I've always been more interested in the Underground, or in this case, below the waterline. "Barnacle Rock" they call it.
I've always been more interested in the Underground, or in this case, below the waterline. "Barnacle Rock" they call it.
And then there is Sailor. Probably not really luxury yachts, but more ships.
Greg Lee established lyrical appropriateness as needed to qualify music as Yacht Rock. IMO that disqualifies Steely Dan and softer rock in general. In eastern North and South Carolina there is a sub genre mostly focused on music from the 60’s and 70’s called beach music which includes certainly Drifters, Coasters and Temptations. A band called the Embers from Raleigh, NC nails beach music. However having heard the band recently outside on a dock in Morehead City NC, it sounds like they do the beach music thing and added what nails Yacht rock. Great production and sound system there, and beautiful happy evening.
PS: Beach music has to have horns, and the Embers’ fans love BST and pop Chicago.
Last edited by Firth; 11-16-2020 at 07:23 AM.
I feel Doobie Bros should be referred to as Michael McDonald Doobie Brothers in a Yacht rock context. Greg Lee stated as such. That’s the version of the Doobs I hate. Pre-Michael is good with me.
Kokomo is the one Beach Boy tune which is total Yacht rock. Surprised it wasnt mentioned even though it came out in 88.
Should have mentioned that Jim Messina is one engineer who could be called the Yacht engineer. He started the production thing in the 60’s and it was totally influential in Yacht, with Loggins and Messina being totally representative.
wwweeeeeellll, I dare say that the previous arrival of Skunk Baxter certainly didn't help, the wine was already seriouisly souring, before MMcD got there.
AFAIAC, I'm quite fine with their first four , but Stampede and Fault Line (love the cover picture, though) are definitely successive steps downwards.
hence the album cover I posted on #2
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
I was purveying Yacht rock playlists on Spotify, and “The Cover of Rolling Stone” by Dr Hook came up. Really surprised Dr Hook want mentioned on this episode.
I concur with you that the pre-MMD Doobies were better, but I believe that a bold exception to their downturn was "I Cheat The Hangman" from "Stampede", which in my view is the only song by them that displays a "prog" element. Patrick Simmons wrote that excellent number and I didn't even know about it until a few years ago when I heard it on the radio. Man, that thing has an amazing build up and conclusion. To me (not an avid fan of them), that is the odd man out cut for the DB's.
I know that mainstream yacht rock fans might consider Steely Dan to be part of the genre but other than the smooth vibe of Aja and Gaucho, they couldn't be farther it in terms of lyrics and the music's complexity. Hey Nineteen may sound like yacht rock until you either figure out that the protagonist is one sad bastard or they actually sat down and tried to play it.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Big Little River Band fan here. They did a song or two that could be considered Yaht Rock I guess with "Cool Change" being the most obvious example, but they were much more than that and put out some great albums. They also were a fantastic live band. All great musicians and they could pull off all of those vocal harmonies live too.
^Thanks. I don't think they made much impact in the UK. I never saw their albums around that much here. Though 'Reminiscing' was on that 3cd 'Yacht Rock' collection I posted on the previous page. (John Lennon really liked that song, ISTR!)
'Night Owl' is a good, slightly rockier track.
One band that hasn't been mentioned that is definitely Yacht Rock is Pablo Cruise.
maybe I wasn't clear, I actually heard a couple of PC albums back then, and when I mentionned them (schoolmates) about the band, they swiped aside the band as "disco" (based on the criterias I mentionned above), so I let it slide, leaving them as ignorants.
I don't like talking to idiots and arseholes; it educates them.
The band had some interesting facets, and it was unsurprisingly their lengthier numbers that had a slight prog edge
Yeah, I would pigeonhole PC as AOR (the pre-FM rock of the 70's) and even as Yuuuckt Rock
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
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