Songs with great instrumental tracks that go unnoticed

Time for another 'Songs that.. ' thread, everyone.

This one came to me while listening to Serge Gainsbourg's Je T'Aime (Moi Non Plus) .. you know, THAT song.

I've always really dug the backing track on this one- simple but very effective. I love the playing and the sound- the drums and bass sound just the way I like them to (*).

Obviously, unless you've listened to the song a good hundred times (like I must have, by now), you don't exactly focus on the way the bass sounds, if you know what I mean .

So I'm thinking, obviously there must be oodles of songs on which the same thing happens- a particularly inspired or powerful vocal performance or maybe some 'novelty' sound or something else that steals a good backing track of its rightful glory.

Name yours here. Thanks!




(*) yes, I know that this is akin to saying that you buy Playboy for the interviews or to praising the lighting on a Penthouse pictorial, but you will have to trust me on this one.

 

"The Gift" by the Velvet Underground. The story is so riveting that one tends to forget that the band is jamming in the other channel. It's a funky little number even without lyrics.

 

Most every Beach Boys song that wasn't on "Stack O'Tracks" or the other releases.

But I guess those were all "noticed" anyway...

JEFF!

 

Yes, yes- totally. Great choice. The band is just cooking on the music channel. Many times I'll just turn the balance knob all the way to the right (or was it the left?) and CRANK IT. It rocks to no end.

 

This might be weird, but the first one to pop into my head is The Rolling Stones' "Sway". I love the backing track for it's desperate, druggy atmosphere.

 

I actually made myself a tape of the band-only track of "The Gift" & panned it to the center.

I think a bunch of songs from the late 60s are like this, where the psychaedaelic production masked a good rock track. A few by the Byrds:

"Foxtrot 2-4-2 (Learjet song)" -- jet plane in one channel, band in the other really rockin'.
"John Riley" -- orchestra on one side, band on the other in a nice folk-rock groove.
"CTA 102" -- sound effects are central in this, but meanwhile the band keeps up a great, gospel-influenced vamp.

Also, off the top of my head:

The Nails, "88 Lines About 44 Women" (original version) -- would be a great new wave dance song, if the lyrics didn't dominate so much. I love the lyrics, but there's never even an instrumental verse.

I think the band-only version of "I Am the Walrus" reveals a pretty cool rock song.

And of course any Motown song with the Funk Brothers would be fun to hear minus vocals.

Ross Taylor
"There's a seeker born every minute" -- Firesign Theatre

 

I never really liked The Rolling Stones' "Yesterday's Papers" until I heard the backing track isolated. The Stones had some excellent production ideas (and performances by Brian Jones) that often got buried.