Music Chatter Scottish Bands: bruce springsteen dave matthews band david bowie hazel o'connor huey lewis and the news low miffs
by Matthew
19 comments
Toad 2.0
Whither the Saxophone?
Back in the 80s that soulful-yet-rock ‘n’ roll sax solo was just about the pinnacle of any song’s achievement, and the uppermost point of its emotional trajectory. It was, one might say, the vinegar stroke.
I know 80s sax was for the most part risibly, splendidly awful, but it certainly wasn’t considered so at the time. Even the ubercool likes of David Bowie had a go: he’s listed as the sax player on a number of early albums, although this was largely in the 70s. It was a weird mix of soul and what was laughably considered to be rock that brought the two together at the time, if I remember. Even the toughest rockers seemed to want to show their emotional underbelly, and that comically earnest, eyes-clenched, blouson-sporting, big-haired, backlit solo was quite frequently the way they did it.
Apart from slight bafflement at how this was ever considered cool in the first place, I am surprised it got left behind in the 80s revival – it’s not like we’ve had much of a quality filter on what has been dragged back into popular culture. The man satirised so dismissively, and brilliantly, as Mr. Sensitive Ponytail in ‘This is Definitely Now the Nineties’ zeitgeist flick Singles would not have been seen dead without a considerable collection of albums by assorted posturing milk-toast soft rockers looking tough. These albums almost by definition contained a portfolio of comedy sax solos, and we shouldn’t underestimate how actually, genuinely cool Mr. Sensitive Ponytail was in the 80s.
So here we are approaching 2010, and the inevitable 90s revival, and it looks like the sax has been forever consigned to the rock ‘n’ roll dustbin which is, erm, well probably no bad thing. I can’t think of many current groups who do decent sax stuff really. The Dave Matthews Band had some good sax moments about ten years ago, and that’s about it except for one: The Low Miffs. Brilliant, brilliant sax. It’s a one-group revival, and not the least bit Mr. Sensitive Ponytail, thank god. If anyone needed to be left in the 80s and never ever revived again, it is him. Probably liked fucking world music and jazz as well, the slippery cunt.
The definitive 80s saxophone solo:
Hazel O’Connor – Will You
Not far behind:
Bruce Springsteen – Jungleland
David Bowie – John, I’m Only Dancing
Huey Lewis & the News – The Power of Love
Dave Matthews Band – Two Step
The Low Miffs – Where Are Your Songs Now?
Ah, Scott, that’s hilarious! From two proper musicians, too – oh the shame of it!
I like the Low Miffs’ sax moments though, and some of the Springsteen stuff in the 70s was okay – it’s more like the 80s ruined the sax – a body blow from which it has yet to recover.
Fear got it right when Lee Ving sang, “New York’s all right, if you like saxophones.”
Played by black-clad uber-jazz types? The types that make you want to slam your knob in a door?
john coltrane played the sax.
lou reed utilised the fucking thing.
and sweep the leg johnny played buggery hell out of it. i’m probably alone on this one but sto cazzo! is one of the great lost albums of the 00’s. and this is my second favourite musical youtube clip – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN3PLKDQZQI – featuring john mclean style ceiling climbing that ends in collapse, not euroterrorist deathery.
i wanted to play sax in school you know….
i do like some good sax….
Have you ever seen this feature?: http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/dont_blow_it_10_great_songs
Funny thing, I’ve been contemplating the sax in rock and punk a lot since taking a class on jazz history in college – I love the combination, personally (Rocket from the Crypt, International Noise Conspiracy, Dead Science, New Bomb Turks and Mika Miko are some of my favorite sax-using bands). And cheesy ballads with cheesy sax solos? “The Whole of the Law” by the Only Ones is heavenly! There’s much goodness to discover, Toad. If anything, I’m surprised that you’d list the Dave Matthews band here…
I actually rather like quite a lot of the DMB’s early stuff – Crowded Streets, Under the Table and Crash all have some excellent stuff on them.
I also rather criminally forgot the theme to Local Hero – which is part of Scottish cinema folklore.
Thank u for your kind comments Mr Toad! I think that, when used with a little thought and taste, the sax can be a brilliantly expressive instrument. Jungleland is quite simply amazing! Check out the main theme to Taxi Driver aswell as the track at the start of ‘Withnail and I’ by King Curtis…incredible. James Chance is also worth a listen and, even though it is dripping with cheese, I love the sax in ‘I Cant Help Myself’ by Orange Juice!
I think there’s a careful line that should be drawn here, before all music that features a saxophone gets trudged under the patent-leather-cowboy-booted heel of the black-clad pony-tailed weirdo honking away to himself over at stage left in some wankfest 1980s pop video.
A little sax now and again is fine. In fact, many claim that a healthy sax-life is key to achieveing overall happiness and wellbeing.
Where would Ska be without horns? Rock n’ Roll? Phil Spector’s Wall Of Sound™?
Think of a bass sax parping away, underpinning the backline in dozens of great songs… Absolute Beginners for example, being as we mentioned Bowie.
I agree that most saxophone solos are fucking horrible events to endure, utter torture; but there are exceptions. Overkill by Men At Work anyone? Or Year Of The Cat by Al Stewart?..
No? Well I like them. Sometimes.
And then there’s, um, Dire Straits…
…post approaching this evening. You will be disgusted.
Yeah, I’ve got to go with Dylan – horns are massively underrated and underused. Yes there are the cringe-inducing moments but every instrument has those. Horns are often a welcome surprise to break up the standard guitar, bass, drum boredom.
Thanks for The Low Miffs!
If you’ll forgive a shameless plug – I’m spinning a new site, A Free Man, out of my personal blog and am hoping to meet some like minded music bloggers. If you have the chance, take a look at my site and if you like it perhaps we could exchange blog roll listings.
All the best,
Chris
No, I’m sorry mate, we’re far too high-minded for shameless plugs around here.
And hang on, where did this horn-hating bollocks come from? I love horns, particularly the trumpet actually, and the trombone. And a whole horn section is a good thing too, most of the time. But I was talking specifically about groups with an isolated saxophone, often given to long solos two-thirds of the way through a track.
Yo, Toad, didn’t ya know? The violin is to 21st century Indie rock what the Sax was to 80s New Wave!
Ouch!
That’s pretty much all of my favourite bands.
So… if the saxophone solos you don’t like are the ones that crop up two-thirds of the way through a track, does that mean you do like the one right at the start of A Million Love Songs Later by Take That?..
Erm, yeah Dylan. Fucking love it. In fact any and all of Take That’s stuff – right up there with Tom Waits if you ask me.
[...] a dipstick! I did a whole post on comedy saxophone in the 80s and did I mentioned Dire Straits or the splendidly be-headgeared Mark Knopfler even once? Did I [...]
Saxaphone is the cancer of pop music. It can be present in a song, benign and not dangerous (Morphine, INXS, Rocket from the Crypt), or it can grow into a debilitating tumor that kills its host. I was just having a conversation at my own blog about George Harrison’s album Dark Horse, which is ruined right off the bat with awful, awful sax. And I think Bowie’s sax moments are pretty horrific, too.
It doesn’t get worse than this though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXYooUMSul8