Happy 70th birthday today to Mr Andy McKay, the saxophonist and oboist whose sublime talents contributed to the huge success of "the coolest band on the planet" Roxy Music.
By way of a little tribute - and also just because... Here is the classic song that he co-wrote for the group (it was going to be an instrumental "filler" track until Mr Ferry wrote the words for it); in my opinion one of their most magnificent:
T'ain't no big thing
To wait for the bell to ring
T'ain't no big thing
The toll of the bell
Aggravated, spare for days
I troll downtown the red light place
Jump up bubble up, what's in store?
Love is the drug and I need to score
Showing out, showing out, hit and run
Boy meets girl where the beat goes on
Stitched up tight, can't shake free
Love is the drug, got a hook on me
Oh oh catch that buzz
Love is the drug I'm thinking of
Oh oh can't you see
Love is the drug for me
Late that night I park my car
Stake my place in the singles bar
Face to face, toe to toe
Heart to heart as we hit the floor
Lumber up, limbo down
The locked embrace, the stumble round
I say go, she say yes
Dim the lights, you can guess the rest
Oh oh catch that buzz
Love is the drug I'm thinking of
Oh oh can't you see
Love is the drug, got a hook in me
Oh oh catch that buzz
Love is the drug I'm thinking of
Oh oh can't you see
Love is the drug for me
Utterly brilliant. Roxy Music and summer sunshine go together so well, do they not?
Andrew "Andy" Mackay (born 23rd July 1946)
Hmmm. Don't know how it's possible, but I'd only ever heard Miss Grace Jones's take on this. It's a remarkable sound for '75; the sax makes it sound oddly like a lot of Ethiopian jazz from around the same time.
ReplyDeleteOnly you, my darling, would even know of the existence of Ethiopian jazz from 1975... Jx
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