“I can never make up my mind if I'm happy being a flute player, or if I wish I were Eric Clapton.”
- Ian Anderson/Jethro Tull
In a text the other day, friend Jeff was pondering the flutes place in popular music. He mentioned the mother of all rock flute, Jethro Tull. Also, it's cool use in Canned Heat's classic, Going Up the Country , and it's nice presence in some Marshall Tucker songs. Who else, he wondered. Off the top of my head I couldn't come up with much. I threw out the brief frenetic solo on Focus' 1970 Hocus Pocus. If you're not familiar with that song, listen below. I don't have the ability to describe or categorize it. Maybe you can.
But where else does the flute show up? I looked it up. One I sure didn't remember, though I thought I knew the album pretty well, was Heart's song Sing Child off of Dreamboat Annie. Ann Wilson on the flute. Who knew?
What's out there in the world of flute?