Anteater's Yacht Rock Extravaganza

Anteater · 12-07-2014, 09:32 PM

Steve Kipner - Knock The Walls Down (1979)

"Oh no, not another one / Not another romantic fool / Your all the same / Your just like me / Welcome to the school of broken hearts..."

Our next album voyage on the S.S. Wimp Rawk comes in the form of someone who actually become incredibly successful after the fact. Steve Kipner may not be a name most of you are familiar with, but I'd say pretty much everyone on planet Earth has encountered his songs at some point in their lives. Olivia-Newton John's 'Physical'? Chicago's 'Hard Habit To Break'? Christina Aguilera's 'Genie In A Bottle'? Those are just a few of the commercial juggernauts that this guy has penned. Gives guys like Max Martin a run for his money, and that's probably a bit modest.

Everyone, however, has a starting point in their careers no matter how successful (or relatively unsuccessful) they become later. In Kipner's case, his one and only solo outing Knock The Walls Down also marks the starting point for the production career of L.A. guitar messiah Jay Graydon, fresh off axe duties on Steely Dan's Aja and already in the midst of writing immortal tunes like 'After The Love Is Gone' for Earth, Wind & Fire alongside heavyweights like David Foster.

The creation of this particular record, therefore, is a very pivotal one in Westcoast-AOR / yacht rock canon: it literally catapulted the primary careers of two of the biggest names in early 80's L.A. pop-rock into platinum success stories.

But even if you took that fact out of the equation though and rated this album based purely on its own merits, this thing is a top flight yacht rock album on the songwriting end of things. Furthermore, the personnel is simply aces: you not only have Graydon in creative control, but also guys like Steve Lukather and Larry Carlton, two of the best guitarists of all time in any genre. This is one of the few times where all of these cats were actually on a record together, and the level of polish and performance you get as a result of that is out of this world.

The first thing you'll notice is that Kipner has a pretty decent voice: a bit plaintive, but its got a snarky touch of character to it. Sounds even better when Graydon applies his magic from behind the scenes to create those harmonies, which you get on 'The Beginning' and the foot-tapping title track. Speaking of which, the remastered version of this album absolutely jumps off a decent sound system, and Graydon's mixing & mastering of everything here is right up there with any of Toto's best stuff or Michael Jackson's Thriller in terms of clarity. Things like that can't usually save bad songwriting of course, but when you've got cuts as good as 'I've Got To Stop This Hurting You' to work with, the results speak for themselves.

Another interesting thing you'll notice as you listen through is a sense that Kipner intended Knock The Walls Down to be a loose concept record in some respects about not only life and romance in L.A., but about the pursuit of success in the music industry too. Nobody typically steps into this sort of genre for anything besides the sheer joys of hearing these immaculate productions play out, but Donald Fagen and Dan Fogelberg this ain't in the lyrical department. The former writes about gangsters and the latter mediated on numerous occasion about grander concepts (more on that later), but Steve Kipner is mostly interested in wry observations on intrinsically shallow relationships and feelings of bitter isolation on both sides of the gender divide.

The album's best moment, interestingly enough, actually comes in on the sardonic closer 'The Ending', which thanks the listener for sitting through the album before erupting into one of the best extended guitar solos you'll ever have the pleasure of hearing outside the realms of hard rock or heavy metal. Wonder why I gush on Jay Graydon all the time? From 1:35 onwards I think you'll be suitably impressed...heh.

There's a lot of classics floating around the backlog of the yacht rock vaults, but Kipner definitely stamped his own unique mark in the world of smooth music world before sailing off towards more commercially viable horizons. And honestly, I kind of wish he'd stuck around for another album or two...

Anteater · 12-13-2014, 11:13 PM

Quote:

"Hey mister, you gonna keep me here all night? We're at the marina now."

Koko snapped awake to the cabbie's voice. By the smooth grace of Michael H. Christ McDonald, had he really fallen asleep in only five minutes? That weird pimp getting off earlier must have been some kind of unconscious stress relief. Either that or that last week in studio was finally catching up to him.

"Here's two fives. Have a good night."
"No problem buddy. Don't do anything tonight I wouldn't do eh?"

As the cabbie drove back toward the main drag, Koko surveyed the nearby dock and a tiki bar ahead that connected to the pier's walkway: there was a small crowd, mostly young couples. A scruffy disc jockey was setup on stage, vinyl lined up like dominoes beside him. The sun had set and nobody was sailing, but that was fine. Sometimes a good view, a few drinks and music was all you needed.

"The usual, cap'n?" asked Leroy Haus from his usual place behind the counter. He was mixing shots left and right, his eyes on the job at hand, but he knew his regulars before they even sat down.

Koko pulled up a stool. "Any Patrón back there?"

"You bet'cha."

"Let's do a Viridian tonight then. Two kiwis"

"Got'cha. Just don't tell that guy-" he motioned at the person asleep in a filthy looking jersey at the opposite end. "He owes me a tab two lifetimes couldn't make right."

Koko raised an eyebrow from behind his smooth shades. "...and you still let him drink? That's a surprise."

Leroy shrugged, sighed as he massaged his left temple with a resigned kind of irritation. "He was my brother's best mate when they served in 'Nam together. Two of a kind: Big bro Nick and Lt. Steven Harter. But Stevie there, he hasn't had work in five years. Too angry and messed up inside, can't hold anything down. Its hell watching him come here every night. But I'm afraid if I don't keep him boozed up I'll wake up one day and see his name in the obituary."

"Sounds like your trying to plug leak after leak in a boat that's destined to sink."

Leroy rolled his eyes. "Are you going to be making those stupid boat puns at me til I'm dead from cancer? Anyway-"

"Sorry Leroy, quiet a sec would ya?" Koko cut in, raising a finger.

Some disco long player had ended a minute ago, and the DJ had slipped on a new '12 record after briefly naming the group and the jam in question over his mic as Leroy had gone into Stevie's story. But despite not paying attention at first, in the space of one minute or so Koko found himself sucked in completely. This song...it was so strange...but so smooth. Who were these guys? The DJ said they were from Germany or something...

And then the lyrics came, and Koko's attention was suddenly pulled toward Steven Harter, who had stood up from his stupor at some point after the song began. Tears were running uncontrollably down his cheeks before the first chorus had run its course. As the song played out over the next ten minutes, Koko realized he felt a little misty eyed himself, a rare event under most circumstances.

"Take my life and write it down
Sure won't take much time
Won't be so much there to see
It's all between the lines.

Tried my hand at better things
Never worked out right
Spent 10 years to find the dream
Was there before my eyes

And now I try to make up for those days
Make a new start
Can't be worse than that day.
Try to forget all those times..
Make a new start
And live out the lie
And live out the lie..."

As Steven let his tears flow and the couples continued to dance (with the occasional uneasy sideward glance) and the smoothness of the jam petered off into quiet, Leroy handed Koko his drink. Koko nodded, threw in a few bucks. After an exchange of nods, the sailor-turned-wannabe singer/songwriter walked out toward the water and left the music behind him. His mood had turned around unexpectedly: seeing a broken war veteran actually start crying to the sort of music Koko loved was...actually very sombering. And yet it made him happy too.

And most importantly, it made him feel like maybe he could really pull this off for Amadeus despite his initial misgivings. If a song that smooth could come from some bunch of landlocked Krauts he had never even heard of before, who was he to feel discouraged? The talent was out there all over the world...he just had to find it. Simple as simple could be. He just had to stay focused!

He watched the water for awhile, smiling a bit without realizing it. As the stars flickered like dim apparitions above the L.A. haze, he downed his Viridian and eventually made his way along the shore toward his private boathouse. He would rest, stay positive, and prepare for the coming day ahead...

Lake - Between The Lines (from Lake, 1977)

This delicious hybrid between progressive rock and vintage L.A. jazz-rock groovage was the closing number on German rock band Lake's self titled debut from '77, and its quite a doozy truth be told. Texturally its not all that different from the kind of stuff Fleetwood Mac and Ambrosia were churning out in the first part of the early 70's, but the huge vocals of James Hopkins-Harrison and that killer interplay between the Hammond organ and that modular keyboard motif is the stuff of legends. And for those who care about lyrics, the song tells the story of a man running from a regretful past and, desperately, trying to achieve some semblance of an upstanding life despite a poisonous guilt eating him alive from the inside out. Not the typical sort of thing you run into when your looking for a disposable Anglo-funk breezer to play on your boat, but these are the gems that make this genre worth exploring and talking about.

Anteater · 12-18-2014, 05:20 PM

The Making Of: Steely Dan's Aja

Instead of the madcap adventures of Captain Koko or a new album spotlight, lettuce take a look at the making of yacht rock's equivalent to 'Sgt. Pepper's Club', the immaculate pinnacle of L.A. Westcoastiness known as Aja, courtesy of Steely Dan.

I'll be giving this baby a review of it's own down the line at some point, but this hour long look into the album's background is both wryly amusing and quite fascinating in equal measure. Enjoy!

Chula Vista · 12-18-2014, 05:43 PM

^^^^

That whole "Classic Albums" series is great.

Really like that Steve Kipner stuff.

Anteater · 01-01-2015, 10:57 PM

Fleetwood Mac - Mystery To Me (1973)

"It's the same kind of story / That seems to come down from long ago / Two friends having coffee together / When something flies by their window / It might be out on that lawn / Which is wide, at least half of a playing field. / Because there's no explaining what your imagination / Can make you see and feel..."

Fleetwood Mac are as famous as famous gets. And for most folks, the journey starts in the mid 70's with their self-titled or at that commercial juggernaut known as Rumours. In retrospect though, Mick Fleetwood's circus act was actually a whole lot more interesting before Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham joined the fray, specifically in that brief period of '71 through '73 when eccentric guitarist Bob Welch was part of the grand equation. Sure, record execs would joke that Fleetwood Mac could expect to cover their electric bills but little else on the middling strength of their album sales based on prior releases, but we all know who had the last laugh in the end.

In any case, Bob had a hard set of shoes to fill: founding frontman Peter Green had left the building and the band was constantly on the verge of falling apart on tour. Despite constant setbacks, Welch and keyboardist/songwriter Christine McVie pulled together for several albums, the best and last of which is the subject of this review. It wasn't a big seller, but of the many albums which laid the bedrock for the yacht rock sound that became popular in the later part of the decade, Mystery To Me is perhaps my favorite. You can already hear hints of the pop superstardom that was to come for these guys, but there's a delicious laidback strangeness on songs like the self-explanatory 'Hypnotized' and the groovy chamber pop of 'Keep On Going' that sounds a million miles away from the sound these guys went for in their platinum years, and I honestly kinda wish they had kept going in this direction on future material.

Perhaps the most surreal moment for me was when I first heard the song 'Somebody'. the vocals and the chord progression sounds like Steely Dan circa The Royal Scam, another classic album that wouldn't be born for a couple years yet. Welch may not have been made for stadiums, but he was one hell of a prescient songwriter.

This particular lineup of the 'Mac would mostly carry over into 1974's Heroes Are Hard To Find, perhaps the band's strangest and darkest album and the last of its "kind" before Welch quit the band and took his knack for blending accessible and experimental with him. He's been dead a few years now too, which means the opportunity for a reunion of a pre-Nicks lineup is effectively impossible. Damn it!

In conclusion though, my main motivation for talking about this album is to demonstrate that there really is a spectrum in all styles, no matter your preference. Whether its post-punk or dubstep or, of course, yacht rock...well, there's the fluffiest of the fluff and there's also stuff that tries to be a lot more than a succession of hooks and pure formula or an adherence to the expectations of the converted. This is one that falls into the second category in most respects, and there are others on my Westocoast-AOR essential listening list that follow suit. 2015 here we come!

Anteater · 01-11-2015, 10:30 PM

Quote:

In his dream that was not a dream, the Pacific coastline was congested in strange, translucent metal that swam the bright blue skies. His car was flying, propelled by energies unknown to him. The hood was down, the wind roaring in his ears as a gorgeous song filled his mind like a glass. Sparkling waves of sound, each chord sustained indefinitely above the waterline, a distant supercity wavering like a mirage where the horizon was clearest. His joy knew no bounds, and his journey went on and on without an end. Sailing through the skies to a divine soundtrack....

And then, without warning, Koko was awake in the present and the song was already out of memory. Disappointed and left with a feeling of melancholy that was hard to put into words, he remembered he was seated along with countless others on an international flight to Okinawa, Japan.

"The women over there are the best," Amadeus had told him the following morning after his run in with Leroy. "There's some very promising artists over there, and I've already made a few calls. You'll be meeting our rep over there and get the lay of the land. Find someone we can do an English recording for that will dominate smooth music for the next few years!"

He had laughed alongside his boss at that moment, but Koko wasn't quite as thrilled on the inside. He would have preferred Europe before Japan or Korea or, God forbid, The Philippines.

"This is your captain speaking. We are three hours out from Iejima Airport. Skies are clear, turbulance is minimal. Thank you for choosing Republic Airlines".

It was a slightly odd feeling having to think of someone else as "captain" for any length of time, especially when you'd owned your own boat as long as Koko had. That being said, this flight has passed like a cloud over the sea and soon he would smell a new surf and behold a beautiful new place he had never been before.

With thoughts like that floating in his mind, Koko peacefully drifted off to sleep again for the final leg of the journey, hoping to once again be thrown into that dream beyond memory...

Greeen Linez - Hibiscus Pacific (from Things That Fade, 2012)

A purely instrumental, heavenly slice of hi-tech yacht rock from the modern age. Warm beds of synth bounce along to a gated reverb drum sample, accompanied by something resembling a tropical xylophone that weaves in and out of the mix like some lost Californian specter. Gorgeous, gorgeous stuff. It's a song equally Westcoast-AOR and the beach pop of 80's Japan, a genre I'll be delving into in future installments of this journal. For now though, make do with this electronic music duo and their uncanny ability to evoke smooth music's sunkissed past in all its glory.

Trollheart · 01-12-2015, 05:01 PM

Hey man! Congrats on a well-deserved award!

12-18-2014, 05:43 PM	#4 (permalink)
Chula Vista Toasted Poster Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: SoCal by way of Boston Posts: 11,332	^^^^ That whole "Classic Albums" series is great. Really like that Steve Kipner stuff. __________________ “The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

01-12-2015, 05:01 PM	#7 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,996	Hey man! Congrats on a well-deserved award! __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018