Saturday, February 21, 2015

40 Year Itch : Better Sex is Fun




   Bookended by two classic singles, "Young Americans" and "Fame", David Bowie's Young Americans has been described as "the squashed remains of ethnic music as it survives in the age of Muzak rock, written and sung by a white limey". The critic is David Bowie, who recorded his Philly Soul album quickly and mostly live in the studio. For that reason, some listeners complain the mix is muddy and that too many songs sound like extended jams.




  My problem is, in two words, David Sanborn. Yes, his saxophone playing--in that screeching and honking Saturday Night Live style is instrumental ( pun) to the sound of the title track but, once you hear that sax in all the other songs ( with the exception of the New York tracks "Fame" and the less than inspired"Across the Universe"), you can't NOT hear it. It's like a gnat you keep wishing you could swat away.





1 comment:

  1. I know what you mean about Sanborn. There can be little more rewarding as a player to have a sound that's yours, instantly recognizable, whatever your instrument. Miles, Mingus, Monk etc all had it. But it's unfortunate when that sound is also a bit irritating, not to mention omnipresent, as Sanborn's seemed to be in the late 70's and first half of the 80's.

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