Rock music is unthinkable without the electric guitar playing at a loud volume. But it’s a softer alternative: the song with an acoustic guitar. What are the ten songs with an acoustic guitar? Ballads about heartbreak or accident.
1. Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
The title track of Pink Floyd‘s ninth album seemed hidden between the tightly produced progressive rock. Very slowly, the song’s fame increased; now, it is considered the ultimate acoustic guitar song. Like many songs on the album, “Wish You Were Here” is about loss, loneliness, and especially the lack of original band member Syd Barrett, who left the group after excessive drug use. The acoustic basis of “Wish You Were Here” is pretty easy to play, but Pink Floyd dresses up the song with typical sound effects. Guitarist and singer David Gilmour plays the first chords on a 12-string guitar, followed by a full version on a conventional acoustic guitar. This way, the song comes up as if a listener finds it on the radio.
2. The Beatles – Yesterday
Paul McCartney heard the melody for “Yesterday” in a dream and was afraid for a time that he had unknowingly committed plagiarism. Eventually, he dared to make a song that would become a classic, not just from The Beatles but of pop music in general. The simple guidance and the universal theme of looking back on a broken relationship ensured that “Yesterday” was recorded more than 2000 times by other artists.
3. Bob Marley – Redemption Song
In 1979 reggae star Bob Marley was told he had cancer. The following year he would release his last album, on which the entirely acoustic “Redemption Song” immediately caught the eye. “Redemption Song” is a musical testament in which Marley urges the listener to free himself from spiritual slavery and at the same time concludes that he always sang songs about freedom. An intense personal number that offers universal comfort!
4. The Rolling Stones – Angie
This romantic Rolling Stones song from 1973 is often considered the ultimate rock ballad. The acoustic guitar sounds intimate, and the vocals have fascinated many listeners over the years. It is not Keith Richards who cries softly but a trace of an earlier practice session that Mick Jagger had sung. In addition, people liked to speculate about Angie’s identity. Was it David Bowie’s wife? Keith Richards’ newborn daughter? Or, as the author would state years later in his biography, heroin? Anyway, “Angie” would grow into a true campfire classic.
5. Fleetwood Mac – Landslide
Fleetwood Mac reinvented itself in the mid-1970s thanks to several new members, including Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. Thanks to the new input, the band would grow into one of the most successful groups of all time, with marital troubles within the band providing beautiful songs. “Landslide” is one of the first contributions from singer Stevie Nicks and grew into a public favorite. Restrained, Nicks sings about the uncertainty she feels about her relationship and the threat of failure as a singer, a feeling that an avalanche will bury her.