The Yacht Rock Book

Greg Prato

Description

‘It’s amazing that this style came to be. Can you imagine being a struggling musician back then? It must take an incredible amount of restraint to play that gently.’ —Actor/comedian Fred Armisen, from his foreword to this book

Just what is ‘yacht rock,’ you ask? Perhaps the easiest description is music that would not sound out of place being played while carousing aboard a yacht back in the good old days. But these songs were also some of the top pop gems of the 1970s and '80s. And while some associate yacht rock’s biggest songs with one-hit wonder artists, several of rock’s most renowned artists fall under this category, too including Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, Steely Dan, Hall & Oates, The Doobie Brothers, Toto, and more.

Yacht rock seemed to have become extinct by the early twenty-first century … until a comedic video series, simply titled Yacht Rock, went viral and introduced captain’s hats and blazers to a whole new generation – as well as the emergence of a popular cover band, the Yacht Rock Revue, and of course, Jimmy Fallon’s on-air admiration of all things yacht rock.

Now, yacht rock is one of the most celebrated ‘yesteryear’ styles of pop music, and has resonated with a new generation of musicians (including the Fred Armisen/Bill Hader-led Blue Jean Committee and soul/funk/electronica crossover act Thundercat). But despite all the hoopla, there has never been a book that told the entire story of the genre. Until now. Featuring interviews with many of the heavy hitters of the genre, including John Oates, Kenny Loggins, and Don Felder, The Yacht Rock Book leaves no sail unturned. This is the definitive story of the yacht rock’s creation, rise, chart-smashing success, fall, and stunning rebirth.

Sujets

• Songwriting
• Styles
• Genres
• MUSIC
• Multiple signal classification
• Songwriter
• Rock

Informations

• Publié par: Jawbone Press
• Date de parution: 01 mars 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781911036302
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

A Jawbone ebook
First edition 2018
Published in the UK and the USA by
Jawbone Press
3.1D Union Court
20–22 Union Road
London SW4 6JP
England
www.jawbonepress.com

Text copyright © Greg Prato Writer Corp. Volume copyright © 2018 Outline Press Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this book covered by the copyrights hereon may be reproduced or copied in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles or reviews where the source should be made clear. For more information contact the publishers.
contents
foreword by fred armisen
intro by greg prato
cast of characters
chapter 1 sunrise
chapter 2 the beach boys’ honorary ‘captain’
chapter 3 kings and queens of the hill
chapter 4 the fantastic four
chapter 5 mvp?
chapter 6 produced by lindsey and stevie
chapter 7 songcraft
chapter 8 session musicians
chapter 9 fashion
chapter 10 party!
chapter 11 crest of the wave
chapter 12 playlist: the 70s
chapter 13 playlist: the 80s
chapter 14 the yacht rock national anthem
chapter 15 nyacht rock
chapter 16 nyacht so fast
chapter 17 album art
chapter 18 sunset
chapter 19 rejuvenation
chapter 20 the piano man
chapter 21 soft rockers or hard rockers?
chapter 22 no doubt, disney
chapter 23 yacht rocker and politician
chapter 24 love did not keep them together
chapter 25 the test of time
chapter 26 yacht rock, soft rock, or …
photographs
endnotes
about the author

foreword
by fred armisen
The term ‘yacht rock’ is new to me. Even though the genre has existed for decades, from what I can see, it may have been named retroactively. I’m fine with that.
Did they call the Silent Era the Silent Era back then? (Also, I might be wrong about when it happened.) I love this kind of music. I think everyone does. Even people who claim to be against folk or soft music.
The best place to see how people feel about music is in a car. If ‘Summer Breeze’ by Seals & Crofts comes on, people just get quiet. It really takes you far away.
It’s amazing that this style came to be. Can you imagine being a struggling musician back then? It must take an incredible amount of restraint to play that gently. The instinct with any electric instrument is to turn the volume up, even a little.
Drums, too. That dead tom-tom sound is bold. Why did they do it? The feeling I get from hearing punk is similar to hearing yacht rock. It has a kind of aggressiveness to it because it’s so delicate. I love hearing electric piano, too.
I recently became friendly with Gerry Beckley from America, and he explained to me that the recordings came out the way they did by doing many takes of a song. I’m grateful for every take. Thank you to all of the people who were a part of making this music, and to any future musicians who will take it further.
Fred Armisen, July 2017
intro
by greg prato
‘Have you seen this new series, Yacht Rock ?’ a chum of mine asked circa 2005. ‘No,’ was my crisp reply. But the term stuck with me … just what the heck was yacht rock? As I consider myself fairly well-versed in musical genres and their many sub-genres, I was a bit perplexed. But I put my fact-finding mission on the backburner, and moved on. Fast-forward several years, I was ready to proceed—upon discovering a great cover band by the name of The Yacht Rock Revue.
While I’m by and large not the biggest fan of cover bands, YRR was an exception, as they specialized in tunes that were mostly by one-hit wonders (most but not all—as evidenced by tunes by the likes of The Doobie Brothers, Toto, America, Hall & Oates, etc.) that you would otherwise probably no longer hear performed live. And I finally found out just what the ‘yacht rock’ style was—music that would not sound out of place being played while carousing aboard a yacht back in the good old days. But for me, these were also pop gems that I closely associated with my childhood, that seemed to always be heard playing from the radio that my parents were listening to.
Via the wondrous YouTube, I was also able to go back and view all of the past episodes of the Yacht Rock web series, and I found myself smitten by its low-budget hijinks and witty storylines, and also by the fact that a fellow writer for a website that I have contributed to, All Music Guide , introduced each episode—Mr. Steve Huey (aka ‘Hollywood Steve’).
And it only confirmed the fact that I absolutely loved almost every single bloody song that was considered yacht rock! Especially the stellar production and sounds they achieved, and the exceptional vocal harmonies. The fact that the majority of these artists wrote, sang, and performed their hits was also extremely impressive—especially compared to nowadays, when pop music is a glut of artists that need multiple pro songwriters to lend a hand (not to mention studio tricks for enhancement).
Which got me thinking … why not a book about yacht rock? To my surprise, no one has attempted to make sense of this style of music that was wildly popular throughout the 70s and into the early 80s, and then largely looked down upon for a decade or two, before finding a whole new audience during the early twenty-first century and experiencing a well-deserved resurgence.
After many an interview with band members and experts—mostly exclusive for this book, with a handful of interviews I conducted that were originally published on the Songfacts website (Gerry Beckley, Christopher Cross, Julian Lennon, Dave Mason, David Paich, James Pankow, Boz Scaggs, and Verdine White) and one that previously appeared in another book of mine, No Schlock … Just Rock (Walter Becker)—the story of yacht rock has now been fully documented, in book form!
Sail on,
Greg Prato, October 2017
PS Questions? Comments? Feel free to email me at [e-mail].
cast of characters
WALTER BECKER Steely Dan guitarist, bassist, singer
PETER BECKETT Player singer, guitarist
GERRY BECKLEY America singer, keyboardist, guitarist
DEWEY BUNNELL America singer, guitarist
RICHIE CANNATA Billy Joel saxophonist, flautist, clarinetist
DAVID CLAYTON-THOMAS Blood Sweat & Tears singer
A.J. CROCE Jim Croce’s son; solo artist; songwriter
INGRID CROCE Jim Croce’s widow
CHRISTOPHER CROSS solo artist
LIBERTY DeVITTO Billy Joel drummer
DARYL ‘THE CAPTAIN’ DRAGON Beach Boys keyboardist; Captain & Tennille keyboardist
BURLEIGH DRUMMOND Ambrosia singer, drummer
ROBBIE DUPREE solo artist
WALTER EGAN solo artist
DON FELDER Eagles guitarist, singer
JOHN HALL Orleans singer, guitarist; politician
RUPERT HOLMES solo artist
LANCE HOPPEN Orleans bassist, singer
STEVE ‘HOLLYWOOD STEVE’ HUEY Yacht Rock host; Beyond Yacht Rock podcast co-host
DANNY HUTTON Three Dog Night singer
ANDY KIM solo artist
JULIAN LENNON John Lennon’s son; solo artist
KENNY LOGGINS Loggins & Messina singer, guitarist; solo artist
ELLIOT LURIE Looking Glass singer, guitarist
DAVE MASON solo artist
ROGER McGUINN The Byrds singer, guitarist; solo artist
DON McLEAN solo artist
JIM MESSINA Buffalo Springfield bassist; Poco guitarist; Loggins & Messina singer, guitarist; solo artist
RONN MOSS Player bassist, singer
NICHOLAS NIESPODZIANI Yacht Rock Revue singer
JOHN OATES Hall & Oates singer, guitarist
SHUGGIE OTIS solo artist
DAVID PAICH Toto keyboardist, singer
JAMES PANKOW Chicago trombonist, singer
RICK ROBERTS Flying Burrito Brothers singer, guitarist; Firefall singer, guitarist
GRAHAM RUSSELL Air Supply singer, guitarist
BOZ SCAGGS solo artist
TIMOTHY B. SCHMIT Poco singer, bassist; Eagles singer, bassist; solo artist
GLENN SHORROCK Little River Band singer
TONI TENNILLE Captain & Tennille singer, keyboardist
VERDINE WHITE Earth Wind & Fire bassist
MATTHEW WILDER solo artist
sunrise
A trip back with the artists that helped trailblaze the styles that would eventually lead to the yacht rock sounds of the 70s.
JOHN OATES [Hall & Oates singer, guitarist] As children, Daryl [Hall] and I had slightly different influences. But yet at the same time, we had a lot of similar ones. When I started out, I started playing guitar at six years old—like, 1954. So really, at the beginning of rock’n’roll. So, of course, I listened to Chuck Berry, Elvis, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis—the really early rock’n’roll. As a child, I was just learning to play a couple of chords on the guitar—I could kind of fumble my way through. And I stuck with that until the early 60s, when the folk revival started.
And then I got really into American traditional music—folk music, Appalachian, bluegrass, delta blues. And I played that all through the early 60s. But at the same time listening to R&B—Curtis Mayfield, Sam & Dave.
Daryl listened to early rock’n’roll as well, but he was more attracted to the vocal side of things, like doo-wop/street corner harmony, gospel music. Then, we both were really huge fans of The Temptations, and that was one of the places where we came together and had similar roots. From there, we started to make our own music, after that.
KENNY LOGGINS [Loggins & Messina singer, guitarist; solo artist] The folk influences for me, early on, it was The Kingston Trio, The Limeliters—that whole thing. And Peter Paul & Mary was the beginning of my folk influences. But then that gave way to Bob Dylan, and the more earthy/rootsy folk singers, that had a lot to do with creating the ‘new wave of folk.’ And Dylan was that last of the folkies; that gave way to The Beatles. So I was probably on a very normal course for a young singer-songwriter of that era.
GLENN SHORROCK [Little River Band singer] The Everly Brothers were the first ones [to introduce Shorrock to vocal harmonies in rock]—they caught my ear. I loved harmony singing and I found out quickly that I could do that pretty easily with a couple of friends, and we formed ourselves into a vocal trio, and we called ourselves The Twilights. Then in 1963, 1964, The Beatl