Saxon

[nofi]

i was watching some old and current saxon videos on you tube and just burst out laughing. i think it was when everyone hoisted a leg onto a monitor. it was spinal tap beyond spinal tap! i'm still chuckling about it 24 hrs. later. imo the music was not horrible but predictable.

i have sold many of their records but never bothered to give a good listen. i have had my fill.

[gweimer]

When I wrote for the Illinois Entertainer, I reviewed one of their albums.  At the time, I was in my late 20's.  What I said was that I hated it, but it was exactly the kind of music I would have listened to when I was 15.  I passed on the chance to interview the singer, who was said to have "been afraid of cars, and would only ride a motorcycle".  All said and done, I can still listen to "Lipstick and Leather" without cringing.

[nofi]

i guess i was lucky. when i was 15 the british invasion was in full swing.

[uwe]

Saxon were and are endearingly charming in their blue-collar Brit laddishness glory. They were always ugly, never looked like rock stars, their music simplistic and derived, but never achieving that primal basicness of, say, AC/DC. A bit like those Cannucks Anvil, who were desperate, but charming too.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTwgu9OlGcg&feature=related

I like singer Biff's voice (it's held up well), his accent (you sure won't mistake him for an American and he still pronounces "rubbish" like "rrrrrrrroobeeeesh") and his stage banter. I was never a fan (they had neither Judas Priest's elegance in sound nor Iron Maiden's - albeit naive and sometimes cluttered - instrumental prowess), but I saw them early on in their carrreer (as opening act of Priest), then later when they were trying to crack the US market mid-eighties with some ill-chosen covers like this incredibly heavy-handed treatment of Christopher Cross' essentially beautiful Ride like the Wind (yes, I do like Christopher Cross, there, I said it   )



and comparatively recently. I was always entertained, they warm my heart a bit like Status Quo or Twisted Sister do. It's aprimal feeling and of course I am embarrassed about it!  

And to completely tarnish my musical reputation here, this is my favorite song of theirs: The bass player holding on to
D-ear life and two guitarists power chording D, G and A can take you a long way. Blissfully idiotic.



Don't knock them please.

[lowend1]

All said and done, I can still listen to "Lipstick and Leather" without cringing.

"Lipstick and Leather" was Y&T - Saxon's contribution was "Denim and Leather".

[uwe]

Real rock stars began to look like this in the eighties ...



Saxon stayed close to the look of their fans however ...



And they had glorious Spinal Tap moments like when a whistling noise on Biff's vocal track drove them wild in the studio until they realized that he had forgotten swapping his dentures (he has "talking teeth" and "singing teeth", you know) or how they got disinvited from a Saudi rock festival  (for US troops there) because they refused to strike "Crusader" off their set list.

[uwe]

Immaculate taste of the bass player as regards basses and the color of their hardware I might add:

[TBird1958]

 Ha! you just beat me in posting that!

Definately a Spinal Tap kind of thing.....................



Not ashamed to say when I get to pound something like that out with the band and the crowd is loving it - I LOVE IT.

[Highlander]

Saw them at a MoR show (ACDC?) way back when - lots of posturing...

[gweimer]

"Lipstick and Leather" was Y&T - Saxon's contribution was "Denim and Leather".

My comment stands for both.  I do remember them, just not who did what.  It's hell getting old. So many brain cells gone.

[uwe]

Y&T dumbed down over time, they weren't that cardboard when they were still Yesterday & Today. Saxon were never smart in the first place! That said, Biff does everything with a smirk on his face. I would imagine him to be very British off stage, tea time, cookies and all.

Blackmore once mischievously opined when Saxon were opening for Rainbow: "Could it be that they are a bit heavy-handed?" Not that Rainbow didn't have their own Spinal Tap moments, starting right from their elaborate lighting rig rainbow spanning the stage in the early days and giving them all kinds of electrical and signal issues over the PA.

[lowend1]

My comment stands for both.  I do remember them, just not who did what.  It's hell getting old. So many brain cells gone.

One might wonder what a Saxon cover of Lipstick and Leather would have sounded like... 

[lowend1]

Y&T dumbed down over time, they weren't that cardboard when they were still Yesterday & Today.

Indeed. I got a promo copy of the first album when it came out in '76. It instantly became a personal favorite. Some aspects of the album remind me of "Force-It"-era UFO, and Meniketti's guitar tone on that album was head and shoulders above his Y&T work. Ya gotta love Leonard Haze's right foot as well.

[uwe]

Haze was excellent. A mountain of a man, I saw him in the early nineties drumming for "Toolbox" era Ian Gillan. The drumming on that album and on that tour was truly impressive.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBCAR-0j8kI&playnext=1&list=PLE4D92E512C70C91F&feature=results_video