Let me just start this by saying how incredibly thankful I am that Rocksmith exists and is constantly putting out new DLC for us. Any of you born before the Internet (shhh I’m old), know how hard it was to advance on guitar with Tablature books and no teacher encouraging you with “amazing performance”.
All compliments aside I wanted to ask the community what noticeable holes are in our official Rocksmith DLC playlists. The following is just my opinion and please tell me how wrong I am and what I missed in the comments (but more importantly, request songs!)
Obviously I’m leaving out the obvious Led Zepplin, Pink Flloyd, The Beatles, Metallica etc., so don’t even bother commenting about that.
60s and Earlier:
The Beach Boys
Sure we have surf rock, but it’s a travesty we don’t have the pioneers of surf rock to play through.
Dream 5-Pack:
Chuck Berry
Since we’re playing Rocksmith and the word “rock” is in it, shouldn’t we learn from its great-great grandfather?
Dream 5-Pack:
Johnny B. Goode
You Never Can Tell
Route 66
Grateful Dead
OK, OK, I know American Beauty technically came out in the 70s, but they formed and began hippie jamming in the mid 60s, so it counts. Regardless, we could use some jam bands in our sets, and who better than Jer Bear to teach us?
Dream 5-Pack:
Box Of Rain
Simon and Garfunkel
I would also love, love, love just a Paul Simon pack. Did you see his performance on the 40th Anniversary of SNL?
Dream 5-Pack:
The 70s
Fleetwood Mac
I’d especially love a few of their bluesy early, early tracks before Stevie Nicks joined up, but I mean c’mon, how do we not have Landslide yet?
Dream 5-Pack:
Go Your Own Way
Rhiannon
Black Sabbath
I mean. C’mon.
Dream 5-Pack:
Paranoid
Iron Man
Black Sabbath
Children of the Grave
Steve Miller Band
With a crazy amount of hit’s and a whole lot of fun guitar technique, it makes me sad we’re missing out on some of these grooves.
Dream 5-Pack:
Jet Airliner
The Bee Gees
I am absolutely terrible at funk guitar or whatever you wanna call this style of playing, but I’d love to have a challenge of playing some disco and singing crazy falsetto to prove it’s not dead (Actually, just checked on Wiki; still dead).
Dream 5-Pack:
More Than A Woman
The 80s
Edit: When I originally wrote this, I had The Cars here too. Hooray!
Huey Lewis and the News
Probably one of my favorite bands ever. I don’t know if it’s because I grew up with him, or if it’s because Back to the Future is easily the best movie of the 80s (fight me about it) but Huey is by far my #1 “wish it was on Rocksmith” band.
Dream 5-Pack:
(Bonus song) The Power of Love
Talking Heads
While I was not a fan of them while they were actually making music, I have grown to love them and have their entire discography on vinyl. Anyone who hasn’t seen “Stop Making Sense” watch it and tell me it’s not the best concert film of all time.
Dream 5-Pack:
This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody)
Burning Down The House
Life During Wartime
Van Halen
This band might be on the “too expensive/hard/impossible” to license list, but screw that, they are 80s rock. Even the Sammy stuff I love and being able to tap through “Eruption” would be simply the best.
Dream 5-Pack:
Runnin’ With the Devil
Eruption
Journey
We have Foreigner, we have Boston, we even have Styx. It’s time to pay tribute to the incredible vocals and equally fun guitar work of Journey.
Dream 5-Pack:
The 90s
My decade for music is sadly primarily filled with one-hit wonders and 90s voice guy alt-rock (also the best damn hip-hop ever) but there’s still some good guitar work at play. Of all the decades represented, I feel the 90s are the most represented, but still these would all be welcome additions.
Goo Goo Dolls
Roll your eyes all you want, but listen to the guitar in these songs and tell me it’s not worthy of a DLC.
Dream 5-Pack:
Fallin’ Down
Live
Sure they pretty much have only one good album, but it’s nearly a perfect album with plenty of guitar to have fun with.
Dream 5-Pack:
Third Eye Blind
There might not be a more 90s band.
Dream 5-Pack:
Nine Inch Nails
Yes I know Trent Reznor is super busy scoring David Fincher movies, but in the 90s you couldn’t be stuck at a stop light without hearing those familiar warbles.
Dream 5-Pack:
Hurt
The 2000s and Beyond
Arcade Fire
A crazy popular band who have an epic, full sound that would be a blast top play through.
Dream 5-Pack:
Jimmy Eat World
Kinda like Weezer-lite, but still they have so many songs that would be welcomed additions to anyone’s playlist.
Dream 5-Pack:
Blister
Brand New
K, my last emo pick I promise. Seriosuly though, really awesome guitar and bass in these songs if you can get past all the sadness.
Dream 5-Pack:
Sic Transit Gloria… Glory Fades
The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows
Jude Law and a Semester Abroad
Slipknot
This is for all you metalheads out there. I don’t even like this band, but I can respect technique.
Dream 5-Pack:
So that’s it. Let me know how wrong I am in the comments and what your picks are. And as always request songs people!
Ok so since I’m using the name, may as well make mention of what’s required from Carlos and crew.
1) In A Silent Way – 1st choice above anything else
2) Guajira – love the solos
3) Taboo – someone teach me, how does he hold that note so long starting at 1:58
4) Se A Cabo
5) El Farol
6) Hoy Es Adios
7) Mother’s Daughter
Oh man, I forgot these guys. Here are the songs, who knows the artist?
Nonfiction
Thorn in My Pride
Bad Luck Blue Eyes
Twice As Hard
Hard to Handle
and I’m sure the last one is obvious……….
Black crowes… would so awesome. Definitely missing from this list.
I was with you until the 90s with the exception of Slipknot. I would switch out Fire on the Mountain with Casey Jones for the Grateful Dead.
I feel the Commodores are missing out of here as well George Clinton & P-Funk:
Commodores:
Easy
Brick House
Three times a lady
Machine Gun
Nightshift
P-Funk:
ALL!!!
Made me think of Earth, Wind, and Fire
(YouTube Guitar Solos)
*Fantasy
*September
*Let’s Groove
(The performer should stick to his guitar & let someone else sing)
Please bring on MAGGOT BRAIN –
If you haven’t heard this song, find a quiet place, turn off all the lights, crank this song and just sit and listen as Eddie Hazel gets off in your earhole. I swear at 7.25 into the song Eddie’s guitar is crying. I mean like take a breath and repeatedly cry. This is a highly under appreciated solo. I’ve been writing to Guitar World for years to tab this thing out.
Listen to the title track from the album of the same name or the last track on Funkadelic’s One Nation Under A Groove.
Santana, Pearl Jam, Govt Mule and others have covered it. On Youtube there is also an awe inspiring version by a boy and his uncle played at a family barbecue.
For years I’ve heard repeated talk about Eruption, the Stairway solo, Europa, Machine Gun and many others. While I like all of those songs, this track should not be far from them.
I have always wanted Buddy Holly on Rocksmith. Especially Peggy Sue.
Two ideas for RS: i) Tribute Packages–These would be sets of “covers” by performers to highlight works of song writers poets, and music artists who make beautiful things but are not well known, do not write for guitar, are deceased, etc. For examples, Leonard Cohen and Stevie Wonder have already been mentioned here, and a few years ago there were a number of heavy metal groups who released covers of ABBA songs. Here are a few more ideas: Neil Diamond, JJ Cale, Gordon Lightfoot, Elton John & Bernie Taupin, Warren Zevon, Robert Johnson, Billy Joel, Tori Amos, Holly Cole, Van Morrison, Carole King, Hank Williams, Howlin’ Wolf. ii) Live Works–There are some performers who sound infinitely better in concert than in any studio recording they make (Talking Heads are a perfect example of this), so instead of ‘normal tracks’ these perfomances could be used to create RS content. And to continue conversation started by the article, here are more ideas & suggestions. (I was able to find all of them as music tracks or videos at YouTube so look them up if you wish!) Packages: The Cult – She Sells Sanctuary; Fire Woman; Rain; Spiritwalker; Wild Hearted Son The Tragically Hip – Blow at High Dough; New Orleans is Sinking; At the Hundredth Meridian; Little Bones; Courage (for Hugh MacLennan);Twist My Arm; Three Pistols Santa Esmeralda – Black Pot; Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood/Esmeralda Suite; House of the Rising Sun/Quasimodo Suite; Sevilla Nights; Tom Cochrane &/or Red Rider – Life Is A Highway; Lunatic Fringe; White Hot Kim Mitchell – Go For Soda; I Am A Wild Party; Lager and Ale José Feliciano – Rain (Listen To The Falling); The Spirit; Only Once; Billy Idol – Rat Race; Rebel Yell; Blue Highway; Plastic Jesus; Dancing With Myself Bruce Cockburn –… Read more »
Interesting idea on covers/live versions. We’ve already had 2 versions of “Holy Diver”. I’d certainly rather have the ‘best’ version of any track, whatever form that might take… but I guess it’s subjective in some cases.
BTW I was just listening to “The Cult — She Sells Sanctuary” earlier today & considering filing an RS request. In fact, there are a lot of good suggestions there, so I’ll be busy… 😉
Please check my list below if you haven’t seen it. At first glance, I think there’s only Bryan Adams in common with yours. Nice job listing plenty I hadn’t thought of.
I’m glad you are considering some of the stuff in my list–I have found lots of good stuff because of RS and I hope I can pass different interests onto others. (BTW, check out the other Cult songs I listed as well … no one ever likes ‘just one’ Cult song. 😀 )
Actually, it was reading your list and MarleySantana’s list that convinced me to finally post some thoughts at The Riff Repeater after hanging around here for the last.15 months. (I’m very shy. 😮 )
Good stuff. Sounds like exactly my story. Found loads of new things through RS (“Don’t Stop” springs to mind). Followed this site (silently) for info on DLC etc, and finally saw this thread as an opportunity to contribute something in the form of that list I’d been building up. Keep requesting! I guess I need to set up a playlist & do some listening over the weekend 🙂
Nice list to both of you. Keep requesting and hopefully we’ll get it added soon 😉
Some nice ideas for songs. I’ve already requested many of these myself. No Cult list should be complete without Wildflower, Lil Devil and Love Removal Machine (my biased opinion, lol). Although you could easily make a ten pack of Cult tunes and I would buy them immediately. So many great guitar riffs in their songs. I would also give Bad Company and CCR their own packs, too many great songs in their catalogues. Great job Rocksmith, the hopes of more great DLC keeps me practicing.
Yes! The Cult would be awesome fun. This is a Rocksmith must.
Yes. Nice list, and glad to see you got Hook on your list among many others. May I add JLH’s Chill Out? Although it features Carlos Santana’s guitar work, it is a great song featuring these two.
Oh and for Howlin’ Wolf, according to an interview with Guitar World here is one of Jimmy Page’s favorites – Goin’ Down Slow. Awsome song.
I would love to see Van Halen someday. However, given Eddie’s pervasive use of the whammy bar, which needs to be a floating system to actually play a large amount of the material correctly, I just don’t know if it would be possible. A lot of people wouldn’t have a compatible guitar, and the system may need to be tweaked for it to work.
That being said, having a tool to learn some wicked two hand tapping and some tapped/artificial harmonics would be sweet!
They are easily one of my favorite bands, so here would be my dream 12 pack, just for fun:
Little Guitars (with Intro)
Panama
Hot for Teacher
I’m the One
Beautiful Girls
Hear About it Later
Feel Your Love Tonight
5150
Finish What Ya Started
Unchained
Hang ’em High
Ain’t Talking Bout Love
Very close mentions would be Cabo Wabo and Dance the Night Away.
I’m going to leave a succinct response for the moment because it’s almost 2 am, but I want to say that saying anything missing is a “hole” in Rocksmith is being more than a little disingenuous to the staff. They’re not trying to be your *only* resource, just a better one. Most of us could probably list two dozen bands and hundreds of songs that would work well for Rocksmith style teaching. I personally think that almost anything with multiple guitar harmonies in melodies or solos would be great for people to practice with a solid and unwavering alternating voice to get ready for a live atmosphere. I have gotten into the habit of not submitting bands/songs anymore because a lot of things I listen to may not have enough of a draw to be commercially viable or worth pursuing.
It’s kind of frustrating/discouraging sometimes because there are some amazing pieces that most people will never discover because of that hurdle, and a lot of them would be great learner pieces.
+1. I appreciate what they do, but you just know there is some great stuff that won’t likely see light of day not through rights issues but simply because of limited “popularity” for want of a better word. But when there are only so many notetrackers, hours in the day and only so much ROI.. its fairly clear where things will go.
Yes, yes to everything
60’s Cream
70’s Supertramp
80’s Skid Row
90’s Monster Magnet
00’s Turbonegro
That would be DLC heaven for me
Jonnie b good and power of love is a must for 2015 !! Back in time
Just a thought, I’d like to see Deafheaven in Rocksmith. I just started listening to them a bit, and would love to learn Dream House.
It’s a good start but you’re missing a lot of names.
would be nice to see them all
You like Huey Lewis and the News?
Oh, in my honorable mentions, I forgot to include a couple. Prince, John Cougar, and please forgive me for missing this one….. That Lil Ol’ Band from Texas.
Y’all know what time it is.
Two words: Thin Lizzy
The Boys Are Back In Town is a natural for Rocksmith 🙂
Jailbreak
Dancing in the Moonlight
Wild One
Do Anything You Want To
Instabuy!
The Boys Are Back In Town is a natural for Rocksmith 🙂
Jailbreak
Dancing in the Moonlight
Wild One
Do Anything You Want To
I would like for more bass love and these suggestions also have gawd like guitarists: YES (Squire/Howe)
Dixie Dregs
Stuart Hamm
Steve Vai
Satrani
Bad Company, Steely Dan
Yes 1,000,000 times to Bad Company. “Feel Like Makin’ Love” would be just too much fun and make too many people pregnant which is why it probably hasn’t been included yet.
People, use birth control!
You forgot to include a Dream Theater pack and a pack by The Sword.
Demon hunter-carry me down
demon hunter -hart in a graveyard
demon hunter -fading away
Name by the Goo Goo Dolls is unfortunately completely unreasonable, as the b string is tuned up to an e, forcing people to have 9s and hope they don’t break, or put a second e string on.
Guns & Roses?
For bassists, a Motown or Funk pack including stuff like Jackson 5 ‘want you back’ etc would be cool. Plus a Royal Blood pack would be awesome for bassists only!
Would love the Slipknot pack, but the bass tunings alone would be a HUGE issue (lots of B variations = spagetti strings!) – unless you plug a 5 string in!
The only reason we can’t have a GnR pack is because of a silly little feud between Rose and Slash. Axl would NEVER be up for licensing his songs after RS1 had Velvet Revolver’s Slither.
Sadly, that’s most likely the case with many of the artists we really want on RS. Look at the crap Van Halen has done over the years. It’s like there are neverending attempts to erase members from the past. It’s like these b****es will never get over the bafoonery that keeps members at odd with one-another.
I largely agree with many of these artists, even though I abhor a few of them. I would like to add that rockabilly is a missed opportunity. I’ve request some Brian Setzer and The Living End(which is slightly more punk, but still some amazing guitar. Some rock/jazz fusion would be great, like John Scofield, Wes Montgomery, Pat Methaney, etc. Progressive rock and metal are woefully underrepresented. Porcupine Tree would be a fantastic addition. Even some of Steven Wilson’s solo stuff would be great. He has Guthrie Govan playing on his latest solo albums. Dream Theater, Pain of Salvation, Enchant, Spock’s Beard, all amazing bands who could provide a lot of fun and learning experiences. Also, there are a few Japanese instrumental bands that I would absolutely love to play in game. Check out rega, LITE, or The Band Apart. I’ve requested songs from each of those bands, and its really just a fantasy to expect them in game, but they’ve got some great guitar and bass in their music. Check out Teenager by rega, or any of The Band Apart’s recent stuff. Its great music.
I thought the list looked great
Huey Lewis, Steve Miller, Greatful Dead and more just flat out JAM TUNES like Flirtin’ with Disaster. God I want the official version of that for Bass! I just like rolling jam sessions.
Great site, been following for a while. My first post here, since I’ve kind of been looking for a good place to do this… Loads of great suggestions here. This seems to be the most appropriate place to promote & support each other’s songs that we’ve previously requested via the app (and I believe Ubi forums don’t want threads doing that?) I’ll be trawling everyone’s suggestions & submitting requests for all the ones I like the sound of. Please do likewise with mine… here’s a selection of songs I’ve requested… a bit of a mixture, but anything pre-90’s is a certain buy for me… BTW: If anyone has contact/sway with UbiSF/Team Rocksmith, I’d be interested if data is available on stats/top-40 on the total play counts across all songs/DLC released so far. Might give a different insight into what is actually popular / fun to play. === The Connells – ’74-’75 Huey Lewis & The News – The Power of Love Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers – Runnin’ Down a Dream Buckingham Nicks – Don’t Let Me Down Again Alice Cooper – Poison Foghat – Slow Ride Bachman-Turner Overdrive – Takin’ Care Of Business Bachman-Turner Overdrive – You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet Bachman-Turner Overdrive – Let It Ride Mr. Big – To Be With You Mr. Big – Wild World Mr. Big – Just Take My Heart Mr. Big – Strike Like Lightning Lynyrd Skynyrd – Tuesday’s Gone Lynyrd Skynyrd – Call Me the Breeze Lynyrd Skynyrd – Gimme Three Steps The Cure – Friday I’m in Love Ocean Colour Scene – The Day We Caught the Train Ocean Colour Scene – The Riverboat Song Ocean Colour Scene – Hundred Mile High City Ocean Colour Scene – The Circle Ocean Colour Scene – Better Day Ocean Colour Scene – Travellers… Read more »
Really solid list yourself dude! Bryan Adams is great and one I almost included. Same with ZZ Top (though I think they’re tough to licence). Keep requesting. We’re bound to get some of these someday 🙂
Thanks. Yeah, we may only have one voice/vote each on any particular song, but I have personally seen 8 songs release that I previously requested (one older example that was a nice surprise when it released being Surfaris Wipe Out), so it can only help to submit each other’s ‘most-wanted’ lists.
Even for those tough to license bands, because if they do ever get the go-ahead, we know from past experience that the most-requested tracks have a good shot at appearing.
Man you have a great list. I really do want to learn that Gimme Shelter by the Stones. Good call.
For ZZ Top – add I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide
Def Leppard – Rocket
Bryan Adams – Cuts Like a Knife
Chuck Berry – Guitar Boogie
and to be honest I was a lil’ miffed they didn’t get Tom Petty’s Runnin Down a Dream last year. Sorely missed.
Maybe next week on here they should do a section on Artist Already on Rocksmith with missing Essential Songs. (Missed a lot with No Doubt last year.)
Thanks, will put some more requests in 😉
I like that idea too… there are quite a few artists in the game that could easily manage a 2nd or 3rd pack, some of which I’ve already mentioned above. I believe we’ve only just started to see this happen recently, so Ubi are no doubt aware, but doesn’t hurt to throw out some ideas.