I brought you my top ten bands that should be in Rock Band, but I have other artists I’d love to see in the game who, for one reason or another, will never make it. Actually, most of the reasons are that the proper masters simply do not exist for these artists and cover songs just wouldn’t be the same.
Django Reinhardt
I admit I come to this list as a dedicated Rock Band guitarist (and secondarily as a vocalist), so it should come as no surprise that my Wishful Thinking list is comprised mainly of great guitar players. And Django Reinhardt is one of the greatest guitar players of all time. If I had to pick a Django song for the game, it would be, without a doubt I’ll See You In My Dreams.
Forget it. The ultimate guitar player. The ultimate grandfather of rock n’ roll attitude and mythology. Rock Band in general needs more blues – and real blues, not Blueshammer blues – but much of the best stuff, the realest stuff, was recorded under the worst circumstances.
Picking a Johnson song must come down to Crossroads and Hellhound on My Trail. I went with the second one.
I guess technically you could probably do Ben Folds Five songs on Rock Band in the same way you do Yeah Yeah Yeahs (or theoretically The White Stripes), but without the piano what’s the point? So many BFF songs would be wonderful to play and sing in the game… if there was a piano peripheral. But who wouldn’t dig singing ‘Kiss my ass… goodbye’ in One Angry Dwarf?
I don’t care what Chuck D has to say about it, Elvis Presley was a legend to me. And unlike some of the other acts on the Wishful Thinking list, his songs would fit right into the Rock Band instrumentation. If there are masters where each are recorded discreetly, that is. And what vocalist wouldn’t want throw down on Hound Dog?