Lyrics? We Don't Need No Lyrics!

From the shadows to the surrealist: a history of instrumental rock

- By Joe Matera

AS A FORM of popular music, instrumental guitar-based rock first found popularity in the early Sixties. A few years before that, with early practitioners of the form such as Duane Eddy, with his simple low-string melodic lines such as “Rebel Rouser,” and Link Wray, who gave us the feedback-laden “Rumble” (which featured one of the first uses of the power chord), the genre quickly took hold with young guitarists everywhere.

Its rudimentary style made it easy for almost any guitarist to quickly fret a few chords, play some simple melodies, add an effect like reverb and presto! — a tune was born. Across the pond in England, the Shadows reigned as instrumental kings for the first few years of the Sixties, beginning with their U.K. chart-topper “Apache” in 1960. The Shadows’ lead guitarist, Hank Marvin, with his Fiesta Red Fender Strat (he was the first musician in England to own one) — resplendent with its maple fingerboard and gold-plated fittings, not to mention its owner’s unique use of the vibrato arm — would influence an entire generation of British guitarists that followed in his wake, from Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck to Pete Townshend and David Gilmour.