I went to see Paul Carrack last Monday. He reminded me of two rules that I have about music and songs as he managed to break both of them in one gig.
The first relates to flutes. I cannot think of a single song that has been improved by the addition of a flute. Before Twang retorts with a Jethro Tull rock a flute very nicely, I have to say that I haven’t heard anything by Jethro Tull that I like.
The second rule is whistling. It always strikes me as a sort of filler – one up from la la la lyrics (Into The Valley by The Skids is the biggest sinner here). It always feels so lazy.
Does anyone actually like whistling or flutes in their rock? Or does anyone have any other rational dislikes?
Mogwai Fear Satan
One of my very favourite songs of all time. Greatly improved by the flute that pops up throughout. It weaves in and out of the song, but there’s a good example at 3.30.
Also, fun fact: the flute part was played by Shona Brown, then aged just 13.
Some others improved by flutage (I’m always on the lookout on behalf of flautist daughter):
McAlmont & Butler – Yes
The Specials – Ghost Town
Michael Kiwanuka – Tell Me A Tale
King Crimson – I Talk To The Wind.
The beautiful flute playing makes the song take flight. A must for all flute lovers and flautists.
Spiritualized’s Cool Waves is lifted ever so slightly further into the heavens by a rapturous flautist towards the end. The best bit on an awesome album.
I’d forgotten about Ghost Town. But that’s the only one so far.
Loads of early Gil Scott -Heron, with Bryan Jackson. Gives it a very early 70s feel
Agree in general that flutes are a pernicious influence on an arrangement, but this famous flute solo (perhaps because it’s short and in the lower part of the instrument’s register) really adds to the mood.
Love the Mog. They are like a post modern Pink Floyd.
The mighty Ra was no stranger to flute action:
Whistling! I largely agree except for….
Otis at the end of Dock of the Bay – maybe he’s just dicking about, who cares? It’s perfect for the record.
You’re not a fan of The Bearded Whistling Magus of Durham Town ?!?! You can lure porpoises into secret coves with this mystic trilling…
And of course….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkPy18xW1j8
Coolest whistling ever? Golden Years.
http://youtu.be/TKUy6ygUgP0
Paul Simon – Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard
The whistling section in Underworld’s ‘I Will Kiss’, used for the Olympics opening ceremony, provided a beautiful and plaintive counterpoint to the bombastic opening. Unforgettable. (Starts around 7.15)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6NBHx80ovY
My God, but that Olympic Opening Ceremony was just breathtaking, it really was.
Like most sane people I love Bob Dylan At Budokan, which is plastered with all sorts of unsuitable instruments like sax, recorder, violin and flute. The version of Love Minus Zero/No Limit is the bestest ever. Sadly it’s not currently on YouTube or I’d inflict it on you.
The soprano sax. Instantaneously. Always.
Jules Broussard plays some lovely soprano sax on a couple of Santana albums. But otherwise, you picked a good ‘un.
Axl’s whistling at the beginning of Patience is lovely.
I can report that I listened to the Tull this morning, yes, with flute, and recorded a song last night featuring whistling. Whoops.
There’s nothing I automatically dislike – it’s all about context. But I do find falsetto vocals very quickly get on my nerves, especially white blokes trying to be soully.
The late Chris Wood (not the folk singer of the same name), best known as a member of Traffic played flute as well as sax.
His contribution to the title track of John Barleycorn Must Die elevates what would otherwise be a pleasant but inessential song to a thing of low-key magic.
I’m also very partial to his playing on Free’s Mourning Sad Morning.
the accordion has the ability to ruin many a song, but in the right hands (of which there are few) it can be an instrument of joy.
Two perfect examples.
Here’s another…available from all good outlets folks
https://jonathanroberts.bandcamp.com/track/ripe-apples-in-the-spring
#tellhimtoshutupabouthisfuckingalbum
Wonderful choice . May I add these ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5xw03aTTSo
Thank you Twang and Rob.
I posted that at work where it is difficult to access YouTube. So here is Free
while here is Traffic in a live performance
Very fine indeed. Traffic were the greatest band that many have stupidly forgotten, and I include XTX as a very close second.
Bollox – not some sort of vulgar deodorant or genital flea repellant !
Here’s a bit of Good Ol’ Boy Southern Rock flute. (Just a bit mind you)
Marshall Tucker Band – Can’t You See
Here you go. Whitest bloke ever blues, complete with mandolin and flute. And the odd bit of falsetto, but not too much.
https://youtu.be/RKGLzm41Xzk
In timely fashion, for anyone interested in Chris Wood, comes this exciting news from Hidden Masters:
http://store.digitalstores.co.uk/hiddenmasters/
Slightly pricey, but I’m tempted.
When sax is good (in pop or rock, anyway), it’s magic, but it’s so very very rarely good.
Half the time I even want to tell The Big Man to STFU.
Where do you stand on “Baker Street”? A song defining part I think. Though Gerry has been looking a bit peaky lately.
Bob Holness did a good job there.
When I was a kid this was exactly what I dreamed the future would be like.
Pretty much nothing is totally beyond the pale. Flute? Think Nick Drake. Falsetto white dudes? Van Morrison. I loathe the sound of trumpets, but when The Unthanks break out the brass it is utterly uplifting. I can’t think of any 80s gated drums which don’t spoil the recording they are on, but am willing to be persuaded of their merit in the right place.
Trumpets and french horn do wonders on a lot of The National’s songs, too.
Even Van pushes me hard. I love the Wavelab album unconditionally but the opening vocal on the title track track is close to the limit…
I can’t think of a single example of celtic fiddle that doesn’t make me want to lay about me with a billhook.
The talkbox, as popularised (which is just an expression and should not be taken literally) by Peter “I’m Up You” Frampton.
Satan’s drip-feed tube is also the only blight on Joe Walsh’s otherwise impeccable career. Why, Joe, why? (Rory Gallagher would sometimes scat sing the same notes he was playing on the guitar, true enough, but he never went so far as to simulate syphoning petrol on stage, as far as I know.)
Now come on, my 4x78rpm set of “Sparky’s magic piano” was fucking brilliant.
Also, Anything Goes by Guns N Roses has a cool little talkbox solo on it.
The flute break on You’ve Got To Hide You’re Love Away fits perfectly and snugly into the tune and adds a rather lovely, dreamy element.
Have you considered, Leeds, how important the flute (an alto flute by the sound of it) is to ‘Ghost Town’ by the Specials? It’s a motif of a few notes but it sets the mood brilliantly – spookiness and melancholia.
However, you might find this a perfect storm of angst: a Jethro Tull song called ‘The Whistler’ with, yes, (tin) whistling…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m93bO7HnZDw
I had forgotten Ghost Town. It is very much the exception that proves the rule though. I can’t get on with the Tull though. It just reminds of shitty 60’s and 70’s Robin Hood TV programme minstrels. I know thats unfair and the have legions or ardent fans.
Struggling to think of a decent song with bagpipes on it.
It’s a Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock n’ Roll) by AC/DC.
Good shout, I knew I was overlooking something.
Surely anything by Big Country?
Roy Wood – Are You Ready To Rock. He still does the bagpipes live, or he did the last time I saw him.
I can’t think of anything else that has the war pipes that I like but there’s lots of good Irish/Northumbrian/Scottish Small Pipes on record.
Right. Outside! @retropath will hold my jacket.
OK, The Battlefield Band and Clan Alba both made good use of them. But I’m not a fan of the beast. It’s far to limited in range to be musical. It plays in Bb and Eb – great keys. It can’t even play bloody Flower of Scotland – to *think* again.
They must have scared the living shit out of all these poor countries that we invaded in the good old colonial days mind you.
Curiously, though, it was the ‘Great IRISH Warpipes’ that were used at the head of English armies bothering people abroad during the 16th – 17th centuries.
They developed in tandem with the Scottish instrument (there were even Welsh and English variants, though these had died out much earlier) but somehow fell into obsolescence by the 19th century.
The late 19th/20th century revival in (mouth-blown) bagpiping is based on the Scottish instrument – though it had pretty much stopped developing by the time the Irish warpipes had started declining anyway: adding the third drone was ‘job done’.
Not rock admittedly, but bloody marvellous
I think it was Spike Milligan who said that bagpipe players are always walking because they’re trying to get away from the racket.
The definition of a gentleman is a man who knows how to play the bagpipes but doesn’t.
And then there was the bagpipe player who so bad all the other bagpipe players hated him
Right you heathens, I shall now force you to watch this.
and promise to get at least as far as 00:25
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. That was filmed in Fremantle market, not more than a few mins from where I live
Truly, you are the Zelig of rock, Conchmeister. I used to think that of a bloke called Mojo Working, but you leave him in the shade.
And I even turned up in the sleeve notes you wrote for a Bert Jansch CD, before the Afterword even existed.
Spooky.
Bellowhead – Jordan
Parliament – The Silent Boatman
The best use of the Skye Boat Song in a soul/funk context ever.
Or in the top 10, at least.
Under the Milky Way by The Church features (unbelievably) a synth-bagpipes solo at around 2.21 on this clip… Great song, bizarre musical interlude.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6jhpaX7fNQ
Oh, I’ve got one. Not really an instrument, but has their ever been a record which features laughter which wouldn’t be immeasurably better without it? I’m looking at you here, Joni, and don’t pretend your guffaw at that deep ‘put up a parking lot’ line was even vaguely genuine.
See also live recordings with audiences who laugh on cue, when they’re expected to rather than because something is genuinely funny. A recent and excruciating example being Father John Misty’s ‘Bored in the USA’. It reminds me of a great description of They Might Be Giants as ‘music for people who say ‘Hey, that’s funny’ and then laugh rather than the other way around.
And the Laughing bloody Policeman can sod off and take his truncheon with him too.
Michael Stipe’s little laugh of self-deprecation at his repeated inability to pronounce “Dr Seuss” on The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite – I’ve always liked that. (After many, many takes, they ended up just going with “Dr Zeus” with the laugh.)
And I like the little laugh in Shake It Off by the mighty T. Swizzle (“I go on too many dates…”)
The giggle on Shake It Off always makes me happy.
I love the laughter on Bored in the USA – the fact that it’s a laugh track, and not because anything is actually funny, is entirely the point.
There are also good laughs on Fu-Gee-La, Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream, A Boy Named Sue, I Wanna Dance With Somebody and (probably best of the lot) Anarchy in the UK
The exception that proves the rule.
I think the ironic laugh in “Where do you go to my lovely” is good – ah ha ha!
As usual. Bowie’s Andy Warhol – great laugh then straight into that emphatic guitar.
The smug, self-satisfied laughter of the audience on the Bob Dylan Bootleg Series Halloween Concert makes me feel all punchy…
I realise this has nothing to do with the OP, but it really irks me…
I grew up with the 78 of this.
It actually sounds a little creepy now.
I like the little giggle Vincent Price does at the end of Thriller.
Bagpipes? God’s own instruments. Agree they seldom break into popular song with success, and neither Mull of Kintyre or that Rod one are good songs, nor even, if I’m harsh, the Wizzard one. But, should you allow bellows driven, cos I suspect you think of highland war pipes, this is good:
Touch of gate in the drums too?
Although it’s not him in the video playing them, I know that Liam O’Flynn played on an Adventures session, presumably this one.
Blimey – I only listened to that song yesterday. It really should be a song known by everyone, sung at weddings and all that. It’s a cracker.
Yup, it’s epic in the loveliest sense of the word (as opposed to bombastic).
Goosebumps…
Broken Land is a thing of total beauty and it never fails to lift my spirits, thanks for posting. It should maybe be ubiquitous but then I’d have a little secret wrenched off me.
It’s a long way to the top… does similar things for me, but in a very different way.
I’ve always thought that the ‘treated piano’ solo (1:40-1:58) – possibly through a Leslie speaker – in the otherwise fabulous Quintessence B side ‘Move Into The Light’ was a dreadful error of judgement.
Warning: NOT SAFE FOR LEEDSBOY (contains flute)
“I’ve always thought that the ‘treated piano’ solo (1:40-1:58) – possibly through a Leslie speaker – in the otherwise fabulous Quintessence B side ‘Move Into The Light’ was a dreadful error of judgement.”
The Quintessential Afterword T-shirt. I so want one.
You might have a point there. Have I stumbled like a monkey with a typewriter on the quintessential/archetypal AW sentence?
Sax.
Works on black rock ‘n’ roll records – the more out of tune and manic, the better – e.g. Little Richard.
Doesn’t work anywhere else.
Needless to say, the instrument was everywhere in the dire 1980s.
No record is unimproved by more cowbell.
I’ve posted this before in a cowbells thread, but it always merits repeating: ‘And on cowbell, BURTON CUMMINGS!!!!’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paR4nClw7cw
And Guess Who comes onstage with Lenny Kravitz (at 1:53), and guess what he’s brought with him?
Banjos. Accordions, Ukuleles. Hurdy-fucking-gurdys. Anything played by either a) insufferable hipster ballbags or b) insufferable ‘authentic roots music’ ballbags.
With the exception of the hurdy-gurdy I can think of several records I love with those instruments on. However, your second sentence wins Bob’s Special Prize For Being True And Excellent.
See also autoharps, mandolins, melodicas…
Apart from the Gurdy, I own and play all of the above.
Whoa! Diss not the mighty melodica. I’d go so far as to say that I’ve never heard a bad song with a melodica. Added value every time.
Definitely don’t diss the mighty melodica … if it’s in the hands of Augustus Pablo.
Growl! For that you can have a video of two bagpipes and a hurdy gurdy ( and just have a look at Gregory Jolivet’s gurdy – is that not the coolest instrument on the planet? ) Could only be bettered by the other four members of Blowzabella also being there.
The vapid noxious smothering bowel breath gusts of Satan’s infernal arse lieutenants. NONE of the trice ABOVE.
Fuck you. Peace & Love.
X true
As in kiss, not the band (No!) but well meaning in case of beffudled intention. Let us disco. Please. I shall sit down and smile.
Chew My Yoghurt.
Can we really be 57 comments in and no one has mentioned Chapman’s infernal ‘stick’ yet?
It has no place in ANY music by anyone, ever.
Simmons drums. You know, the ones that look like giant cough sweets.
Linn Drum
contained 15 drum samples, and 42 preset drum patterns.
None of them actually sounded like a drum
http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t490/Rigid_Digit/200px-LinnDrum_digital_drum_machine_front_panel__zpsq8zvidyn.jpg
I agree the Linn Drum is awful. I can’t think of a single record that wouldn’t be improved by replacing it with a proper drum kit played by a human being. Of the two you posted, Rigid, I think the bigger one sounds better.
Three Words – Ring My Bell – An absolutely wonderful groove and the Linnest record ever. I think LCD Soundsystem owe a huge debt to Anita Ward and her band.
…and the answer is ‘the harpsichord’, the harpsichord.
Pure poison in sonic form.
I honestly can’t understand why it’s not illegal to play it within earshot of human beings.
My dad (91) may beg to differ Jeff. He wants the aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations played at his funeral. His original LP is scratched and, hilariously, jumps during the much vaunted opening aria. So I bought some different versions of the piece on CD. But he turned his nose up to the lot of them because they were all played on piano. It’s a harpsichord version or nothing for my dad. Not that he’ll be hearing much of it on the day.
Oof!
Ok, after due consideration, I’m willing to make an exception ON THIS ONE OCCASION.
Here’s a chit.
And here’s hoping you don’t have to cash it for many more years yet.
Actually, on further reflection, given that your dad is a member of The Greatest Generation he should, of course, be lionised and cherished to the nth degree.
So I’ve just done a little research and found that one of the most highly regarded harpsichord renderings is by Trevor Pinnock. And Amazon have got one copy available (not sure this will paste in properly as a hyperlink on my phone):
Sir Thomas Beecham once famously said
“The sound of a harpsichord – two skeletons copulating on a tin roof in a thunderstorm”
Thanks Jeff. I think that might be the one he has on LP. Will order.
For those repelled by all things harpischord, that cover must send a shiver down the spine. Well done you for facing the challenge head on!
Ah that’s great Martin, I’m really pleased about that.
As for the thought of the harpsichord itself, yes it’s bad but it’s nothing that a 5lb lump hammer couldn’t put right.
Keith Jarrett did a Bach album only on harpsichord. Pretty good stuff. In fact, there’s nothing really wrong with any of the above mentioned instruments (well okay, Linn drums are shite) in the hands of proper musicians.
Which brings me to my pet hate in 50 years of collecting music and going to gigs. Yes folks, it’s the non-musicians’ instrument of choice, including hangers on, “old ladies”, alphas, basically a quick fix for anybody who needed pacifying or extra attention. The tambourine. Fuck…aarrrgh!!
Yes, it can be well used (Grapevine) but hardly ever is. And it’s all over, say, All Things Must Pass and Absolutely Free. What were George and Frank thinking?
Damn, just thinking about frigging Jagger with a tambourine..
Or, better not.
Andrew Bird can whistle in all of his songs as far as I’m concerned…
Like on this wonderful track, one of my favourites of all time; Oh No:
The frigging electric jug that is all over the 13th Floor Elevators. It’s a novelty instrument and the joke has worn off long before serial offence on each and every track.
Oh dear. You cannot love the Elevators if you do not Love The Jug.
Love The Jug.
The Jug Of Love.
Pan Pipes.
I’ve never yet heard anything good with Pan Pipes on it. I cannot abide them.
Flutes, saxes, trumpets, accordions, banjos, fiddles, even hurdy-gurdys are more than OK by me in the right context.
Any instrument can be horrible in the wrong context. For instance, “Trumpets” by The Waterboys. With a (not very good) saxophone splashed all over it? No thank you Mr Scott. An absolute stinker.
Here it is, used to great effect in Picnic At Hanging Rock (is that in the canon yet?):
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: back in the day when Zamfir was still recording Bulgarian folk music he made some fantastic albums. Then he got introduced to the Easy Listening dollars…shame!
And…ah, Romanian folk music…yes.
I’ll happily eat this kind of music with a spoon, all day long 🙂
Just one more!
How can you not love this? It stabs you right in the heart!
Some flutey goodness
Naff harpsichord? I say thee phooey!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_QVUfZv92U
Actually, the harpsichord on that is my favourite sort, ie barely audible.
What you singularly failed to trigger-warning us about is that that the Left Bankey’s original also contains chuffin’ FLUTE!! Though it has the merit of being played by an invisible person in the trees or the sky (?God), it’s still flute.
Which means that I have to neutralise this unspeakable horror by posting my favourite version, by Linda Ronstadt and Ann Savoy:
Huh? Where did that video go?
Try again:
Not to mention this B-side from days gone by
Harpsichord and sax – together they fight crime!
And these are so obvious (or unhip) that nobody’s bothered to mention them
Four Tops – If I Were A Carpenter
Judy Collins – Both Sides Now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7Xm30heHms
Stone Poneys – Different Drum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FLN4MUROXk
That shitty whistle on Highway 61, or is that so obvious it goes without saying?
Al Kooper describes it as a “police whistle” in the sleeve notes to the new Dylan box set. But it’s more accurately known as a swanee whistle, or sliding whistle.
It’s like a cross between a penny whistle and a bicycle pump (or a tiny trombone, if you will).
It dates back to the 1840 and was used for comedy value during the big band era and as a sound effect for the silent movies.
Although we had them as kids, I first became aware of the swanee whistle on a pop records on the Bonzo Dog track Dr Jazz from the 1969 Tadpoles album.
It comes in at 40 secs
http://i.imgur.com/8q76lLD.jpg
I should say “I first became aware of the swanee whistle on a pop record” after the Dylan track.
And used to rib-tickling, guffaw-inducing effect here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh0VF6s-UYU
I’m exhausted after scrolling down the full length of your big red whistle.
That’s what she said
Take that back….Groove is in the Heart by DeeeLite one of the greatest pieces of music in the history of pop.
Went to a Taj Mahal concert in the dire 1980s and the whole thing was ruined by the -sounding ‘1980s’ even IN the 1980s – keyboards.
Seems the only people in the Town & Country Club who couldn’t hear how awful it was were those on stage.
Charles Shaar Murray mentions it in his book ‘Blues on CD’.
Horribly miked acoustic guitars circa 80’s to 90’s. I don’t get it, acoustic guitars in earlier decades always sounded brilliant. Wha’ happened? This reedy, plastiky, crap acoustic sound was a virtual epidemic on live recordings around that time, but even appeared on studio albums. Bob Dylan’s 1992 album, Good As I Been To You springs to mind. No longer on youtube unfortunately.
Some more tunes avec flute.
Manfred Mann’s Mighty Quinn, Camel – Rhayader, Genesis -The Knife, Canned Heat – Goin up the Country, Laurie Anderson -Oh Superman.
More recently, lots of flute on the Earliest first album, which I always liked.
Peter Gabriel played flute on a lot of early Genesis tracks – ‘I Know What I Like’ immediately springs to mind. Minor factoid alert: he also played on Cat Stevens’s Mona Bone Jakon.
Edit – meant to say The Earliest first edition.
Arrgh ! Earlies ! Earlies !
Flute can be funky:
Dear Mr Boy
Are you seriously saying you don’t like ‘You Don’t Pull No Punches, But You Don’t Pull The River’ ? ……
I’m off to have a listen.
I liked the first 30 seconds. And then I realised why Van was wailing as when the flute came in.
heathen, heretic…..
one of my all time favourite songs
Whistling! Can’t believe there’s been no mention of Betty Boo. Where Are You Baby? features a fab recurring whistling riff. In fact, there’s a lot that’s right with this song. give it a go – it’ll improve your Sunday!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X3me4UiAGc
Betty would improve any day of the week.
Ohhhhhhhh.
Mellotron. Yes, don’t go, it’s true. So it may have been cutting edge but, christ on a bike, is it not the most dated sounding shite on earth, even in good songs. And not in good songs it is way worse. (Cue Barclay James Fecking Harvest
But that’s what’s so lovely about it. I cross-reference my comment in the Albumsthathaven’tdated thread: I really prefer music that belongs to its time, and a wash of mellotron gives as clear an indication as any electro carbon dating.
Have a taste of flute salad.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5pg3d_yk1i4
I’m all too aware that I’ll forfeit my membership of this exalted order and have to go back to being a civilian, haunted by the jeers and taunts that’ll accompany this confession.
I love the whistling on ‘Jealous Guy’.
Yeah, fuck the pseudo and snobs (I prefer the whistling in the original German etc), but I found it heartfelt and unselfconscious when I first heard it. It was also a surprise as I was so unexpected.
In a desperate attempt to retain some cred, I must point out forcefully that the POB album is one of my favourite ever records.
Did POB do an album then? IIRC he was not a good whistler.
The whistling on Jealous Guy is ok actually. I’d forgotten about that one.
In songs is different to in rock. For example the vibes are tolerable (barely) in jazz see MJQ, or even funk, see Roy Ayers but other than that -get behind me Satan.
Now the flute -I’m a Tull fan but wonder whether the songs work in spite of the flute .
Herbie Mann did some ok stuff ,see Memphis Underground with the Stax musos and Duane Allman but I have an experience that has scarred me. It was a BB King concert around 1973 and Herbie was in town at the same time. Sho nuff, up hops Herbie to do some blues jamming on his infernal flute. My, my my, it was awful.
I hope somebody posts an image of the Herbie Mann album “Push Push”, wherein Herb poses with his flute in a quite extraordinarily erotic way.
He really did put out a lot of albums. Here’s a selection of “curious” covers. Never Imgured in bulk so let’s see what happens.
I’ve never seen a flute with a sight before.
James Galway should have had one of those . It would have made him look totally badass.
I’d prefer the sight was aimed at James Galway.
Can we REALLY have got this far without showing the ultimate flute-in-rock recording?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciobkL3qHj4
And they are funking it up, live, with Leslie cabinet, three years later – fantastic!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm8gQX2DTXQ
One problem with many instruments is that when they’re used in a rock context the sound is usually never in its pure form, but processed by several means, sometimes even put through a guitar amplifier. Echo and/or reverb in particular tend to really mess up the sound of the instrument.
the more they can do to fuck up the sound of the unadulterated flute , the better,
Okay, let’s stop shilly-shallying around here. Setting aside the Ch****n S***k, there can surely be no question that the ‘keytar’ is the worst instrument invented. Just look at this berk…
Get your choc ices here.
They’ll be gunning for the sitar next.
Go the mellotron!
How about the flute mellotron?
The didgeridoo is a definite didgeri-don’t in rock songs: I appreciate it’s original cultural significance, but it usually just sounds inappropriate or crass when mixed in as another instrument. Rolf Harris played on this…
Ah, no, I must stop you there, Pessoameister…. Yes, it is a limited thing, but sometimes it is the ONLY thing – a unique sound, the missing ingredient.
Is it possible that I am the only Afterworder to have recorded with a didgeridoo? Played by the great Phil ‘Shiva’ Jones of Quintessence. (I imagine Mousey might have recorded with a didg at some point – hope so!)
This whole track is built on a didgeridoo:
https://soundcloud.com/colinh-1/colin-h-novaya-zemlya
Am I allowed to nominate a person rather than an instrument?
Ray Cooper tends to ruin a song, whatever instrument he may be playing though, of course, the louder the instrument can be played, the worse the damage he does.
I have a drummer/percussionist pal who was asked to dep for Ray Cooper at a recording session a few years back. He wondered whether he’d be expected to bring his full car-load of percussion gear or just a tambourine in a little attaché case.
My abiding memory of 1980s television is Ray Cooper, seemingly every other month, grandstanding on a colossal podium (with Armani-suit-wearing rock bores like Clapton, Collins, Elton, Knopfler all jamming away 20 feet below him on the stage) at enormo-music-charity-telethon events.
So ubiquitous Was Cooper, Q did a piece called “Who’s that bloke up there with Ray?” with a picture Clapton or Elton.
When did the backlash against him start?
About 10 minutes after the first Princes Trust concert, wasn’t it?
In another thread I presented the OMD song Bloc Bloc Bloc (sic) and although I do like OMD a great deal, they committed a sin in that song that they had done before – the enforced jollity of a shit horn section. Their top 10 single The Locomotion also did this. There was also a song in Junk Culture called (I think) All Wrapped Up which was all upbeat and had the horns in there because horns obviously means instant Mardi Gras ! Hey! Party time! Blow some whistles! Steel drums too!
The best example of this is Eurythmics Right By Your Side. I visualise Annie going through the motions with a face like thunder – ruthlessly and defiantly laying down a cheerful number to prove that she knows how to let her hair down.
Right By Your Side is a heap of excrements. The horns, however (what little there is of them) is the least shite part IMO.
Those awful intro whistles! The “steele drums” (sounds like a synthesizer to me)! The ay ay ay:s and prrrrrr:s and other noises of gay abandon from Annie! The awfulness of the song in general!
Where Bloc Bloc Bloc is concerned, my answer is still: It’s a tuuuuuuune!
Unlike this crap (just look at this awful video):
I remembered more horns than that…but yikes what hideous thing that video is.
Am trying to recall whether there’s an ostensibly ‘tropical’ song more wooden and rhythmically maladroit than this one. Coming up blank so far….
I have taken up your challenge @ivylander – I think I have a contender:
http://youtu.be/f2lYEXZ01II
I was expecting something more from a video which promises a “National man-shaft”. This appears to be a lot of people playing football.
Lordy, that is an abomination. Thank you for bringing it to our collective attention so tat we may avoid it in future, But it does appear to have a rhythm section consisting of people playing actual instruments rather than pressing buttons. For that reason, I would argue that it’s not quite as dire as the original example.
Another thumbs up for flutes in music. It is sine qua non of prog in it’s most “classical” form.
That Betty Boo clip was a flashback: I went out with someone who looked like her for 3 years in the mid-80s and had genuinely forgotten about her.
I am SHOCKED by the lack of mention of whistling in Tenpole Tudor’s oevre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IE7hr8FhHI
Tubular Bells was ruined by tubular bells. Vocoder vocals get on my t^ts.