I’ve always liked the Little River Band’s Cool Change. What I didn’t realize till last night was WHY I like it, aside from the usual reasons (lyrics, tune). Seeing a video of the song set completely to videos of dolphins and whales playing suddenly clicked the light on: It’s the rhythm, stupid. The song feels like being on gentle ocean swells.
Can pnetters think of other songs with similar feel? Makes me want to be out there.
Another favorite sailing song
Sailing by Christopher Cross
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7khQNR7s1Ho
Dylan’s song Boots of Spanish Leather by Mandolin Orange
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOHkyZ62jjQ
The first thing that came to mind was Across the Universe by The Beatles.
For the car ride to the coast I wanna hear Ocean Man by Ween.
Funny Across the Universe was one I almost posted too.
Beachcombing by Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xRUQWvQn6M
I once ran a barn dance band. During one rehearsal evening our mandolin player couldn’t get the rhythm of an Athabascan tune. He spent most of his life sailing alone around the world in his rusty steel yacht. I suggested he could think of each eight bar repeated section as the ocean swell, think of each bar as a wind wave, and think of each note as a ripple on the face of each wave. He got the rhythm of the tune straight away.
Nick.
Judy Collins’ rendition of the traditional song of whaling in Greenland “Farewell to Tarwathie” in which she is accompanied by recordings of humpback whales singing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY_65QY8VAc
Canadian folk-rocker Bruce Cockburn has a lot of such cuts. Here’s one, “Look How Far”:
Also Cockburn’s evocative “The End of All Rivers” – no lyrics but a river theme and definite paddling cadence (images are the Amazon):
I keep thinking of more Cockburn pieces, especially the solo guitar instrumentals that he usually includes in his albums. Another one that evokes surf and drifting: “Islands in a Black Sky”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3Td5R8PXjA
Santana’s “Canto de Los Flores” from the album “Borboletta”. The dominant rhythm feels like ocean swells and the percussion is like paddle cadence:
Back in the High Life by Steve Winwood
My musical horizons have been expanded.
@Rex said:
Castoff! Love the Emmylou tune.
You might like this one then.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz6V0HXRg8M
Emmylou can make “Happy Birthday to You” sound like art.
Since everyone else is providing music links, here is the one that got me thinking about swells.