What rock song do you think had the best use of an instrument atypical of rock music?

John Cale, Celesta, Northern Sky by Nick Drake.

 

Big pipe organ in Sanctum Sanctorum - The Damned

 

Danger Man theme. Nothing like a harpsichord at full hully-gully to evoke dark, spider-webby corners where danger lurks, but you still want to get your Mod on.

 

Ian Anderson of Jethro tull normally plays flute, but this must be very unusual. If you jump to 2:46, he starts to play on his "Claghorn", a homemade instrument. He simply used an bambu flute and combined it with a alto saxophone mouthpiece. Probably the only one and a very special sound:

 

Speaking of Jethro tull: Using an old Car Horn must be rather rare too: Jump to 2:50, if don´t want to hear the whole performance: Jethro Tull - Fat Man, TV Broadcast 1999 HD - YouTube

 

Sackbut. lol.

Not rock but a precursor to British pastoral folk rock, some mean sackbut can be heard on "Anthems In Eden" by Shirley and Dolly Collins :

 

I guess it depends on how far you want to stretch the definition of rock.

The entire subgenres of prog, known as avant-prog, is loaded with instruments not typical of rock. Oboe, crumhorn, cello, violin, all sorts of percussion, brass, flute, even accordion show up in the great majority of these bands.

But like I said, even though these types of bands a subgenre of prog, in many ways they are very close kin to contemporary classical ensembles.

Bands like: Thinking Plague, Univers Zero, Art Zoyd, Aranis, Henry Cow... the list is long.

 

Not the "best" whatever that is, but beautiful glockenspiel by Ginger Baker on "Those Were the Days" - Cream

 

Wonderful, wonderful song, totally owned by the organ which creates the entire atmosphere for the piece. Great shout. One of my very favourite songs of all time.

 

That thing Brian Jones is playing.

 

Three months and still no one mentioned Jackyl's musical chainsaw??? For shame.

 

"Curly"!

 

In a very brief appearance, a siren whistle ring a couple of times in The Raider's "Out On That Road". Fits the tone of the song perfectly

 

"Wild Thing" by the Troggs was my first thought with an Ocarina solo in the middle and it was mentioned on page 1 of the thread. But here's a video of the song with Reg Presley playing the Ocarina solo live (starting at about 1 minute 8 seconds). For years I knew the name of the instrument that played the solo without bothering to look up what it actually was.

 

The spoons in Spoonman by Soundgarden

 

Octachord on We The People's "In the Past"-

description:

We the People's fourth single, "In the Past" (b/w "St. John's Shop"), was released in late 1966 and featured the sound of a locally made musical instrument that the band used instead of the sitar, which was becoming popular on records at that time.[4] The eight-stringed instrument, dubbed the "octachord" by the band, had been made by a friend's grandfather and looked like a large mandolin.[4] The octachord was played on the record and at live concert appearances by the band's lead guitarist, Wayne Proctor, who still has the instrument in his possession today.[4]

 

Just saw The Hu (Mongolian heavy rock) a few nights ago, the most unusual array of instruments I have ever seen in a rock band, traditional Mongolian instruments electrified. Fantastic band, perfect rock experience.

 

A marimba.

 

I was pretty sure it wasn't a xylophone.

 

Truly weird Kazakhstani cat basket solo in "Steppe Out" by Pink Lake, from the Balkhash region.

The Kazakhstani Cat Basket is a unique and storied instrument, descended from the time of Genghis Khan, baskets full of cats were tied to the horses, and used as close combat weapons, cats would be thrown into the faces of the adversary - very effective blinding and distracting technique. Similar to the evolution of stringed instruments from a hunter plucking a bowstring and bending the bow for pitch shift, the cat basket evolved from a purely military function as over time it was discovered that various techniques of shaking and squeezing the basket produced a marvelous array of sounds, a palette ranging from the delightful to the sublime, and if played with singular focus, unearthly to hellish. The sound has been compared to avant garde electronic music, one top modern classical critic dubbed the cat basket "The Mongolian Theremin" - indeed, in the hands of a skilled practitioner, the eerie Theremin quality is uncanny.

 

The bicycle horn in You Still believe in me

 

Winner!

 

Don't know if it's been posted, but the first one I thought of (hammer dulcimer, I think):

 

One if the most emotional songs ever performed

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan With Eddie Vedder “The Face Of Love”


Goblet Drum [Dumbek] – Joachim Cooder
Harmonium – Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan

 

The two accordions in “Wouldn’t It Be Nice: