Saxophone | Take It Easy

No, you didn’t misread that! This week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme is to play a song that features a saxophone, as Jim tells us in his post The Coolest Instrument. As usual I couldn’t keep this down to just the one song, so I’m playing three – the first two of which may well be familiar, though I’m pretty sure the last one won’t be.

This week’s lead song is a cover version with an interesting back story. This clip cuts off a tiny bit of the intro, but it is still by a distance the best one I could find – the one on her own YouTube page comes in part way through the first verse!

And the lyrics:

We passed upon the stairWe spoke of was and whenAlthough I wasn’t thereHe said I was his friendWhich came as some surpriseI spoke into his eyes

I thought you died aloneA long, long time ago

Oh, no, not meI never lost controlYou’re face to faceWith the man who sold the world

I laughed and shook his handAnd made my way back homeI searched for form and landFor years and years I roamedI gazed a gazely stareAt all the millions here

We must have died aloneA long, long time ago

Who knows?Not meWe never lost controlYou’re face to faceWith the man who sold the world

Who knows?Not meWe never lost controlYou’re face to faceWith the man who sold the world…

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: David Bowie

The Man Who Sold the World lyrics © Chrysalis Music Ltd., Bmg Rights Management (uk) Limited, Tintoretto Music, Chrysalis Music Ltd, Emi Music Publishing Ltd, Rzo Music Ltd

As I’m sure you knew, even before you saw the credits, The Man Who Sold The World was a David Bowie song, the title track of his third album, which was released in November 1970 in the US and March 1971 in the UK. It wasn’t particularly successful, only eventually reaching #24 in the UK and #105 in the US after a 1972 re-release, though it did better in 2016 when many of his albums made the charts again posthumously, getting to #21 in the UK and #38 in the US. None of the album’s tracks were released as singles, until this version appeared. It was released in January 1974 and peaked at #3 in the UK Singles chart, though it wasn’t a hit in the US. The story goes that Bowie invited Lulu to a concert he gave after which he met her in his hotel room to tell her that he wanted to make a record with her, as he thought she was a great singer. Lulu didn’t think it would happen but he followed up two days later. She has said that he was ‘über cool’ and she just wanted to be led by him. Apparently she had no idea what the song was about, but in the studio Bowie kept telling her to smoke more cigarettes, to give her voice “a certain quality.” It seemed to have worked! This was described by critics at the time as having a sleazy Berlin cabaret style to it, which was enhanced by Lulu’s appearance on Top Of The Pops dressed as a gangster – the performance in this video. The saxophone? Guess who played it? Yup, Bowie himself, though the instrument didn’t feature on his own recording. Nirvana covered it some years later without a sax but this still remains for me the best version: the sax makes it great.

My second song for today is also from the early Seventies – still in my view some of the best times for music. This is another that was a big hit in the UK but didn’t do a thing in the US:

Roxy Music released Virginia Plain as their debut single in August 1972, and it peaked at #4 in the UK and made the top twenty in several European countries, but as I say it didn’t make the US charts. that doesnt appear to have stopped it being recognised over there, though, as it was ranked at #348 by Rolling Stone magazine in their 2021 updating of their list of the 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time. I think that is a well merited accolade, even if it took them nearly fifty years to get there! The band’s eponymous debut album had been released a couple of months previously, but this song wasn’t included: they hadn’t even recorded it when the album came out. After its success as a single it was however included on later re-pressings of the album. Quite right too, as I’m sure it had something to do with the album getting to #10 here. The sax is played by Andy Mackay, by the way.

As I said earlier, I would expect those two tunes to be fairly well known, especially to British readers. But I’m guessing that just about no one will know my third tune (though I can think of one who might – we’ll see). This is another from that same vintage, Wikipedia describes Audience as being ‘a cult British art rock band’ who were around from 1969 to 1972, during which time they released four albums. This is a track from the third of those:

As the video shows, You’re Not Smiling was a track on The House On The Hill, which was released in May 1971, and this was taken from it as a single. Wikipedia doesn’t show any chart placings, and neither does the Official Charts Company, so I’m guessing my love for this album wasn’t shared by the masses. The description of them as a ‘cult’ band seems to be fairly accurate! I bought this on the strength of hearing a couple of tracks on late night radio, and I wasn’t disappointed: and I managed to convert a couple of fellow students on my uni residences corridor to it! The band was led by Howard Werth, whose rather unique vocals give them a distinctive sound, and the other members were Keith Gemmell, on sax, recorder, clarinet and flute, Trevor Williams on bass and Tony Connor on drums. This track was co-written by Howard and Keith, both of whom make their trademark on it. Tony Connor went on to join Hot Chocolate, and he is still with them. The other three reconvened between 2004 and 2013, but only for live shows: they didn’t make any more records. Keith Gemmell died of tongue cancer in 2016 but the others are still with us, happily.

That’s my selection for today – you can never get too much sax, can you, and I’ve managed to do this without playing what I think might be the most obvious song, certainly for a Brit. Think Sherlock Holmes…

See you again for Tuesday Tunes 🎶