I've always found it rather strange that genres of music so conducive to soloing, like blues based rock and roll and the blues themselves, haven't encouraged more instrumental compositions. Maybe it's because of everyone's limited expectations regarding the music, especially those within the industry who control what is released to the public. They think it should always be accompanied by vocals.
Sure, there are extended jams sometimes. Bands will noodle away at a theme in the middle of a song and pass solos back and forth, but that is not the same thing as deliberately writing a song without vocals. It's not as if there wasn't precedent for popular songs being instrumentals, what with jazz and the big band era both relying primarily on instrumentals for the majority of their music. But somehow or another, rock and blues were confined into a territory and defined by a format that wasn't conducive to writing instrumental pieces.
Whatever the reason, complete albums of instrumental pieces by rock/blues bands are as rare as hen's teeth. Although Ruf record's Canned Heat release, Instrumentals 1967 – 1996, is a compilation of tracks recorded over a nearly thirty year period and doesn't really qualify as a band going into the studio with the intent of making an instrumental recording, it is still a collection of fifteen songs deliberately written as instrumentals — tracks where the vocals are a secondary consideration.
The disc has been split up into the different eras of the group, reflecting the changing make-up of the band membership. The first six songs are from the band's original pre-1970 lineup, with the nine remaining being split over three other formations. Tracks seven, eight, and nine were recorded in 1971/72, the second incarnation. Of the final six, five are recorded with Junior Watson and one with Robert Lucas playing guitar and all were done between 1994 and '96.
Musically, the most ambitious and varied work comes in the earliest era when multi-instrumentalist, falsetto voiced Alan Wilson was still alive. (Wilson died of suicide/drug overdose in 1970, brought on by depression caused by his loss of sight.) While a couple of the tracks are what you'd expect, bar band style jam sessions indistinguishable from any similar band, there are a couple of real gems within this section.
The disc's opening cut, "Parthenogenesis," is an almost twenty minute opus. It is divided into nine short movements featuring different variations of a theme and utilizing instruments you might not expect from a blues band. For instance, Alan Wilson plays two sections on the Jaw harp and uses his chromatic harp for a different harmonica sound on another. While there are some weak moments in the composition, like a drum solo just sounding tacked on instead of integrated with its companions, the overall effect is an interesting contrast to your standard rock and roll guitar-driven solo.
Article comments
1 - Pico
I'm not a huge fan of Canned Heat but this sounds like one of their records I could get into (at least in parts). In any case, I think this is a well written, informative and even handed look at this collection. Thanks, Richard.
-P