Sonic's Best Friend

Christian Yacht Rock

  

First a summary of events from the Yacht or Nyacht Podcast(s) and then a personal anecdote.

On the Beyond Yacht Rock Podcast, Episode 99, they're listening to audience suggestions to determine, officially, whether the song is Yacht Rock. The suggestion is "Can't Stop Runnin'" by Roby Duke (above). The deck is stacked against it. They are decidedly anti-Christian and isn't Christian rock always lame? To top it off, the cover of the album, a photo of Roby himself, looks like this:

Rock Star.

But they listen to the song, and even with all these biases going against it, they are swayed that it is not just Yacht Rock, it garners a 90+ Yachtski score to be recognized as Essential Yacht Rock. They don't want to believe but the power of smooth music is undeniable and irrefutable. For the purposes of this narrative, it was like that clip where Susan Boyle goes on a show and everyone's like "Ugh, ugly people can't sing" and then she sings and everyone is shocked that ugly people can sing. It's just like that.

The floodgates are open. In the Yacht or Nyacht Podcast, Episode 35, they give "Seasons of Change" by Roby Duke an even higher score on the Yachtski Scale - 92.5 - another Essential song. In YONP Episode 58 it's Roby Duke's "All Lost" (below). The result is a lower score but still in the upper echelons of Yacht Rock canon. Finally, for completeness, in YONP Episode 60 they determine that Duke's "Dreams Alive" from 1989 is not Yacht.

"All Lost" and "Can't Stop Runnin'" are my personal favorites so those are the two I've embedded here.

  

And now a personal anecdote.

When I was a young teen, this one singer would sometimes visit my church to do concerts and/or lead the music in the service. I always especially enjoyed when he would make an appearance because he had such a relaxed, casual, somewhat goofy style. He was constantly talking, telling stories and making jokes, even at the expense of the music, if need be. He was like 60% singer with an acoustic guitar, 30% storyteller and 10% stand-up comedian. And when you're a kid in church, that's a really great break from the norm. The singer was Roby Duke.

The thing was, every time I saw him it was pretty much him with an acoustic guitar; he may have had a backing track sometimes but it was never a full band. Furthermore, I only saw him in church, I never investigated any of his albums. So how shocking it was to find that a small Yacht Rock podcast is listening to the "unknown acoustic guitar guy." And how much more shocking to find that he was not just a Yacht Rock artist all along but actually a Yacht Rock legend. Mind blowing.

Roby Duke's albums today are rare and seem to fetch hefty prices; some are apparently being imported from Japan. I learn from the internet that Roby Duke died in 2007. RIP.

The Charismatic Voice - Faithfully

 

It's a little Journey, come on.

While this is one of my favorite Journey songs (perhaps #2), I really hate the music video. It's part of a genre of music videos from the late 80s and early 90s about the dreariness of touring which was so repetitive as to become monotonous. Sitting on the tour bus, getting on and off of planes, occasional black and white footage, roadies hauling equipment - oh being a rock star is drudgery - isn't living the dream a nightmare?

I haven't been able to define the genre sufficiently because I never gave it a name and didn't collect enough examples. Motley Crue "Home Sweet Home" and Bon Jovi "Wanted Dead or Alive" both flirt with the genre but don't ultimately succumb to it. The genre-defining examples I had were Journey "Faithfully" and Genesis "Throwing It All Away." I think there are a million examples out there but I needed to do more research and never got around to it.

Oh, and I think my thoughts are independent here but just in case, the Beyond Yacht Rock Podcast has an episode that defines the genre "This Was Supposed to be Fun" which is songs about the difficulties of touring. But they're talking about a type of song and I was thinking of a type of music video.

Youtube's Thumbnail

 

The thumbnail for "The Hunt for Red October" on youtube is blue. Who are the ad wizards who came up with that one?

Football on Film

 

Lately I've been watching old football highlights on youtube. There's this whole genre where they'll take a particular game from the 80s or 90s or what-have-you and condense it into 15-20 minutes of the deciding moments. It's great nostalgia as well as an interesting barometer to see how much has changed. A word to regular football viewers: football in the 1980s doesn't even appear to be the same sport as football now - and that's not a complement to the current iteration.

So anyways, posting football highlights here would be futile but here is an extremely well made "Football on Film" edit. That clips with no context can still affect the viewer emotionally is a very strange phenomenon.

Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas Celebration

 

I saw "Claymation Christmas Celebration" once, when it aired for the first time in 1987, and not a single time since then until today. Now I can't figure out why this isn't a Christmas classic that gets aired year after year throughout the generations.

It's colorful, it's whimsical, it's got great music. It's smart without the whiff of being "educational" - it doesn't talk down to its audience. It's playful without being disrespectful - either to the holiday or the traditions. It's the kind of entertainment that kids and adults can enjoy, pretty much, equally. And they were even able to get the California Raisins on to add some celebrity shine (yes, the California Raisins were already stars at this point and came on for a guest spot.)

Special shout-out to the recurring "What is wassail?" segments which were my favorite part, as a kid; and also to the "Carol of the Bells" segment, which is just perfectly executed goofiness.

The special isn't available in its entirety on youtube; you can get see it on archive.org.

And I didn't know how much of a legend Will Vinton was. You can see his work in the music video for "Moonwalker," "Return to Oz," "Captain EO" and invented The Noid and The California Raisins. That's amazing. He died in 2018.