This past weekend a friend snagged a copy of the Gun‘s first LP, The Gun. He liked the album, mostly, but he did complain to me about “all the horns.” Um, there aren’t THAT many horns on the album, but, the driving lead track, “Race with the Devil,” does have an arrangement which is heavy with horn embellishments. Oof. In an attempt to waylay his fear, I explained that in 1968 there were sometimes concessions made in order to get a song on the radio, so in this case, as the song rages like an amphetamine-soaked Cream/Misunderstood rave-up, the horns were prolly used to temper the arrangement. I also reminded him that there are TONS of horns in the most serious of rock – prog rock! Duh, prog was rock’s assimilation of classical AND jazz, so Soft Machine, Henry Cow, Graham Bond, etc. were all heavy groups which included horns. In the end, however, I dunno if I convinced him; I think he wanted the Gun to be more like Black Sabbath, the Floyd, or something which suited HIS expectation of what the LP’s Roger Dean cover art might represent.

I did, of course, understand his angle: Horns in rock are an immediate turn off for a lot of punters, and I’m sure at some point my younger self was wary of horn rock/rock with horn (more than just the tedious “romantic” ’80s deployment of the sax). Still, the Gun ain’t some proto–Blood, Sweat, and Tears group; dig the last track off The Gun, “Take Off“— there is ZERO BS&T soulfulness there, only pointedly dosed psychedelic expansion!

Anyway, the entire conversation reminded me of how for years it has seemed that the kids have forgotten how, when R&B mutated into rock ‘n’ roll, horns were as important as the guitar. Obviously, there has been some evolving away from the horn as a roots instrument, but to write off ALL rock with horns seems ridiculous. That all said, I don’t know how many of y’all are fans of long-hair, go-nowhere rock, but if you go lookin’, there are tons of kick-ass examples of horns in rock. Two of my faves are the Cherry Slush‘s “I Cannot Stop You” and Spirit of Blue Lightning‘s blazing dancer “Love Muscle.”