Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Second rate reporter says what?

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

The willow is too close to the house.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

In after Baud. Damn.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Come on, man.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

You are here: Home / Music / And the children dance to the pipes of Pan

And the children dance to the pipes of Pan

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One of the things I miss most about the ’60s and ’70s is the use of flute in songs on the radio. Perhaps the most memorable example is the awful but catchy “Windy”. I genuinely enjoy “Heard It In A Love Song”, “Never Rains In Southern California” and the great “Spill The Wine”. I could live without all of Jethro Tull’s oeuvre however.

There’s also some good jazz flute from back in the day, e.g. some Eric Dolphy.

What are your favorite songs with flute?

Reader Interactions

218Comments

  2. 2.

    cosima

    I played the flute for years & years, and in spite of that (or perhaps because of that) my answer is ‘none.’

    Cello — I love what that adds to other genres outside of classical, which is why both our girls played. We still have Little Cosima’s 1/16 size cello, long long since grown out of.

  4. 4.

    The Moar You Know

    Oh, the conversations me and my musician friends have had about the flute and the absolute lack of appropriateness it has for any music outside of the classical oeuvre. We all came to the same conclusion a long time ago. Does not belong.

    Funny, because the ONLY concession I’ve ever been willing to make to violating that rule would be Tull. Anderson can actually rock a flute (most of my fellow musicians disagree). And even he usually fails dismally at it (Thick as a Brick, exhibit 1). But we can all live without Tull.

    No place outside the orchestra, final verdict.

  5. 5.

    joel hanes

    All of Suite For Flute and Jazz Piano, Claude Bolling w/ Rampal
    Much of John Barleycorn Must Die and Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys, by Traffic
    ocarina solo, “California Dreamin'”, The Mamas and the Papas

  6. 6.

    burnspbesq

    “With You There to Help Me,” the opening track on Jethor Tull’s Benefit album.

    The sappiest rock song with flute is undeniably “You Are the Woman.”

    If you want to hear some spectacular flute playing, there is a recent album of C.P.E. Bach flute concertos featuring Emmanuel Pahud that will knock your socks off.

  10. 10.

    Big Picture Pathologist

    “Supper’s Ready” by Genesis.

    The flute isn’t exactly *featured*, but its contributions to that song are short but sweet.

  12. 12.

    ? Martin

    I’ve always been a bit disappointed that Radiohead, to my knowledge, have no songs with the flute in them, especially given that they have used nearly every other instrument known to man.

  15. 15.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    (nervously) Um, I like Jethro Tull?

    @joel hanes: Oh yeah the Bolling Suite. I’m an amateur pianist and I’m frequently cajoling flautists to play that with me. Unfortunately, I’m an amateur CLASSICAL pianist so the jazz improv parts come off kind of meh.

  16. 16.

    Xig

    There’s a female-fronted retro-doom-rock band out of Toronto called Blood Ceremony where the singer also busts out flute solos. Super 70’s-sounding stuff.

  21. 21.

    oldster

    I’m going to stick up for some Tull, too, even though it brands me as uncool in this group.

    Traffic–good point! The song “Glad” from John Barleycorn, for instance.

  25. 25.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    I’m a Tull fanatic – genuinely adore the lyrics and tunes. I’m less fond of the live show because of how weird the choreography and stagecraft seem to be, and really dislike the most passionate fans.

  28. 28.

    Immanentize

    Also, doesn’t “Fool on the Hill” sport a bit of flute?

    Oh yeah — and one of my oldest favorites — Undun by Guess Who has a flute solo after the break.

  34. 34.

    Reformed Panty Sniffer

    As far as flute music goes, I’m thinking Zamfir’s cover of “Eve of Destruction” was a precautionary tale for its time.

  38. 38.

    Steeplejack

    @Doug!:

    Huh! I was just thinking about this yesterday. I have been listening to the UNLV radio station while I’m out here in Las Vegas, and most of the day it’s heavy on good jazz. Heard a couple of songs with flute and was thinking about how that instrument is a bit out of favor these days.

    Caribbean Jazz Project, “Stolen Moments.”

  39. 39.

    Ryan

    You all remember the scene near the beginning of Bullitt in the restaurant with the band? Also after he totals the car and gets picked up by his girlfriend?

  40. 40.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    …Live without all of Jethro Tull’s oeuvre…

    Them’s fighting words. 70s Tull was great. Well, okay, there were a couple of clunkers in there and anything past the 70s wasn’t great. But there’s half a dozen Tull albums from the 70s that not only rocked but have held up well after all these years. Doug, don’t make us come over there and beat you with a rusty flute.

    I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned Hocus Pocus by Focus in terms of iconic 70s flute sound. In fact, that entire album is good.

  41. 41.

    jackmac

    @Roger Moore: Agreed. In fact, I really like a lot of Claude Bolling’s jazz-classical fusion pieces, but “Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano” with Jean Pierre Rampal really stands out.

  46. 46.

    brendancalling

    Somewhere in the back of my record collection i have “Herbie Mann plays the Bossa Nova”. IIRC, it’s pretty good, and I’m not much of a flute fan.

    Although Marshall Tucker has a few good songs.

  52. 52.

    dollared

    Cuban music features flutes fairly frequently. Sometimes it is lame, but in the cha-cha-chas it’s pretty fabulous. E.g. Habana del Este by AfroCuban Allstars….Or the more traditional El Boduguero by Orquesta Aragon….

  53. 53.

    sherparick

    Enjoyed Aqualunge and “Thick as a Brick.” Of course I am sucker for Fairport Convention so my weakness for British Folk and Folk Rock runs deep. Problem for some people is that both Tull and Led Zeppelin get over overplayed on Classic Rock and fondness can turn into being nauseated at some point.

  68. 68.

    humboldtblue

    @Steeplejack:

    Flute adjacent? Flute adjacent?!?!

    Goddamn prima donna oboe players with their special-wrapped-and-tied-double-reeds and their front seat in the orchestra and their-duck-sounding squeaky-ass honking were the worst!

    Sax section forever! We weren’t just wind, we weren’t just brass, we were totally badass!

  72. 72.

    sukabi

    Pan flute…love pan flutes. Years ago there was a group of South American young men that would play around the pike place market… Wonderful, earthy music…pan flute brought chills.

  75. 75.

    swiftfox

    Top 40 Bin:

    Hitching A Ride, Vanity Fair (recorders, not flute)

    Hijack, Herbie Mann; At least it was not standard disco

    For My Lady, Moody Blues

  76. 76.

    Larkspur

    @cosima: Oh, cellos. I played through high school and I loved it, but that was back in the olden days when schools had musical instruments you could borrow and take home for free. I couldn’t afford to buy one, and I knew I wasn’t heading for a music major or anything, so good-bye to cello-playin’. But cellos are so beautiful.

    Huh. I just remembered a thing about playing the cello in junior high school. We cellists got teased because we had to spread our legs. I’m sure flautists got teased for their whatchimacallit, embouchure? Kids are brutal sometimes.

  82. 82.

    low-tech cyclist

    I still remember where and when I first heard Aqualung. Don’t tell me Tull is crap.

    And in what way is “Windy” awful? Not exactly a classic, certainly, but it’s an enjoyable pop song.

  86. 86.

    Miss Bianca

    Almost anything with Matt Molloy, or Rashaan Roland Kirk. We’ll agree to disagree about Jethro Tull.

    True fact (as opposed to alternate fact): My first musical love with the flute, and I took up the violin only because I couldn’t form an embouchure worth a damn. So the world was spared another mediocre flute player only to gain another slightly-above-average fiddle player!

  89. 89.

    James Powell

    @oldster:

    Who branded you as uncool? Jethro Tull was (and maybe still is) a great band. Martin Barre is one of the more underrated guitarists in rock. Anderson’s flute playings was more of an ornament than a core element.

    Two of my favorite flute-in-rock songs: Goin’ up the country by Canned Heat and Can’t you see by Marshall Tucker.

  91. 91.

    Miss Bianca

    @p.a.: cool article!

    I still can’t quite believe Ian Anderson’s gone bald…in high school I had a photo of him in my locker where he was sporting the most bad-ass nimbus of red-gold mane…that was back in my “I am seriously going to marry Ian Anderson one of these days” phase. But no, in Riff Randell’s immortal cry: …”I am not a groupie!”

  94. 94.

    lollipopguild

    I have a CD with various artists doing “Danny Boy”. James Galway(flute) does a version with the Chieftains that is wonderful. We need a bagpipes thread. “Scotland the Brave”!

  96. 96.

    Bobby D

    Dolphy on flute is good, though I associate him more with bass clarinet, from his masterpiece “Out to Lunch”, a gem from the 60s avante garde jazz movement. Had an 18yo Tony Williams playing on that album, and Dolphy died shorty after its release.

    Herbie Mann put out the best flute-dominated albums I’ve heard. Two in particular:
    Memphis Underground (1969)
    Push Push (1971)

    The latter had Duane Allman on guitar (and he rips it, as always)

  99. 99.

    Steeplejack

    Good flute in the Beatles’ “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” but I can’t find a viable YouTube clip.

  100. 100.

    inventor

    I think Herbie Mann’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic” has got to be in consideration.

    My Jethro Tull Story: Back around 1979 or so Jethro Tull came through the college town of Lubbock, Texas. Unfortunately, they were booked during Christmas break so the 10,000 seat auditorium wasn’t even 1/3 full. Ian Anderson asked the croud to gather ’round near the stage and they proceeded to play for three hours, took a 20 minute break and played an encore for another hour. It was amazing how well they played. I have always had a great deal of respect for Ian Anderson and the rest of Jethro Tull. If there was ever a time to “mail in” a concert it was then. They could have done a cursory 1/2 hour and been gone but they played their ass off.

  103. 103.

    Miss Bianca

    @Villago Delenda Est: there’s another Heart song where Ann is really rocking the flute, but I can’t remember which one – it’s not “White Lightning and Wine”, but I think it is one of the Dreamboat Annie numbers. Damn. Now I’m going to be scratching me head all day over that one!

  105. 105.

    Gus

    Going back to my hippie roots, Fat Mattress (Noel Redding of Jimi Hendrix Experience band) All Night Drinker.

  107. 107.

    Villago Delenda Est

    I might note that Doug is always first rate with his post titles…this one a reference to the greatest rock ‘n roll mockumentary every made, This is Spinal Tap.

  112. 112.

    dexwood

    @Miss Bianca:
    You would have had to fight my wife. She met him at a small party he attended after a show in Albuquerque in 72 or 73. She still has his autograph and the pen he signed it with.

  113. 113.

    Yarrow

    @cosima: Ha! Speaking of Sarah Palin she filed with the Federal Election Commission to terminate her PAC. I guess the grifting just wasn’t good anymore.

  114. 114.

    jheartney

    Not one that gets heard of much, but Jade Warrior was a flute/guitar duo. Towards the end (about 20:20) of this one is a half-speed flute section – incredibly melancholy.

  118. 118.

    cosima

    @Larkspur: Cellos are beautiful — and they add a lot to every genre of music. So versatile — provided you’re a good player. Little Cosima and I went to see Hozier last year and he had a cellist playing. She was amazing. I took lessons alongside Big Cosima (our oldest), and it is hands-down the most difficult instrument that I’ve ever tried to play (piano, flute, cello, guitar). Little C ended up having to change teachers when we moved, and the only one we found nearby was a very strict Russian lady, Little C had to keep asking me ‘what did she say?’ so we let her move to piano…. Big C still plays, though.

    What’s with all of the hating on the Sarah Palin flute?! A masterpiece! Besides, when was I ever going to be able to reasonably drop that into a thread if not into this one?

    True story: I once played a flute duet in a school concert with a friend who was dating……. Palin’s (now) brother in law. We were all much younger then, of course, my friend did not stay with him, and Sarah was not yet dating Todd.

  123. 123.

    cosima

    @Yarrow: I lay a lot of the misery that the US is currently experiencing at her feet for her poisoning of the political well. So I hope she ends up starving in the streets, along with her evil children (not Trig, though). I am surprised, though, that given the current SCROTUS that there aren’t enough stupid people in the US to keep her grifting game going.

  129. 129.

    grumpy realist

    The soundtrack to “L’Homme Blond avec une Chaussure Noire” with Zamfir. (Go for the original movie in French, not the stupid U.S. remake.)

  141. 141.

    Barbara

    Have not seen any mention: There Is a Light and It Never Goes Out, by the Smiths. Flute and violin are great melody instruments because their range overlaps closely with the range of the human voice.

  144. 144.

    Lavocat

    All the Jethro Tull oeuvre.

    And the most hyperactive rock song ever written – inclusive of both flute and YODELING – “Hocus Pocus” by Focus.

  151. 151.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    He’s briefly mentioned in the first comment but if any interest in flute and jazz and the 1960s, check out Jeremy Steig, in particular an album with the jazz legend Bill Evans. This stuff was just smoking, and Autumn Leaves actually contains my favorite Bill Evans solo of all time I think. Unique style, Steig, and he could really play.

    Same album: What’s New.

  156. 156.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Here’s a Tull goodie from the the “Stormwatch” album.

    Summarizes the potential civilization ending potential of a technical fuckup in the cold war. It pretty much summarized the fear that the idiocy of “launch on warning” systems could bring about mistaken retaliation.

    Fylingdale Flier

    Now that we appear to be headed back to stupid days, it seems appropriate.

  157. 157.

    randy khan

    @Butch:

    California Dreamin’.

    A fine choice.

    Not pop music, of course, but one must not forget Stars and Stripes forever. (Technically piccolo, but close enough.)

  159. 159.

    Yarrow

    @cosima: I hope she ends up having to sell off her properties and her kids have to get real jobs. Her eldest daughter is now married to a Medal of Honor recipient so I guess they’ve figured out how to move beyond just her brand. I hope people she’s been paying to keep their mouths shut decide they aren’t incentivized in that direction now the money has stopped flowing in theirs.

  160. 160.

    Spinoza Is My Co-Pilot

    Another up-vote for Jethro Tull here. Caught them only once in concert, Cleveland’s Public Hall back in the fall of ’71. Wonderful concert.

    Also second Canned Heat’s “Going Up the Country” and King Crimson’s “I Talk to the Wind” with Ian McDonald on flute and the recently-departed Greg Lake’s sweetly beautiful singing voice. Still among my very favorite tunes from the long-ago time.

    And prog rock haters can suck it. I’ll take even the schlockiest Genesis or Rush (two of my least favorite prog rock outfits) over the lo-fi garage crap of the Ramones or Sex Pistols any day.

  161. 161.

    randy khan

    @Yarrow:

    Speaking of Sarah Palin, while my wife and I were moving from one DVRd show to another last night, we caught sight of her on Match Game, which I had no idea was back. And the host is Alec Baldwin. It was as strange as you might think.

  162. 162.

    Yarrow

    @randy khan: I had heard she was on that. Money must be getting short. Of course she loves that “celebrity” stuff. But I’d guess she also needs the money. Her son is up to his eyeballs in legal problems, has two kids with two different wives (now ex) and seems to have anger issues and possible drug/alcohol problems. Never mind the people she has to pay to keep their mouths shut about what they know.

  163. 163.

    Jeffro

    Pass on anything with flute, banjo, or fiddle, and most anything with acoustic guitar…usually if there’s not an electric guitar or two in it, I’m not gonna listen too long. I’ve tried listening to most everything, but the really loud stuff is just about the only music I like.

  169. 169.

    mr_gravity

    No one with a flute should be allowed anywhere near any form of amplification.

    Not even in an emergency.

  172. 172.

    mike

    “For once in my life” Stevie Wonder

    It’s not a solo or anything, but damn if the flutes in the orchestra don’t take it to the next level.

  173. 173.

    Millard Filmore

    Kites are Fun
    by The Free Design (1967)

    Bah! already done. that’s what happens when you come late to the party.

  174. 174.

    ChrisB

    I’m shocked to find no mention of PDQ Bach, many of whose works were rediscovered in the 1960’s and 70’s by Prof. Peter Schickele. They feature any number of flutes and flute-like devices including the unfortunately not soon to be forgotten left handed sewer pipe (with and without faucet).

  178. 178.

    gbear

    There was a 70’s Dutch band called Focus that had one incredibly annoying hit instrumental called ‘Hocus Pocus’ but also had a lot of other really nice songs with flute as one of the lead instruments. Unfortunately, since those were also instrumentals, I can’t remember any of the song names right now.

    Thumbs up to the songs on Traffic’s “john Barleycorn Must Die’ LP. That whole album is a fave.

    Wnen I was in high school (1970-1972), Jethro Tull was my absolute favorite band but I can barely listen to them now. Everything sounds so mannered.

  180. 180.

    ChrisB

    @gbear: A mostly but not completely sarcastic thank you for the reference to “Hocus Pocus,” which I now cannot get out of my head.

  183. 183.

    joel hanes

    Fogelberg/Weisberg “Twin Sons Of Different Mothers”

    all good … “Tell Me To My Face” esp., and “Power of Gold” ain’t chopped liver.

  185. 185.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @gbear:

    “Mannered” is a great way to describe what I dislike about Jethro Tull. Don’t actively hate them, but I do have to say that they gave the worst concert I ever went to. Jethro Dull. Maybe I caught them on a bad night. Sometime in the mid-’70s.

  186. 186.

    ...now I try to be amused

    Chicago, “Once Upon a Time”, from the “Elegy” suite on the Chicago III album.

  188. 188.

    Apost''fe

    @Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA:

    Joanie Madden is a flute goddess.

    Love her and Cherish the Ladies. Saw them in Berkeley a few years ago.
    I tried to find a few videos, but YouTube isn’t playing for me right now. Matt Malloy of The Chieftains is great, too.

  189. 189.

    mai naem mobile

    Split Enz Six Months in A Leaky Boat. Nota hundred percent sure if it’s a flute or whistling.

  191. 191.

    Death Panel Truck

    Pretty much any song by Traffic with Chris Wood playing the woodwinds, which means pretty much every Traffic song.

    He also played the flute live with Jimi Hendrix at the Albert Hall in February 1969, and on “1983… (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)” on Electric Landland.

  192. 192.

    Origuy

    @Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA:

    Joanie Madden is a flute goddess.

    Love her and Cherish the Ladies. Saw them in Berkeley a few years ago.
    I tried to find a few videos, but YouTube isn’t playing for me right now. Matt Malloy of The Chieftains is great, too.

    Reposted with the right nym.

  193. 193.

    Larkspur

    @Jeffro: Oh man, you’d hate my favorite Gillian Welch (with partner Dave Rawlings) – almost every album just acoustic guitar, banjo, uke…but no flute.

  194. 194.

    Gravenstone

    Even though it’s really just a splash as Oldfield is farting around amongst too many instruments, Tubular Bells brings a wee bit of flute to the party.

  195. 195.

    Brachiator

    @Immanentize:

    Herbie Mann’s “Comin’ Home Baby” is one of the greatest jazz flute songs ever. What a great groove.

    Just listened to this again. Loved it. And that rhythm section. Oh, man.

  198. 198.

    A Ghost to Most

    Aqualung gave this crazy 16 year old all the rationale I needed to become a life long atheist. Ian Anderson made so much more sense than all the preachers I had listened to.

  204. 204.

    waysel

    I’m with Doug re Tull, with the exception of Bouree. Donovan used it quite a bit, to nice effect. ‘Flute Thing’ by the Blues Project IMS. The Erik Satie theme on Blood Sweat and Tears 2nd album. Haven’t read all the comments, and yes, some of this probably only made 60s/70s FM oddball stations.

  205. 205.

    Taylor

    I could live without all of Jethro Tull’s oeuvre however.

    “I used to like Jethro Tull, until they sold out.”

  206. 206.

    The Dude Abides

    A Firth of Fifth, by Genesis. Introduction to Peter Gabriel’s flute solo begins at around 3:10. A piano solo and then an evocative guitar solo (5:45) from Steve Hackett follow. Right before Hackett’s guitar solo you get to hear some precision drumming from Phil Collins.

  208. 208.

    J R in WV

    OK, I’m gonna ask for some help. Not long ago, I found a copy of a CD labeled Coltrane-Monk as in John Coltrane and Thelonius Monk I don’t remember anything about where the CD came from. Playing it, it started with very melodic music, sax with Monk’s band, including some melodic jazz songs with flute, which sounded to me as if Coltrane was playing that instrument.

    As we listened deeper into the CD, the music gradually slid farther into the more typical Coltrane free jazz. No flute in that part of the album. Now I cannot find that CD anywhere!! Also, no clue as to what album that is, how I might relocate the sounds we heard on that anonymous blue CD.

    Anyone know what we were hearing that night? It was a great sounding album, even especially the flute songs. Suggestions as to what specific album that might have been welcome.

  210. 210.

    drdavechemist

    @Stav: Actually, it was Tim Weisberg who was the flautist on the whole Twin Sons of Different Mothers album with Fogelberg. Fogelberg did all the vocals on that album and his Wikipedia page describes him as a “multi-instrumentalist,” though I think of him primarily as a pianist.

    Spousal unit was a huge Fogelberg fan in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Both of us will tear up if we hear Leader of the Band, which Fogelberg wrote for his father but reminds us both of my father who was also a music teacher and who died (way too young) right around the time that song hit the radio.

  211. 211.

    drdavechemist

    @Bg: Nestor Torres came up on one of my Pandora stations and earned a thumbs-up from me. Guess I need to explore more of his output.

  213. 213.

    Steeplejack

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    It occurred to me that your CD might have been a compilation like this one: Mingus/​Monk/​Coltrane/​Dolphy. All of them are on there, just not in the same group.

    I got on the Google, did a light to medium search and can’t find anything with Monk, Coltrane and Dolphy all playing together.

    The reason I include Dolphy is because Coltrane didn’t start experimenting with the flute until late in his career, and there are only a couple of albums with him playing flute (and none with Thelonious Monk).

  214. 214.

    J R in WV

    Thanks, everyone, I could have just written the wrong guys on the CD with my Sharpie. It was my handiwork. Can’t believe I can’t find the darn CD again. It was on my dresser in the bedroom, where we put on a CD at bedtime. Big stack of loose discs, none have Coltrane/Monk on it.

    It helps with tinnitus – hearing sounds that aren’t there – they get overloaded with a symphony or concert, then when you’re asleep you’re good to go.

    @Steeplejack (phone): Now, listening to this Youtube – that sounds like the disk – I only listened to it the once, when I went after it again, it was gone!! Magic!!! The best disappear fast! Very lyrical to begin.

    Monk, Coltrane, [and Miles Davis, though not on this album] my favorite modern jazz voices. The old timers were good too.

    Thanks, Steeplejack!

  217. 217.

    jt

    De-lurking to defend Tull. Each and every person who doesn’t love Ian Anderson is History’s Greatest Monster and also the Real Reason Trump Won.

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