Dock Rockers
An avowed, unabashed dad-rocker, of late I cannot unshackle myself from these A.M. Goldilocks: not too hot, not too cold, the tunes I want to listen to are caught somewhere in between last year’s Linen Shirts & Lemonade and 2015’s Friday Night Feels. Not for night swimming nor for backyard swinging, Dock Rockers encapsulates a summer vibe all its own. This is for those sure-footed moments with the ones you love, bopping and bumping in the backyard, or as the title might suggest, at dockside, with a breezy drink in hand and the smell of still waters shimmering beneath your Sebagos.
Shortly after I did a deep-dive of what’s come to be known as “Yacht Rock” in a thirteen-and-a-half-hour beta-mix called Better Adult Contemporary, I found a wonderful Salon article that suggests this music is experiencing a renaissance. Infused with plenty of modern riffs on the boat-based fraternity favorites, it admittedly goes all over the place, but after spending several days driving around Los Angeles with the top down, I’m happy to report that it holds up. It even works on shuffle. I’m breaking with my tradition and sharing my summer tunes on the Fourth of July this year in hopes you do so much dock rocking the next two months that you report back on how your boat shoes needed a resole come Labor Day.
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Tracks:
1) Young Gun Silver Fox – Better
2) Mapei – Don’t Wait
3) Amber Mark & Mia Mark – Monsoon
4) Dua Lipa – Thinking ‘bout You
5) HAIM – Little of Your Love
6) accord – No Good
7) Amandla Stenberg – Let My Baby Stay
8) Nilüfer Yanya – Keep on Calling (Vasco Remix)
9) ‘Om’ Alec Khaoli & Umoja – Say You Love Me
10) African Vibration – Hinde
11) Mop Mop – Kamakumba
12) Diane Tell Je suis en amour
13) Maria Gadù – Shimbalaiè
14) Cecilio & Kapono – Someday
15) Khalid – Location
16) Domo Genesis & Anderson .Paak – Dapper
17) Thundercat, Flying Lotus, & Kamasi Washington – Them Changes
18) Childish Gambino – Redbone
19) Guordan Banks – Keep You in Mind
20) SBTRKT & Little Dragon – Wildfire
21) Xavier Omär – Blind Man
22) Twelve’len – My Baby / Scarlet Red Love Tales
23) Lauv – I Like Me Better
24) Bleachers – Goodmorning
25) alt-J – Deadcrush
26) Amy Stroup – Magic
27) Fat Night – Sun Go Down
28) Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Multi-Love
29) Shabazz Palaces, Quazarz, & Thaddillac
30) Prince – Starfish And Coffee
31) Black Star – Fix Up
32) Surfing – Hit the Spot
33) Flo Morrissey and Matthew E. White – Look at What the Light Did Now
34) Chromeo – Lost on the Way Home (feat. Solange)
35) Jordan Rakei – Midnight Mischief (Tom Misch Remix)
36) The Black Crowes – Wiser Time
37) The Building – Have to Forgive
38) Jan Hammer Group – Don’t You Know
39) Vondelpark – California Analog Dream
40) Canyon – Country Lovin
41) Marshall Hain – Take My Number
42) Boss Selection – Flip and Rewind (feat. Rashida Jones)
43) Saint Motel – Something About Us (at Spotify Studios NYC)
44) Omar Velasco – Paloma
45) This Is The Kit – Moonshine Freeze
46) Daniel T. – Mission Hill Morning
47) KAYTRANADA & Syd – You’re the One
48) Temples – Certainty
49) Tennis – In the Morning I’ll Be Better
50) Big L & Jay-Z – Stretch and Bobbito Show ’95
51) Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Ma Cherie Amour
52) Matthew Larkin Cassell – One Night
53) Loggins & Messina – Angry Eyes
54) Dave Mason – Then It’s Alright
55) Todd Rungren – I Saw the Light
56) Willie Mitchell – Breaking Point
57) Ambrosia – Biggest Part of Me
58) Bernie Leadon – Glass Off
59) Sea Level – Living in a Dream
60) Universal Togetherness Band – My Sentiment
61) Brian Protheroe – Pinball
62) Henri Texier – Les “La-bas”
63) Gil Scott-Heron – Lady Day And John Coltrane
64) Talking Heads – The Big Country
65) Buzzy Linhart – The Love’s Still Growing
66) Jacob Gurevitsch – Mexican Margarita
67) Young-Holt Unlimited – Young & Holt
68) Penguin Cafe – Protection
69) Mark Ronson & Kevin Parker – Summer Breaking
70) Amber Mark – Way Back
Track Notes: Kick off with a song from Young Gun Silver Fox, a duo whose freshman effort West End Coast pays heavy tribute to the genre infusing elements of Doobies, Eagles, and Fleetwood Mac, and merges quickly into a six song “she’s suite,” modern music flush with strong feminine voices. My friend Roy threw some excellent African tunes from the 80s on when we were cruising around the Silver Lake Reservoir the other day, and I had to include them here. “Redbone,” Childish Gambino’s latest hit is everywhere. It will be the song of the summer. In effort to include the deepest cuts, a tough task given the ubiquity of seventies soft rock, while eradicating the obvious, I felt compelled to incorporate a top five hit from Ambrosia and Todd Rungren. And since his library’s recent inclusion on Spotify, Prince has been injected this mix [be sure to do the deep-dive on his Purple Rain remastering which includes 26 never-before heard tracks selected by the man himself]. His song “Starfish and Coffee” is an all-time favorite, fresh as the day it first emerged from the Yamaha NS-10s at Paisley Park. Take a deliberate turn south with the inclusion of my all-time favorite band, The Black Crowes, whose Amorica has been something of a recent rediscovery, as I’ve done a deep dive on some high school tunes. Don’t miss Radio That Changed Lives, a great documentary on NYC rap pioneers and DJ Stretch and MC Bobbito. It’s streaming on Netflix now [In middle school, I would trade Grateful Dead tapes for their tapes at Skateport Plaza in Saint Louis]. When he saw that I’d spent several days listening to nothing but Stevie Wonder, my friend Adam shared this strangely cool cover of “Ma Cherie Amour” by Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Everyone needs to see Mike Mills‘ Twentieth Century Women, the best movie I saw last year, if only for the Talking Heads tracks. Famous: The Buzzy Linhart Story broke my heart. Is it me or does this Penguin Cafe tune borrow from this track from James Horner’s score for Sneakers? Be sure to see their Tiny Desk Concert. “Summer Breaking” accompanied me and my friend John on our first surf trip yesterday, and Ronson’s Donald Fagen-esque riffs felt like the best way to round up a seventy-track, five hour, yacht rock mix.
“Way Back” has been my theme song this summer.
Also worth a listen, Seafaring Strangers: Private Yacht, Numero Group’s excellent tribute to the genre which was brought to my attention by Jocelyn Romo.
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