Boots Randolph- The Yakin’ Sax Man

IMG_4945 (280x280)

If you have every watched Benny Hill, you know this next artist. This was in the $1.00 bin.

There is a sub-genre of music which is a guilty pleasure of mine. I call it White Boy Sax (or possibly Sax by Numbers if you do not like the racial connotation). I characterize it as using standard (mostly major) scales and notes within as well as strict adherence to timing and playing on or within the beat. Most of the lines played are simple rehashes of the melody or chorus in time with the beat. Though it is a little more complex than normal White Boy Sax, “Yakety Sax”, Boot’s signature tune, falls in this genre. It does not help your cause either when Benny Hill picks your music for his theme, either. Gary Larson did a Far Side cartoon with Charlie Parker in Hell being made to listen to new age. He may have just as well been sentenced to White Boy Sax or “Yakety Sax”.d3838aa327798becba14e7145dc1e827

Is this fair to Boots? Probably not. To his credit, he released 16 or so records, played on Elvis’s records, as well as served as a member of Nashville’s A-Team, a group of accomplished session musicians in the 50’s, 60’s, and the 70’s. During this time, he helped define the Nashville Sound. He died in 2007 at age 80. Check out his playing on “Reconsider Baby”, by Elvis. It makes it sound like 1950’s stripper music.

This was Boot’s solo first album from what I can tell. Some of the songs have vocal parts such as “Big Daddy” and “Bongo Band”. Some are technically driven such as “After Your Gone” and “Sleep Walk” . Then there is the White Boy Sax, exemplified by “Yakety Sax” and “The Battle of New Orleans”. The vocal songs are a bit to hokey for my liking. The technical songs are good. I mean they are not Bird-esque by any stretch but they showcase good skills. The other, the White Boy Sax, again, I prefer it blander but it does the job.IMG_4946

It is a bit unfair to Boots that I do not include one of the technically better songs as a sample, but instead choose “The Battle of New Orleans” . If you have never heard “Yakety Sax”, try chasing around a girl inappropriately. Any bystander will hum it while you do.

This gets a Meh, but a high Meh. I will play it more than other Meh albums. There are better technical sax players and there are better examples of White Boy Sax.

BONUS:, For context: I included what I consider a good example of what I call White Boy Sax. It is “Jennie Lee” from Jan and Arnie, precursor to Jan and Dean ( and “Bucket-T” for that matter). I was going to rip a copy of my 45 but it was pretty darn scratchy so I just pulled an MP3 off the net for better sound. Sorry for briefly forgoing my principles with this.