Pop Songs I Think Of When I Hear Certain Instruments
May 27, 2007
Or:
Instru-mental
There are certain instruments which will always remind me of particular songs. It’s normally the weird ones, because things like 12 string guitars have been used in hundreds of tunes, but if you say slide whistle to me, I will always think of Groove Is In The Heart by Dee-Lite, even though if I am handed one, I will try and play a famous slide guitar riff.
Come on, you’re dead inside if you can’t see the funny in a slide whistle rendition of the opening notes of the Hendrix version of All Along The Watchtower or My Sweet Lord.
But anyway:
Pop Songs I Think Of When I Hear Certain Instruments
Harp – She’s Leaving Home by The Beatles
Sitar – Signed, Sealed, Delivered by Stevie Wonder
Synth snare – Funkytown by Lipps Inc.
Glockenspiel – King Of Pain by The Police
Oboe – Handbags And Gladrags by Rod Stewart
Clarinet – Rhapsody In Blue by George Gershwin
Harmonica – Love Me Do by The Beatles
Digeridoo – One Way by The Levellers
Pan pipes – Walking In Your Footsteps by The Police
Hammond organ – Whiter Shade Of Pale by Procul Harem
Harpsichord – Four Seasons In One Day by Crowded House
Bowed upright bass - Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic by The Police
Plucked upright bass – Walk On The Wild Side by Lou Reed
Distorted bass guitar – Gratitude by The Beastie Boys
Mandolin – either Losing My Religion by REM or Maggie May by Rod Stewart
Baritone Sax – either Girls And Boys by Prince or Hungry Heart by Bruce Springsteen
Kazoo – Black Gal Blues by The Delta Boys
The latter I’ll post one weekend as part of the audio posts. It’s an old recording from the 1930s and it never fails to make me smile.
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Related posts
Free And Singles Part 3 (Thoughts on Signed, Sealed, Delivered)
16 comments
Wurlitzers make me think of “Cry To Me” by Solomon Burke, because I have spent most of my adult life undecided as to whether that is a Wurlitzer in the background or just some very tinkly high piano.
Sitar?
No, no, a Wurlitzer.
Oh, of course. Sorry;)
How ya doin Katy?
Cowbell. Don’t Fear The Reaper.
MORE COWBELL!
Katy – nice.
Ed – yeah – the opening riff of Sign, Sealed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitar_in_popular_music
Wendy – ah, cowbell. See, I know you’re joking, but I’m on a roll. If I hear cowbell, it has to be All Right Now by Free OR Honky Tonk Woman by the Stones.
I remember horns, a wierd keboard, guitars, drums, bass, and even a claivcle maybe, but I don’t hear a sitar on SSD.
how can you not think of Sun Arise by Rolf Harris with a didgeridoo?
And I agree with the whole sitar debate.
How about a Triangle, Cliff?
Hey Rob – Triangle reminds me of Sad Samba by Grover Washington Jr
Yeah Ed, the first eight decending notes that repeat each bar in the intro. That’s a sitar!
I was beginning to doubt myself on this one, so I did some digging around and discovered a post by Dennis Coffey, himself a funk brother in the 60’s and 70’s. Aaaaaaaaanyway – he crops on on a Motown-related discussion group online. He said in a post last year:
I had my own electric sitar and Motown also had one. I don’t know who played the sitar on Signed, Sealed and Delivered. It was tuned like a regular guitar and had additional drone strings in the body that vibrated on various notes. I also had a real sitar back in the days. I used it on a few sessions but gave it up because it was not like a guitar and I couldn’t get used to it.
The chances are it’s Eddie “Chank” Willis, the (and I swear) hired gun for all sitar work for Motown’s in house band, the Funk Brothers.
So, um, are we cool?
I have it in my head that it was Mr Wonder himself who played it, because he is one of those people who (a) can pick up pretty much any instrument and play it, and (b) frequently plays every instrument in a track just because he can.
He is great. I hate him.
No no, you were right, it was Eddie Willis.
Cliff, we were never not cool;) I just don’t remember teh intro to the original song, I suppose. Peter Frampton did a version that was also popular, and I think I might be remembering that one as well. It’s literally been decades since I heard the original.
Katy, now that I’ve been downgraded to Used Tissue Paper CLub Membership, you might have to pitch in for the guest rooms;)
Sitar – ‘King of Birds’ by R.E.M.
Harmonica – Anything not by Blues Traveler.
E-Bow – ‘Bad’ by U2. (The Edge did use that in the song, right?)
Distorted Bass Guitar – ‘Distorded Bass’ (not making that up) by the Digbees, my brothers’ now defunct band that only exists on MySpace thanks to me.
How about the whistle? And I don’t mean the little gadget that sports refs use, but the actual lip manifestation of such. For this, I would suggest both ‘Mellow Doubt’ by Teenage Fanclub and ‘Red Eyed and Blue’ by Wilco.
Hammond Organ – ‘Mother Mary’ by the Eels.
Leemer – the whistle! No question – Step On by Happy Mondays
E-bow – Heroes by David Bowie – or (obviously) E-Bow The Letter by REM
Bass Harmonica – Wouldn’t It Be Nice by The Beach Boys
The whistle? Surely Otis Redding and Dock Of The Bay, or else Skye Boat Song by Roger Whitaker! ;o)
I’ll have a late kazoo entrance for Crosstown Traffic by Jimmy Hendrix
Leave a comment. Play nice. I will turn this blog around.