Not quite the Royal Yacht Britannia of yacht rock, but close.
( gains a few extra knots for featuring the Coral sitar )
( gains a few extra knots for featuring the Coral sitar )
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Yacht Rock?! Who has experience.
- Thread starter Jimmy4string
- Start date
I think I found my soulmate.
I have been salivating to play yacht rock in a band for probably 30 years. Bring on the Christopher Cross, Toto, America, Don Henley, Boz Scaggs, Doobies, George Benson, Steely Dan, all of it. The closest I get to it is some small recording stuff in the smooth jazz genre (which I absolutely love), but man, finding some talent on keys and singing to do yacht rock would be a dream of mine. I have tons of sheet music and backing tracks for it too, so if the opportunity ever presents itself, I'm ready for it.
LOL timely, we are learning this song for this week's rehearsal. I am in a YR band and it is hard, hard work. Some of the songs may not be 100% YR (My Life - Billy Joel, Don't Bring Me Down - ELO, etc), but are in the ballpark. I'd say we are more a 70's-80's tribute band heavily influenced by YR.
That said, it is a lot of fun so far. We have gigs on the horizon, with the hopes of pulling down approx $300-400 per member (there are 5 of us). Would love to get a 2nd guitar/percussionist/vocalist, but that's been tough to find.
As of now, it is meeting the 2 out of 3 reasons to stay in a band:
* good hang, check
* good tunes, check
* good money, TBD, but assuming the $3-400/person, that will be a check as well
Here's my youtube playlist for practicing to, you can see most of our songs for now.
One good corporate gig can pay ten times a club gig, just sayin'.
Man, that setlist is so good it gave me butterflies a few times. So happy you guys are practicing that stuff and pulling it off. Can't say I'm not green with envy!
Go get paid, brother!
Al Stewart slays 'em every time. Year of the Cat.
Can't go wrong with England Dan and John Ford Coley either. I Really Wanna See You Tonight.
Can't go wrong with England Dan and John Ford Coley either. I Really Wanna See You Tonight.
That was my thought too, Toof. There's no "the." (I still have the 45.)
Unlike The Pink Floyd. Which did have the the. Until they didn't have the the.
LOL timely, we are learning this song for this week's rehearsal. I am in a YR band and it is hard, hard work. Some of the songs may not be 100% YR (My Life - Billy Joel, Don't Bring Me Down - ELO, etc), but are in the ballpark. I'd say we are more a 70's-80's tribute band heavily influenced by YR.
That said, it is a lot of fun so far. We have gigs on the horizon, with the hopes of pulling down approx $300-400 per member (there are 5 of us). Would love to get a 2nd guitar/percussionist/vocalist, but that's been tough to find.
As of now, it is meeting the 2 out of 3 reasons to stay in a band:
* good hang, check
* good tunes, check
* good money, TBD, but assuming the $3-400/person, that will be a check as well
Here's my youtube playlist for practicing to, you can see most of our songs for now.
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Sounds like a great project
My compliments on the excellent set list - though I'd liked to have seen something by Kenny Loggins, and the Doobie's "What a fool believes" is conspicuous by its absence
Not much else to say except: Full speed, dead ahead !
Sounds like a great project
My compliments on the excellent set list - though I'd liked to have seen something by Kenny Loggins, and the Doobie's "What a fool believes" is conspicuous by its absence
Not much else to say except: Full speed, dead ahead !
Some of the tunes are just too complex vocally. We have a 5 piece but we aren't quite doing 5 piece harmonies yet. Our lead singer is female and her range is good, but we are transposing some tunes up or down depending. Instrumentally we are getting there but yeah, some of those super iconic YT songs will need to be DIALED before playing out.
Raise your hand if your'e Sure®!
( Sorry, I was a little flippant with my previous remark )
Absolutely. I mean, it's tough to authentically reproduce something even approaching the brilliance of Michael McDonald's vocal part on "what a fool believes". His voice *is* the song.
Anyway, good luck with it, I hope you get some really good, well paid gigs.
The band I'm in is morphing into what you are describing. We started out as an Allman, Santana, Little Feat, Marshall Tucker kind of thing and now have added quite a few Doobies, Loggins and Messina, Zombies, and yes... Ride Captain Ride is next on the learn list. It's fun music, but I fear we're losing our core mission, if you want to call it that.
The Mission has changed. It is now “Play The Music People Want To Hear, And Get Paid.”
A good mission, IMO.
Our bandleader sends out the song list way in advance of booked dates and schedules one or two rehearsals.
Since we’re getting paid well He expects band members to show up at rehearsals ready to play through the set lists. Thankfully we all do our homework and the shows go well. We do use charts on som gigs though.
The Mission has changed. It is now “Play The Music People Want To Hear, And Get Paid.”
A good mission, IMO.
Totally. That stuff is what "people want to hear" for a reason: because it's good!
I could be gushing all over my 8-track 1970s upbringing with this stuff, but I don't care. It's the sound of me riding in the back of my dad's green Ford Galaxy and I'm unashamed in admitting I love the stuff. (Though, to be fair, when yacht rock wasn't on, I also recall hearing "Roundabout" back then and thinking "what's that weird clickety-clack clickety-clack sound in the music?" lol)
I personally think it is well worth the endevour! I regularly recreate Yacht Rock songs, faithfully, one instrument at a time. For personal enjoyment between gigs. It's a fantastic exercise in songwriting and musicianship. And I really love the era. I have finished about 15 tunes in total... 3-4 competent singers singing 3-4 part harmonies in the same band, each wanting to play YR seems to be a real obstacle.
This was last year -
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This was last year -
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Come see us, we will be at Aurora Borealis in north Seattle in a few months.
I'm sure this song has been brought up, but I need to post this cover which is great.
