Classic guitar-led '50 & '60s instrumentals

[fange]

Rumble



Rebel-Rouser


Storm Warning


Wham


Sleep Walk



If you had to choose the 3 you like best, which would they be?

Have your thoughts on these tunes, or instrumentals in general, changed over time?

[rayge]

Glad to have three votes, because four of these were big singles for me in the early 1960s. I don't think the Mac Reb was released over here, so that's a first time listen, and, enjoyable though it is, that puts it at a real disadvantage.
Sleep Walk was always a one-off (even more so in the version by Pete Drake, which I've slipped in at the end here), something that harked back to the fifties and the experimentations of Les Paul, but I chose the three out and out rockers, even though none of them are the best singles of the particular artist.
Rebel Rouser was his first, but Duane already had a couple of dozen singles under his belt when I first got into him, and I tend to like a lot of his RCA stuff, either the ones with Darlene Love and the Blossoms singing (Guitar Man and the follow-ups), or the often astonishing moody B-sides such as Desert Rat, a big favourite when I was 14 or so - I may start a thread on that. He's often overlooked, Duane, and that whole Twangy Guitar gimmick was overblown, but the Rebels were a great band, with Teenage Steve Douglas and Lee Hazelwood, among others, involved. Rebel Rouser has its moments, but it's a little slight in comparison with some of the later singles.
Fast-fingered Lonnie had a distinctive sound, and while tear-em-ups like Wham showcased his speed, my favourite single is his version of Chuck Berry's Memphis, which has the same ringing tone but a slightly more sedate tempo, and less of the call and response stuff with the horns.
And of course Rumble has the big reputation, but I'm just a teeny bit bored with it now, and much prefer the faster, sting tone material such as The Black Widow, which was the first track I actually obtained by him, on a Stateside demo: I had to save my pennies and order in an EP to get a copy of Rumble. And even there I was amused more ultimately by the chicken-scratch guitar of Run Chicken Run.

[Charlie O.]

I went with Link, Lonnie, and S&J - not necessarily in that order. I was sorry to leave Mac out, as that's a fine record. There was always something at least vaguely off-putting to me about Duane; I like "Rebel Rouser", as it happens, but not as much as the other four here.

[fange]

I've been listening to some Lonnie Mack today, and busting moves all over the place. Hot damn, that Flying V had such a beautiful sound.





Anyboady else think that there is more than a passing resemblance between 'Chicken Pickin' and SRV's 'Scuttle Buttin'? I know they were good friends and played together over the years.

[rayge]

Since you bumped this, fange, can I just say put in my pedantry oar and say that three of these - Link, Duane and S&J - were all Fifties singles.

And since you like Lonnie, you should check out another sped merchant, Travis Wammack, doing Fire Fly and/or Scratchy, a great double-sided single that was firmly in the 1960s.

[fange]

Yes, of course! Changing now.

And yep i do like Wammack!

[~ / % ? *]

Both Wray and Mack turned out some nice rootsy stuff in the early 70s. As did Wammack indirectly as a Muscle Shoals session pro.

[bungo the mungo]

where the hell is hank marvin?

[Deleted]

Sleepwalk is exquisite.

[DarknessFish]

All this rockin' guitar toss can do one.