THE GLIMMER TWINS OF YACHT ROCK

WHITE LINE FEVER

ZZ TOP has got to be one of the most misunderstood bands out there. I hear people say all their songs sound essentially the same. That couldn't be further from the truth. In fact their sound kept changing while remaining in the same tight framework. A considerable achievement for a band that has kept going for 40 years without a single line-up change or a solo album by any of its members.
I already posted here about my love for ELIMINATOR, but these days I've been going loco for their previous LP, EL LOCO, their first attempt at blending electronic sounds with their usual southern boogie riffs. It also features their sole (as far as I know) troo yacht-rock song, LEILA.

HALL OF FAME

YACHT SOUL

I'm going to travel today. If I had an iPod, this is the song I'd play during the trip. But I don't have one - which is why I keep posting youtubes instead of downloadables. I do however have a mental jukebox that never stops. Anyway pretty soon wifi will be in the air everywhere and we won't need to actually store mp3s no more.

YOUR OWN WAY

That QUICKSPACE vid put me in a Cullinan mood. Time to share one of the most bizarre offering of this genius musician.
In 2001, under the name DOUGAL REED, he decided to imagine what the most classic album of YACHT-ROCK, FLEETWOOD MAC's RUMOURS would have sounded like, had cheap speed replaced pure coke. Yes, he actually did the whole album.
Here are TWO HIGHLIGHTS. But really the only reason I didn't upload the whole thing is laziness.

HELLO NEWMAN

"I used to be against world peace. But then Bono came out for it and the scales just fell from my eyes." - Randy Newman


RANDY NEWMAN wrote a million great songs. Most of them are on TWELVE SONGS, SAIL AWAY, GOOD OLD BOYS or on what is to me the masterpiece album of yacht-rock, TROUBLE IN PARADISE.
There are some that EVERYONE KNOWS, some written IN THE 60s, and some JUST TWO YEARS AGO.
And some were written for WALT DISNEY:

FLEETWOOD MAC vs BURZUM

I read the following text on a forum, and felt an uncontrollable urge to copy and paste it here for your reading pleasure.
Anton KK from Moscow tries to prove that yacht-rock is actually cooler than black metal:


"True Norwegian black metal vs True Californian yacht rock

Californian yacht rock is much more true simply because it's a much more demanding life-style. To be a true black metal fan all you need is long unwashed hair, a can of corpse paint, a few spikes and an axe. To be a true yacht rock fan you obviously need a beard, a hairy chest, a yacht, an endless supply of coke and a hot blonde.

Californian yacht rock is much more expensive to record - in true Norwegian black metal you can spend 100 kronen on an entire album and if you don't even have that hundred you can always chop the producer with an axe and claim that the sound was not raw enough. In true Californian yacht rock you need to spend at least $1 000 000 on a record with 20 % spent on perfect smooth production and top West Coast session players (Russ Kunkel on drums is mandatory) and the other 80 percent spent on coke to make it even more smooth."





Oh, and in case you wonder where I stand,press PLAY: