glad you disclosed at the end or i was going to have to out you as the jealous tuba player that you are! why don't you take up the saxophone and offset the uncoolness of those tuba years? that way you'll average out over your lifetime. ;)
It wouldn't offset the uncoolness of the tuba years...just the PERCIEVED coolness. BECAUSE SAXES AREN'T COOL.
If I were to take up anything...probably have to be drums.
Go for the bass guitar, then you'd be hawt.
Tuba, eh.
Play me some "fat guy walkin'" music.
Now play me some "Pepto Bismol commercial" music.
I don't think the sax visually signifies coolness. Lisa Simpson plays one, and she is hella nerd.
Sorry, Kirk (& Nick). The sax is cool. Maybe it's the gritty sound often used in jazz and rock. Maybe it's the fact that it works well as a lead or solo instrument. Maybe it's because so many cool people have played it over the years (look up "cool" in the dictionary, and you'll see a picture of Clarence Clemens). Any way you cut it, the saxophone "has it" in a way that many other instruments don't.
To Nick's point re: Lisa Simpson, I think this was intentional irony: having a total nerd play an instrument usually seen as very cool.
Oh god, a sax in rock must be the very worst. I think you're deluding yourself there Max.
I know from an IM conversation that Kirk hates excessive musical noodling, and devil take me if so much sax-playing isn't excessive noodling.
Bad use of the sax in rock can be very, very bad. Some studio musicians do completely uninspired solos, especially on soft rock songs. But if you listen to the E Street Band, or to Chicago, or to some of the other talented musicians who have incorporated jazz-based brass into rock, there's some really good stuff there.
So if it sounds so bad and is so hackneyed, why does it do so well with women?
The Doors.
"So if it sounds so bad and is so hackneyed, why does it do so well with women?"
You keep telling yourself that, playa.
I'd say this even if I weren't working with a sax player (and he is proficient at it, too). While it may be overrated, it still sounds pretty damned good... rock 'n' roll, pop, and jazz would be bereft without it.
As a fellow Tubist, I do know your pain, Kirk.
And, as a electric bassist also, I have to agree that it makes one "hawt" ;-)
But, I really have to disagree with yer saxaphonal disdain. I mean, to begin with, while there are mountains of examples of bad sax use, there are actually some favorite musical moments of mine that rely on the Sax: "Sing Sing Sing" (the big band standard), "Hard Day" by OMD, "Han & Leia" as performed by the Trotter Trio, etc.
And, if you're going to invent an instrument, I think it only fair to name it after yourself. At least that way people will be aware of its provenance. I mean, how many people on the street can tell you who invented the clairinet, or a cor anglais, or a cornet? But, chances are most of 'em know Sax was responsible for the Saxophone.
Obviously, though, this can prove confusing. Take our beloved Sousaphone for example. Rather than actually being invented by Sousa, it was suggested to him by someone and became associated with him.
Anyway, I've said my peace.
Heh, thanks FB3!
I tried taking up electric bass, but the stupid way I learned to transpose bass clef (key of C) from Bb Treble clef (going from Baritone to Tuba) screwed me up royally.
I don't know the other songs you mention but "Sing Sing Sing" works with saxes mostly in a big "horn hit" ensemble kind of way, more than soloing, if memory serves. I can live with that.
And I guess I can't blame a guy for naming something like that after himself...a cheap shot at immortality. I knew about the Sousaphone... J. W. Pepper was pretty gracious. "Pepperphone" would be pretty cool though.
Some interesting (to me) tuba ancestors and mutants: http://home.earthlink.net/~tenorhorn/tubahistory.html