Horn Sections Make Rock Better: You Can Call Me Al

Paul Simon at the peak, perhaps, of his solo career. Chevy Chase at peak Chevy Chase. As silly as the video is, the making of the Graceland album was filled with controversy due to the apartheid cultural boycott. There is a fascinating documentary that gives Simon’s side. The album is so good that this is maybe the fifth best song …

Horn Sections Make Rock Better: Badhead

On a trip to England in 1995, I stopped by a record shop and asked for a recommendation. The clerk described two albums as “brilliant,” pronounced in a way only the British can do, with bare impressions of Ls, Ns and Ts. I bought both CDs and fell in love with both bands. I own all their records now. The …

Horn Sections Make Rock Better: [Nothing But] Flowers

My favorite Talking Heads song. The video is charming: They (including Kristy MacColl and Johnny Marr) are having fun. I wonder how the occasional facts meant to motivate political action rest with Byrne’s claim that he “was an angry young man” who would “pretend that [he] was a billboard.” Regardless, it all seems ahead of its time. How much abandoned …

Horn Sections Make Rock Better: Deep Dark Truthful Mirror

I’ve been thinking about mirrors lately. I, and many of my clients, have been taking a look in the mirror. It’s a healthy–and painful–thing to do. I’ve also been reading Peter Senge‘s “The Fifth Discipline,” a classic text my father often referenced in his work, from my teens to the present. Senge argues that the truly effective organization is the …

Horn Sections Make Rock Better: Apache

It’s famous in hip-hop for the drum break that has been used by just about everybody. Even if you don’t like rap, you’ve perhaps heard the Sugarhill Gang version on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. But when I first really listened to it, I couldn’t believe how hard the horns were. (Fun fact: Jim Gordon performed the drum break. He …