Summer Breeze
March 17, 2022 8:44 AM Subscribe
Yacht Soul: The Cover Versions (Spotify, Bandcamp) is a compilation of cover songs (original artists include Hall & Oates, Steely Dan, and Fleetwood Mac) by artists like Aretha Franklin, Quincy Jones, and The Pointer Sisters.
Always nice to kicks these discussions off with some dismissive snark, I guess.
Me, I like this. It's interesting to me that these are covers of songs from a time immediately prior the moment when radio started really separating black music from white music on station playlists.
posted by Ipsifendus at 9:08 AM on March 17, 2022 [7 favorites]
Me, I like this. It's interesting to me that these are covers of songs from a time immediately prior the moment when radio started really separating black music from white music on station playlists.
posted by Ipsifendus at 9:08 AM on March 17, 2022 [7 favorites]
I don't even think of them as yacht rock
The Doobie Brothers, and Michael McDonald in particular, are arguably big players in the development of the Yacht Rock sound. Katie Puckrik, in the first part of her documentary, makes a good case for it, anyway.
posted by pipeski at 9:19 AM on March 17, 2022 [7 favorites]
The Doobie Brothers, and Michael McDonald in particular, are arguably big players in the development of the Yacht Rock sound. Katie Puckrik, in the first part of her documentary, makes a good case for it, anyway.
posted by pipeski at 9:19 AM on March 17, 2022 [7 favorites]
Pre- and Post-Michael McDonald Doobies are two very different things.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:27 AM on March 17, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:27 AM on March 17, 2022 [7 favorites]
I respectfully submit for consideration:
Mr. Bungle - "Hell Awaits" & "Summer Breeze" - Live 02-13-2020 - The Warfield - San Francisco, CA
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:35 AM on March 17, 2022 [6 favorites]
Mr. Bungle - "Hell Awaits" & "Summer Breeze" - Live 02-13-2020 - The Warfield - San Francisco, CA
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:35 AM on March 17, 2022 [6 favorites]
I didn't listen to all of it, but what I heard these songs work better as soul songs than as 'rock' songs.
Although I personally can only hear Summer Breeze in the zombie goth nu-metal baritone of Type 0 Negative .
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:40 AM on March 17, 2022 [6 favorites]
Although I personally can only hear Summer Breeze in the zombie goth nu-metal baritone of Type 0 Negative .
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:40 AM on March 17, 2022 [6 favorites]
I just heard Summer Breeze on the radio the other day, and was struck by a) how comforting and gentle it is, and b) how ridiculously regressive it sounds to me now. It's of its time, I guess.
posted by phooky at 9:54 AM on March 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by phooky at 9:54 AM on March 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
Here it is on Apple Music.
I don't do Spotify because I still don't know what a spotify is. I do know what apples and music are.
On the Bandcamp page, the first track that plays is by the Beach Boys, who are definitely nyacht. Great cover of God Only Knows, though.
posted by emelenjr at 10:26 AM on March 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
I don't do Spotify because I still don't know what a spotify is. I do know what apples and music are.
On the Bandcamp page, the first track that plays is by the Beach Boys, who are definitely nyacht. Great cover of God Only Knows, though.
posted by emelenjr at 10:26 AM on March 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
The Isley Brothers cover of Summer Breeze (not part of this comp) takes some getting used to but is really good. Includes a fuzz guitar solo!
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 11:17 AM on March 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 11:17 AM on March 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
Also not part of this comp: Nina Simone's version of 'Rich Girl.'
posted by box at 12:12 PM on March 17, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by box at 12:12 PM on March 17, 2022 [4 favorites]
No Diana Ross? Love Will Make it Right is a Steely Dan song in disguise!
posted by Clustercuss at 12:59 PM on March 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Clustercuss at 12:59 PM on March 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
The Pointer Sisters entered their period of greatest sustained success with their best-known lineup of Ruth, Anita and June starting in 1978 with the heavily Yacht Rock-oriented Energy LP, their first with producer Richard Perry. Their energetic cover of Steely Dan’s “Dirty Work” is one of the many standouts on an album that also saw them tackle Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, Loggins & Messina and the Doobie Brothers.
Their version of "Dirty Work" really works.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:01 PM on March 17, 2022 [9 favorites]
Their version of "Dirty Work" really works.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:01 PM on March 17, 2022 [9 favorites]
The Aretha Franklin cover of What a Fool Believes is on YouTube, and wow, it’s fantastic! Funkier, but keeps the momentum of the original. And (to draw another 1980 yacht rock connection) if anyone can outdo multi-tracked Michael McDonald, of course it’s the multi-tracked Queen of Soul.
posted by mubba at 3:14 PM on March 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by mubba at 3:14 PM on March 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
I'm actually a big fan of a lot of yacht rock artists and songs, and also love many of these artists, but find this playlist as a whole a bit hit-and-miss. But yeah, the Pointer Sisters' cover of Steely Dan is fire. I really like Peabo Bryson's take on the Doobie Brothers tune too.
posted by vverse23 at 3:15 PM on March 17, 2022
posted by vverse23 at 3:15 PM on March 17, 2022
Tangentially related: Thundercat collab with Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-zdIGxOJ4M
posted by ishmael at 4:46 PM on March 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-zdIGxOJ4M
posted by ishmael at 4:46 PM on March 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
Counterpoint: I listened to the Aretha Franklin cover of What A Fool Believes and found it appalling.
I can only think of two worse covers at the moment, but mentioning them would be a derail.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 4:51 PM on March 17, 2022
I can only think of two worse covers at the moment, but mentioning them would be a derail.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 4:51 PM on March 17, 2022
I’m more of a Fillmore West/Spirit in the Dark kind of Aretha fan, but ‘What a Fool Believes’ is what she was doing in the ‘80s—hanging out with Clive Davis, making grown-folks music with immaculate production and a Murderer’s Row of session players, singing the shit out of something somebody else wrote.
Stuff like ‘What a Fool Believes,’ or ‘Freeway of Love,’ or even ‘I Knew You Were Waiting For Me,’ isn’t the best Aretha, but I’d take it over what most of her contemporaries were doing at the time.
posted by box at 5:19 PM on March 17, 2022 [7 favorites]
Stuff like ‘What a Fool Believes,’ or ‘Freeway of Love,’ or even ‘I Knew You Were Waiting For Me,’ isn’t the best Aretha, but I’d take it over what most of her contemporaries were doing at the time.
posted by box at 5:19 PM on March 17, 2022 [7 favorites]
I can only think of two worse covers at the moment,
Two worse covers of that song, or two worse covers of any song?
I have no idea why I want to know that. I guess just to put the Aretha Franklin criticism in its proper place.
posted by Well I never at 6:33 PM on March 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
Two worse covers of that song, or two worse covers of any song?
I have no idea why I want to know that. I guess just to put the Aretha Franklin criticism in its proper place.
posted by Well I never at 6:33 PM on March 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
Speaking of fools, her Fool on the Hill is pretty good, even though the recording engineer made it a few dB too hot.
posted by credulous at 8:59 PM on March 17, 2022
posted by credulous at 8:59 PM on March 17, 2022
Take the Main Ingredient’s sublime cover of Seals & Crofts’ “Summer Breeze,”It's always pleasing to recall that the lead singer for The Main Ingredient (who many remember for "Everybody Plays the Fool Sometimes") is Cuba Gooding Sr.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:51 PM on March 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
Well I Never: Kirsten Dunst’s cover of Turning Japanese and Gwen Stefani’s cover of It’s My Life.
There’s probably many more that piss me off, but those two are always the top of my list. Note that, like Aretha Franklin, I have no real issue with any of their other music.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 11:32 PM on March 17, 2022
There’s probably many more that piss me off, but those two are always the top of my list. Note that, like Aretha Franklin, I have no real issue with any of their other music.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 11:32 PM on March 17, 2022
The Doobie Brothers are represented three times in that compilation that I can spot, which seems excessive. I don't even think of them as yacht rock—more like "pabulum rock."I'm a prescriptivist about yacht rock*, so for me, it's basically impossible to be more yacht than post-Michael McDonald The Doobie Brothers, seeing as "What a Fool Believes" is the song that's the focus of the first episode of the web series that coined the term and the only song to get a perfect 100 on the Yachtski Scale.
…find this playlist as a whole a bit hit-and-miss.It's weird to see such full-on yacht rock as "Nothin’ You Can Do About It" (96.75) and "Lazy Nina" (73.75) alongside "Summer Breeze" (21.75 as well as #1 on the Nyacht Rock countdown) and "Everywhere" (17.75).
*According to "Hollywood" Steve Huey of the web series and subsequent podcast, Beyond Yacht Rock, "Yacht rock was a smooth, polished blend of pop, rock, R&B and jazz, which originated in the Southern California session musician scene of 1976-1984. The sound of yacht rock is the sound of the extended Steely Dan family tree."
posted by Strutter Cane - United Planets Stilt Patrol at 12:50 AM on March 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
Pre- and Post-Michael McDonald Doobies are two very different things.
Agree. “Long Train Running” and “Black Water” are both singular songs and the very opposite of “pabulum”.
posted by Jess the Mess at 5:00 AM on March 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
Agree. “Long Train Running” and “Black Water” are both singular songs and the very opposite of “pabulum”.
posted by Jess the Mess at 5:00 AM on March 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
Glad to see others coming to the Doobies' defense. They are one of my favorite bands, both pre- and post-McDonald.
Also, why is no one talking about the Quincy Jones cover of "Takin' It To The Streets", featuring Luther Vandross and Gwen Guthrie? It is straight fire!
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 7:48 AM on March 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
Also, why is no one talking about the Quincy Jones cover of "Takin' It To The Streets", featuring Luther Vandross and Gwen Guthrie? It is straight fire!
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 7:48 AM on March 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
Aside: it's interesting to see that (according to their Bandcamp) Too Slow To Disco are based in Berlin. This reminds me of another Berlin-based cratedigging compilation label from the pre-Bandcamp era, Crippled Dick Hot Wax, who put out compilations of weird kitsch like West German commercial lounge flexidiscs (Popshopping) and soft-porn/exploitation-film scores (The Schoolgirl Report, I Told You Not To Cry). I wonder what happened to them; my guess is they didn't survive some earlier vibe shift (perhaps the one that delineated lounge music from yacht rock).
posted by acb at 7:59 AM on March 18, 2022
posted by acb at 7:59 AM on March 18, 2022
Counterpoint: I listened to the Aretha Franklin cover of What A Fool Believes and found it appalling.
I find the really cheesy sounding keyboards pretty bad and it was totally lacking the hilarious "the wiseman has the power"/"is always better than nothing" (line after the "what a fool believes" chorus) Alvin & the Chipmunks sound that the Doobies probably thought sounded really good but in fact is ridiculous. Aretha pulled it off by toning it down. So it's not great or particularly memorable, but it's far from one of the worst covers ever.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:04 AM on March 18, 2022
I find the really cheesy sounding keyboards pretty bad and it was totally lacking the hilarious "the wiseman has the power"/"is always better than nothing" (line after the "what a fool believes" chorus) Alvin & the Chipmunks sound that the Doobies probably thought sounded really good but in fact is ridiculous. Aretha pulled it off by toning it down. So it's not great or particularly memorable, but it's far from one of the worst covers ever.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:04 AM on March 18, 2022
"No wise man has the powerthewiseman has the power"
posted by Strutter Cane - United Planets Stilt Patrol at 8:12 AM on March 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
I only like Michael McDonald doing the background vocals on Steely Dan's "Peg."
posted by kirkaracha at 8:46 AM on March 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by kirkaracha at 8:46 AM on March 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
Their version of "Dirty Work" really works.
Eh. It's pretty much the same arrangement. I prefer covers that mix it up a bit.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:49 AM on March 18, 2022
Eh. It's pretty much the same arrangement. I prefer covers that mix it up a bit.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:49 AM on March 18, 2022
Speaking only for myself, this playlist got me through a boring but focus-intensive work task ahead of deadline today. I thought it was a treat!
Thanks for sharing it here.
(As an aside, I found every single one of these covers a million times more enjoyable than when Rascal Flatts wiped their autotuned-to-hell butts with Tom Cochrane’s classic “Life is a Highway.” YMMV.)
posted by armeowda at 3:38 PM on March 18, 2022
Thanks for sharing it here.
(As an aside, I found every single one of these covers a million times more enjoyable than when Rascal Flatts wiped their autotuned-to-hell butts with Tom Cochrane’s classic “Life is a Highway.” YMMV.)
posted by armeowda at 3:38 PM on March 18, 2022
Was at a friend's place a couple of years ago for a BBQ, and we were discussing their friend's new Google Echo thing and its utility for when you want background music for parties etc. I mentioned "yacht rock"; they all looked at me funny, but dutifully said "Hey Google, play yacht rock"... and she did.
I'm a bit more serious about my music listening than just as wallpaper, but "yacht rock" does have some guilty pleasures in it (eg Doobies). For the record - when I'm sailing, I don't like music on. Music is for when anchored and having sundowners.
posted by Artful Codger at 9:04 AM on March 20, 2022
I'm a bit more serious about my music listening than just as wallpaper, but "yacht rock" does have some guilty pleasures in it (eg Doobies). For the record - when I'm sailing, I don't like music on. Music is for when anchored and having sundowners.
posted by Artful Codger at 9:04 AM on March 20, 2022
« Older 17 Things You (Probably) Didn’t Know About The... | You’d see a woman standing in line just fall... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by adamrice at 8:55 AM on March 17, 2022 [1 favorite]