The 80's horn break: C or D?

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INXS were all over it with their whole 'laidback Australia' calypso/beach party package. Indeed, if you take a cursory glance at the top 40 for most of that decade, the whole pop world seemed to fawn over sax breaks and trumpet stabs for ages.

Do you look at this monster as an icon of 80's shite, or do you think it deserves higher recognition?

― Stephen Stockwell (Stephen Stockwell), Sunday, 29 August 2004 23:17 (twenty-one years ago)

(I've just been listening to Baltimora's "Tarzan Boy" and it's astounding how the horn break/stab structure was embraced by so many from hi-nrg to pub-rock.

― Stephen Stockwell (Stephen Stockwell), Sunday, 29 August 2004 23:25 (twenty-one years ago)

"owner of a lonely heart"

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 29 August 2004 23:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Quarterflash. Men At Work. "The Glamorous Life".

Damn. Won't someone please bring back the brass?

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Monday, 30 August 2004 00:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, yeah. You could fill a Yellow Pages:

Duran Duran, Steve Winwood, Pet Shop Boys, The Models... or just take a blind pick of one-hit-wonders.

― Stephen Stockwell (Stephen Stockwell), Monday, 30 August 2004 00:31 (twenty-one years ago)

"Who's Johnny?"

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Monday, 30 August 2004 00:36 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Honeythief"! Classic all the way!

But the best horns of the '80s were on Adam Ant's "Desperate But Not Serious."

― Joseph McCombs, Monday, 30 August 2004 01:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Hunters and Collectors early stuff - "the Slab" and "Talking to a Stranger" - TOTALLY CLASSIC use ov horns.

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 30 August 2004 01:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Howbout Pete Townshend's "Face the Face" - practically a Dixieland break there.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 30 August 2004 01:46 (twenty-one years ago)

"Talking to a Stranger" OTM. Howard Jones "Things Could Only Get Better" too. But for audacity, none compares to Peter Gabriel "Sledgehammer". Even so, don't you think the horn break, as an institution, is still annoying as fuck? Surely the woeful artefacts outweigh the classics.

― Stephen Stockwell (Stephen Stockwell), Monday, 30 August 2004 02:58 (twenty-one years ago)

The sax break in "Rio" is so like whoa.

― cws (cws), Monday, 30 August 2004 03:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Motels, 'Only the Lonely', Hall and Oates, 'I Can't Go for That'...

Quarterflash are different, maybe; the sax was part of the band, not just a guest star here and there.

― derrick (derrick), Monday, 30 August 2004 07:21 (twenty-one years ago)

"A Night Like This" by the Cure (great sax break) and "Close To Me" (the version on Standing on a Beach-The Singles (great brass section break)

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 30 August 2004 11:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Not 80's, but this is the best forum yet to register my disgust with the sax solo in Born to Run. 30 years later, I still can't stand it and always want to fast forward through it..

― dave225 (Dave225), Monday, 30 August 2004 11:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I think we have to blame Phil Collins for this.

We have to blame Phil Collins for a lot of things...

― Elvis is Dead, Monday, 30 August 2004 12:11 (twenty-one years ago)

TS: The Horn Break vs The Bongos Break (aka The Radio Edit vs The Extended Club Version)

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 30 August 2004 12:19 (twenty-one years ago)

How about really cheesily synthesised horn stabs, as in 'Love and Pride' by King? I say classic.

― Wooden (Wooden), Monday, 30 August 2004 12:26 (twenty-one years ago)

The horn breaks in Power Station's "Some Like It Hot" are pretty good.

― phil d., Monday, 30 August 2004 12:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Those horn breaks always felt like they belonged in a car chase scene of an Eddie Murphy movie. Or Crocodile Dundee.

― Talent Explosion (Talent Explosion), Monday, 30 August 2004 15:11 (twenty-one years ago)

The sax solo in "Dominion/Mother Russia" is so rockist but at the same time so gr8

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Monday, 30 August 2004 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

"Love In Itself"

― martin gore, Monday, 30 August 2004 22:22 (twenty-one years ago)

one month passes...

Well we have the evocative saxxx break in Careless Whisper by the oh-so-sensual George Michael and then we have any Kenny G -aaaaaaaa!
So yes, I think shite.

― Not Doing My Essay, Tuesday, 12 October 2004 09:55 (twenty-one years ago)

That trumpet/cornet solo thing in Propaganda's "Dream within a Dream" is jolly good!!!!

Also, the "whalesong" style saxes in "Joe Le Taxi" by Vanessa Paradis were also jolly good!!!!

― Old Fart!!! (oldfart_sd), Tuesday, 12 October 2004 12:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Dud: Billy Ocean "Get outta my car"

In fact, nearly all those 80s sax breaks suck...

And then to think that some people even play(ed) artists like Kenny G and (not to forget) Curtis Stigers for fun.... :-(

― Rudolf (Rudolf), Tuesday, 12 October 2004 13:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Worst, most superfluous and downright kill-making sax solo evah:

the one in the 86 remake of "Pretty In Pink", that didn't even feature in the film as I recall, but the Furs put it out as a single. Absolutely dreadful, and the exact moment, the year dot, that I gave up on what we now call noo-wave 80s pop.

Until Franz Ferdinand came along, of course.

Unless they hire a sax player ...

― darren (darren), Tuesday, 12 October 2004 19:18 (twenty-one years ago)

CLASSIC: "Ghostbusters," "Tarzan Boy"

― Mr. Snrub, Tuesday, 12 October 2004 23:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Won't someone please bring back the brass?

David Banner to thread!

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 02:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Dud all the way around.

― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 14:25 (twenty-one years ago)

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