Great tunes that take me back ... to what I don't know exactly, but it's a cozy place.
When I need to wake up at a specific time, I prefer to awaken to music. I have a few song snippets I use as my alarm.
I refuse to use the phrase "yacht rock" after someone on here (if memory serves) wrote an enlightening article about its origins. I grew up on soft rock and transitioned to harder rock after I discovered my parents' radio had FM capabilities, and that they didn't object to me changing the station as long as I changed it back when I was done listening.
Sorry it's taken me so long to follow up; it's been a very busy morning. It wasn't a Substack piece. It's a Rick Beato video, titled "Yacht Rock Is Bullshit": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEYUw2kiRfc
These are all great songs and I could hear them in my head while reading along! I recently saw the video for John Waite’s Missing You (it’s on an 80s Music Video YouTube channel and I was being lazy). I hadn’t seen it in yeeeeeeaaaaaarrrrrrs. In addition to always saying “Yes, You are definitely missing her” every time he sang “I ain’t missing you”, I noticed that in the video he LITERALLY misses her. She shows up at his place and is knocking on his door, but he’s listening to the song with headphones on and doesn’t hear her.
I’m curious: if you made it a Top Ten, would Fogelburg’s “Another Auld Lang Syne” be included?
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the music video for “Missing You”. That’s clever that he continued to “miss” her in the video. Not sure that Fogelburg track would make a top ten but definitely a top 20. It’s a great song
I enjoyed the setting of the scene, Mark. The lying in bed, the snuggles, the comfort, and the warmth—not just of the bed, but of each other. While I am unfamiliar with the songs you detail, music being the soundtrack of these precious, intimate, and routine moments of our day is another example of why music and song are the universal language of humanity.
I’m a little surprised that you didn’t know any of these tracks to be hones. Perhaps I assumed they were well known for the most part, particularly Brandy and Wildfire. Where I grew up this type of music felt ubiquitous in the late 70s and early 80s
I played a couple, and they didn't jump out at me as having heard them before. The soft AOR, or yacht rock, genre was never an area I deeply or actively explored. As a kid, it was all hard rock, and then as a teen, I got really interested in '60s psych. My psych period widened into contemporary psych and lasted pretty late, as I was still intensely into it as recently as six or seven years ago. But, in the last ten or so years, I have listened to less rock and a lot more soul, jazz, funk, and music from other countries, especially Africa. These days, when I go into a record store, I sometimes don't even look through the rock section.
Growing up in the grimy, industrial Midwest (Cleveland)—the seventies for white teens, especially white boys, was very much a diet of hard, heavy rock, and by the '80s that morphed into heavy metal. I flirted with metal, but never to the point where I was ever a metalhead. By 16, I was traveling with friends to see the Grateful Dead.
Very original post! You always come up with really good and creative ideas.
Not familiar with the songs, but I can totally relate to the feeling of needing those extra 3 (or 5, or 10, or fifteen… 😅) minutes to face the inescapable reality of another day 😂
Thanks Andy, this was a fun one! Tina and I both agreed we want to go back to being awakened by music in our new home. It’s such a lovely way to be eased into the day
My dad listened to a syndicated radio show called "Solid Gold Saturday Night" almost every weekend when I was growing up in the '80s, and pretty much all of these songs bring me back to that time. I miss my dad (gone now 4 years next month), but he lives on in songs like this, and that just makes me love them more. Thanks for sharing!
There’s something so comforting about this music from my youth, a simpler time, no responsibilities, good times with family. Thanks for being here Matt!
Great tunes that take me back ... to what I don't know exactly, but it's a cozy place.
When I need to wake up at a specific time, I prefer to awaken to music. I have a few song snippets I use as my alarm.
I refuse to use the phrase "yacht rock" after someone on here (if memory serves) wrote an enlightening article about its origins. I grew up on soft rock and transitioned to harder rock after I discovered my parents' radio had FM capabilities, and that they didn't object to me changing the station as long as I changed it back when I was done listening.
A cozy place indeed!! It’ll always be soft rock for me. The music of my youth for sure and takes me back to a simpler time and place
Going to have to check into the origins of “yacht rock” now!
Please enlighten us when you find out!!
Sorry it's taken me so long to follow up; it's been a very busy morning. It wasn't a Substack piece. It's a Rick Beato video, titled "Yacht Rock Is Bullshit": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEYUw2kiRfc
Awesome! Thanks for the link! I googled between errands earlier, but hadn’t had a chance to really read any of what I was finding
These are all great songs and I could hear them in my head while reading along! I recently saw the video for John Waite’s Missing You (it’s on an 80s Music Video YouTube channel and I was being lazy). I hadn’t seen it in yeeeeeeaaaaaarrrrrrs. In addition to always saying “Yes, You are definitely missing her” every time he sang “I ain’t missing you”, I noticed that in the video he LITERALLY misses her. She shows up at his place and is knocking on his door, but he’s listening to the song with headphones on and doesn’t hear her.
I’m curious: if you made it a Top Ten, would Fogelburg’s “Another Auld Lang Syne” be included?
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the music video for “Missing You”. That’s clever that he continued to “miss” her in the video. Not sure that Fogelburg track would make a top ten but definitely a top 20. It’s a great song
I enjoyed the setting of the scene, Mark. The lying in bed, the snuggles, the comfort, and the warmth—not just of the bed, but of each other. While I am unfamiliar with the songs you detail, music being the soundtrack of these precious, intimate, and routine moments of our day is another example of why music and song are the universal language of humanity.
I’m a little surprised that you didn’t know any of these tracks to be hones. Perhaps I assumed they were well known for the most part, particularly Brandy and Wildfire. Where I grew up this type of music felt ubiquitous in the late 70s and early 80s
I played a couple, and they didn't jump out at me as having heard them before. The soft AOR, or yacht rock, genre was never an area I deeply or actively explored. As a kid, it was all hard rock, and then as a teen, I got really interested in '60s psych. My psych period widened into contemporary psych and lasted pretty late, as I was still intensely into it as recently as six or seven years ago. But, in the last ten or so years, I have listened to less rock and a lot more soul, jazz, funk, and music from other countries, especially Africa. These days, when I go into a record store, I sometimes don't even look through the rock section.
Interesting. It’s as much an indication of just how small and insular my world was growing up that I’d assume others had a similar experience.
Growing up in the grimy, industrial Midwest (Cleveland)—the seventies for white teens, especially white boys, was very much a diet of hard, heavy rock, and by the '80s that morphed into heavy metal. I flirted with metal, but never to the point where I was ever a metalhead. By 16, I was traveling with friends to see the Grateful Dead.
Very original post! You always come up with really good and creative ideas.
Not familiar with the songs, but I can totally relate to the feeling of needing those extra 3 (or 5, or 10, or fifteen… 😅) minutes to face the inescapable reality of another day 😂
Thanks Andy, this was a fun one! Tina and I both agreed we want to go back to being awakened by music in our new home. It’s such a lovely way to be eased into the day
My dad listened to a syndicated radio show called "Solid Gold Saturday Night" almost every weekend when I was growing up in the '80s, and pretty much all of these songs bring me back to that time. I miss my dad (gone now 4 years next month), but he lives on in songs like this, and that just makes me love them more. Thanks for sharing!
There’s something so comforting about this music from my youth, a simpler time, no responsibilities, good times with family. Thanks for being here Matt!
Wildfire was one of the 45s I had and played on repeat with my little Holly Hobbie suitcase record player when I was little ❤️
Ah man, I remember those little suitcase players were all the rage back then weren’t they! Wildfire really is a classic