I think curiosity will get the best of me and I'll have to pick up this book that was released this month: Still Alright A Memoir by Kenny Loggins with Jason Turbow Still Alright
Ah, summer is here, which can mean only one thing: Another wave of yacht rock articles. Which can mean only one thing: Another mind-numbing collection of WRONG. Lets see how these guys did. (Hint: Not well.) 10 Best Yacht Rock Songs of the Summer - American Songwriter
I found a reasonably priced copy of Atlantic Starr - Ultimate Collection on eBay and have been playing it in the car. I’m going to have to revisit some of their early 80s albums because there might be other gems like this one: Touch A Four Leaf Clover from 1983.
Awesome track, nice find. And this brings up a good tip for finding yacht soul tracks: Look for R&B and funk acts that peaked in the mid-to-late '70s and then take a look at their early-to-mid '80s albums. A lot of them tried to stay relevant by "Fosterizing" their sound, and you'll occasionally find great yacht tracks from acts that might surprise you, like The Whispers, The Manhattans, B.T. Express, etc.
OK kids, it's peak summer, so here's a playlist of Hawaiian yacht. You'll find yacht, yachtsco, a bit of AOR, some marina rock and a few unclassifiable tracks that bring the aloha vibe. No ka ‘oi tracks perfect for pau hana. E hele kāua, brah! Hawaiian Yacht Rock
Well, I guess this is... kind of... yacht related. Apparently Steely Dan's Fagan, Becker and Baxter worked on this album with Linda Hoover, and actually wrote five of the songs. The album was shelved for 50 years, but was just released. It's not even close to yacht, but it is an interesting lost time capsule of the really early Dan sound. The album was just made available on Spotify. I thought it was pretty mediocre, but your mileage may vary. ‘I was on the high of highs, and suddenly it was over’: Linda Hoover on her great lost LP with Steely Dan
Not sure if this fits the criteria but it’s close enough for me. Great stuff from Young Gun Silver Fox…
Yeah, if you like this kind of music, it's hard not to like these guys. They're a grab bag of all the Westcoast styles, so while they may pick up yacht chords or riffs here and there, they rarely get into the yacht pocket. But no matter, they're awesome. Keep the fire, YGSF.
OK, Steely Dan is getting some action this week, it seems. This one came up one one of my feeds -- a rare Steely Dan cover of someone else's material. In this case, The Dan covers Joni Mitchell's "Carey," with pretty good results. It's pretty standard mid-tempo late-era Dan (2001), but it's both an oddity and rarity in catalog with precious few outtakes:
A scandal has rocked the House of Yacht! Not since the "Diamond Girl" controversy of '21 has something this shocking come down the pike. New evidence suggests that the The Doobie Bounce may not be the DOOBIE Bounce after all. Sources close to the creation of "What a Fool Believes" suggest that the iconic beat may have in fact been borrowed from this track. You be the judge:
Oh no. It looks like there's a major studio yacht rock movie in the works. None of the the original yacht rock guys are involved and worse, the plot sound like a complete ripoff of the short film series. I'll hold out hope that Ryznar and the rest of the yacht rock crew finally get something out of this phenomenon they created, but this is Hollywood after all, so I'm not optimistic. Woody Harrelson In Talks For Lionsgate’s Yacht Rock Musical ‘Sailing’ – Deadline
That’s a no from me. The intro and chorus may have the McDonald piano/keys syncopation, but the verses move quickly in funk/blues/r&b domain with zero yachtyness in them. What’s more, the drums are missing the airy breathiness which is quintessential Dooby Bounce.
Oh, for sure. The song itself isn't that similar to "WAFB," much funkier. But it's that initial beat that they took and said, you know, we can use this.
I definitely hear a connection there. My prediction for the movie, to paraphrase James Ingram: it will be mellow, but not funny, kinda ****ty.
