Gentle Readers, Your Humble Blogger needs your help. I’m making a mix, and I know I’m missing some songs, and I can’t come up with what’s missing.\n
It began, as my mixes often do, when the Shuffle played two songs in a row that had a thing in common, and I noticed the thing, and then thought what other songs shared that aspect. In this case, the two songs were “Ring of Fire” and “Soul Man”, and what they both had was a great horn line. In fact, the horn line really makes the song. Well, no, they are both great songs anyway, but they are both really great horn lines. They are so great that when you hear the horn line from “Ring of Fire” (dee de-dee de-dee dee<\/I> dah dee), it not only immediately tells you what song it is, but it acts like, oh, like seeing an old friend in the airport. It makes you feel good, even before you get to the rest of the song.\n
So I started thinking about making a mix of great horn lines. I picked “You Can Call Me Al”, which may not be a great song but has a magnificent horn line, over the version of “Late in the Evening” with horns, which is great, too. I picked the Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ “Hell of a Hat” and Madness’s “House of Fun”. From the many Otis Redding options, I picked “I Can’t Turn You Loose”, which isn’t the best song, but has the best horn line. I would put on Aretha singing “Respect”, but they really replace the horn line with the backup singers, so all you have left is the beginning. The horns are OK (barroom ... bedup), but they aren’t great. In fact, on her great songs, they really do use the backup singers in the place of the traditional horn line—which works just fine, unless you are making a mix tape of great horn lines. I’m not just looking for a mix of great songs that have a horn section somewhere in the mix; “You Can’t Hurry Love” is a great song, and it has a horn line, but it isn’t a great horn line.\n
I’m not sure how to define a horn line. Strictly speaking, it should require three horns, often a sax, a trumpet and a trombone, or an alto sax, a tenor sax and a trumpet. It is just barely possible to include a flute in the horn line without ruining the song, as proved in “Moondance”, but, you know, don’t try this at home. Or in the studio, either. A horn line isn’t a saxophone solo; there are great rock sides with great sax solos, but that’s not a horn line. I am willing, just, to include “Two Young Lovers” in the mix, even though it’s only one saxophonist playing the line, but it really shouldn’t make the cut. Or does the studio version from the EP have a real horn line? Does anybody have that? Anyway, the horn line is a repeated phrase, usually repeated antiphonally with the vocalist or a guitar. It’s not the melody of the song, or a bridge (usually). It’s a horn line.\n
Now, I could make a mix of just great soul music (I’m only just now getting into the Stax catalogue, thanks to my nearly-local library), but that’s not what I’m after. I’m not even after half an hour of soul and half an hour of ska. I’d like, ideally, to include a bunch of different stuff all within the greater rock genre. Of course, all of it would be influenced by soul, but that’s fine; I want to see how that plays out in different ways. I mean, the Eurythmics are clearly influenced by soul, but they are not a soul group. I think I would put “Would I Lie to You” on the list; the one-note ‘bah-ta-dah-ta-dah-ta-da-daddah’ line isn’t great, but it’s pretty good.\n
So my point is that I know there are tons of songs with great horn lines, and I know I’m just forgetting a bunch of them. Can you help me, Gentle Readers? When did your favorite pop stars join up with a horn section, and how did it turn out?\n
chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek<\/I>,
-Vardibidian.\n<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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