Christopher Cross on Midnight Special

[timwat]

Does that mean Asia was progressive yacht rock?

 

Or perhaps that was Love Beach?

[ProfD]

15 hours ago, Floyd Tatum said:

Hey, I like that 70's soft rock stuff.   Where's my yacht?

The old joke says the two best days of boat ownership are buying and selling it.😁

 

But, it doesn't cost anything to pull up a 70s soft rock playlist and go sailing or ride like the wind while sitting in your favorite chair.😎

[MathOfInsects]

I had a couple of radio stations I listened to in childhood and high school, and one was a "modern rock" station. Then I moved away and went to college and grad school and gypsied around for awhile. Then I went home, and turned on that station to see what they were playing then, and in the mean time they had become a "classic rock" station. Which meant they were literally playing the exact same stuff. They just never bought new records or CDs, and at a certain point started calling themselves a new thing to account for it!

[HammondDave]

13 hours ago, Shamanzarek said:

Christopher Cross wasn't the only guitarist to sub for Ritchie Blackmore in Deep Purple. In 1972 Blackmore came down with hepatitis before a show in Quebec. The band got Randy California of Spirit to do the Quebec show and then canceled the rest of the tour. I remember reading about this at the time probably in Rolling Stone. Though the quality isn't great that show was recorded.

 

Wow… I love Randy California… but he is totally out of his lane trying to fill in for Blackmore  I saw this tour in Hollywood, Florida a few weeks before this show and they blew Rod Stewart and The Faces off the stage.  What a great band Deep Purple Mark II was…. 

[Lou Gehrig Charles]

3 hours ago, timwat said:

Does that mean Asia was progressive yacht rock?

 

Or perhaps that was Love Beach?

Bonus points if you can check ALL the boxes.  "Progressive yacht rock classics".

[Lou Gehrig Charles]

1 hour ago, MathOfInsects said:

I had a couple of radio stations I listened to in childhood and high school, and one was a "modern rock" station. Then I moved away and went to college and grad school and gypsied around for awhile. Then I went home, and turned on that station to see what they were playing then, and in the mean time they had become a "classic rock" station. Which meant they were literally playing the exact same stuff. They just never bought new records or CDs, and at a certain point started calling themselves a new thing to account for it!

In my case it was WWCT in Peoria IL back in their heyday....  The term "classic rock" hadn't been invented yet so they just played a good and varied mix of 60s-80s music and it never grew stale.  At least not to my younger and not-yet-cynical self.  They even won a Rolling Stone reader's survey for Best Radio Station around that time.  Nowadays that station is long gone and even here in Chicago the "classic rock" station is stuck in the mud and they play the same songs about six times a day.  I mean, does anyone really need to hear "Love In An Elevator" more than once every few months?  I am sure if they haven't played it yet today they will before I get home tonight from work.  I would think that with the each passing decade the variety would be going up, but it isn't.

[MathOfInsects]

The other thing about Yacht Rock is that it's the only genre where tribute bands don't dress like the artist or the decade or anything else actually associated with the songs; they dress like boat captains, because decades later those songs got labeled "yacht rock"! That cracks me up. 

[16251]

I googled song to find out more about what the song was about.  CC states he was on Acid when he wrote it.  So, it's probably best to be in that state to listen today.

[Floyd Tatum]

16 minutes ago, 16251 said:

I googled song to find out more about what the song was about.  CC states he was on Acid when he wrote it.  So, it's probably best to be in that state to listen today.

What a mixed-up world we live in, where LSD is illegal (or almost impossible to get), and alcohol, one of the most dangerous of all drugs/substances, is legal - encouraged, practically.

I didn't know Christopher Cross's Deep Purple guitar solo made you jump jump.

[Joe Muscara]

Being of the correct age, I'm sure I've heard "Ride Like the Wind" before, but since "Sailing" and "Arthur's Theme" are those milquetoast-y ballads and I heard those all the time instead, I was not a fan. But RLTW rocks. I could easily put that one in heavy rotation and skip the others.

 

BTW the videos for the other two feature the same keyboards, so that's cool at least.

[bill5]

18 minutes ago, Floyd Tatum said:

What a mixed-up world we live in, where LSD is illegal (or almost impossible to get), and alcohol, one of the most dangerous of all drugs/substances, is legal - encouraged, practically.

 

 

There's a big alcohol vs hard drugs debate brewing in the "Hmmm" thread, pls don't start another one...

[bill5]

1 minute ago, Joe Muscara said:

Being of the correct age, I'm sure I've heard "Ride Like the Wind" before, but since "Sailing" and "Arthur's Theme" are those milquetoast-y ballads and I heard those all the time instead, I was not a fan. But RLTW rocks. I could easily put that one in heavy rotation and skip the others.

 

BTW the videos for the other two feature the same keyboards, so that's cool at least.

Most of his stuff is pretty light/pop oriented but IMO in the best of senses. That first album especially is a great one IMO.

[Joe Muscara]

Correction, that Midnight Special version rocks, the studio version and some other live versions are pretty cool but that MS version has a bit more drive, probably because of the slightly faster tempo.

[ProfD]

36 minutes ago, Joe Muscara said:

Correction, that Midnight Special version rocks, the studio version and some other live versions are pretty cool but that MS version has a bit more drive, probably because of the slightly faster tempo.

The MS band definitely played it with more energy. 

 

Sounded like Cross was channeling Walter Becker with his guitar solo.

 

The main thing is I'm so glad those KB players didn't have scat samples.🤣😎

[Moonglow]

2 hours ago, Joe Muscara said:

Correction, that Midnight Special version rocks, the studio version and some other live versions are pretty cool but that MS version has a bit more drive, probably because of the slightly faster tempo.

Agreed, but I miss the synthy part during the intro of the studio version. Wonder why they didn’t do it, especially since they had two keys guys?

 

 

 

[Moonglow]

5 hours ago, MathOfInsects said:

The other thing about Yacht Rock is that it's the only genre where tribute bands don't dress like the artist or the decade or anything else actually associated with the songs; they dress like boat captains, because decades later those songs got labeled "yacht rock"! That cracks me up. 

One of my bands has been playing Ride Like the Wind for years. We do various segments of different genres during our set (e.g., yacht rock, Vegas, country, metal) during which our lead singer/entertainer dresses up as a “character” representative of each genre. Here’s his take on yacht rock, with us doing RLTW. Only posting the video because it’s germane to the topic!

 

 

 

[Floyd Tatum]

8 hours ago, bill5 said:

There's a big alcohol vs hard drugs debate brewing in the "Hmmm" thread, pls don't start another one...

I didn't know.    I'm tempted to start one....   Nah.  🤐 😁

[Outkaster]

CC is very underrated and seems like a nice guy. That Rick Beato interview posted is awesome.

[MathOfInsects]

We have what I believe is the world's largest tribute band agency here in SD, and for awhile in the 2010's I ended up as their in-house keyboard player. Some of the stuff was sort of a chore, like Billy Idol and Oasis, but some was a chance to go to school on some of the great keyboard players. I was Steve Nieve in an Elvis C. tribute, and Jon Lord in a Deep Purple/Rainbow tribute, for example. One of the projects the owner put me on back then was this new idea he was trying out for a "yacht rock" band. I'd never heard the term, but he was convinced it was going to be the next big thing. He stocked the band with some heavy-hitters. RLTW was the show closer for us, and I had never realized until then how hard that song kicks. That outro is bad-ass! You could feel the energy lift in the band every time we got to do those big ba-da-da-da-da-da-da! hits. 

 

Funny enough, I am playing with a yacht rock band for a wedding today. RLTW is on the list of course. On my to-do list today is to buy the correct shirt for this job. (They supply the captain's hats.) 

 

No photos will be released from this occasion. 

[Jim Alfredson]

16 hours ago, Moonglow said:

Agreed, but I miss the synthy part during the intro of the studio version. Wonder why they didn’t do it, especially since they had two keys guys?

 

 

Maybe time limitations?

I did a fun week of gigs this summer with a throw together band we call The Men Of Leisure. We do some yacht rock as well as Elton John, Jackson Brown, Beatles, Andrew Gold, etc. It’s a fun band and the songs we picked to play are really well crafted tunes. It’s a nice change of pace from blues and jazz, the main staples of my repertoire these days. We have three strong singers (myself, the guitarist, and the drummer) which makes for some great harmonies. It’s a blast. 

[ProfD]

1 hour ago, MathOfInsects said:

That outro is bad-ass! You could feel the energy lift in the band every time we got to do those big ba-da-da-da-da-da-da! hits. 

 

Funny enough, I am playing with a yacht rock band for a wedding today. RLTW is on the list of course. On my to-do list today is to buy the correct shirt for this job.

I'll trust your judgment in buying the right gig shirt. I respect that there will be no pics.

 

i just ask that you abstain from getting fancy and loading up your FA-06 with Take 6 or deer sh8t samples for the "big ba-da-da-da-da-da-da! hits".🤣😎

[drawback]

2 hours ago, Jim Alfredson said:

I did a fun week of gigs this summer with a throw together band we call The Men Of Leisure.

Co-ordinating leisure suits? 

[Moonglow]

2 hours ago, Jim Alfredson said:

 

Maybe time limitations?

Just gave it another listen, the intro seems to be the same number of measures as the studio version. Looks like they opted to keep the wind effect going in lieu of the synth part.

 

When we do it, I have the wind effect mapped to a single high note (upper split) on the Kronos, which I keep going throughout the intro with a sustain pedal, while playing the piano chords (RH) on the Jupiter-80, and synth part (LH) on the lower split on the Kronos. So it’s RH = piano, LH = synth, sustain pedal = wind to simultaneously produce the three parts. Gives me fits. Piano sounds a little choppy, haven’t even tried to coordinate my other sustain pedal to smooth it out.  Probably should shit-can the wind, which mostly gets buried by the music, to make life easier.

[changearound2]

I think the synth player is doing all the filter opening and closing on the wind sound by hand so is unable to play the missing part even if he had a 2nd keyboard.

 

Moonglow, could you make an octave apart layered piano patch so you could play the intro with one finger and avoid the choppiness?

 

I love that first CC album and quite often play Sailing or Minstrel Gigolo on piano when I'm in the mood. At one band rehearsal I broke into RLTW and 2 of my bandmates recognised it as a Saxon song. Don't know how many will be familiar with the Saxon cover from the late '80s. It was a minor hit in the UK but I don't suppose it did a lot in the US.  For my money it works quite well and I like what they do with the ba-da-da-da bit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MathOfInsects]

I stick a synth layer and a white noise layer with a slow attack and slow release over a piano patch, and only volume them up (via wheel) for the intro line. (So the white noise grows as the bass octave is held, wind-like.) They're octaved-up compared to the piano. Then wheel goes down and it's all piano and strings (on a different) board from there. Or just piano if I'm being lazy/efficient/CA about it. 

[Bill H.]

Interesting combination of musicians for what I assume was his backup band - doubling up on percussion and keys, but going it alone on guitar. Yep CC is a player. 

 

It was exciting to see both an Oberheim 4 voice and OBX in the wild, but disappointing when once past the resonant noise sweep neither was heard much. Loved the old school dry ice fog machine. Man those things could really produce. 

 

Anyone have a guess who #34 was?

[jazzpiano88]

Earl Campbell. We’ll known oilers fan. 

[Adan]

I never thought of Yacht Rock as a derogatory term.  And even if some people intended it that way, so what.  The people who liked and still like that music could, generally speaking, do with a little more humility.

 

There is so much great music in the yacht rock songbook, and so much stellar musicianship in the recordings.  For me, the part that hasn't aged well is the production values -- the over-produced, sanitized, glossy sound of it is an aesthetic I embraced when it was new but eventually came to reject in a big way. I've played tons of yacht rock in cover bands and frankly I prefer the imperfect dirtied up sound of a good cover to the original.

[CEB]

On 9/22/2023 at 1:40 PM, Lou Gehrig Charles said:

In my case it was WWCT in Peoria IL back in their heyday....  The term "classic rock" hadn't been invented yet so they just played a good and varied mix of 60s-80s music and it never grew stale.  At least not to my younger and not-yet-cynical self.  They even won a Rolling Stone reader's survey for Best Radio Station around that time.  Nowadays that station is long gone and even here in Chicago the "classic rock" station is stuck in the mud and they play the same songs about six times a day.  I mean, does anyone really need to hear "Love In An Elevator" more than once every few months?  I am sure if they haven't played it yet today they will before I get home tonight from work.  I would think that with the each passing decade the variety would be going up, but it isn't.

Being from the Springfield area my goto stations were WWCT 106 and KSHE 95 St Louis. I don’t think KSHE has added anything new to their music library since 1986.  😀

[Moonglow]

On 9/22/2023 at 1:40 PM, Lou Gehrig Charles said:

I mean, does anyone really need to hear "Love In An Elevator" more than once every few months years?

Fixed!