By Carl Begai
Y&T – “I’ll Cry For You” (Instrumental)
Album: Contagious (1987)
Y&T have been around since the ’70s and continue to tour to this day, and Contagious – released in 1987 – is by no means their best album. Two songs that have always stood out for me are the title track and “Eyes Of A Stranger”, but it’s the instrumental outro of “I’ll Cry For You” that blew my mind the first time I heard it. All these years later, it makes my world stop for not quite three minutes as I allow myself to be immersed by some of most emotional guitar playing I’ve ever heard.
The strange thing about this for me is that this was the time when I was dividing my time between the onslaught of hair bands like Ratt, Mötley Crüe, and W.A.S.P., heavier acts like Metallica, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest, and discovering bands like Helloween and Warlock. Instrumental music beyond Rush classic “YYZ” didn’t really interest me.
Even now, instrumental music generally runs hot and cold with me. It either captures my attention and digs its hooks into me as any good song does, or it bores me to tears with overblown technical wankery. There has to be something about a piece that make me feel something or take me somewhere. “I’ll Cry For You” is one man, Dave Meniketti, playing from his heart and getting deep into yours. That’s probably the best way I can describe it. The only thing better is hearing / seeing Meniketti play the track live, because he tacks on an extra couple minutes of beautiful playing.
