acceptable uses of the saxophone in rock

lotta shit talking about sax on ilm, esp in relation to bruce springsteen. I don't disagree with all of it, but I think there is a place. Do you?

1. Replacements "I Don't Know"

a signifier of sleaziness in that one.

2. obviously: stooges, side b of funhouse

3. Van Der Graaf Generator

'50s to thread! also, X-Ray Spex.

4. The collected works of Fishbone.

Often a full on horn section, so this could be marginal. But I really dig the bari solo that precedes the guitar solo in "Unyielding conditioning."

5. The Heat is On by Glenn Frey--the saxophone assures the listener that the heat is, indeed, on.

'50s may be rock and roll, not rock. Not sure it matters, though.

6. Blurt

7. James Chance - Contort Yourself

8. regular fries - rays garage

the epic closer to the bands debut ep, free the regular fries, a 7 minute spaced out jam with superb sax solo that lifts this way above the typical accusations of the band being a second rate dreary post baggy band. very pink floyd.

9. Roxy Music
10. "Big Jesus Trashcan"

11. Sweep the Leg Johnny

12. Sounds Incorporated

Galaxie 500 - "Blue Thunder (w/sax)"

13. Careless Whisper

11.5 ZZZZ

cap'n beefheart
dick dale & the del-tones

16. That little bit of sax in Sound & Vision that lasts for about two seconds.

sax is always acceptable to me and usually welcome btw.

17. steely dan

18. Motorhead + Gardner + Underwood in the original MOI -- esp. that gorgeous solo on "Everything."

James Chance & the Contortions, the aforementioned X-Ray Spex, Essential Logic, 16-17, Zs, Flying Luttenbachers ...

How has sax become the go-to horn instrument? The trumpet makes a way nicer sound.

u mad

sax is easier to be competent on?

How has sax become the go-to horn instrument? The trumpet makes a way nicer sound.

think you answered yr own question there

imagine side b of fun house w/ a trumpet

tho dog faced hermans did make a valiant effort to rescue the trumpet from rock n roll ignominy

The saxophone is easier to play than the trumpet. A musician friend of mine (plays upright bass) says, "The only instrument easier to play than the saxophone is the radio." Of course, playing it is one thing, playing it well is another.

19. To be relevant to the OP's mention of Springsteen, Clarence Clemons sax solo on fucking Jungleland!

20. Glen Frey - You Belong To The City

21. 2 Tone.

Monoshock had some sax on Walk to the Fire.

23. TEQUILA!

more reasons for go-to instrument status (though it's considered by a lot of people to be a reed instrument not a brass instrument): the saxophone has a wider range of notes than the trumpet; it is louder than the clarinet - those two being the other main lead melodic instruments in popular music before the reign of the guitar, excluding the piano - which has portability issues.

Is it possible that the bari is more of a rock instrument than its smaller cousins? I'm not sure, but it seems to me that the big horn is repping disproportionately in these responses.

I think tenor sax is the most common.

sax is always acceptable to me and usually welcome btw.

http://www.terrascope.co.uk/Features/Images/HawkwindLive.jpg

i prefer trombone & trumpet in almost all other cases, but will admit that the tone of the sax can be much more guitar-like and fits in better with most rock bands

"Baker Street" for corn's sake.

That little bit of sax in Sound & Vision that lasts for about two seconds.

"Changes" - Bowie

Because it just came on, The The - Sweet Bird Of Truth (and others)

Von Lmo

24. "Walk on the Wild Side"

though it's considered by a lot of people to be a reed instrument not a brass instrument)

Wait, does anyone consider it a brass instrument rather than a reed/wind?

Wait, does anyone consider it a brass instrument rather than a reed/wind?

I don't know ... someone upthread classified it as a "horn instrument" - though that doesn't necessarily = brass.

25. Raybeats

26. "Oh Bondage! Up Yours!"

^^ tenor sax

When I'm just Waiting on a Friend

Bruce Springsteen is obviously not an example of shit. Clarence Clemons' saxophone playing on "Cherry Darling" and "Born To Run" is brilliant and even the main hook of the former song.

Also love the sax solo in Spandau Ballet's "True".

What I do not like, besides Kenny G, obv. is the sax sound in early Roxy Music and King Crimson records. Mainly because it sounded kind of "detuned" and dragged down the entire sound.

And then there's Foreigner's "Urgent", which is so unacceptable it's perfectly acceptable.

27. Sex Bomb

28. Brainbombs

29. The Sonics!

30. The Cure - "A Night Like This"

31. Laughing Clowns - 'Eternally Yours'

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was just coming here to post laughing clowns

32. romeo void - never say never

33. Soul Asylum - Stranger

34. Sisters of Mercy - Dominion

Gallon Drunk used a sax player didn't they...?

35. Yes, Gallon Drunk used a bass sax on stage. That thing was evil.

Kenny G. plus a barbed-wire making machine is quite acceptable, I think

36. morphine, entire discography

37. John Olson/Wolf Eyes

27. Sex Bomb

flipper yesssss

Gallon Drunk used a sax player didn't they...?

― sam500, Wednesday, March 11, 2009 5:32 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

35. Yes, Gallon Drunk used a bass sax on stage. That thing was evil.

― bendy, Wednesday, March 11, 2009 6:43 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

the unreleased tracks from pj harvey's 1993 peel session w/ gallon drunk's horn section are f'kn unbelievable, sexy + evil

38. Rob Mazurek's cheez out on Jim O'Rourke's Eureka

39. Rocket From The Crypt

I think the problem with sax in rock came down to the rentaSanborn approach throughout much of the eighties.

40. Radiohead - The National Anthem

41: Roxy Music - Re-Make/Re-Model

42. Laddio Bolocko - Laddio's Money

43. Screamin' Jay Hawkins

did it really take 36 posts to get to morphine????

I kind of suspected the same, Ned, but Glenn Frey is already on here twice, and I'm not sure people are kidding.

i should re-learn sax

Didn't Don and Jim of Borbetomagus play on some Sonic Youth stuff? Can't remember what.

Are Madness included as Rock ?
If so, then their sound is pretty reliant on the inclusion of Lee Kix Thompson in the ranks.
Nightboat to Cairo of particular note.

44. LiLiPuT

45. Little Richard

46. Plastic People of the Universe

I kind of suspected the same, Ned, but Glenn Frey is already on here twice, and I'm not sure people are kidding.

I sure hope they are.

i was kidding about the heat is on

47. "Baker Street" - Gerry rafferty

Electrelane "Gone Darker". saxophone and blasting train whistle!

48. As we get more arcane, I really love the Veronica Lipgloss and the Evil Eyes record- sax really drives a bunch of their songs, rather than being a texture added in for effect. Sex drives all of them.

bendy OTM

that album is v v underrated

maybe due to sucky band name

49. speck mountain - i feel eternal

50. Pink Floyd, "Two Suns in the Sunset"

Galaxie 500 - "Blue Thunder (w/sax)"

― willem, Tuesday, March 10, 2009 5:00 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark

came here to post this.

i keep feeling like the only one but i prefer w/sax to w/out

Oh, and how could I have forgotten the sax solo at the end of "Will You" by Hazel O'Connor (played by one Wesley McGoogan, fact fans). Simply gorgeous.

52. ween - "your party"

53 Medium Medium "So Hungry So Angry"

54 I like the much maligned sax solo on Rip it Up as well

The Verve - "The Sun, The Sea"

55. rolling stones emotional rescue

Pretty much everywhere it appears on the most recent Primal Scream album.

Bobby Keys on any song he played on, basically

oh shit and Sonny Rollins on the Stones "Waitin on a Friend"

make that #1

Junior Walker - Shotgun

cheese central I know but INXS "Never Tear Us Apart" sax KILLS me

Men At Work - "Who Can It Be Now"

Dick Parry - everything esp Dark Side of the Moon

Seger's Live Bullet...Alto Reed man, dude kills it

sorry

i'll stop :)

Seger's Live Bullet...Alto Reed man, dude kills it

a) this is otm

b) alto reed is the single best name in the history of rock and roll.

right!?

4 years pass...and no one has mentioned...GAUCHO

although I guess there was the blanket admission of steely dan

and no-one's mentioned quarterflash's harden my heart? for shame.

said it elsewhere: the saxophone is perhaps the most underrated rock instrument, seriously fuck the haters

How has sax become the go-to horn instrument? The trumpet makes a way nicer sound.

― chap, Tuesday, 10 March 2009 17:53 (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

think you answered yr own question there

― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 17:54 (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this was a lovely exchange btw

I don't really like the sound of the trumpet generally, at least not of one, solo, unmuted trumpet not played by someone named miles.

cory hart, never surrender; oingo bongo, dead man's party; omd, if you leave; billy ocean, caribbean queen; sade, smooth operator.

geez, there are a lot.

It would be easier to point out UNacceptable uses of saxophone in rock tbh

have we not mentioned the bastard hard-rock lead-sax fuckery of zu, acoustic ladyland or colin stetson yet

have we not mentioned sarah smith's contributions to early cardiacs

nor have we mentioned spiritualized's use of mr dickaty

nor mr bungle's regular ventures to the way of the sax

oh there are just so many more

we haven't mentioned BAUHAUS, wtf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0QURElNqas

Lou Reed, version of Street Hassle on "Take No Prisoners"

Love the sax on Essential Logic songs.

Skronky sax = yay. Ghastly mellow sax = boo.

I don't really like the sound of the trumpet generally, at least not of one, solo, unmuted trumpet not played by someone named miles.

― signed, J.P. Morgan CEO (Hurting 2), Monday, January 6, 2014 2:30 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Feel like we now need the corresponding thread for acceptable use of trumpet in rock music. Off the top of my head I can think of McCartney's "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" (which is really a flugelhorn anyway) and Elf Power's "Jane."

There's a trumpet on "Helter Skelter" somewhere, just droning in the background.

ctrl-F "psychedelic furs" ctrl-F "talk talk talk"

what the hell, how did y'all miss this

xp and there's some crazy trumpet on "Only A Northern Song"

Gerald, was going to use "skronking" but wasn't sure if that was an acceptable word. Glad you followed me up with that.

I've been pondering for a long time suggesting running an ILM poll on sax solos in rock/pop/soul. Maybe it won't attract as much ridicule as I feared.

xxxp

"Dumb Waiters" was nominated above

might start a dedicated Astronauts thread @ some stage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lywxH68ZoHA

xp: lol marvel at my terrible searching prowess

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxIEa7Cgbc0

Nearly five years and nobody mentioned this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q_odSgDQeE

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/026/d/8/Son__I_am_Disappoint_by_SonIAmDisappointPLZ.jpg

Traffic - Low Spark of High Heeled Boys

Nicolette Larson - Lotta Love

^also works in the acceptable uses of flute category

guys, guys. answer to this has to be joe houston. right?

Fear posting is a good excuse for me to post this again, which I love:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuxE5ZA4WPM

read back to the beginning of the thread and came upon this post
James Chance & the Contortions, the aforementioned X-Ray Spex, Essential Logic, 16-17, Zs, Flying Luttenbachers ...

and I thought, wow, what impressive taste this poster has!

and then:
― what happened? I'm confused. (sarahel), Tuesday, March 10, 2009 10:52 AM (4 years ago)

oh yeah .... that was me

I did not see Station to Station mentioned anywhere either, esp. "TVC 15"

Don't see it listed above, but "Time Passages" by Al Stewart.

Sax was a lead instrument in rock and roll before guitar ever was. I reject yr premise.

Ha yes, I am reading What Was the First Rock'n'Roll Record? and the first entry is "Blues, pt. 2" by Jazz at the Philharmonic, chosen bcuz of how influential Illinois Jacquet's soloing would be on a bunch of 'honking' sax players

Everything's better with sax.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysPnz5yl_z8

And of course ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFAIjsy5us8

I am reading What Was the First Rock'n'Roll Record?

Nice! Be sure to pick up the companion compilation: http://www.amazon.com/First-Rock-Roll-Record/dp/B005V0PJ1O/

No one has specifically mentioned Lora Logic, which is criminal. Everything she did sax-wise was great - X-Ray Spex, Essential Logic, solo stuff, two albums and assorted singles with the Red Crayola, guest appearances with the Stranglers, Dennis Bovell, Kollaa Kestää, the Raincoats, Swell Maps and a couple of others.

By the way, my book, What Was The Last Rock 'N' Roll Album? will be out this autumn.

xxp - the sax player on that Tuneyards clip is my homegirl, Kasey Knudsen!

kexp in seattle has some killer in-studio performances.

Do you think King Crimson's Starless is an acceptable use of Sax?

I think it kinda ruin the song

It's acceptable, yes. Sometimes I think the whole of KC is encapsulated in that one song.

Art Zoyd

can't remember if it's been shouted out here but:
Turn the Page - Bob Seger
I freaking love that keening saxophone wail

http://www.vinylrecords.ch/Z/ZZ_Top/Deguello/zz-top-deguello-127570.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loFLdYM79gY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfwCBbH9BlE