Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Rock band with saxophone
- Thread starter watanabe71
- Start date
Hmmm, sounds a lot like Chuck Berry to me; or is it Chuck Berry sounds like them? Then there’s the little matter of the T-Bone Walker lick, where you pull up the note on the G string to the pitch of the note on the B string two frets down. Nobody, and everybody, ‘invented’ rock’n’roll guitar.
Last edited:
He was my first thought here, but I didn't think his own music fits a narrow definition of Rock. Still gonna drop this one here just because you mentioned him.
Well for Pete's sake Mozart used the boogie woogie lick and probably Hadyn before him used it. Berry's - entire style - not a song here or there. Guitarists such as Clapton have accredited Berry with the sound and a very specific way of playing guitar. Mozart in the Harp , Flute duet - the basses play a straight up boogie woogie pattern - did he invent rock n roll. NO!
Exceptions do not make the rule. Listen to Little Richards saxes - they are playing the guitar part and rarely soloing. But that was primarily a function of saxes were cheap in the 50's and easy to play and guitars and amps were not ubiquitous. Guitar for obvious reasons pushed out sax from rock until the late 60's.
Sax on Baker Street works, on Bowie's Young Americans it works , but those are parts - a musical head. There are other instances of written parts where it works. Solo rock sax playing on the other hand is my complaint because it is either bombast (Clemons) or it is not rock at all.
How many of the songs people post are from a band with a song or 2 with sax. And how many are full time. Pink Floyd - for a song. If sax is so great why not have them in every song. The reason is guitar took its place as it is far more versatile instrument.
A guitar can play chords and a sax can't. More versatile. Duh. But if it took the sax's place, then why do so many bands hire horn sections and sax players? Never mind...I'll tell you why...because guitar players trying to sound like sax players or horn sections sound like dogcrap. And so do keyboard players. When you need horns, nothing else will do. I've played in many bands that tried to make up for not having horns by having the guitarist or keyboard player play horn lines. Always sounded like dogcrap. Sure, you can substitute a guitar for a sax on a solo sometimes. But a guitar or keyboard player is never going to sound like a horn when it comes to parts. Pale imitation at best. Even Paul McCartney, who has one of the very best keyboard players in the business using state of the art gear to reproduce horn parts, sounds like dogcrap when the keyboard horns kick in.
On to another point...the guy didn't ask for your opinion on whether his band should hire a sax player or not. He only asked for some examples of horns in a rock context, of which there are plenty. So all these bands who have horn players are wrong and you're the only right one? Spare me, dude.
The guy wants a horn player in his band. It affects your life in zero ways. Get over it.
Anyone can say oh that was a great song - However over half the songs are where the band, in a few songs, used a sax. Buddy Holly played with King Curtis once or twice. Does that not dawn on anyone. Keyboards yeah double horn parts and frequently do so for monetary reasons. I agree doesn't sound as good the real thing. But those bands - Bowie, Doors, Floyd, Stones used sax on a very limited number of songs. Maybe the OP should ask himself why. At the end of the 60's horns come back but in bands like Chicago where duh - they are a horn band.
I only gave him something to think about - if he has a good guitarist he may find he has a problem and now he has to structure the song list to accommodate the sax.
Sure maybe the OP wants all sax songs and that is his schtick. But if it ain't - as I said - see if he plays percussion - sings harmony - sax in every song - can they play rhythm sax - or are the soloist only. I know some stellar saxophonists who have sat in and it was a gas. But every song all night? I know the guitarist would quit - and I would say let's can the rock and play a different style.
Hey but that's me.
Any dufus can name a song they like with sax.
Sax Solo in Doors' Touch Me - it rocks - but so what anyone can name a tune. I actually like that solo- but the Doors didn't hire him full time did they? Hell why come here and ask - type in sax/rock on youtube. A discussion - maybe ?
Unlike the fan club I thought I would give the OP something to think about.
Reminds me of a time when 2 keyboardist were auditioned for my rock band. I picked the one with decidedly lesser skills - who played rhythm, filled in unobtrusively, and moved his left hand to middle C, a good musician who listens. The other guy could play circles around him - but not rock - he was going to play in my range - super busy and I knew it was fight time for me. Took a little explaining for the other 2 players to figure it out. A soloing saxophonist is going to affect a member of his band. If he is the lead guitarist then he's OK - but he should think about it.
And another non sequitur: "It affects your life in zero ways. Get over it." Your non sequiturs have an element of nasty. You know it was around 10th grade when I stopped caring if someone didn't like the music I liked. If I didn't know better you want me to shut up. Just say it and then I can respond appropriately.
It doesn't affect your life what I say - so why are you here? A different opinion. Over 10 pages he got 2 opinions - mine and then the band wagons. He said which songs - I said none. That is an answer. Zero has been a number ever since the Greeks figured it out.
Last edited:
That's called changing the subject.
Unlike yourself I offered the OP something to think about - very nice indeed.
OP didn’t ask for an opinion, he asked for inspiration. Maybe you should start your own thread instead of crapping on this one?
Who am I crapping on? I have been crapped on by children who have not the internal strength to handle a difference of opinion.
Very sa
You are crapping on OP. Read the OP and tell me how you contributed toward that end?
You can have an opinion but I really think nobody else on this thread is that interested in it.
You can have an opinion but I really think nobody else on this thread is that interested in it.
I am not crapping on the OP at all.
You just made that up. Add that to band wagon logic- better known as mob rule.
Yes I can have an opinion and I am not really interested in your opinion or the few here who seem to take offense in a difference of opinion. (double edged sword arguments really do go over your head). The first retort to my post was essentially the band wagon has spoken so how dare I. And the few others repeat this nonsense. You are offended but the OP has not said a thing. Hey he got pages of suggestions and he got some from me as well.
The OP has not hired a saxophonist. So - he is offered a song from disparate forms of music. 50's through avant-garde. He does not say whether his only criteria is a sax in the band- not likely.
In my experience someone may have an idea until someone says but..... they then say oh never thought of that .. has happened to me.
I was speaking to the OP not you - If he has a problem he can say so.
You have a problem and it is as Dave Chappell says - a brittle person problem. Grow up.
Last edited:
Splitting hairs - ones recommendation of a good song is an opinion. He asked for an opinion.
- Dec 21, 2007
- 15,233
- 45,110
- Disclosures
- Lark in the Morning Instructional Videos; Audix Microphones
OK. Moderator weighing in here.
Everyone has the right to their opinion. And others have the right to disagree. So far, so good.
Repeatedly and emphatically restating an opinion that others have disagreed with, and that has no bearing on the OP, becomes trolling. Which is an infraction.
@7615 you've made your point. You do not like sax in rock. You do not like it on your clock, you do not like it when you walk.
Everyone knows where you stand.
No need to push it further. You're not going to change the minds of the people who do like it. And they you don't have to remind that that you do not like it.
Take a deep breath and let it go.
Did you have a family member who was killed by a saxophonist or something? I'm serious. You've got such a strong opinion on this.
SKA bands can use Sax.
Legendary Pink Dots. Not SKA at all but use sax a lot
Tuxedo Moon
Psychedelic Furs
The Violent Femmes
Legendary Pink Dots. Not SKA at all but use sax a lot
Tuxedo Moon
Psychedelic Furs
The Violent Femmes
