The Saxaphone Song

[Admin]

You'll find me in a Berlin bar,
In a corner brooding.
You know that I go very quiet
When I'm listening to you.

There's something very special indeed,
In all the places where I've seen you shine, boy.
There's something very real in how I feel, honey.

It's in me.
It's in me,
And you know it's for real.
Tuning in on your saxophone.
Doo-bee-doo-bee-doo...

The candle burning over your shoulder is throwing
Shadows on your saxophone, a surly lady in tremor.
The stars that climb from her bowels,
Those stars make towers on vowels.

You'll never know that you had all of me.
You'll never know the poetry you've stirred in me.
Of all the stars I've seen that shine so brightly,
I've never known or felt in myself so rightly,

It's in me.
It's in me,
And you know it's for real.
Tuning in on your saxophone.
Doo-bee-doo-bee-doo...

[strabley]

A friend of mine has a mini-Moog. It is the coolest! ;D Anyway, I was just imagining a cover of this song on the moog, which got me thinking that this song would sound DELIGHTFULLY creepy on the Theramin! I have wonderful heebie-jeebies right now trying to imagine it.

Any thoughts Adey, what with playing the Theremin and all?

[Adey]

It'd be bloody hard to play I guess, especially If you were trying to recreate the solo! It would make a nice atmospheric backing if the theremin shadowed the vocal melody or improvised around it. I'll try it on my baby Moog Sheila...

[strabley]

Oh I didn't mean the solo, I pictured it just like you said, shadowing the vocal.

[moominreggie]

The candle burning over your shoulder is throwing
Shadows on your saxophone, a surly lady in tremor.
The stars that climb from her bowels,
Those stars make towers on vowels.
this is possibly the bst bit of any kb song. i always keep rewinding it

[moominreggie]

my husband is a mucisian and hes desperate for min moog sound. i played him egypt (he was after some inspiration) any ideas were oyu can get it of the net

[Adey]

Hey There Moominreggie..

When you say that hubby is desperate for a mini moog sound, do you mean he wants to hear one? Or sample one? Own a mini moog? Not sure what you're referring to. If you clarify I'll try and help..

In the meantime, try this link:

kellysmusic.ca/productinfo.asp?id=-1408763322

[tannis]

KB: "I think of a beautiful sax like a human being, a sensuous shining man being taken over by the instrument. The perfect setting was this smokey bar in Berlin with nobody listening except me in a corner, the streams of light flashing off it to me..."
Mike suggested that Freud would have made a meal of this one too, and this time, as she's fond of phrasing it, she broke through the barrier.
KB: "I'm very basic. I wasn't thinking of it as phallic when I wrote the song, but I do now when I see a sax player. I feel if everyone understood the real things I'm saying, it wouldn't be much good, it wouldn't help me. If it seems harmless on the surface that's all right. I don't want to upset people who don't want to know. There are enough people, thank God, who have seen it. They're listening with their hearts. The sax is a very sexual sound, all vibrating, resonating - like bowels. Look at photos of musicians playing any instruments and it could be interpreted... it's not always sexual, but mainly. You are cuddling the instrument, you are seducing each other. Guitarists are up there so obviously wanking with their guitars, but it's open, beautiful, it's at a love level."

from Sounds, "Labushka"
by Phil Sutcliffe
August 30, 1980
gaffa.org/reaching/i80_so.html


Albert: "I say the crude things; you just think them!"
- Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975).

[tannis]

Barry De Souza: A session musician who has played with artists ranging from Leslie Duncan to Lou Reed. De Souza played drums on the song Saxophone Song, recorded in 1975 by producer Dave Gilmour.

Barry De Souza: In 1969, I joined a band called The Spinning Wheel which had a residency in a pub called The Greyhound in Chadwell Heath in Essex. The drummer in the band was one Barry de Souza, who went on to become one of Britain's leading session drummers, much in demand. I recall how difficult it was to find a space in his diary for him to play on my Six Wives of Henry VIII album.
Sadly, last week, Barry lost his fight against cancer and all of us who knew him and worked with him, send our deepest sympathy to his family. He will be sorely missed by us all, and we thank the Lord that he has left many memories behind for us all as a permanent reminder as to what a great guy and wonderful musician he was.
Rick Wakeman
www.rwcc.com/notice_barrydesouza.asp

In Memory of Barry De Souza [d. March 2009]
I am very sad at the passing of my friend, and musical colleague Barry De Souza. He was a person who that did not deserve to have to fight for life due to the ravages of a disease we should have defeated long ago. I remember him as unassuming, quiet, and with a confidence in his craft that was amazing. When I was struggling with an arrangement that Pete Robinson had cooked up, and was extremely complicated, Barry never batted an eye. He played it flawlessly the first time. Keeping tempo for a drummer is the key to the overall performance of any music, and he was a master at it. If it was a ballad, with long pauses between the one, or a blistering speed, he never even wavered. He was as equally at home doing a jingle as a session musician, or improvising a jazz piece that had only the most basic of structure. When we were on the road for those many years, he was required to do a drum solo toward the end of the show. I specifically remember the rest of us walking off stage, and standing there, looking at each other during that solo, and making faces of wonder at what ever he was doing, because EVERY NIGHT was new and different. At the end of the solo, he never failed to get a huge ovation from the audience.
There are 2 highlights in my life that I remember. One, was when he walked into the studio one day, and had this troubled look on his face, and he was all scrunched over. We all looked at him and said what's the matter with you? He said, "I'm not sure", then reached behind his head and pulled a coat hanger out from under his coat, and said, "Well shit, no wonder I've been feeling hung up all day". HA HA HA !!! The other time was when we all decided to take Mescaline at Steve The Police's farm in Minnesota. He had never had any psychedelics before, and after a couple hours of sitting and hugging this pillow like the fate of the world depended on it, he said he was gonna take a walk in the woods. We said OK, and nobody thought about it anymore. After a long time passed, we suddenly said, "Where the fuck is Barry?" and we all rushed outside thinking he had gotten lost in the woods. He had gotten down the 2 steps of the front porch, and he was standing there looking at the grass. We said, "We thought you were gonna go into the woods", and he said, "I was,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, but it's SOOOOO interesting here." Dude, he was staring at THE GRASS !!!
He is not gone. His atoms have merely rearranged themselves and are as much a part of our lives as they were when he was corporate. His cycle and consciousness carry on in his Children, and Grandchildren. There is a place here in South Africa that I go to occasionally called Balgowan. There is a kilometer long stretch of very tall Poplar trees that sway in the wind that I love to watch. Barry is that wind now, and I remember his gentle tempo.
Shawn Phillips, March 2009
shawnphillips.com/about/hearitfromshawn/hearitfromshawn.htm