Flute

We gave Alyssa a flute for Christmas and she's making progress. I can barely get a note out of it. Funny instrument - sounds better in classical or folk than pop or rock. I seem to remember Eno once saying that it was the only instrument he didn't like. Strangely (coincidentally?), it's featured quite heavily on the Elliott sound system in recent weeks, mostly 70s proggy stuff. 
There's been Focus (see post a couple of days ago), a bit of Traffic, early Kraftwerk (Alyssa likes 'Ruckzack') and even a bit of Beatles' 'You've Got to Hide Your Love Away'... I could also have played, amidst much protestation, some Moody Blues, early King Crimson (they had two flautists), Camel, Genesis, Gong, Van Der Graaf Generator... and I haven't even mentioned Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, the image of whom, wearing jodhpurs & codpiece and standing on one leg, quite puts me off my dinner. 
It's rare to hear the flute in pop or rock these days. Saint Etienne like to dabble, in a kind of ironic, retro kind of way, often in cahoots with the equally proggy mellotron. But ultimately it's a bit too whispy, frail, fey? And if songwriters really have a yearning, then they can just hit the preset button on a keyboard or sample it from any of the above.