Sax: ’83-’85

This one doesn’t fit into the rest of the song. I was having enough trouble understanding the meaning of this song – the solo just makes it more confusing.

This song is almost entirely made up of deranged solos. I guess there isn’t much more to say about “tiny people with little guns” than just that.

Nothing expresses how hard a woman can work for her money like sax drama.

When you don’t know how to finish a song, you can always bring in a sax which will distract people from noticing your slow fade out.

I do like the little different entrance warnings the player gives each time a solo begins, but I could have done without the increasingly repetitive sax toward the end.

Not only did this actually add something meaningful to the song, it also gave me goosebumps the first time I heard it. True story.

This would be fine, if the solo was cut off about halfway.

I’d never heard this song before – I was just tipped off to it. I think there’s a good reason I’d never heard it though. That being said, I can’t fault the solo – it’s in line with the rest of the song. Kind of lame.

What can I say? He’s a smooth sax operator?

I think it’s really lame when solos just keep going and the song fades out. That being said, it’s a catchy friggin solo that improves this mediocre song.

An overdramatic solo to match the overdramatic song. Good lead in for the next part.

Though it was really an afterthought in the song, this solo is pretty good relative to many of the others. 1984 apparently was the year of mildly pleasing sax solos.

Nothing like sax in the dark.

Its near-jazzy sound doesn’t really fit in with the straight singing. Almost makes the guy seem a bit like a square, unafraid to overblow his voice the way his sax player will.

Somehow I am not convinced that the sax solo is the heart of rock & roll.

This song was basically the unfortunate blending of two unique motifs: 1) Competent 80′s new wave ballad 2) Overblown extended sax recurring nightmare

Sade is one of the few 80s artists who actually deserves the sax accompaniment.

Appropriate: a terrible solo, from a terrible song.

Ah, 7th grade. The year I learned to add vibrato to my playing…I am impressed they used a 7th grader here though.

You can’t make up for a crappy song with no lyrics by increasing the number of sax solos.

I really like INXS. Which is why it’s such a shame that their sax solos are so mediocre.

If it wasn’t for the fade out…

I couldn’t even include all the solo parts – there were just too many. There was more sax than singing, and in case you forget how the sax solo goes there’s a depressing trumpet rehash of it.

Appropriate, because living in America is all about the sax solo.

This isn’t really a sax solo in a 80′s song. It’s more like an 80′s solo in a sax song.

The truth is, the song really couldn’t be anything without the sax.

As dirty as the solo is, it matches the sound of The Cure pretty well.

I can’t really complain that it’s any less intense than the song, but I complain about everything else.

I was going to give this one a D, but I actually really like Tina Turner’s singing of the beginning of the sax part. I can tell she’s totally into it.

This is one I’d never heard before. Even though the solo is pretty much the epitome of smooth jazz (I mean this in a negative way) it still felt like relief from the awkward synth “piano”.

Seriously, whoever was controlling the reverb knob got a bit out of control after awhile. Totally ruined a perfectly fine solo.

According to the rubric I’ve already been working with, the length and frequency of sax really hurts the grade here. Even for the long clip here (2:39!), I cut out many sax parts. But damn, I pretty much love this solo. If you’re going to have this much sax, definitely do it like this guy.