Bangin' oboe jams. Bring them.

From the REM thread:

Anyway Re Nightswimming can I just say that I feel like there is a dearth of dope-ass oboe solos?

Sure, Mozart and Correlli wrote some sick AF oboe riffs, but for pop/rock/indie/alt music, you get... "Nightswimming." "Crazy for You." What else?

(And before anybody says "Life in a Northern Town," pretty sure that is a cor anglais, fool.)

― Oh I believe in Yetis' Day (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, November 17, 2023 9:00 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

"Twist in My Sobriety"

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Friday, November 17, 2023 9:03 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Oh -- I thought it was a clarinet or oboe xpost

― stuffing your suit pockets with cold, stale chicken tende (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, November 17, 2023 9:22 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I can’t think of any really. There’s an oboe moment on Siberry’s “Temple” (performed by Eno, apparently) but it’s kinda buried and I always wondered if it was real or synth

― as a lyricist he is from hell (flamboyant goon tie included), Friday, November 17, 2023 9:36 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

there's a bunch of go-betweens songs with oboe aren't there?

― ufo, Friday, November 17, 2023 9:53 AM (fifty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Oboe's? 'Fallen Angel' by King Crimson springs to mind and er.... 'War Dance' by XTC lol

― ...eh you get the gist of it (dog latin), Friday, November 17, 2023 9:56 AM (fifty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Go-Betweens employed an oboe.

― stuffing your suit pockets with cold, stale chicken tende (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, November 17, 2023 10:03 AM (forty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

War Dance is a synth clarinet or rather what Andy calls a "singing penis"

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Friday, November 17, 2023 10:09 AM (thirty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Apparently "I Got You Babe" has oboe. I thought it was a clarinet. I am learning things today

― Oh I believe in Yetis' Day (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, November 17, 2023 10:18 AM (twenty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I wanted to make a Pere Ubu joke here but decided not to

― Oh I believe in Yetis' Day (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, November 17, 2023 10:20 AM (twenty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

everyone knows the best oboe song is "ladytron" by roxy music

― is he disgruntled adrian? (voodoo chili), Friday, November 17, 2023 10:35 AM (twelve minutes ago) bookmarkflaglin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-tiCXIkGLA

RFI. I have a bunch of Go-Betweens records and I know there is oboe but which tracks should I go to for complete, straight-fire oboe shredding?

Also the two best oboe-related movies are "Enchanted April," (where the owner of the castle plays the oboe) and "Amadeus," where Salieri describes the intro of Serenade #10:

The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse, bassoons and basset horns, like a rusty squeezebox. Then suddenly; high above it, an oboe, a single note, hanging there unwavering, till a clarinet took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight... This was a music I’d never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing. It seemed to me that I was hearing the very voice of God.

As far as I know, no one has ever set an oboe on fire at a music festival. But there is still time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBDe9BGNBnM

"dive for your memory" has some good oboe

My Go-Be's oboe jam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlgHlXixiKs

Roxy Music rules this category imho

Roxy Music Third Ear Band rules this category imho

oh yes, I stand corrected!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKBuKcDPjzM

^ love that one

Kevin Ayers' Joy of a Toy has some rockin' dual oboe interplay, notably on Town Feeling.

Wonder if David Bedford, the arranger, the whole ren fair idea from Giant Sun Trolley (early incarnation of Third Ear Band who played UFO and other venues with the Softs)

Side one of Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield.

Many thanks, Alfred and sleeve and co. Synthy New Wave with oboe is apparently something my life was missing, which I didn't know I was missing.

BTW some songs (like "Some Distant Memory") are in a fairly low register that overlaps with bassoon or even like a bass clarinet or recorder. And then you hear things like "Life in a Northern Town" where it's in a register where any number of instruments could reach, but the timbre is particular.

I am not aware of anyone doing extreme badass stuff like playing an oboe behind their head, putting it through a big honking pedalboard, or smashing their oboe on stage after a particularly bitchin solo.

I just feel like this is an instrument that has sometimes been overlooked, like viola.

Some Distant Memory is all time - plan-my-own-funeral music

other great roxy music oboe tracks that aren't "ladytron" (the objective best one)
"out of the blue" (my fav roxy track, probably, but not as good an oboe jam as "ladytron")
"casanova"
"serenade"
"strictly confidential"
"sea breezes"

lol my violin-trained ex-gf had lots of brutal orchestra kid jokes abt violas and viola players

I have only ever seen one band with a bassoon, Chotchke

https://i.discogs.com/7jRcE-8ol-q9BBkqMdnL-lcv0RhNLPjAJbQLZCZGv70/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:598/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTIxNDk4/NzctMTYxMjkwMDI2/My00OTI4LmpwZWc.jpeg

Yeah, baad.

Slightly off topic (but tangentially related because this originated from an REM thread), my wife says her funeral should feature "Find the River."

I don't have any plan to die soon but "Nightswimming" might be on the list.

On that cheerful note...

Ladytron is cool, no notes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcPQ9ZS3U9g

This is my favorite song right now (because reasons) and yeah it is mostly piano and vocal, but I think there is oboe that fucking brings it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTdQRtU5O_I

70s British rock/prog group Henry Cow had a full-time oboist/bassoonist, Lindsay Cooper. She was featured on a lot of their stuff but believe this is one of her better known compositions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WSzIbUi7dA

some of that early cardigans stuff had so much faith in its oboe usage that they put it in the video-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxdJqncir4Y

cardigans - "sick and tired" (1994)

absolutely the best song ever and anthem for agoraphobes everywhere...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl4OtSjTyNU
Strawberry Switchblade - Trees and Flowers

oboe by kate st john who was also in Dream Academy ('Life In A Northern Town etc')

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQqqnawSp0s
Dorothy Ashby - For Some We Loved

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKoT6sjesaQ
Anthony More - The Only Choice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrH7_qAeA8U
Swans - In My Garden

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSw_OsADM1Y
Japan - Night Porter

actually i posted the wrong Swans track because i'm an idiot and forgot it was actually a flute. this is the the one with Lindsay Cooper on it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46mymWlByiM
Swans - Trust Me

oh china crisis had lots of these didn't they?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjGYvNL0v40
China Crisis - Tragedy & Mystery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVOxCqaHwRs

It's not a 'jam' but Cliff Richard's masterpiece When Two Worlds Drift Apart has this reaelly glacial, symphonic structure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO3cOZv2xw4

The arrangement is constantly shifting and twice it allows room for some unexpected, momentary, very gorgeous oboe bits (at 2:31 and 3:41)

I recall a friend learning in some music composition class that the oboe is one of the easier sounds to program in a synthesizer. Synth oboe and oboe samples pop up a lot in early synth songs, like "Your Silent Face" (obv. not the melodica part) and "Everything Counts" (supposedly a sample of an oboe precursor called a shawm).

True, as it's generally a very pure tone with comparative few overtones.

That's why everybody tunes to the oboe, traditionally.

I think Fairlights came with a cor anglais patch. Emulators definitely came with a cor anglais sample.

Timely!

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/11/20/secrets-of-the-east-german-oboe-underground

The oboe (and French horn) are next-level difficult instruments to master. I oftentimes just “pass” on giving an oboe player anything substantial (if I even employ one at all) because the chances of hiring a bum player are that much more likely

The most underrated orchestral instrument is bassoon, it’s easily my favourite woodwind, lots of great players out there too

Bass recorder sounds very similar to the bassoon and is, I suspect, easier.

For years I played in a weird jazz band with a guy (college roommate, best frenemy) who could just pick up any instrument and start playing.

He had a range of recorders, from sopranonina to bass recorder. Plus clarinet and flute and bagpipes and harmonicas and slide whistle and... just whatever he happened to grab. Sometimes, people would say that he could have been a virtuoso if he'd just picked something and stuck with it - but he wasn't wired that way. He preferred being a dilettante. His influence rubbed off on me because I'm the same way about 8-stringed instruments.

Fgti I also played in a space rock project with a really supple French Horn pkayer. I loved every moment, but it was weirdly hard to get him to play it. Partly because we didn't really know how to write horn parts, and partly because I think he was shy about bringing it out in a rock context.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTVrfQPGPA4

marshall allen also plays the oboe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLVA8vdFaKU

I was hoping it was an oboe in the baroque-ish instrumental break in the disco classic “Let’s All Chant” by Michael Zager Band, but apparently that is a clarinet.

playing an oboe behind their head

I'd like to see this.

Meanwhile:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHutZXREZ0E

To be clear, I started this thread
jonesin' for oboe but I do not object to shawm, cor anglais, krummhorn, clarinet, etc.

Bernard Sumner sure loved his oboe jams:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0diKUGcWkw

How did we forget this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42lfnZ66jAo
Jackie Mittoo - Oboe

Wire, "A Mutual Friend" (cor anglais jam)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya6yJKUPZSQ

Popol Vuh, "Engel der Luft" (et al) (oboe)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhYY2LI1LMQ

Between. "Listen to the Light" (et al) (oboe)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HH7iqlo87c

Surprised no-one has mentioned "Superstar" by the Carpenters yet.

I do not object to shawm, cor anglais, krummhorn, clarinet, etc.

If you're looking for rocking krummhorn, search no further than Red Queen to Gryphon Three by Gryphon.

I have to say that to me clarinet is a Different Thing than the oboe family, emotionally and texturally. Maybe it's double-reed versus single-reed.

^^ yes that was my thought, which ones mentioned here are actually double reed?

"Let's All Chant" @1:43

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmzxG9kdZhM

out of the eight albums on bandcamp tagged "shawm" this one is my favorite

https://ramblerecords.bandcamp.com/track/burnt-offerings

rocking krummhorn

rocking krummhorn

rocking krummhorn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1cESSh-SqU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beB6L3HUwVc

Oboe, cor anglais and bassoon are double reed; clarinet family and Sax family are single reed

The Kate St. John bits on Julian Cope’s Fried are absolutely wonderful

(Recorders and flutes are zero reed obv)

The Velvet Underground was single-Reed.

Because Lou Reed.

(Never mind, I will show myself out now.)

Living Colour? Single Reid.

Okay, shutting up now for real.

JAMC double Reid.

The new Bjork track out today reminded me that there is a lot of oboe on Bjork's latest album Fossora. This is my favorite track, the closer -- one of my favorites of hers in years. The climax at 3:55 has a swelling oboe part that pairs beautifully with the vocals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-H0ZCmthKVE

Not exactly oboe but a double-reed: https://canary-records.bandcamp.com/album/duduk-solos

o hai

Catherine Christer Hennix

honkin' on oboe