Cosmic American Rock, Yacht Rock, Gene Clark

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
This sounds a bit like a description of the way Spiritualized sound druggy - to me, it's more narcotic than psychedelic. That big song of theirs (the one remixed by, er, Chemical Brothers) always makes me think of a bunch of people sitting around on the floor with needles hanging out of their arms.
I have an abiding memory of a bunch of people sitting around coming down from strong pills and listening to the first Spirtiualized album. Sounded lovely, not sure if it's a repeatable effect though.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I have an abiding memory of a bunch of people sitting around coming down from strong pills and listening to the first Spirtiualized album. Sounded lovely, not sure if it's a repeatable effect though.

Yeah, I think I must have heard it under the same circumstances (OMG internet drug confession!!!!) at one time or another - my point was that it sounds airy and ethereal in a spacey and generally 'high' way, as opposed to more 'traditionally' psychedelic music, viz. freak-out '60s psych rock or weebly-wurbly old-skool acid house.
 

aMinadaB

Well-known member
Was always quite fond of the synthy middle eight bit in Don Henley's 'Boys Of Summer' though.
Oh yeah noel i agree and am not afraid to admit it, i remember hearing that as a kid when it came out and liking it in spite of myself and then looking forward to it on the radio

Rumours is a stone cold classic for a reason :D, "Dreams" is the very definition of a '1970s radio sublime' (in the US anyway), and there are others on that record

saw Brightblack Morning Light earlier this year, terrible stuff live, have no idea what they sound like in recorded form tho

I think I know what Yacht Rock is, having lived through it the first time on AM radio in the 70s and 80s lol, and having been officially exposed to it in the spring of 2006 by a fan (puke), but I'm not sure how exactly to comprehend the 'cosmic' part . for some reason when i hear the words "Yacht Rock" I hear REO Speedwagon, Jimmy Buffett, and Loverboy ... :grimaces while laughing:
 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Didn't the term 'Cosmic American Rock' originate from a Gram Parsons quote?. I always think of the Byrds' more psychedelic stuff when I hear it.

Flying Burrito's 'Gilded palace of sin' is a great record in that vein.
 

hint

party record with a siren
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Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I *heart* the Meat Puppets. The guitar solo in that song melts my brain.
 
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Buick6

too punk to drunk
I'm actually not too clear on what might constitute 'cosmic American rock' (does American Cosmic sound better?). Would Country Joe & The Fish count? ' I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die' was one of the first albums I remember buying and I'm pleased to say it still sounds really good - psychedelic, romantic and cynical too. Witthuser & Westrupp totally ripped off the song 'Colors For Susan' on their Kosmische folk Trips & Traume album.

It's basically a 'roots' type American music fused with a strong PSYCHEDELIC influence over a religious one.

95% of the time it was made by dudes who took lots of drugs that amplified sensitivity to 'soind', hence the 'smooth' nature of the music, that when it's good - like all great music - sounds better on drugs!
 

echevarian

babylon sister
Some favorites of mine loosely within this genre.


Fleetwood Mac's Brown Eyes sung by Christine McVie.

Seriously just one of the most soul wrenching and utterly eerie things ever recorded.


She reminds me so much of Jarboe on that track.


Lots of the aforementioned Emmylou Harris' stuff is great, the song she wrote about Gram Parson's death is probably the best.

Boulder To Birmingham off of Pieces of the Sky

That and the Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town LP, which has the gauzy ethereal Defying Gravity on it.


Whoever mentioned David Crosby was right on track, the song Laughing he did with Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh has got one of the most brilliant solos I've ever heard.

Its mindblowing without any need for any substances, although they wouldn't hurt.

I'm not sure if its cosmic exactly but I'm a big fan of the song Border Lord by Kris Kristofferson as well.

Its mindbending, but more in a too much whiskey, too hard a road sort of way than a couple grams of shrooms.


What I'm searching for is where that decadent late 70s arty yacht rock sound crossed over with dance music.

Thats where a lot of modern balearic seems to be drawing its reference points from.

People like DJ Harvey playing soft rock mixed with disco to crowds on Hawaiian beaches.
 

Chris

fractured oscillations
What I'm searching for is where that decadent late 70s arty yacht rock sound crossed over with dance music.

Thats where a lot of modern balearic seems to be drawing its reference points from.

Chris Rea - Josephine kind of fits that description, though there's a much more disco-y, Balearic sounding version that I used to have on another computer before it crashed. Might have it on disc somewhere though... damn I hope, perfect yacht-rock/disco crossover.
 

echevarian

babylon sister
After doing some research I think you're talking about the longer "La Version Française" cut of Josephine.

Which you're right, is exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for.

Too bad he never got popular over here (in the US) I'd love to have that on vinyl.
 

Buick6

too punk to drunk
What I'm searching for is where that decadent late 70s arty yacht rock sound crossed over with dance music.

Thats where a lot of modern balearic seems to be drawing its reference points from.

People like DJ Harvey playing soft rock mixed with disco to crowds on Hawaiian beaches.

Like Ian Dury and the Blockheads 'wake up and make love to me'????

Or George Benson doing 'on braodway'

or Diana ross's 'upside down' ???

but didn't the Bee Gees do 'yacht rock disco' with Saturday Night Fever??
 
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echevarian

babylon sister
Yeah, maybe.

You could say they were doing their level best to imitate Philly Soul,

but it kind of came out sounding relatively whitebread.


Not knocking the Bee Gees or Abba, its just something I'd play at a wedding, not a nightclub.

Good call on the George Benson, need to give the records I've got of his another listen.
 

D84

Well-known member
Awesome Yacht Rock / House cross-over:

MIchael McDonald All We Got (It's Not Enough)

Extended Dance Mix

House Remix

(couldn't decide which to post)
 

craner

Beast of Burden
Some good yacht-rock and yacht-disco scenes in the films Romancing the Stone and The Jewel in the Nile if I recall. You know, I think these are categories worth pinning down.

eglt9.jpg
 

Leo

Well-known member
Not sure if this is quite the same thing being discussed but...what do people think of A Mountain of One? Some of the stuff on "Collected Works" seems kind of cosmic/dancy, although sometimes bordering on a jam band. Kind of similar to Studio.

Not quite sure what to make of this stuff. i find it both slick/cheesy/blah and slightly enjoyable. But what the hell do I know, my current fav listen is an old Peel Session by Seething Wells!
 

echevarian

babylon sister
A Mountain of One and Studio were two of the artists I meant when I mentioned modern Balearic.

They do seem to sit in a weird space between more electronic sounding stuff and a sort of rhythmic jam band sensibility.

I'm just waiting for people to start editing Little Feat or Shakedown Street by the Dead.
Then the end times will surely be nigh, when dance DJs truly embrace their inner hippie-ness.


Tim Finney did a short little piece on this stuff in his 2007 end of the year wrap up on ILX.


http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?action=showall&boardid=41&threadid=60937


Scroll down till you get to the Balearic section, lots of awesome stuff in this vein.
 

Gabba Flamenco Crossover

High Sierra Skullfuck
Been massively feeling early Hall & Oates on this tip recently. 'Had I Known You Better Then' is seriously one of the greatest songs ever written.

Thing about this kind of stuff is that the albums are all over the place - you get absolutely georgeous songs next to excretable rubbish. The Hall & Oates album with the above song on it ends with a kind of west coast faux-hoedown that's just ear-wrenching. Steely Dan albums are the same.
 
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