Quote:
Originally posted by Pretty Little Flower
Actually, he did not limit it to "punkish rock." His statement said "bands." You cannot even read a "punkish rock" limitation into his statement since it was made in the context of describing the Rolling Stones, who are not "punkish" rock. They are much more based in R&B, and to argue that no R&B-based band has ever used horns effectively is, as I noted before, remarkable even for Sebastian.
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As usual, I was overbroad (but its hardly my least credible statement on these boards).
1. Steely Dan is lousy lounge music. Yeh, I understand how good they were musically and that its "cool" heavy drug music. Its still sucks (except Black Friday, which I like).
2. The Stones had some punkish moments, but since they always retained a blues base, they could not techincally be considered anything approaching punk by purists. that said, punk purists, or for that matter, purists of any kind, tend to have shit for brains and make up arbitrary definitions which suit them. If the Stones never existed, punk probably wouldn't have existed. Every punk singer I've ever seen has stolen a bit from Jagger's playbook.
3. I prefer bands with a stripped down sound. I think horns add a fat layer of sound which crowds out the interplay between drums, guitar, bass and piano/keyboard. The only way I can explain my derision for horns would be to offer some of my favorite bands - The Allmans, Stones, Dead (not the later cheesy keyboard laden dreck - I prefer the early heavy psychedelic jams), Hendrix, Jane's (they've used horns to goodd effect sometimes - My Cat's Name is Maceo), Zeppelin, Floyd (some horns - never used well), Velvets, Who (except Quadrophenia), Neil Young, and yes... old AC/DC. I don't list all the punk stuff I like because there are many one trick ponies in the list, but suffice it to say, none use horns. My only horn exceptions are Little Feat and Traffic. Can't explain why, but horns just work for them. Probably because Lowell George and Steve Winwood (in his Traffic days) were two of the most underrated musical geniuses of our time.
