Sometimes You Need A Horn (or Two)

Free digital image from  FreeDigitalPhotos.Net

Let's just jump into this. I recommend you start off by listening to this first song.

Fishbone - "A Question of Life"

I'm not sure if I've always loved songs with horns, or even more so, bands that have horns in them.  I didn't grow up listening to jazz or even classical, so they were not necessarily part of my musical upbringing.  I can't think of one record in my dad's extensive collection that is jazz or classical. Well, that's not true.  There's the Willie Nelson jazz album, Stardust, that he tried to get me to listen to when I was younger.  I never did.  Willie was all good and fine, but the first few seconds of whatever starts that album off wasn't for me at the time.


I can't remember when it really hit me that songs with horns were just, just...so much more than a song without. Several of the 50s bands that I grew up listening to had saxophonist on the songs.  The guy from "Yakety Yak" really stands out in my mind. King Curtis is his name.  He played on that song as well as on a Buddy Holly song, "Reminiscing". I guess, thinking about it, probably either Earth, Wind & Fire or KC & the Sunshine Band were probably my first real introduction to several horns in a band.  


I've heard all my life "Disco sucks!", but you know what? When it's a full-on band like those two then no it didn't.  It rocked as hard as whatever rock 'n roll songs were playing at the same time.

Earth, Wind  & Fire - "September"

KC & the Sunshine Band - "Boogie Shoes"

So, yeah. Those songs, those take me back to my young days.  When I'd ask my dad if we could pause a song on the radio so that it would start back up when we got back in the car from McDonald's.

Paul McCartney always had some great horns in his music with Wings. A lot of people put down that music. A LOT OF PEOPLE. But I have to say it was such a huge part of my childhood that to me it's just gold.

Paul, of course, had some good input in The Beatles. This is one of my favorite tracks of theirs. 

"Got to Get You Into My Life"

As I moved into my teens I discovered Madness.  I could easily write a whole entry about them.  They were such a great addition to my expanding musical palate.  I got the cassette of One Step Beyond and played it so much.  Then I got a double sided cassette of that with Absolutely on the back.  Whoa! I mean seriously. I could put so many songs of theirs on here, but I'll stick with one obvious and one of my all time favorites.

"One Step Beyond" & "Wings of a Dove"

Because I could literally go on and on and on I'm just going to list some of my favorite songs with horns in them.  I'm a little embarrassed by how 80s Adam Ant's video is, but well, it was the 80s and he was one of the people making actually entertaining videos.  I was introduced to Benny Goodman through the Chips Ahoy commercial and then again in the movie, "Swing Kids".   I heard Louis Jordan's "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby?" on Tom & Jerry when I was a kid.  Then I heard it again through Joe Jackson's fantastic album Jumpin Jive. More late 80s, early 90s Fishbone and Cake came along and kept the horns going. Just recently through my Madness Pandora station I was introduced to this amazing Australian band, The Cat Empire.  Wow.  Amazing.

Adam Ant - "Desperate, But Not Serious"

Benny Goodman Orchestra - "Sing, Sing, Sing"

Louis Jordan "Is You Is, Or Is You Ain't My Baby?"

Cake - "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps"

The Cat Empire "Hello" & "Chariot"

So, below are some of the bands/artists that really hit home with their use of horns.  Most of course are not being played on the radio except for during the Retro hour, or on a station that plays jazz, real jazz.   I don't think anyone plays Neil's This Note's For You album. This was his first release for Reprise after being on Geffen for most of the 80s.  His time with them ended with the company suing him for not being "Neil Young enough". As if you can fit Neil into a box and expect him to stay there.  Sheesh.

I would find YouTube clip for them, but there's only so much time that I'm going to spend on this.  I hope you go find some though.

Louis Armstrong

Dizzy Gillespie

Miles Davis

The English Beat - "Tears of a Clown"
Haircut 100 - "Fantastic Day"
Neil Young & the Blue Notes

Elvis Costello on Spike (he used the Dirty Dozen Brass Band for some tracks) "Miss MacBeth" & "Chewing Gum"

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy "Go Daddy-O!"
Brian Setzer Orchestra "Jump, Jive & Wail"


I'll leave off with Van Morrison and a song off of His Street Choir

"Domino" 

Current Top 10 Favorite Things

Okay, so I'm going to stop re-posting old things for now.  Here's what is currently making me happy.


10.  Sitting in My  Backyard - I like to sit in my pink plastic Adirondack chair in my backyard and watch the crows fly through the neighbors' yards. It's pretty cool to see them swoop from air to branch or just navigate their way through the trees.  Every once in a while I'll see a hawk do it, and that's triple cool, but the crows are pretty cool on their own. (don't tell GQ that I'm enjoying the crows.  She's convinced they're stalking her)

9. Marley - The newest addition to our family is proving to be quite a character. Whether he is jumping up on our bed while we're reading to the Girls, chasing his tail, or just chewing on one of his many toys (and an occasional Barbie) Marley is definitely keeping us entertained.

8. Victory Golden Monkey - A Belgian style beer that packs an impressive 9.5% avc into a 12 oz. bottle.  I've added it to my Gentlemint with the description, "It's the kind of beer that you drink during a long dinner with friends."  This bonus of course, is that you're basically getting 2 beers at one time - Economically Buzzworthy.

7. Shift Pale Lager - The folks at New Belgium Brewery (makers of Fat Tire and other good beers) recently released this new beer in not only a can (for pool consumption!!!) but also as a tall boy! 16 oz. of quality pale lager.

6. My iPad - I would have never gotten this on my own, but the principal at my school bought one for each of the teachers and paraprofessionals. I know, right?!? I have got to say, those people at Apple really know how to make the electronic crack.  This thing is a lot of fun and really handy in so many ways. I've got my Kindle books on there, games for the Girls to play, drawing apps, an app that lets me create and edit Word docs, and so much more.  It's ridiculous how much I am enjoying this.

5. Real Sugar in my Coffee - A while ago I switched to Splenda b/c I realized I was taking in too much sugar and it was making me kind of  grumpy.  I guess my body can't process it like it used to, and so I switched. I had switched to Coke Zero before this.  Not that Splenda wasn't good, but real sugar is just so much better. I'm watching my sugar intake because no one benefits from my over  indulgence.

4. Three Websites - The Art of Manliness - http://artofmanliness.com/, The Thing About Flying - http://thethingaboutflying.com/, and Casual Disagreement - http://casualdisagreement.com/. Each of these gives me regular entertaining, thought provoking articles to read on an almost daily basis.  I'm happy that I am actually going to some sites that aren't just pop-culture oriented (not that there's anything wrong with those. I still go on them too, they're just not on the top 10 right now).


3. The Popularity of The Avengers - Holy Record breaking Comic Book Super Hero Movie!!! American, and seemingly the world can't get enough of this movie.  I'm pretty sure that if all comic book movies were this good there might not be a need for many other types of movies - I'm looking at you, Nicholas Sparks fans.

2. My Madness Pandora Station - I have loved Madness since I first heard, "One Step Beyond" back when I was 10.  It was a bug that I caught and never shed. They make me happy in a way that music should make you happy.  The Pandora station has introduced me to songs of theirs I've never heard due to only being released in the UK as well as similar bands such as The Selectors and The Specials.  Madness is one of the only ones that is still around.  The English Beat is still touring, but it's just Dave Wakeling with a new group of musicians. Not to take anything away from them, because they put on a great show. I also get to hear The Toasters, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Aquabats, and more newer bands, as well as bands that influenced Madness like Toots Mayall and Desmond Dekker.

1. Summer Break - Hot diggity dog!  Two months off.  I know that a lot of us in our 40s and older like to think that we got all three months off for summer when we were kids, and it certainly felt like it, but I'm pretty sure it's very close to what kids (and teachers!!!!) are getting now. Of course, to some (GQ) it seems like 10 months of interrupted regularly scheduled days, to those of us that get it off, it's pretty freaking awesome.  Any teacher that tells you that summer break isn't one of the reasons they are in our profession is a liar; plain and simple. BTW, no picture can do summer break justice.


Well, that's what's making me happy right now.  GQ & The Girls aren't on this list because they're beyond List Worthy.  They make it all worthwhile.



Go check out some of these things and see if they make you happy too.  Happy Summer!