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Yacht Rock

Started by Ballad of Ballard Berkley, June 11, 2019, 07:31:26 PM

Previous topic - Next topic
Blended seamlessly into Chicago (the band) stadium ballads by the mid-80s. But I think they mostly had a sincere love of the origins of blues and soul and the anyone that didn't have that love has not stood the test of time. (I saw Chicago two years ago and was fine with the 80s stuff, whilst being too young to have owned their classic pre-1980 albums).

And yes, the song quality is the decisive factor over time, plus the ability of the vocalists of musicians.

Would I buy any of this stuff rather than just having it as background on Youtube? No.

Quote from: Crabwalk on June 12, 2019, 11:05:23 AM
Hard Candy, the parent album of that track by Ned Doheny, is brilliant. It's the best advert for that smooth, sun-kissed AOR I can think of.

Here are a couple more absolute pearls from it:

A Love of Your Own

Each Time You Pray

Just look at the cover for peak Yacht Rock.



Lovely bit of design on that album cover.

The CSN cover arguably names the genre



Or is it this Loggins & Messina one


The Culture Bunker

There's a Loggins and Messina LP cover that has them poncing about on a yacht that I assumed was the source of the name.

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on June 12, 2019, 11:23:50 AM
There's a Loggins and Messina LP cover that has them poncing about on a yacht that I assumed was the source of the name.

Beat ya on the edit

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: Better Midlands on June 12, 2019, 11:25:28 AM
Beat ya on the edit
Like Loggins to Jimmy Messina, you have left me wallowing drunk in the alley.

riotinlagos

Kenny's second cousin Dave was no slouch either - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYMBxgrhS2g

Pages were a bit good too (they went on to become the less good Mr. Mister) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10suuNyzz5U

The Beach Boys overlooked L.A. Light Album has a bit of yacht rock about it especially Carl's songs (Full Sail and Goin' South). He was mates with Christopher Cross and they did a song together an'aw. 

studpuppet

Quote from: riotinlagos on June 12, 2019, 12:09:39 PM
The Beach Boys overlooked L.A. Light Album has a bit of yacht rock about it especially Carl's songs (Full Sail and Goin' South).

'Yacht Rock' is the coroner's report for Dennis Wilson.

Norton Canes


Johnny Yesno

Quote from: phantom_power on June 12, 2019, 06:33:56 AM
We can do all those things. There isn't just one option

We only have so much time, though. With so much music (and other art) competing for our attention, we have to make choices. I'd like to think we could have it all, but music culture seems to have barely moved on in the last couple of decades, in comparison to the immense changes it went through prior to that.

Quote from: Shaky on June 12, 2019, 07:38:39 AM
If music is indeed "a living and breathing art-form" then constant checks and re-evaluations are a natural part of that process as it's continually being heard by ears new and old. Music is a melting pot of past, present and (possible) future so the idea that looking back might inherently be a bad thing is nonsense. Every genre is constantly being re-framed, re-rehabilitated and/or dismissed by critics and in our own heads. There's no way to stop that and I don't understand why we'd want to. It all means something to someone out there and that, surely, makes it all art. It provokes an emotional response, gets people thinking, dancing, talking and so on. I'm several years past caring if some kid worships Justin Bieber rather the latest "worthy" ultra-noise project. Bring it on. The most overplayed pop hit on the planet can inspire a handful of people to start a band and that's a positive flow of events whether we personally like or loathe the results.

I agree with pretty much all of this. Please don't think for one moment that I don't consider yacht rock art. I just think it's terrible art.

However, I would dispute your use of the word 'worthy'. It has the same connotations as BBB's earlier comment that people can stop pretending to dislike yacht rock now. That's not to say that that dynamic doesn't exist at all, but it's a simplistic view of how people form their tribes and ignores the fact that what's 'normal' and what's 'worthy' is entirely a cultural construct.

The one thing I think the alt-right have correct is their assertion that politics is downstream of culture. All music is political, even if its message is just 'EVERYTHING IS FINE'. Somehow, our politics has fallen back into how it was in the 80s and I can't help thinking that the fetishisation of that 80s aesthetic has eased this reversal.

Johnny Yesno

Quote from: Better Midlands on June 12, 2019, 11:21:04 AM
Quote from: Crabwalk on June 12, 2019, 11:05:23 AM
Just look at the cover for peak Yacht Rock.



Lovely bit of design on that album cover.

Seriously? I'd have had that down as a prime candidate for the 'Terrible album covers' thread. What's going on?

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on June 12, 2019, 11:14:32 AM
Would I buy any of this stuff rather than just having it as background on Youtube? No.

Which, to me suggests that this 'rehabilitation' is moribund.

Sin Agog

As someone who listens to a lot of s'posedly weird shit, going back to a chart pop hit or yacht rock track often feels more surreal than any swampy industrial tape dredged up from the bowels of the '80s.  That, coupled with making music myself and realising that the difference between a genre is very often no more than a keyboard setting or a slight adjustment to the rhythm, makes me think all these demarcations and this self-seriousness with regard to music is us being silly-billies.

Quote from: Johnny Yesno on June 12, 2019, 02:17:37 PM
Lovely bit of design on that album cover.

Seriously? I'd have had that down as a prime candidate for the 'Terrible album covers' thread. What's going on?

I like it for 1976, simple font & nice colours. Maybe it's a bit of the sample diggers mojo - it draws me in and suggests there might be something interesting on there.

Crabwalk

#42
Yacht Rock is a latterly-applied, tongue-in-cheek genre name anyway. It mostly falls under the wider 'blue-eyed soul' banner, which Hall & Oates are a better fit for.

I don't listen to much of it regularly but it is something of a balm of a genre, and there's a place for that kind of utilitarianism in peoples' listening choices. Some people use Bossa Nova or Lovers Rock to get the same reassuring, calming effect. It's just best imbibed in moderation if you don't want to calcify.


Johnny Yesno

Quote from: Sin Agog on June 12, 2019, 02:33:09 PM
As someone who listens to a lot of s'posedly weird shit, going back to a chart pop hit or yacht rock track often feels more surreal than any swampy industrial tape dredged up from the bowels of the '80s.

That's true, and that's because you can have a musical existence where Hall and Oates are entirely absent now. To me, their music still has the sound of music you can't escape from, and that's in large part to do with the way music was promoted then and the money involved.

QuoteThat, coupled with making music myself and realising that the difference between a genre is very often no more than a keyboard setting or a slight adjustment to the rhythm, makes me think all these demarcations and this self-seriousness with regard to music is us being silly-billies.

Don't make the mistake of assuming that how simple something is to do has any bearing on how it is perceived by the listener. The fact that you can get distortion from a guitar pedal doesn't make its abrasiveness any the less pleasing, particularly if your problem with what you've been hearing so far is that it's too smooth and polite.

Johnny Yesno

Quote from: Better Midlands on June 12, 2019, 02:35:18 PM
I like it for 1976, simple font & nice colours. Maybe it's a bit of the sample diggers mojo - it draws me in and suggests there might be something interesting on there.

Fair enough, I can see that. I'm just having trouble separating the form from the content.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Johnny Yesno on June 12, 2019, 02:11:16 PM
It has the same connotations as BBB's earlier comment that people can stop pretending to dislike yacht rock now.

While I find your posts in this thread and elsewhere interesting and thoughtful, I'm afraid you've taken a throwaway - and perhaps poorly expressed - comment in my opening post very literally.

Johnny Yesno

Quote from: Crabwalk on June 12, 2019, 02:44:56 PM
Yacht Rock is a latterly-applied, tongue-in-cheek genre name anyway. It mostly falls under the wider 'blue-eyed soul' banner, which Hall & Oates are a better fit for.

I don't listen to much of it regularly but it is something of a balm of a genre, and there's a place for that kind of utilitarianism in peoples' listening choices. Some people use Bossa Nova or Lover's Rock to get the same reassuring, calming effect. It's just best imbibed in moderation if you don't want to calcify.

Fair enough. I find the bossa nova rhythm fascinating myself. However, that music is a case in point regarding the politics of music with a sunny disposition.

Johnny Yesno

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on June 12, 2019, 02:54:51 PM
While I find your posts in this thread and elsewhere interesting and thoughtful, I'm afraid you've taken a throwaway - and perhaps poorly expressed - comment in my opening post very literally.

I have, haven't I? Sorry about that. Thanks for not being annoyed with what looks like threadshitting. It comes from a place of sincerity, if that mitigates it at all.

Crabwalk

Quote from: Johnny Yesno on June 12, 2019, 03:08:30 PM
Fair enough. I find the bossa nova rhythm fascinating myself. However, that music is a case in point regarding the politics of music with a sunny disposition.

You're absolutely right on that. I think that's what probably mitigates yacht rock for younger generations, when the context of cocaine and complacency is stripped from it. The textures and grooves are often really appealing, hence them being so heavily sampled, and then having the likes of Thundercat working with and feting Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins.

Endicott

Personally I think it's a terrible album cover.

The problem with the term Yacht Rock is that it is retrospectively lumping together a lot of stuff that simply wasn't put in the same genre when it was released. I grew up with this stuff, some of it I like and some of it I don't. Some if it I have exactly the same reaction to as Mr. YesNo, and some of it is absolutely bangin'.

Anyway who here likes a bit of Thundercat?

Crabwalk

#50
Quote from: Endicott on June 12, 2019, 03:33:06 PM
Anyway who here likes a bit of Thundercat?

See post above yours!

Yes, I love Thundercat. Something like 'Them Changes' isn't that far from the Yacht Rock sound, sampling as it does the Isley's 'Footsteps in the Dark Pt I&II' for its beat. That era of the Isleys is a big influence on the super-smooth grooves these white artists were striving for. The sort of thing you can plunder and produce G-Funk classics from...


Quote from: Endicott on June 12, 2019, 03:33:06 PM
Personally I think it's a terrible album cover.

Just realised that its got a similar aesthetic to the Boz Scaggs album that I mentioned upthread.




Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Johnny Yesno on June 12, 2019, 03:11:56 PM
I have, haven't I? Sorry about that. Thanks for not being annoyed with what looks like threadshitting. It comes from a place of sincerity, if that mitigates it at all.

Oh absolutely, I know you weren't attempting to shit on the thread at all. Far from it. All are welcome aboard this yacht!

greenman

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on June 12, 2019, 11:08:31 AM
While the Dan can be considered a source of what became Yacht Rock (they give an early break to Michael McDonald, and Skunk Baxter left them to join the Doobie Brothers), I think their lyrics take them a bit too far from the level of smoothitude required to be amongst the Yachting Types.

Which does not mean that Scouse New Wave outfit Yachts count either.

They did of course give McDonald his start in the bigtime as well as a live singer although I think you could say that its only when they quit touring that they started to shift towards Yacht like levels of smoothness and really only on Gaucho they went with an ultra slick Cali sound(ironically recorded in Newyork unlike their previous albums) but lyrically you could argue its taking the piss out of the yuppy movement normally lionised by the genre.

Absorb the anus burn

Do 10CC count as yacht rock?

Coz I like 10CC.

greenman

#55
I would ask why hasn't someone made a song out of a sample of the first few seconds of It Keeps You Running?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BsTF22SPyM


The Culture Bunker

Quote from: Absorb the anus burn on June 12, 2019, 05:10:03 PM
Do 10CC count as yacht rock?

Coz I like 10CC.
Like Steely Dan, their lyrical themes probably disqualify them. Coming from Manchester might not help either - hard to sail a yacht down the Rochdale canal back in those days.

studpuppet

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on June 12, 2019, 06:59:36 PM
...hard to sail a yacht down the Rochdale canal back in those days.

How more 'Yacht' can you get than Manchester's former International Yacht Showroom?


rue the polywhirl

Love me a bit of Yacht Rock. Anything Doobies with Michael MacDonald. Steely Dan Aja and Gaucho. The Nightfly as well. Boz Scaggs. All the Toto albums. Stephen Bishop - his first album Careless is a landmark of the genre. Seals and Croft with Summer Breeze are the perfect yacht rock progenitors. I'm delving into the work of Ambrosia and most recently Andrew Gold who is probably too gifted and varied too be lumped into the genre but whose songs Lonely Boy and Never Let Her Slip Away perfectly nail or exceed the sound of the genre.