This is prompted partly by the recent thread about Spandau Ballet’s song “Gold,” and partly by RickJay’s Mix CD Challenge threads, and partly by my recent viewing of the DVDs of 1985’s Live Aid Concert, where I was struck by the inexplicable ubiquity of the mullet, but also by how big a role the saxophone had in popular music of that era.
This thread, then, has three purposes:
To celebrate the saxophone as a pop/rock instrument.
To ask “Whatever happened to it?” Do any of today’s popular bands have a sax player as one of their members? What was the last hit song to feature a sax solo?
And to present my own Mix CD challenge: come up with 10-12 songs that have notable sax solos and/or feature the saxophone prominently in their instrumentation. Limit yourself to one song per artist/band/saxophonist.
This is for the saxophone as a solo instrument, not as part of a horn section. (That could be a whole nother thread.)
My own list is below.
I apologize ahead of time for leaving off Clarence Clemons (I’m not familiar enough with Springsteen’s catalog to pick out a good example of his work), David Bowie (who can play sax but often gets other people to do it for him), “Lady Madonna” (that anomalous Beatles song that features a sax part), and songs such as Glenn Frey’s “The Heat Is On” and Wham’s “Careless Whisper” that my brain is telling me to include, but which I haven’t heard recently enough to be sure they really deserve to be here.
(Names in parentheses are, to the best of my knowledge, the saxophonists on each track.)
“One Step Beyond” by Madness (Lee Thompson)
“Who Can It Be Now” by Men at Work (Greg Ham)
“Maneater” by Daryl Hall & John Oates (Charles De Chant)
“The Logical Song” by Supertramp (John Helliwell)
“The Heart of Rock and Roll” by Huey Lewis and the News (Johnny Colla)
“(She Was a) Hotel Detective” by They Might Be Giants (John Linnell)
“Don’t Answer Me” by The Alan Parsons Project (Mel Collins)
“Christie Lee” by Billy Joel (Mark Rivera)
“True” by Spandau Ballet (Steve Norman)
“Can You Picture That” by Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem (Zoot)
Older 50s-60s rock featured sax prominently. “Rebel Rouser” by Duane Eddy comes to mind for some reason, as do the cuts by Boots Randolph (but that would probably qualify as sax solos). But it seems you’re looking for more recent tunes. What was that Paul Simon tune that ended in a wild sax display? “50 Ways”?
The OP might have been thinking of Glenn Frey’s “You Belong To the City,” a pop song synonymous with the mid-'80s due to its use on Miami Vice. Beautiful sax work, although I’m not sure who did the playing on it. And say what you will about Wham, their “Careless Whisper” is a gorgeous, sexy song, sax and all.
Sax player Leroi Moore of the Dave Matthews Band is a regular member of the band. I’m not a huge fan of theirs, but they boast excellent musicianship just the same.
“Born To Run” by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, sax by Clarence Clemons
And by all means, feel free to include “The Heat Is On.” It has a very sax-heavy riff played by tenor saxophonist David Woodford and should fit in well with the others in your playlist.
And to Big Bad Voovoo Lou, the alto sax on “You Belong To The City” was played by Bill Bergman .
I know there are a couple of modern bands that have a sax as a main intrument. Karl Denson (tiny universe) is a monster (and yet, still isn’t on my list. how’d that happen?) and Skerik (Flying Frog Brigade among others) is simply insane! Randall Bramblett and Branford Marsalis seem to have picked up where Bobby Keyes and Mel Collins left off; sitting in with anybody who asks. There are several “jambands” that have sax players (what happened to Agents Of Good Roots?).
In no particular order:
The Dream of the Blue Turtles (entire album) - Sting (Branford Marsalis who also plays a killer “Eyes of the World” with the Grateful Dead and “Pickin’ up the Pieces” with Widespread Panic)
“Honey White” - Morphine (Mark Sandman)
“Get In Get Out” - (Randall Bramblett founder of Sea Level, one-time member of Allman Brothers and sits in with Gov’t Mule on occasion (but then, who doesn’t ))
“Aja” - Steely Dan (Wayne Shorter)
“Can’t You Hear Me Knockin” - Rolling Stones (Bobby Keyes)
“Money” - Pink Floyd (Dick Parry)
“Bound and Determined” - Marshall Tucker Band (Jerry Eubanks, every flutist plays sax once in a while )
“Angry Eyes” - Loggins and Messina (either Al Garth or Jon Clarke, I don’t know who did which parts)
“Rainy Day, Dream Away” - Jimi Hendrix (AMG says Fred Smith)
“Are You Receiving Me?” - Golden Earring (Bertas Borgers)
“Sweet Burgundy” - Tommy Bolin (Norma Jean Bell)
“Dancing In The Moonlight” - Thin Lizzy (John Earle on “Live and Dangerous”)
<almost all> - Traffic (Chris Wood)
Have the Zutons made it in the US yet? They are fairly big in Britain and prominently feature a (hot, female) saxophonist. Playing what sound to my untrained ear to be simple lines, but I’m not complaining.
I’ve been beaten to Bobby Keyes on Exile {though I’d nominate Rip This Joint}, so I’ll throw in Steve MacKay on The Stooges’ Funhouse, especially on the title track: throughout the album he constantly treads a fine line between free jazz improvisation and good old-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll honking, but never puts a foot wrong. Glorious.
“Baker Street” by Gerry Rafferty has a terrific [mind-blowing, iconic, “borrowed”]sax solo by Raphael Ravenscroft, who has also done session work for lots of other artists.
Also want to mention “Sun Goddess” by Ramsey Lewis (his backup band at the time was Earth, Wind & Fire).
“Squib Cakes” by Tower Of Power, on “Back To Oakland” is a great sax-driven song. Those guys had such a great horn section, they played as their own group on other artists’ records.
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