10 Perfect Rock Songs That Don't Have Any Lyrics

10. Moby Dick - Led Zeppelin

Since instrumentals don't have any lyrics to fall back on, you're going to have to zero in one instrument. Melody has to come from somewhere, so you normally end up sinking in with the guitar player or trying to find some keyboard line that sticks out in the mix. Towards the end of Moby Dick though, we had a virtual drum clinic given to us by the late Bonzo.

Compared to the rest of Led Zeppelin II, Moby Dick actually feels somewhat ahead of its time, taking the sinister side of the blues a bit further and making for a riff that sounds like it could fit just as well on a Rage Against the Machine record. That's only for the first half of the song though, until the rest of the band drops out and John Bonham demolishes his drum kit, going for fast runs and technical fills that feel like they're attributed to the sounds of jazz than down and dirty rock and roll.

From day one, Bonham was always a primal sort of player, so the song takes things up a notch during the back half of his solo, where he abandons the sticks altogether and just decides to bang the drums with nothing but his four limbs to keep the groove going. Even without the sticks to fall back on, there's never a moment during this solo where you feel like he loses an ounce of power. The sticks were just an extension, but the force behind it is something that comes from deep in your soul.