (talk) 06:47, 12 August 2011 (UTC)

Cream: Traintime
This should not be on this list. Traintime is Jack Bruce singing and playing harmonica accompanied by Ginger Baker while Eric Clapton had a rest. Definitely not an instrumental.13:34, 7 January 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by DigbyJames (talk • contribs)

Need some help with these songs

 * "Song for the Fisherman" by 36 Crazyfists (A Snow Capped Romance, 2004)
 * "The Three Great Alabama Icons" by Drive-By Truckers (Southern Rock Opera, 2001)

Both consist of spoken word over instrumental backing. I'm not sure whether or not they exactly qualify as instrumental tracks.


 * "Kitate" by Los Lobos (The Ride, 2004)

Gibberish singing throughout, but I'm unclear as to whether there are actual lyrics or not.RadioKAOS (talk) 16:48, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

Scat singing refers to "using the voice as an instrument rather than a speaking medium". Does this mean that Ella Fitzgerald is an instrumentalist? I'm thinking of Hocus_Pocus_(instrumental), which uses yodeling. Do we need separate lists for these recordings? 173.16.183.72 (talk) 17:16, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

More bands to add
A listing of bands which I figure have a lot of instrumental recordings in their discography, but aren't on the list at all:


 * Aqua Velvets
 * Dinosaur Jr.
 * Galactic
 * Man or Astro-man?
 * The Mars Volta
 * Phish
 * Primus
 * Sea Level
 * Sonic Youth
 * Joe Walsh
 * Yo La Tengo

(to be continued/expanded as time allows)RadioKAOS (talk) 12:29, 17 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Digging deeper, I see that rather than trying to clean up the article as I did, someone instead chose to excise large portions of it under claim of non-notability several years ago. I'll try and leave alone my observations that the Wikipedia community hasn't quite a grip on what really is and isn't notable.  The lack of any references in the article does make it a prime target for a similar butcher job, or even another deletion attempt.RadioKAOS (talk) 13:21, 17 June 2012 (UTC)

Also Zero / Steve Kimock 173.16.183.72 (talk) 16:55, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

What is Rock?
I have to take exception to removing "Tighten Up" and "The Horse" from this page. You are, in essence, proclaiming yourself to be the ultimate authority of what constitutes "rock" music.

According to Wikipedia's own definition, "Rock music is a genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the United States in the 1950s, and developed into a range of different styles in the 1960s and later, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States.[1][2] It has its roots in 1940s' and 1950s' rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of other genres such as blues and folk, and incorporated influences from jazz, classical and other musical sources".

Are you sure that you are not simply trying to infuse your own tastes into this extremely wide spectrum of music?

I was also going to add the 1974 hit by the Average White Band, "Pick up the Pieces", however it seems your definition of what rock is may be too limited for list.

Hayden Station (talk) 18:39, 18 July 2014 (UTC)

Even more to add
Very astonishingly, Mike Oldfield and Soft Machine are conspicuously absent ? ! AlterBerg (talk) 07:42, 7 May 2015 (UTC)

Automatic listing using tags
How about tagging the songs in order to automatically generate any such list? Alexandre Oberlin (talk) 11:40, 10 April 2016 (UTC)

Confirming this listing IS valuable!
The reason i got here and saw the list was because i was trying to remember some of the key instrumentals from long ago, and this list worked for me! thank you :) (now, i will be adding to it as i recall some that are missing.)

I think the reason having such a list is appropriate is because the concept of "rock" music conjures vocals -- esp given that a rock band almost always includes a lead singer(s). therefore, a rock instrumental would be a novelty. that is why it's appropriate.

Where it breaks down is with the few bands or performers who typically do instrumentals or are exclusively instrumental. but, i don't think that should negate the value of this article. I believe it would work best in those instances to either just state that most/all of their works were instrumentals, or to cite some of their most popular works and to then link for the rest to their main wiki entry.

now, as to what constitutes "rock" -- boy, that's a tricky one. i worked as a professional with people doing music research, and we never did have a precise definition--mostly because it's a moving target. the musicians evolve...and the audience evolves. for instance, Jimi Hendrix was way too hard for most usa top 40 rock stations (look at the chart numbers of his usa singles), but now, he's quite mainstream. then there's the Soul music genre (aka R&B)--is that rock? without R&B, there prob would not have been "Rock n' Roll"--the two are the same roots--yet the audiences diverged. as such, i think The Dynatones' single "Fife Piper" should be on the list, but they are a "Soul" group. The only thing that usually determined the answer back then was whether it had pop radio airplay. in this case, the Dynatones did...but "Fife Piper" was never a big hit, so does it stay strictly a Soul record, or can it be counted as a true rock record?

as to what specific cuts belong on the list... i think that one may be easier to define. This is how i would do it... If the cut was on a single or album that charted, then that surely qualifies. If it was by a band that had albums or singles that charted, then it qualifies. If the group recorded with an established label (not a vanity label), then it should probably qualify as well--but that's where there may need to be a numerical or other defined cut-off.

Then, what about bands that don't have established record contracts? Presently, we have metrics on the download services which will tell us if a band that isn't recording still has a huge following. there could be a cut-off number for that. One blatant example would be one of the most famous instrumentals ever posted on youtube. It's called "Canon Rock" (Johann Pachelbel), and the guitarist who arranged the rock version (JerryC) has 20 million views on youtube, and another guitarist who initially made it popular (funtwo) had tens of millions of views before he changed videos. He was one of the biggest stars on youtube back then, and this song was surely a "hit" in the truest sense. those versions belong on the list, but they were not recordings. so, that needs to be addressed in the definition--is this just recorded music (by a record label), or any published instrumental? NOTE- the preface to the article already states that it includes live performances--which may not be appropriate if it's only a limited audience who gets to hear it. what if a lead singer's mike or voice fails and the rest of the band decides to keep going with an instrumental--is that official too? it probably should not include one-offs--unless those are somehow distributed to the mass public.

those are just my (educated) opinions. hope they help.Number.6.freeman (talk) 00:51, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

Iron Butterfly Theme
Concerning the list of rock instrumentals. You should add "Iron Butterfly Theme" and "in-a-gadda-da-vida." by Iron Butterfly. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Aqobg (talk • contribs) 19:18, 2 June 2017 (UTC)

I inadvertently started an article
List of rock and roll instrumentals not knowing about this one. I am starting to transfer stuff over, I'd found a few you've missed, but I also would like to include chart information for US, UK and R&B (American) charts as well as a few notable tidbits of information. But don't want to do it if there are serious objections. Carptrash (talk) 05:51, 6 January 2018 (UTC)

Do we need to define 'instrumental?"
There is a nice discussion above detailing how impossible it is to define rock music and I was wondering what our definition of “instrumental” might be? I was shocked, simply shocked, to discover while perusing the extensive list that is the article that neither Wipe Out (instrumental) by the The Surfaris nor  Tequila (song) by The Champs was included. Was this because there are a few words spoken?, Shouted? Whatever? To deny that these are rock instrumentals is to fly in the face of all R&R tradition. So I have added them, or will, along with a few other of that ilk and we’ll see where that gets us. Carptrash (talk) 19:03, 6 January 2018 (UTC)

Phish
I don't know these folks music all that much but they must do some straight up instrumentals. Don't they? Carptrash (talk) 01:00, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

Valuable; I defined "instrumental"
This list is valuable. I came across it today when I decided to make a "instrumental rock jams" playlist. It has been great to help me reference against my music collection to create the playlist. However, I do think we need to define "instrumental" so I did so. I see someone recently added "Tequila". That does not qualify as an "instrumental" due to the vocal "Tequila" being sung. Ditto a Blind Faith song that was on this list. As far as merging with the list of "rock and roll" instrumentals, that makes sense. There is certainly no need for two separate similar topics.2600:1700:8E51:1020:60D6:C670:99BF:9EF5 (talk) 07:05, 9 March 2018 (UTC)
 * I think that this phrase, "Therefore, songs with any clearly articulated words should be excluded from this list." needs to be removed. To deny that Tequila (song) or Wipe Out are rock instrumentals is to go against all reason & tradition. So I am going to do it.  Unless I hear from you. Carptrash (talk) 01:59, 2 July 2018 (UTC)

I just removed this "definition" from the page
" According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumental, an instrumental has no lyrics or singing, but may have inarticulate vocals. Therefore, songs with any clearly articulated words should be excluded from this list." First of all, we can't use wikipedia as a reference on wikipedia and secondly, to deny that Wipe Out (instrumental) or Tequila (song) are rock instrumentals is to betray such a complete misunderstanding of the genre as to suggest that an editor holding those views should not be editing here. Both are featured in Otfinoski's "The Golden Age of Rock Instrumentals" and Tequila appears on the "25 Rockin' Instrumentals" CD. Okay? Carptrash (talk) 22:03, 5 July 2018 (UTC)

Ecce Cor Meum (2006) except "IV. Ecce Cor Meum"
I just cut this out from the Paul McCartney section. The article describes the work as a "classical" piece. I have not heard it, and if it is rock by all means return it, but for now it dwells here. Carptrash (talk) 16:03, 15 July 2018 (UTC)

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Alphabetized
Someone want to fix the alphabetization in this article? It's alphabetizing by people's first names, which is wrong. 24.59.205.200 (talk) 23:06, 26 February 2022 (UTC)