Smooth Sailing: Nice & Easy

-

Pexels

We’re doing it nice and easy on this new Smooth Sailing trip, enjoy! The tracks by Tonique & Man, State Cows and Super DB are brand new.

The funny thing about yacht rock artists, like Christopher Cross, Rupert Holmes and Bread singer David Gates, is that they do not have the image of rock stars at all. They look more like nerdy computer programmers on their way to the office. In his book Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story Of Modern Pop author Bob Stanley even compares David Gates to “the uncoolest kid at school”.

Who, What, When, Where, Why by Rupert Holmes is from his 1976 album Singles:

“Holmes' song writing was as intelligent and sophisticated as ever. His trenchant lyrics virtuously described the romantic struggles and complicated relationships of the middle class in the 70s.”
(Thomas Splett)

Tracklist:

Tonique & Man – You Make Me Feel So Good (2023)
Pablo Cruise – I Go To Rio (1978)
Jerry Corbetta – Between A Rock And A Hard Place (1978)
Christopher Cross – Ride Like The Wind (1979)
Laurin Rinder & W. Michael Lewis – Lust (1977)
Leroy Hutson – Nice And Easy (1982)
David Gates – Silky (1980)
Gerry Rafferty – Right Down The Line (1978)
Firefall ‎– Just Remember I Love You (1977)
State Cows – Waiting For The Right Words (2023)
Rupert Holmes – Who, What, When, Where, Why (1976)
Super DB – Back To Me (2023)
Fleetwood Mac – Gold Dust Woman (1977)
Dusty Springfield – You Can Do It (1978)
Leon Ware – In My Garden (1981)
Randy Crawford – I Have Ev'rything But You (1981)
Barretto – Here We Go Again (1977)
TomTomTom – The Breeze (2021)
Breeze – Gypsy Woman (1977)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Disco Knockouts!

-
Image
Apart from the picture of Sharron Davies, there are two songs that inspired me to make this mix. One of them is a recent track from Duck Sauce. The repetition of the female vocals reminded me of Stars On 45 (I believe they both sampled 'Gotta Go Home' by Boney M). The other one is from Dutch singer Dee Dee. I heard ‘I put a spell on you’ on a recent episode of Tim Sweeney’s ‘Beats in space’. In the accompanying video she looks a little bit like a sex doll, but I love the song! I like the closing track from soul veterans the Drifters, but isn’t it strange to hear guys who were in their thirties at the time sing about schoolgirls? Different times, I guess, when no one had heard of R. Kelly yet... One of my personal favourites is ‘Night time’ from Maggie MacNeal. I bought the 7” which was produced by Michael Lloyd (known for his work for the Osmonds, Lou Rawls and Solomon Burke) way back in 1979. Maggie MacNeal was one half of the successful Dutch duo Mouth & MacNeal. Their
Read more

Smooth Sailing On A Late Summer Night

-
Image
Unsplash As a touring member of the Pretenders Welshman Carwyn Ellis originally started his worldwide collective Rio 18 in Brazil. She’s In L.A. is a collaboration with AOR masters Young Gun Silver Fox: “They deliver a new flavour of lowriding Californian funk, telling a story about the joy of finding a new life in the City Of Angels, the metropolis by the sea.” (Bandcamp) Evie Sands began recording as a teenager in the mid-1960s. After a rocky start and having trouble with unreliable record executives who stole her songs, she finally had a hit single with Any Way That You Want Me in 1969. Her debut album, also named Any Way That You Want M e, was released several months after the single had peaked. In 1975 Estate of Mind saw the light of day on Capitol Records. Produced by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, the album marked her continued output as a first class singer/songwriter. The disco inspried One Thing On My Mind is one of the outstanding tracks. The song was covered by severa
Read more

West Coast Sundown: Yacht Rock, Late Night Pop & Sunset Soul

-
Image
Unsplash Enjoy the soundtrack to a West Coast sundown! 😊 The closing track by Matt Duncan is brand new, by the way. It sounds like a lost recording from The Nightfly sessions by Donald Fagen. At the time critics sometimes called David Cassidy’s music bubblegum pop. That was simply defined  music manufactured to sell as much records as possible and it was mostly aimed at a very young audience. Bubblegum's classic period ran from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies. At that point disco music took over the single market. However, David Cassidy certainly made some very good records, although in later years he found it difficult to shake off his teen idol image. “His wispiest, breathiest hit was called ‘I Am A Clown’. Poor, sweet, forlorn sexy David – marshmallows could’ve bruised this sound.“ (Bob Stanley in his book Yeah Yeah Yeah )  Midas Shadow by Al Stewart is from his classic 1976 album The Year Of The Cat . The message of this song is that when a successful businessman stops
Read more