Cocaine grooves

[davy]

I'm gonna blame that last Destroyer record for this, but lately, all I want to listen to is slick-as-shit 70s & 80s groove-oriented pop rock music, so decadent it blows fine clouds of PCP out of the speakers when you play it loud. Smoother than a small square of mirrored glass. I'm talking music you can't sing along to unless you're wearing sunglasses and a suit.

I'm talking mid-period Boz Scaggs, Bryan Ferry's solo records, Fleetwood Mac's Mirage & Tango, a little Sade on the side, Night & Day-era Joe Jackson ... Steely Dan seems too obvious to even mention here ... an entire cross-section of popular music during that time period that is maybe easier to define by what it isn't: new wave, adult contemporary, synth-pop, Sting, Elton John, Billy Joel, Bread, The Doobie Bros., etc...

My question is, what's the cream of this crop? I'm new to the game. Where to turn next? Al Stewart?

[nonotyet]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLiuMkGCOC4

too obvious?

[davy]

Nah, I'm sure there's a lot of Chicago that would fit the bill. I just don't wanna go song by song looking for it.

[coldforge]

Don't forget the Dan solo stuff, too. 'I.G.Y.' is the stereo reference song of the ages.

[tort]

The Blue Nile - Hats

[davy]

Becker and Fagen are known primarily for two things: Bitter, sarcastic lyrics that glorify the bebop hipster of yore and a maniacal attention to studio perfectionism. The world of a Steely Dan song is one of sleeping off a Scotch bender in the trunk of a Cadillac car, still dressed in a cheap suit with one last bump of C tucked in your coat pocket to chase the hangover away come morning. It’s a world of washed-up jazz musicians getting by on their name and style in a world that has passed them over. Danland is a place where LSD manufacturers are folk heroes and old men raid college campuses with a bag of snow and a bottle of tequila looking for a mate. It is a world of pure, unrelenting sleaze, worthy of the Burroughs novel from which the band takes its name. Love may not exist in Danland, but infidelity (“Haitian Divorce”), child molestation (“Everyone’s Gone to the Movies”) and lust resulting in self-loathing (“Dirty Work”) do.

The band’s influences come primarily from soul and jazz, but there are also flirtations with funk, reggae and just about every style of African-American since R&B.

The Onion knows what I'm talking about. http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/npell/2011/04/it-takes-a-lot-of-cocaine-to-be-as-smooth-as-steely-dan/

[coldforge]

I suppose that's why I've always had a lot of trouble enjoying any other 'smooth' music—the bitterness and cynicism and tragedy inherent in Steely Dan don't seem to make their way through in the same way. The cocaine part always has to be read in even proportion with the deep-seated, inveterate suspicion of physical pleasure that runs through their work.

Frankly I think the cocaine part is overblown (ha!), especially in an article like that. The musicianship is coked to the max, sure; but their best stuff has a clear-eyed, deeply cynical sobriety in it.

[auto-da-fey]

that website SongMeanings.com is not necessarily something to celebrate, but I gotta admit that until I idly perused it one day, it never occurred to me that "all the white men on the street" might be describing something other than caucasians.

[auto-da-fey]

i did get "bolivian marching powder" when I read bright lights, big city in high school though. i'm not totally clueless.

[Thermofusion]

The Doobie Brothers?
Air Supply?

uhh

Orleans?

[Thermofusion]

Christopher Cross???

[Antero]

Rick Ross?

waitaminute...

[Black Amnesia of Heaven]

The Blue Nile - Hats

The Blue Nile - Hats

The Blue Nile - Hats

The Blue Nile - Hats

The Blue Nile - Hats

[fishjim]

Tim Buckley's Greetings from L.A. might fit here. Not my favorite TB by any stretch, but it's got all the coke & sleaze you need. Which is probably why it was his top seller.

[davy]

Christopher Cross???

Maybe? That's getting closer. The Blue Nile record sounds intriguing, but I'm looking for something a little more upbeat.

I keep seeing Al Stewart's name pop up in Related Artists lists. What's his deal?

[davy]

Tim Buckley's Greetings from L.A. might fit here. Not my favorite TB by any stretch, but it's got all the coke & sleaze you need. Which is probably why it was his top seller.

I like this record! It's the only TB album I own on vinyl. I'm not sure it quite fits in here, though. Not enough keyboards!

[Thermofusion]

Christopher Cross???

Maybe? That's getting closer. The Blue Nile record sounds intriguing, but I'm looking for something a little more upbeat.

I used to listen to the Christopher Cross station on Pandora regularly, I ain't got no shame

[Babar]

I immediately thought of this. I think it fits the bill pretty well and even has one of the Doobie Brothers on it.

[davy]

I am gliding along to some righteous Bob James grooves right now:



I don't know how much cocaine is involved -- perhaps none -- but it does the trick.

[davy]

Oh man, the Mac's Tango in the Night is almost as good as Mirage for this playlist. Tip of the hat to BAoH, who tried to tell me.

[Brian Doherty]

Yes, you want Al Stewart. He was a Brit folkie in that late 60s Brit folkie vein who turned all slick studio pop in the mid to late 70s. He liked writing weird songs about historical figures of a sort that a British smarty pants might be into. His big hits "Time Passages" and "Year of the Cat" I think are exactly what you want. I too adore this sort of music. It mostly works in singles.

[Brian Doherty]

That Kenny Loggins/Stevie Nicks song "Whenever I Call You Friend" is I think one of the most massive studio creations of this era/type. Sounds like pure cream pouring into your ears. Almost any "soft rock" made 74-78 sounds stupendously great to me on pure sonics, whether or not the songs are good.

[Brian Doherty]

this is also a good list of specific hit singles in the style, though not all are as superslick studiowise:

http://music.ign.com/articles/710/710545p1.html

[Thermofusion]

I like most the songs on that list except for that damn Toto bullshit

[coldforge]

Christopher Cross looks just like a chubby Chris Pratt (who looks just like Jeb).