10 Classic Rock Acoustic Songs

Most rock artists don't really reach outside the realms of the distorted guitar. After all, when you have something like Johnny B Goode or My Generation blaring out of the speakers at such punishing volumes, do you really need anything else?

As much as the electric guitar might suit the rock genre, there's a certain beauty that comes with turning things down just a bit.

Compared to its noisier older brother, the acoustic jam is where you often get to see a whole different side of a band's creative process. Rather than use the volume to hammer the riff into your skull, these tunes make you focus more on the subject matter and the melody. It takes a certain amount of craftsmanship to pull something like that off, but each of these artists proved to be up to the challenge.

Instead of the usual headbanging tune to get you moving, these artists actually have a story to tell with these songs, whether it be a comment on the world they live in or taking a page out of the country playbook and making an entire narrative within the span of three minutes.

Either way, these songs managed to stay true to their rock credentials without any need for amplifiers. Gather round the campfire and pull out the harmonica...we're going back to basics on this one.

At the start of the '90s, it wasn't necessarily all that cool to be U2 anymore. After coming off one of the greatest albums in rock history with The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby saw these Irish lads stripping everything back down and bringing in electronic soundscapes and mountains of irony to launch them into the next decade. Despite the new look though, what ended up bringing them together was a subtle acoustic ballad about trying times.

Written midway through the production, One was a far more delicate beast than something like Zoo Station or Mysterious Ways, as Bono lets him be as vulnerable as possible talking about this important companion he confides in. Although there is some love involved in this scenario, it's never made abundantly clear if this person is his lover or just a comrade in arms looking to brave through the hardships of life together.

For as different as it is to the rest of the record, U2 credits One with being the song that kept the band together, helping them rediscover both their love of making music and giving them the drive to keep going when their creativity started to hit a wall. Because even when you're at the top of your game, it takes songs like these for you to realize that you're still human.