Doin’ it to Death, by James Brown, is a personal favorite. I also like that Cake song, Sort Skirt.
I’ll Be Surprisingly Good For You from Evita.
The Last Night of the World from Miss Saigon.
Both have amazing sax solos
Shotgun, by Junior Walker and The AllStars.
Each of you should be shot, then flayed, then drawn and quartered for not mentioning this earlier.
All right, I’ll guess – Howard Johnson?
Some I’ll add:
“Got to Get You Into My Life” – Beatles
Clarence Cleamon’s work with Bruce Springsteen
“Mr. Skin” – Spirit
The performance of the final section of the William Tell Overture in the movie “Brassed Off.”
The final section of Respighi’s “The Pines of Rome.”
Tower of Power
“House in the Country” – The original Blood Sweat and Tears (with Al Kooper)
And I’m surprised no one has yet pointed out that the saxophone is not a horn.
Nobody has mentioned Steely Dan yet? Their best horn cuts, IMO:
“My Old School”
“Deacon Blues”
“Aja”
Although the song itself isn’t anything to write home about, Junior Parker’s sax work on Foreigner’s “Urgent” is outstanding. Redeems an otherwise forgettable track.
And finally, two words: Oingo Boingo. “Dead Man’s Party.” “Just Another Day.” “Weird Science.” “Wake Up (It’s 1984).” All great horn tracks.
A thread about horns and no one has yet mentioned Bix Beiderbecke (“Blue Night,” “Raisin’ the Roof,” “Mississippi Mud”) or Harry James (“I Had the Craziest Dream,” “It’s Been a Long, Long Time”?
Kids. None of you get to eat your Hallowe’en candy till you listen to some REAL horn players.
“What Is Hip” by Tower of Power.
My other favorites have already been mentioned. I also like Branford Marsalis’ playing on 2 live cuts: The Grateful Dead’s “Eyes Of The World” and Widespread Panic’s “Picking Up The Pieces”.
Most anything by Morphine has great horn work in it.
Also, welcome back Eve.
{sidles in VERY QUIETLY and sets out a dish of cream}
- Chicago’s stuff, mostly first 11 albums.
- Chuck Mangione, especially “Children of Sanchez”
- Glenn Miller
There is a brief, but beautiful sax solo in Paul Simon’s “Still Crazy After All These Years” that I love.
I’ll second MrVisible on Clarence’s solo in Bruce Springsteen’s Jungleland.
Also, one of my all time favorite horn licks is from Huey Lewis’s “I Want a new Drug.” Just and awesome riff.
That’s, "an awesome riff. Whoops!
I always thought the sax solo from “Never Tear Us Apart” by INXS was extremely sexy.
Clarence Clemmons’s work in Springsteen’s “Blinded By the Light” really rocks, I must say.
Ditto for the Sax solo in Billy Joel’s “It’s Still Rock-and-Roll to Me”.
And I’ve also enjoyed the sax solo in Pink Floyd’s “Money”, even though it seems fairly un-complex.
And I feel the same way about the echo-sax bit in Hall and Oates’s “Maneater”.
That reminds me - there are some great horns in “You Can Call Me Al.”
Sheri
For something a little unique, I’d go for the music of the band Drums and Tuba (www.drumsandtuba.com). A drummer, guitarist, and tubist playing bizarre trippy instrumental music. I saw them once opening for Colonel Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, and I’ll see them this Saturday opening for Oysterhead.
Speaking of the Frog Brigade, when they were doing shows, Skerik was pretty cool…he played tenor sax. Keep in mind that it takes quite a bit to impress me with a sax, as I don’t like the sound. At that same show was Galactic, playing their New Orleans funk. They have one guy who does tenor and bari sax (I do like the bari). Check out the song “Hamp’s Hump.” Skerik came back on stage and played with Galactic too. Good band.
I do like the Incubus song “Summer Romance: Anti-Gravity Love Song.” Has a sax solo in it.
Now, as far as brass goes, I don’t have much that hasn’t been mentioned. I like the song “Chameleon” (I know Maynard Ferguson did it, but I don’t remember if he wrote it or just covered it.) It’s fun to play it on the bass trombone.
Then, of course, there was the rock sextet or septet I played in during my senior year of high school…maybe we sucked but I had fun.
-Neil
Neil: Where did you catch Drums and Tuba>Galactica>col. Claypool? I saw them in Burlington, VT either at the very end of last year or the beginning of this year. What a great show!
peace,
JB
Um, yes. I’ve never heard a bad performance from him on any instrument in any situation. (Wish I could say the same about myself!)
Let’s not pick nits here, we’re too busy having fun! And all credit due to old Adolphe.
Yep, yep, yep. All great stuff. I admit this is going a little far afield but the music is SO good!
What the hell, while we’re off in the musical hinterlands I like Brave Combo, too. http://www.brave.com/bo/
your humble TubaDiva
The saxophone is not a horn? If we want to get all TECHNICAL, the only thing we should call a “horn” is a horn in F (usually called a French Horn, erroneously).
“Horns,” in terms of adding winds and brass to a pop format usually dominated by guitar, bass, drums, and keys, encompasses every instrument in the brass and woodwind families. So, yeah, an oboe would be a “horn” in this context.
I have to go along with Tower Of Power’s “What Is Hip.”
They have a precision funk that blows all the other horn sections away. (No pun intended.) They are still awesome live.
Another band from the Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears, Chase, era that often gets overlooked is The Sons Of Champlain. Bill Champlain is now a member of Chicago.
Another great band to catch live is Roomful Of Blues.
Then there was Hugh Masekela’s work on the Byrd’s “So You Want To Be A Rock 'N Roll Star.”