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Pop Rock Nation

Category: Videos

  • Sexy sax songs…

    Sexy sax songs…

    I would write about something more serious today, but I have sexy sax songs on the brain this morning…

    I’m actually hoping someone out there in Internet land can help me out. You see, I often have songs running through my mind and sometimes they are songs I haven’t thought about in ages. Consequently, I have this stream of music in my head that I can’t name. I don’t know what the title of the song is. I don’t know who played it. Actually, it’s not even really a song. It’s an instrumental that I used to hear a lot on Delilah’s radio show. It’s very sexy… and I feel pretty certain it wasn’t done by Kenny G. For one thing, I think it was played on a tenor sax.

    Yesterday, I went searching on YouTube and iTunes for that song in my head. I was unsuccessful in my quest to find it. However, I did find a few other songs that qualify as sexy sax songs, most of which are from ages ago and most of which actually qualify as songs because they are sung.


    I wonder what ever happened to Quarterflash… This is a pretty great song from 1982 or so, which makes me old as hell. Check out the sax solos, though… sexy!


    Years later, Candy Dulfer and Dave Stewart collaborated on “Lily Was Here”. Oddly enough, I remember hearing this a lot back in the day, but I didn’t know the title or who played it. I guess my fruitless search wasn’t all for naught.


    “Songbird” has the distinction of being the only thing by Kenny G I can tolerate for longer than a few seconds. I actually really liked it when it first came out in 1987, but then the soprano sax became more popular and it began to annoy the fuck out of me.


    No sexy sax songs list would be complete without this entry from Men At Work and their first hit, “Who Can It Be Now?” I used to love this song and that band when I was growing up.


    “Tender Years” was a hit by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band from the film Eddie and the Cruisers. I have always loved this song. I think this band probably benefited from and were cursed by Bruce Springsteen’s success in the 80s. They had a couple of hits and seemed to fade away. Still, this is one sexy sax song.


    I’ve also always loved “The One You Love” by Glenn Frey, who really seems to love the sax and uses it in most of his hits. “You Belong To The City” anyone? Seriously, I have a compilation album he did and one thing I noticed was just how much sexy sax Glenn used in his songs.


    And then there’s “Urgent” by Foreigner. A hit in 1981, this song had a blistering sax solo that practically put into music the act of ejaculation… I picture a horny 19 year old getting it on like gangbusters with his girlfriend when I hear this song and its sexy sax.


    James Taylor wrote the beautiful “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight” in 1972 and the original version of that song had a sexy sax solo. Since then, James has replaced the sax with keyboards. Then the late Michael Brecker, saxophone player extraordinaire came up with this brilliant cover which includes James’s vocals… I think it’s sexier than the original.


    Really, I could have picked almost 80s era Bruce Springsteen song for my sexy sax songs list, but I chose 1975’s “Born To Run”. The Boss was famous for using his trusty sax player, Clarence Clemmons, on his best 70s and 80s era anthems. “Born To Run” may not be as sensual as “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight” is, but it’s definitely got a raw sexuality about it. Who wouldn’t want to climb on the back of some wild guy’s motorcycle and ride off into the sunset? Don’t answer that!


    And finally there’s Dire Straits’ elegant song, “Your Latest Trick”, which has always been one of my favorite songs off their 1985 album, Brothers In Arms. This is kind of a sad song, but the sax solo sizzles with sexuality.

    It’s been fun hunting for all these sexy sax songs, but I still haven’t run into the piece that actually inspired this piece. On the other hand, most of the songs on this list are better than the one that’s stuck in my head. Oh well, I’ll find it eventually. When it comes to music, I’m like a Mountie and I always get my song.

  • Back from Europe!

    Back from Europe!

    Hello folks! Bill and I are back from Europe!

    We had a fine time mostly in France, but also in Germany. I’ve been blogging like a fool for the past few days! On many of my trips, I’ve come home with new music. I find street musicians who are talented and deserve to be heard. This time, I didn’t find any street musicians whose music particularly moved me. Instead, my musical ear worm came from a video I happened to see posted on a blog post linked to Facebook. One of my friends is a militant atheist and he shared a hilarious blog post about the worst Christian videos of all time. Naturally, I had to read the post and watch the videos. Three out of the five highlighted ended up intriguing me so much that I kept watching them throughout our trip through France. I suppose I should be ashamed that now my memories of France are linked to a ridiculously catchy song by Sonseed, a Roman Catholic band that existed in the late 70s and early 80s and spawned one viral YouTube hit, thanks to an old videotape of an obscure religious show in New York.


    This video got into my head in a big way during our travels. It’s hilarious in all the wrong ways!


    About twenty-six years after the above video originally aired, Sol Polichetti, the bassist who wrote this song appeared in a club and recreated the magic.

    I also got obsessed with this very bizarre video by adherents to “The Way”, a rather culty group that I know little about. The video below doesn’t make me want to join up, though it did prompt me to find out more about the faith’s beliefs.


    The dancing in this video is just… too much.

    The video below is so true to the original that I can’t help but notice that the people who created it were obviously fans of the original…


    Oh my dear lord…

    Aside from becoming obsessed with these bizarrely cheesy Christian music videos, I did listen to quite a bit of my own music on my iPod… stuff I’d had on my iPod for ages and never got around to reviewing. There were a few times I couldn’t do much of anything but listen to music, like when we were on the very long flight back to the United States. I discovered some new songs that I’ll need to add to my playlist.

    I probably should have taken the time to listen to more French music while we were there. I have a great album by Laura Fygi (who is actually Dutch). I found it courtesy of an Epinions review a couple of years ago, written by a fellow top music reviewer on that now defunct site. Maybe I should have taken more time to familiarize myself with the music of France.


    Laura Fygi sings “Autumn Leaves” in French…

    I did get exposed to a lot of French pop and also Michael Jackson’s latest song, “Love Never Felt So Good”.


    Michael Jackson is still very popular in Europe.

    I wish I’d found someone to buy a new CD from while we were traveling, since I find that music is one of the best souvenirs on trips abroad. But at least I’ve been exposed to the previously obscure Sonseed, which created a song that makes me smile really big.

  • Breaking away…

    Breaking away…

    Maybe for the last time in a long while, Bill and I are going to be breaking away for another military hop…

    Call it Bill’s last hurrah on active duty. We’re taking advantage of his last six weeks in the Army and going on a trip. Where to, we’re not sure yet. I had my eye on England or Ireland. I was hoping we could get a flight to Mildenhall Air Force Base in England and then work our way west. But now, it looks like we’re going to Germany. From Germany, we could end up anywhere, really. First, we have to fly to Baltimore on a commercial flight. I bought us tickets yesterday. Don’t you hate it when you’re shopping for airline tickets and the price goes up $100 in the course of a few minutes? That happened to me yesterday.


    If we make it to Baltimore in time, we could have two tickets to paradise… or at least Europe.

    The flight will hopefully get us to Baltimore in time to check in for Space A travel. We have to be there by 8:30pm. Our plane is supposed to get to BWI by 6:50pm. Last time we flew Delta, we did end up getting delayed in Atlanta, both there and back. I would have liked to have chosen an earlier flight, but unfortunately none of the others worked out any better time wise. Bill’s mother is taking us to the airport so we won’t have to pay for parking and we have to put our dogs in a kennel. We needed to leave late enough to get those things accomplished. An added bonus is that because our car will be parked at mother-in-law’s house, we won’t end up losing it in the parking garage, like we did last time!


    Here we go again… Just like Whitesnake, we really don’t know where we’re going yet.

    I suspect we could end up in France if we make the Germany flight… what a fine vacation that will be.


    We have no plans to water ski.

    Or maybe we’ll get a wild hair and go somewhere completely unexpected. Maybe Slovenia? Wherever we go, it hopefully won’t be in America.


    David Bowie and the Pat Metheny Group sing about disaffection and alienation in the United States. Every once in awhile, I feel the need to break away and go somewhere different.

    I only wish it took 90 minutes to get from New York to Paris… though some of the trains in Europe could be described as “all graphite and glitter”.


    Unfortunately, the future isn’t bright enough for 90 minute transatlantic flights yet.

    Even if we do go to France, I don’t know if we’ll visit Paris. It’s lovely in the springtime, but we were there a few years ago and there’s more to France than Paris.


    On the other hand, I could probably be talked into Paris…

    If we don’t make the flight to Germany, we could always go to McGuire Air Force Base, where there are a couple of flights going to Hawaii. I have not yet been to Hawaii, though it would be very strange to get there from Texas by way of New Jersey. That’s the nature of Space A travel, though. You have no idea where you’ll end up.


    The Rescues understand the concept…

    If I’m making no sense today, it’s because the prospect of breaking away is on the brain. I love to travel. I love to be able to discover new places. And since we are breaking away for the next couple of weeks, I will not be posting on Pop Rock Nation again this month. I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the month. Have a wonderful weekend and wish us luck! See you in June!


    Good traveling music…