http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/the1 ... 80,00.html
The ten classic instrumentals
They're so good that words fail us. Well, everyone except Graeme Thomson
Sunday February 19, 2006
1. Telstar - The Tornados
An exhilarating, cheap-as-chips imagining of the possibilities of space technology, portrayed with all the hard-boiled reality of an episode of Fireball XL5. Written by producer-cum-mad professor Joe Meek in the summer of 1962 as he watched coverage of communications satellite Telstar orbiting earth, the naively futuristic 'Telstar' predated the trend for atmospheric synth-pop by two decades. The Tornados - a journeyman club band - disliked the song, but Meek added his own distinctive magic at his home-cooked studio above a leather shop in north London: an overdubbed Clavoline keyboard provided spooked space effects, while a backwards tape of a flushing toilet evoked all the majesty of a spacebound rocket. Rush-released, 'Telstar' became Britain's biggest selling instrumental and the Tornados became the first UK band to top the US charts, a good year before the Beatles. A troubled genius, Meek shot himself in 1967.
2. Star Spangled Banner - Jimi Hendrix
Hendrix unleashed his blitzkrieg on the US national anthem at sleepy, Monday morning Woodstock in August 1969. Mick Jagger thought it a pivotal musical statement. Hendrix said: 'I'm just playing what's in the air these days.'
3. James Bond Theme - The John Barry Orchestra
Written by Monty Norman, it evokes both Cold War tension and sleek sophistication so completely that it virtually demands you slip into a tux, grasp a Walther PPK and croon 'Ah, Poosy'.
4. A New Career In A New Town - David Bowie
In his Berlin phase, Bowie took a shine to the instrumental. The beauty here lies in the contradiction: harmonica-drenched R'n'B built by machines, it's like Kraftwerk backing Little Stevie Wonder.
5. Albatross - Fleetwood Mac
This is not just any old 12-bar blues; this is gossamer thin, so-stoned-it-hardly-moves, slo-mo 12-bar blues. This is not coked out, airbrushed LA soft rock; this is the sound of Peter Green grasping for mental tranquillity.
6. Green Onions - Booker T & The Mgs
Originally a B-side, Booker T Jones's irrepressible organ stabs, coupled with Steve Cropper's clipped upstrokes and savage lead bursts, became a blueprint for every British R&B band: 44 years on, these onions are still fresh.
7. Belfast - Orbital
Songs with a European city as their title have a head start (well, maybe not 'Barcelona'...). This one is throbbingly emotive, ushering in a comedown as clear, clean and euphoric as a dawnbreaking dip in an Alpine lake.
8. Rumble - Link Wray
The fuzz-toned distortion - downright subversive for 1958 - inspired Jeff Beck, Ray Davies et al and practically invented the modern guitar sound. Dylan opened his recent Brixton shows with a snippet as a tribute after Wray's death.
9. Axel - F, Harold Faltermeyer
The theme to Beverly Hills Cop was much derided as the zenith of Eighties cocaine'n'cars vacuousness - as if that's a bad thing. Crazy Frog took 'Axel F' to its rightful No. 1 spot last year. Roll on the Jan Hammer revival.
10. Flying - The Beatles
A slight blues cut - originally called 'Aerial Tour Instrumental' - borne upwards by a spellbinding mellotron and Indian melody. One of two songs credited to all four Fabs ('Dig It' is the other), it's the only instrumental released in the band's lifetime.
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The ten classic instrumentals
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