Song Lyric Sunday: Yachts?

Posted on by

For today’s SLS Jim has asked us to share a ‘yacht rock’ song, at the suggestion of John Holton, as you can see in his post Smooth Rock. My first port of call (see what I did there?) was Google, as I had no idea what this was. Unsurprisingly, it is described in terms that make it very much an American thing, and the huge list of acts that typified it contained very few British bands, though it did have loads I’d never heard of. And you guys wonder why we think you’re insular! From Wikipedia: “yacht rock (originally known as the West Coast sound or adult-oriented rock is a broad music style and aesthetic commonly associated with soft rock, one of the most commercially successful genres from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. Drawing on sources such as smooth soul, smooth jazz,R&B, and disco….” You can see why I feared the worst, can’t you, but amongst the long list of bands, some of whom seemed to me to be unfairly classed this way, was one which I absolutely loved back in the day, and still do. All was saved – I could actually write something for today and play you a song which rose way above what many of the proponents of this ‘genre’ gave us. So here is my offering, from one of the best bands ever:

And the lyrics:

Felonius my old friend
Step on in and let me shake your hand
So glad that you’re here again
For one more time
Let your madness run with mine
Streets still unseen we’ll find somehow
No time is better than now

Tell me where are you driving
Midnight cruiser
Where is your bounty
Of fortune and fame
I am another
Gentlemen loser
Drive me to Harlem
Or somewhere the same

The world that we used to know
People tell me it don’t turn no more
The places we used to go
Familiar faces that ain’t smilin’ like before
The time of our time has come and gone
I fear we been waiting too long

Tell me where are you driving
Midnight cruiser
Where is your bounty
Of fortune and fame
I am another
Gentlemen loser
Drive me to Harlem
Or somewhere the same

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Donald Jay Fagen / Walter Carl Becker

Midnite Cruiser lyrics © Royalty Network, Universal Music Publishing Group

How can something that good be included under a heading that Wikipedia tells us was applied as a pejorative name? Still, it has given me something to play today. I have played it before, but as that was in a Tuesday Tunes piece in 2020 I don’t think I’m overdoing it! This was a track on Steely Dan’s November 1972 debut album, Can’t Buy A Thrill, which formed a huge part of my university days, along with its follow ups, Countdown To Ecstasy and Pretzel Logic. The best known tracks on the first album are Do It Again and Reeling In The Years, both of which can be found on YouTube in live performances. But I decided to be perverse and choose my favourite track from a great album, though there are so many superb songs on it that choosing just one wasn’t easy. The album charted at #17 in the US and #38 here in the UK: I always felt it deserved better.

A final word. In case you didn’t realise it, my opening remarks are slightly tongue in cheek, and I know that there was a lot of good music released that fits into this category. I’m looking forward to seeing what others play, and keeping my fingers crossed that it is the good stuff. And maybe I’ll be introduced to some of those bands I’ve never heard of?

38 thoughts on “Song Lyric Sunday: Yachts?”

  1. Pingback: January, February | Take It Easy

  2. Hi Clive
    Nice song and I liked your tongue in cheek comments
    –
    Also — I think that Spotify had a lot of yacht rock playlists and sometimes it is a great choice because it is just that soft rock of yesteryear

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  3. Pingback: Song Lyric Sunday: Yachts? – MobsterTiger

  5. Hi Clive. Great choice! I’ve heart the rock yacht definition and I think it is best forgotten. Steely Dan are one of the best bands ever and ‘Can’t buy a thrill’ their second best after Aja. Steely Dan’s success was a lot to do with the quality of musicians they called upon and the standards that Fagin and Becker set.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Hi Paul. I think we’ll just put it down to being an American ‘thing’ and leave it there, along with a lot of the music. I agree on Steely Dan, but I’d choose Can’t Buy A Thrill over any of their other albums. They did set high standards and it shows in their records.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    • Not my word! It is in the Wikipedia article on the genre, which I admit to finding very confusing, particularly on what is or isn’t defined this way. I don’t really like labelling music: either I like it or I don’t, and that’s all that matters to me 😊

      Like

      Reply

      • Exactly, and that’s how it should be. I think the guys that coined the term weren’t considering the immense popularity of the music and saw it as sort of an ironic insult to the people who do like it, not realizing that there are so many who do. Practically every streaming service has streams dedicated to it, essentially making it a de facto genre.

        Liked by 1 person

      • My difficulty with it is that the name always conjures up mental images of Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot! I use Apple Music, which so far has resisted creating a stream for it 😊

        Like

  10. My wife and I are subscribers to The Hollywood Bowl. We get 5 outdoor concerts each summer – whatever is there we see. And one night it was “Yacht Rock” night – half the guys in the audience were wearing Captain’s caps – yes they were. the headliners were Michael McDonald – who sang on several Steely Dan songs, Christopher Cross and Kenny Loggins. The music was fun, but NEVER would I put Steely Dan in that category – they were the hipster lyrics/smooth funky jazz rock band, NOT Yachters! Oh, and their music is TIMELESS

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • That’s quite a subscription to have!

      Michael McDonald was only an occasional backing vocalist for Steely Dan, and not on their first three albums, which I think are their best. He’s the guy responsible for turning the Doobie Brothers from a great guitar band into what I now know was a yacht rock outfit. I bet he even has the cap.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • Yes, I just finished the Doobie Brothers memoir from Tom Johnston and Pat Simmons. McDonald is interviewed in it – a very strange situation – Johnston gets deathly ill and while he’s gone the band changes course so much he didn’t feel he had anything to return to and you are right, those DB albums are pure yacht rock sadly

        Liked by 1 person

  12. Clive, I love this song, but it is not one you immediately think of when you are asked for a list of great Steely Dan songs. It actually does not sound like other Steely Dan songs. Keith

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • PS – I remember reading that the quality of the musicians who played on their albums and toured with them was a higher class than other bands. In fact Michael McDonald, who joined the Doobie Brothers, was one of those musicians and singers. Keith

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • They had such a good reputation that they could choose their touring band members from the best. I liked the Doobies, too, until Michael McDonald turned them into a yacht rock band 😉

        Like

    • It was only ever an album track, Keith, not even the B-side to a single, so I think it is one that may be unfamiliar to many. I’m not sure if I could define what a ‘typical’ Steely Dan song sounds like, though!

      Like

      Reply

      • Clive, the Doobies definitely had a different sound when Michael McDonald joined them. He had a few good songs, but your larger point is well taken. My brother has stronger feelings than you do about what happened to the Doobies.

        As for Steely Dan, you of course are right about the variability of what a Steely Dan song sounds like. On the above song it seems the voice is tempered some. Or maybe it is like you said, it is just not well advertised as one of their songs. Keith

        Liked by 1 person

      • Basically, he neutered the band. It was relief when Tom Johnston finally reclaimed them from him.

        That first Steely Dan album is just so good. I could have chosen any of its tracks 😊

        Like

    • My favourite track on what I still think is their best album, and one of the best made by anyone.

      Wikipedia has a long list of yacht rock acts, virtually all of them American and well over half that I’d never heard of. Some good bands there – and others I wouldn’t play if my life depended on it!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Please leave a reply, I'd like to know what you think