Wednesday, December 14, 2011

(3) Patrick Wolf - "The City"


[In the past, I've written short blurbs for each of the year's 100 Songs.  Some of these "short blurbs" were actually thousands of words long, but you get the idea.  This year, sadly, I didn't have time to do that.  But I still have a lot to say about almost all of these songs.  So I'm just going to start writing.  This is one of a still-undetermined number of essays.  Maybe I'll find something to say about all 100 Songs.  Maybe there will just be a handful of these.  I'll try to write one every day, but I make no promises.  Also, they will be in no real order.  In case it gets buried, the original 100 Songs for 2011 post, with links, can be found here.]

(3) Patrick Wolf - "The City"



2011 was the Year of the Saxophone.  Of the many strange but true things you could say about 2011, that one bizarre sentence should be near the top of the list.  It's not a question of timing.  I don't think anyone thought there would ever be a Year of the Saxophone.  Before 2011, the instrument's claim to fame was probably The Onion AV Club's seminal 10 Great Songs Nearly Ruined By Saxophone list.  Before 2011, the best the saxophone could say was that it didn't completely ruin songs.

On Tuesday, M83's sax-drenched "Midnight City" took the top spot on Pitchfork's Top 100 Tracks of 2011.



You may remember "Midnight City" from its earlier stint soundtracking a Victoria's Secret commercial.



Destroyer's equally sax-indebted "Kaputt" came in at number six on that same Pitchfork list. Without going back though the archives, I'm betting the saxophone hasn't graced two top ten songs in the entire storied history of Pitchfork.



We mourned the passing of the Big Man, Clarence Clemons, but before he died, Clemons lent his talents to a stadium-rock anthem from ... Lady Gaga?



Even Kenny G found his way back into the spotlight ... TWICE. Seriously. There was this:



And there was also this:



A video for something called "Mr. Saxobeat" has been viewed more than one hundred million times.

And, of course, there was the Sexy Sax Man:



It was the Perfect Storm of Saxophones.  Will we ever see anything like it again?  Would we survive?

***

2011 was the Year of the Saxophone, and no one did it better than Patrick Wolf.  It's just mind-blowing that that's a real compliment.

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