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7 Sea Songs From The 70s

"Women love that sensitive nautical shit."

So many damn songs about oceans and boats in the 1970s - I suppose thus giving credibility to the label "Yacht Rock", for which I confessed my thoughts and feelings a couple years back. But I'll save you a click and say that I love the genre (as made up as it is) but I hate the name - the very idea of yachts is so obnoxious and elitist that it makes it that much harder to mellow out, man.

Semantics aside, here are 7 seafaring songs recorded during the 70s that I love as much as the woman I left back on land, but not as much as the current that carries me toward the horizon. 

- Paul

"Sailing"

The Sutherland Bros. Band

Known by most as a megahit for Rod Stewart in 1975, this original version from '72 is presented with a much more sinister urgency that better suits what the song is actually about. Rod's version is celebrated as a romantic tale of crossing the ocean to return to a loved one, but supposedly it's about hurtling through the cosmos in the afterlife. In that context, this version hits ways harder. 

"Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)"

Looking Glass

The somber story of a bartender and the guy who left her in favor of boating. It's a sweet melodrama that has the rhythms of a true Sailor's legend, and it's vivid in all the right ways; I'm sure we all have our own unique image in our minds of what Brandy looks like, and if you're as pedantic as I then you probably picture the same straight-haired filly from the roller rink that all the boys pictured when this song came out. 

"Sail On Sailor"

The Beach Boys

For a moment, the Boys grew weary of driving up and down the same ol' strip and headed out to the high seas, in search of inspiration and thunderstorms. Or something. I'm no Beach Boys fan (in the right mood you could call me a hater), so my angle is that, not only is this a cool song, but it's a cool song for them; there's an ocean of difference between "All the girls get so tanned" and "Sail through the sorrows of life's marauders". 

"Sailing"

Christopher Cross

One could assume this is where "Yacht Rock" got its name (I can't imagine what the argument against that would be). This may be a good time to point out that I've never been sailing and don't intend to, but I do love fresh air and warm sunshine and nature and tranquility, and the real achievement of this song is that it sounds like those things regardless of its literal subject matter. FYI: this whole debut album sorta has that vibe. 

"Sail Away Sweet Sister"

Queen

This choice comes with a few acknowledgments: it was released in 1980 (though it was recorded in '79 so there), and its references to marine life are minimal at best. Actually it's about Brian May being confined to the "friend zone" by the woman he loves and allowing her to sail off and find a life without him, free of guilt. But again, like the Christopher Cross song, it creates an auditory ambience of crashing through the icy waves, while simultaneously bookended by an ominous bassline that recalls the unnerving rocking of calmer waters. 

"Come Sail Away"

Styx

Like nearly all these songs the whole "sailing" idea is most likely a metaphor for more cerebral modes of travel. And again we start to lean heavy into the space exploration stuff (Queen also did this exact same thing with their song "'39"). Let's face it, by the 1970s the great unknown was no longer on this planet - a boundless romance lay in the stars. 

"I'm Your Captain (Closer to Home)"

Grand Funk Railroad

Saved my favorite for last. An honest to god yarn that possibly transitions into a ghost story and crescendos with an all out Sea Shanty, utilizing ten minutes with a forward momentum that promises land (or some kinda salvation) is fast approaching. It'd be a thrill to use it in its entirety in a movie, but in the meantime it's always exhilarating to experience it in the movie of my life.