Greetings, Rocksmith fans!
My guitar and bass are currently getting intonation adjustments and thicker strings at Guitar Center, so the next Legacy DLC Review will need to wait a little longer. In the mean time, here’s a listicle you guys have been asking for since we wrote 15 Rocksmith Artists in need of a repeat DLC pack. From the The Riff Repeater editors in no particular order, here are 15 artists with one or two DLC singles on Rocksmith in need of a full pack.
It’s happened with Lamb of God, Pearl Jam, and Allman Brothers Band so who could be next?
Daniel’s picks:
1: Stevie Ray Vaughan
Considering Vaughan’s DLC presence throughout both Guitar Hero and Rock Band, it’s about time we got a full pack of his songs. In addition to providing some very challenging, technical guitar work, I’m very interested in seeing how the game handles his signature “trainwreck” compound bends and dry, powerful tone.
Necessary songs:
Crossfire (Please please please please please please Ubisoft SF?)
Pride and Joy
The House is A-Rockin’
Cold Shot
Texas Flood
Riviera Paradise
Couldn’t Stand the Weather
2: David Bowie
This one is a particular favorite among the editors. The man himself is quite a skilled guitarist, and many of his hit songs have featured some major guitar talent, including Mick Ronson, Earl Slick, Robert Fripp, and even Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Necessary Songs:
Let’s Dance (Hey that’s another SRV song!)
Fame
Heroes
Ashes to Ashes (dat bassline)
China Girl
Ziggy Stardust
3: Toto
This is a personal favorite of mine. Sure, some may call it easy-listening “dad rock,” but damn, can Steve Lukather lay down some tasty solos, and both Mike Porcaro and David Hungate are incredibly skilled bass guitarists.
Necessary songs:
Africa (It’s a little hard to hear, but there’s an intricate arpeggio guitar track throughout the song)
Rosanna
Goodbye Girl
I’ll Be Over You (Featuring Michael McDonald on backing vocals!)
Pamela
I’ll Supply The Love
4: Parliament/Funkadelic
This is stretching the rules a little bit, since they are technically two groups, but they might as well be one, since both function identically as George Clinton’s backing band. This pick comes courtesy of Dan Amrich himself, who commented with this on the aforementioned repeat DLC pack list.
Necessary songs:
Flashlight
P. Funk (Wants to get Funked Up)
One Nation Under a Groove
Can You Get To That
Supergroovalisticprosifunkstication
Maggot Brain (The funk Free Bird)
Super Stupid
5: Creedence Clearwater Revival
This is likely to be a favorite among the Rocksmith user base. While they might not have the most challenging guitar parts, I’m sure anyone can have fun zoning out to their simple rhythms and catchy riffs regardless of instrumental skill level.
Necessary songs:
Fortunate Son
Lookin’ Out My Backdoor
Proud Mary
Up Around The Bend
Down On The Corner
Bad Moon Rising
Elliott’s picks:
6: Modest Mouse
Did you know that Modest Mouse has more than two songs? Songs that aren’t Float On or Dashboard? In fact, they have like 10 albums, 96 song- well you get the picture. Modest Mouse has a lot to offer to Rocksmith and we can finally get some more banjo-tar action!
Necessary Songs:
The Ocean Breathes Salty
Dramamine
Never Ending Math Equation
Dashboard (hey, I never said it was a bad song)
Karma’s Payment
Dirty Fingernails (I really like this song, it’s so unconventional)
Bukowski
Tiny Cities Made of Ashes (So we’re playin’ playin’ playin’ this awesome bassline)
7: Vampire Weekend
It was great to see Vampire Weekend get a single in Rocksmith DLC. Since it happened I have been hoping for more to come. They have had a three pack in Guitar Hero 5 and an on-disc inclusion, DLC on Guitar Hero iOS and on the main setlist, and of course A-Punk appeared on Lego Rock Band. Catchy riffs and fun bass lines, and of course a lot of tremolo picking! What’s not too like?
Necessary Songs:
Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
Diane Young
Campus
A-Punk
Giving Up The Gun
White Sky
Holiday
Unbelievers
8: The Shins
We got Caring is Creepy and then when Rocksmith 2014 came out we were treated to For A Fool, but we could always use some more of The Shins. There’s always room for a few more indie rock songs right?
Necessary Songs:
New Slang (this song will change your life)
Phantom Limb
Saint Simon
Australia
So Says I
Gone For Good
9: The Guess Who
You know I’m Canadian right? Well, I’ve seen The Guess Who a bunch of times and always hoped they would get a song in either Guitar Hero or Rock Band but of course it’s always the same, it’s always American Woman and the intro is never left in… Of course Rock Band eventually delivered No Time and Hand Me Down World, but more I say, more of this underrated Canadian classic rock juggernaut!
Necessary Songs:
No Sugar Tonight
Laughing
Undun (so jazzy)
Runnin’ Back to Saskatoon
Hand Me Down World
No Time
Clap For The Wolfman
10: Pixies
Where is My Mind is a song that should have been in music games a long time ago, but who would have thought I’d have the opportunity to play with a real guitar and eventually bass! The addition of Here Comes Your Man as DLC was very welcome, but there are still a lot of great songs we could nab from their extensive catalog. Lord knows Rock Band got enough of their songs! Bassists pay attention to the simple yet hypnotic bass lines of Kim Deal.
Necessary Songs:
Hey
Wave of Mutilation
Debaser (broken talkies right folks?)
Monkey Gone To Heaven
Gigantic
Vamos
Bone Machine
Oscar’s Picks
11: Blur
Britpop never seems to get the love it deserves. Unless you’re name is Oasis, or Song 2, you seem to have no chance of making it in a video game these days. Rocksmith’s on disc setlist having Jarvis Cocker gives me hope that one day we’ll see some Pulp proper, but that’s neither here nor there. Blur‘s catalogue goes way deeper than Song 2, and if you’ve been turned off on the prospect of more Blur because of the repetitive guitar part in that song, I urge you to check out these other songs. You mind may very well change!
Necessary Songs:
She’s So High
Bang
There’s No Other Way
For Tomorrow
Girls & Boys
Parklife
Country House
Beetlebum
12: Whitesnake
There’s really only two possible words to describe Whitesnake: simply awesome! Playing Is This Love will make you realize this simple fact, and have you crying more more more! Seriously though, it’s easy to dismiss Whitesnake as another one of those silly hair bands from the 80s, but you’d be wrong. First off, they date back to the 70s! And secondly, there’s really technically sound guitar playing in these songs, and in fact, there’s a strong blues influence in there as well.
Necessary Songs:
Walking in the Shadow of the Blues
Love Hunter
Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City (Live)
Still of the Night
Here I Go Again
13: Heart
I always presumed that Heart’s masters were lost, explaining why they got so few songs in Rock Band. The question has to be asked now, though, since Rocksmith doesn’t need masters, why haven’t we gotten a pack from one of the greatest female-led rock bands of all time!? Barracuda and Crazy on You are good starts, but Heart has so many great songs with great guitar parts that it’s shocking that Rocksmith hasn’t returned to the Wilson sisters for a few more songs.
Necessary Songs:
Magic Man
Kick It Out
Heartless
Straight On
What About Love
Alone
All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You
14: Deep Purple
If there was ever a genre that you could call criminally underrepresented in Rocksmith, it would be prog rock. A few Rush songs, a Kansas tune, and some more modern disc songs is about it for the genre. Putting some more Deep Purple, especially their more prog-y tracks, is a perfect way to rectify this. While a few of their songs might be a bit long, the level of variation makes it feel like a couple different songs in one!
Necessary Songs:
Hush
Child in Time
Fireball
Lazy
Space Truckin’
Woman from Tokyo
Burn
Perfect Strangers
15: Pat Benatar
Pat Benatar’s songs might not be the most guitar driven in the world, but sometimes you just gotta have those bona fide party classics in your repertoire! Hit Me With Your Best Shot is a classic, but to join it with tracks like We Belong, Shadows of the Night, and Love is a Battlefield would make you the life of the party, at any party. Plus, she rocks!
Necessary Songs:
Heartbreaker
You Better Run
Promises in the Dark
Shadows of the Night (Side note: This is the greatest music video ever.)
Anxiety (Get Nervous)
Love is a Battlefield
We Belong
Invincible
Hell Is For Children
So there you have it, a bunch of our musical opinions in YouTube and image form. Which artist that received 2 songs or less would you like to see a pack from? Let us know!
Whitesnake, Still of the Night (needs updated link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swPt9HBRXuE&ab_channel=emimusic) .. one of their best songs ever
I loved that the free Christmas Latin track. I figured Creed would open the door to Gospel.I would prove difficult and useful as these have immediate use in any church.
Thanks for your opinion list. Especially the Stevie Ray Vaughn one. However; what about more Santana tracks. Like Europa. An excellent answer to SRV’s Rivera Paradise.
Santana already has a pack so that would have been better served on the previous article we did 🙂
i know this off topic, but Guitar Center… Really?
Next time why don’t you go local. I’m pretty sure an independent guitar store can use the business.
Are there a large number of people playing this that want just easy songs they can play without much work? I see the requests for Blur and oasis and Franz Ferdinand and I’m thinking, “Really? But they are dead easy, just get the chord charts and play them!”. I know I did not buy this to strum a few chords over and over, I’m one of the ones who plays it to get better at the guitar and progress. Am I really in the minority?!
More Pixies (Greens and Blues off their new album is pretty good), Blur (It Could Be You from the Great Escape is one I’d request), and Vampire Weekend (Ladies of Cambridge would be fun) would be great. Pretty much anything from this list would be good.
Two other bands I’d like to see get more songs are Interpol (PDA’s outro is just great), and Franz Ferdinand (A lot of their songs have great guitar work.)
I really need to hit up the request app. 😛
Foster the people?
Daniel’s choices are all ones i would love to see packs from, all of them. Elliott’s selections i don’t really care for (although New slang is a great song), and I like Deep Purple a lot but besides them I’m not fussed about any of Oscar’s choices either. I’d like some more Blondie, Rick James, Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, BB king, Albert King, Marvin Gaye, Gary Clark jr (His live album is incredible) and MORE LIVING COLOUR DAMMIT!
Also yes god yes to SRV, though missing”Lenny ” from your list was well nigh inexcusable.
Ladies and gentlemen… MISTER…B…B…KING!
Silverchair, Red Fang, Paramore, QOTSA, RHCP, Dio should be added to this list. Modest mouse pack has to have Fire It Up in it btw
>Fire It Up
Never really liked that song…
Heck yeah, some SRV is a given and would be a loooong time coming. Parliament/Funkadelic would be a great addition to give the bassists a nice dose of funk.
Hell yes to some more Modest Mouse. That band is AWESOME. Vast amount of really awesome guitar tunes to play from them. Please please please bring it. Dramamine, Custom Concern, 3rd Planet, and about 90 others.
Speaking of bands with only one song in the RS library, we’re getting five more Soundgarden songs next week.
Reading the article title i thought about another kind of revisiting..
Let’s be honest, there are more than 15 rocksmith songs that either sound awful or are charted terribly. Yes, some bonus charts were added on updates here and there but we all know the problems still exist. Of course since that can’t be sold as dlc they won’t make it happen, but i know many people would love some real updates on “old” material.
Three days grace?
Qotsa?
Personally I would love some more of ACIDMAN, but that is never going to happen 🙁
Pearl jam is very need!!!
Even flow
Once
Release
Sirens
…
I’d buy trackpacks from all of Oscar’s picks… Toto, Modest Mouse, and CCR would be lovely too
SLAYER! couldn’t resist 🙂
I wouldn’t mind getting a Silverchair or Filter pack. Maybe not the most popular but fun to play
Before anyone else says it, im going to say The Red Hot Chili Peppers and it wasnt a single but i would love more paramore
Well tehnically both these songs are in game so i like to say that poison would be a great choice
My favorite pack of all time had Gary Clark Jr. and Grace Potter, can’t remember the 3rd band.
Last song in that pack was shins caring is creepy, I would love another grace potter song maybe a chick rock pack with breeders or hole
I would love some SRV, but isn’t it cheating to include him since the single was technically an Albert King (w/ SRV) single. I guess you could have included Black Sabbath since we have a Dio single.
And, uh, SRV played session guitar on Let’s Dance and performed the solo, but I am not sure that makes it is his song.
He’s a named artist on that song in the game, so he does technically count.
Also, blame either Elliott or Oscar for adding that line after Let’s Dance when they added their picks.
BTW, I forgot to say great article. And good picks by all. Good reading while waiting for a clue. Although now I need to go re-watch the Flight of the Conchords “Bowie in Space” episode.
Well thank you very much for the compliment!
New Slang for sure!
Hmm… I think if you’re gonna have Modest Mouse and Vampire Weekend on the wish list for more songs, you have to have Kings of Leon and Arctic Monkeys on the wish list also. KoL had one of two obvious songs on RS1 and Arctic Monkeys had one of their singles from AM on RS2014, so I think both could use more songs. Both bands have songs with great solos and songs with great bass lines.
This list is only for artists with one or two singles available as DLC. Oscar kind of broke the rules with his Blur pick.
Let’s blame Oscar for not picking QoTSA, yeah good idea >__>
If I’m going to be blamed for not using QoTSA, then I’m fully blaming you for not putting These Eyes in your Guess Who post!
Taking of britpop, The Stone Roses had a great guitarist and would be interesting to play. Even the bass lines should be fun! Not sure they got the following in the US though to warrant ubisoft investing in licensing the songs
https://twitter.com/crossieRS/status/520419199164760065
If we got Biffy Clyro and the Japanese singles, I don’t see why we can’t get other groups who didn’t make it in North America!
Totally agree with Blur. There are some great guitar lines in there. Listen closely through “Charmless Man”, for example.
In a similar vein, The Smiths would be awesome. How much fun would “This Charming Man” be? But that’s a band whose member don’t really get along anymore, so that may be impractical.
The Smiths have two songs in Rock Band, and I know for a fact that @CrossieRS is a fan. It’s not THAT impractical 🙂
I’m an older guy and look more towards Guess Who, Heart, and CCR with SRV right there more than the 80’s or 90’s bands (although I do enjoy playing some of the songs; blur 2 was one of my first 100%ers). Here’s hoping, based on the forum post, that next week’s is one of the ones I listed above 🙂