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Instrumental Parts That Made The Song


Eric Iverson

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Great thread!

 

So far the ones I whole heartily agree with are;

 

John Lord's work in Deep Purple's Lazy

Piano in Carry On My Wayward Son

Walk of Life keyboard work

Stevie Wonder's Superstition

 

Ones I'll add:

 

Bass in Queen's Another One Bites The Dust

Bass in Queen's Dragon Attack

Excellent guitar in Nick Drake's Pink Moon

Harmonica in Blues Traveler's Runaround

Horns in Maynard Ferguson's (written by Bill Conti) Gonna Fly Now

Horns in Paul Simon's You Can Call Me Al

Keyboard in Sugarloaf's Green Eyed Lady

Keyboard in The Cure's Lovesong

Keyboard work in The Who's Eminence Front

Lindsay Buckingham's guitar work in Fleetwood Mac's Landslide

Organ in Booker T and the MG's Green Onions

Organ in Carols Santana's Winning, Evil Ways, Black Magic Woman and Oye Como Va

Organ in Shocking Blue's Venus

Organ in Steppenwolf's Born To Be Wild

Piano in Billy Joel's Piano Man and The Stranger and New York State of Mind

Piano in Bruce Hornsby & The Range's The Way It Is

Piano in Elton John's Levon

Piano in Five For Fighting's 100 Years

Piano in Joe Cocker version of Feelin' Alright

Piano in Journey's Lights AND Don't Stop Believin'

Piano in Paul McCartney's Maybe I'm Amazed

Piano in REM's Shaking Through

Piano in The Commodore's Easy

Piano in The Doobie Brother's Takin' It To The Streets

Piano in The Rolling Stones' You Can't Always Get What You Want

Piano AND Bass in The Four Season's Oh What A Night

Piano in Warren Zevon's Werewolves of London

Steve Winwood's keyboard work in While You See A Chance

Strangled Cats in Guns 'N' Roses Sweet Child Of Mine

Steve (Stevie Ray)

"Do the chickens have large talons?"

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Originally posted by Griffinator:

The fake string from "Little Runaway" - Del Shannon...

"Little Runaway". Hmmm, never heard of that song from Del Shannon, must be coming from the same place as "Some on the Water" :D

 

guitar - Boston - More than a feeling

bass - Fisher Z - So long

synth - Bruce Springsteen - Dancing in the dark

bass, guitar - Michael Jackson - Beat it

organ - The Animals - House of the rising sun

guitar - Elvis Presley - Suspicious minds

organ - Nick Lowe - Half a boy half a man

bass - Bee Gees - Nights on broadway

guitar - Edwyn Collins - A girl like you

synth - Fisher Z - The worker

bass - Billy Ocean - Loverboy

bass - Eddy Grant - Do you feel my love

bass - David Bowie - Under pressure

piano - Journey - Don't stop believing

bass, guitar - Bon Jovi - You give love a bad name

bass - Bruce Springsteen - Fire

guitar - Manic Street Preachers - Motor cycle emptiness

guitar - Van Halen - Ain't talkin' 'bout love

guitar - Lou Gramm - Midnight blue

guitar - Thin Lizzy - The boys are back in town

guitar - Sweet - Love is like oxygen

guitar - Mike Oldfield - Moonlight shadow

guitar - The Pretenders - Back on the chain gang

bass - The Marcels - Blue moon (if you regard the human voice to be an instrument :D )

piaon - Nina Simone - My baby just cares for me (does this one count?)

eric B
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Originally posted by eric.B:

Originally posted by Griffinator:

The fake string from "Little Runaway" - Del Shannon...

"Little Runaway". Hmmm, never heard of that song from Del Shannon, must be coming from the same place as "Some on the Water" :D
Actually, Del's original title, as written, was "Little Runaway". :P

 

Got yer back, Griff! :wave:

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Oh oh, yes, I see, my mistake. Guess I'll be standing in the corner this evening :cry: . But wait until I get my hands on the guy who sold me that "original" sheetmusic :mad: .

 

Still, some of the songs I mentioned were good, not? No? Oh, then I'll go back to my corner, again :( .

eric B
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Originally posted by eric.B:

Still, some of the songs I mentioned were good, not? No? Oh, then I'll go back to my corner, again :( .

No, they all sucked, and were functionally irrelevant to this thread! Now go back to your corner! :mad:

.

.

.

.

Kidding, of course... ;)

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In the late 60's / early 70's, there were a LOT of riff-based tunes where the riff was every bit as catchy as the melody, maybe moreso:

 

Blind Faith - Had to Cry Today / Sea of Joy

Buddy Miles - Them Changes

Ohio Players - Skin Tight / Fire / Love Rollercoaster / dot dot dot...

Robin Trower - Day of the Eagle

Procol Harum (with Trower) - Whiskey Train

Chicago - 25 or 6 to 4 / S. California Purples

Cream - Sunshine of Your Love / Badge

Iron Butterfly - (don't make me say it)

Band of Gypsys - Do You Know? (correct title?)

Stones - Live With Me / Can'tcha Hear Me Knockin? / Miss You

Spooky Tooth - Evil Woman / Better By You / practically every song they wrote

Hendrix - Foxy Lady / Purple Haze

Fleetwood Mac - Green Manalishi / Oh Well

 

Of course, I could go on and on and...

 

but I wanted to mention some cover tunes that were spiced up by the addition of signature riffage that was nowhere on the original:

 

Joe Cocker - Feelin Alright

EW&F - Got to Get You into My Life

Nice - She Belongs to Me

Santana - Black Magic Woman

I played in an 8 piece horn band. We would often get bored. So...three words:

"Tower of Polka." - Calumet

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Originally posted by Jode:

Anthony Jackson's picked and phased bass intro to "(For The Love Of) Money" by the O'Jays.

You can't talk instrumental hooks without talking Motown. "My Girl" has two of the greatest hooks ever,

Two outstanding choices :thu:

 

What Greg Allman's lick in Layla?

The running lick in Satisfaction.

Clapton's lick in Sunshine of Your Love

Steve

A Lifetime of Peace, Love and Protest Music

www.rock-xtreme.com

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Boy, it's not every day you see a Manic Street Preachers reference in these pages. Kudos to eric.b for that one! :thu:

 

Also, I assume we're staying away from the very obvious ones, which would explain the otherwise-unusual absence of things like The Who's "Baba O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" and the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"? Anyway, a couple other only very slightly less obvious suggestions are (1) David Gilmour's guitar solo in "Comfortably Numb," (2)

Richard Wright's Moog leads in "Have a Cigar" and "Welcome to the Machine," and (3) Angus Young's opening guitar riff on "You Shook Me All Night Long."

 

Noah

 

-

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I'm a huge Bruce Springsteen fan, and Thunder Road (opening track to Born to Run) is a decent track, that builds and builds to the ending break and riff on the sax that gets repeated to fade out. If that ending didn't happen, the whole song would be mediocre at best. As is, it's all one build to a great pay-off, in my opinion.

 

Also, off the same album, Meeting Across the River is a great track that is totally driven by the piano and the muted trumpet improvisation that happens all throughout.

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Originally posted by BluMunk:

I'm a huge Bruce Springsteen fan, and Thunder Road (opening track to Born to Run) is a decent track, that builds and builds to the ending break and riff on the sax that gets repeated to fade out. If that ending didn't happen, the whole song would be mediocre at best. As is, it's all one build to a great pay-off, in my opinion.

 

Also, off the same album, Meeting Across the River is a great track that is totally driven by the piano and the muted trumpet improvisation that happens all throughout.

As long as we're talking about Springsteen, how about Clarence Clemons' sax work in Rosalita?
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guitar - Bryan Adams - Run to you

bass - Cock Robin - I thought you were on my side

bass - Alison Moyet - Is this love

bass - Paul McCartney - Silly love songs

Mott The Hoople - All the young dudes

? (don't know the English word) - David Bowie - China girl

synth - Europe - The final countdown

bass - Fine Young Cannibals - She drives me crazy

bass/guitar - Shakin' Stevens - You drive me crazy

guitar - Jose y Los Reyes - Lailola.mp3

guitar - Rocky Burnett - Tired of towing the line

bass - Madonna - Like a virgin ?

synth - Michael Sembello - Maniac

guitar - Supertramp - Give a little bit

guitar - Thin Lizzy - Whisky in the jar

 

don't forget level 42: bass - Level 42 - Lessons in love

 

Also a lot of synth songs:

 

Candee Jay - If I were you

Gigi D'Agostino - L'amour toujours (I don't know what the version is called, I own two versions, but I mean the one with the "saw wave synth" F# F# D C# | C# C# D B etc.)

Culture Beat - Mr Vain

Depeche Mode - I just can't have enough

JX - There's nothing I won't do

etc.

eric B
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Originally posted by MidLifeCrisis:

Originally posted by Mr. Nightime:

Originally posted by MidLifeCrisis:

What Greg Allman's lick in Layla?

:wave:
:o:o

Eek!

The shame, the horror, how could I screw that one up. :confused::eek:

All's forgiven Steve,we know your an Old School vet and we know where you cut your teeth. Perhaps you started on the egg nog a little early? :D
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Great Thread!

 

I haven't seen this one mentioned yet: the electric piano in Blinded by the Light by Manfred Mann's Earth Band.

 

Although Bruce Springsteen recently said it was the pronunciation of the word "deuce" which made the Earth Band version more populard than his, I believe it's all about that great riff.

 

Jim

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guitar - Bruce Springsteen - I'm on fire

guitar - Sam and Dave - Soul Man

harmonica - Beatles - Love Me Do

organ - Joe Cocker - With A Little Help From My Friends (esp. the Woodstock live version)

piano - Randy Newman - Short People

piano - Yellowjackets (Russ Ferrante) - Imperial Strut

piano - Herbie Hancock - Cantaloup Island

rhodes - Steely Dan - Babylon Sisters

 

and countless others...

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One that hasn't been mentioned yet: The sax in the intro to "Your Latest Trick" by Dire Straits. Or the sax in "Us and Them" by Pink Floyd. The synth in "Baba O'Reilly" by the Who (but I think someone did mention that one already). What about the organ in "96 Tears" by ? and the Mysterions. And how about Ray Manzarek's organ in the intro to "Light My Fire". And nobody's mentioned any drum parts yet, so how about the drum lick that starts off "Rock and Roll" by Led Zepellin.
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Originally posted by bass and keys:

And nobody's mentioned any drum parts yet, so how about the drum lick that starts off "Rock and Roll" by Led Zepellin.

Hey, you're right! What about the drums in Queen - We will rock you!
eric B
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