🚢Yacht Pop Anchors #2: Eric Carmen, Sutherland Bros. & Quiver, Grand Funk
We embark on a voyage to a land of lesser-heard classic rock artists & tunes! Yacht Rock Radio might play them, but some of these eluded terrestrial radio 5 decades ago. We're doing what they didn't!
“Yacht rock,” proclaims the mighty Wiki, “is a broad music style and aesthetic commonly associated with soft rock, one of the most commercially successful genres from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s.”
Here, it’s the loud, but smooth collision of The Bottom Ten, the anti-hit, with the more power pop-leaning tunes (sometimes highlighting the power but mostly the pop…oh, there will be guitars!), and mostly by longtime, legacy artists with whom you might already be familiar!
You might hear these songs or artists on Yacht Rock stations. That won’t exclude them from being present here, where they’ll get even more exposure, and their overall appreciation and contributions will be highlighted!
🚢Yacht Pop Formula: Pop, Power, Few Ears, Artists with Length🚢
Eric Carmen “Sunrise,” 1975, Arista Records
In May 1975, upon the completion of the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour, Peter Gabriel left Genesis. This caused seismic aftershocks in the prog and general rock world, and questions emerged about the band’s future as rapidly as they formed about the future of the band’s former lead singer.
Having recorded demos for a solo album by the end of ‘75, Gabriel spent 1976 recording his debut Peter Gabriel (aka “Car”), with a release date of February 1977, with noted rock producer Bob Ezrin at the helm, the only man (certainly in retrospect) who could’ve gotten that album’s sound. Curiously, Ezrin never returned to a Gabriel sound board until they reunited in 2009 for the recording of Scratch My Back.
Having been a several-year fan of Genesis by this point (and having seen the Gabriel-led band, live, twice…once in Austin in 1974, and the ‘75 Lamb tour stop in Houston), I was intensely interested in not only how Genesis would continue, but what would a solo Gabriel album sound like?
Related:
In February ‘77, when my stylus first met “Moribund The Burgermeister,” every question was answered with a resounding, “Wow” (certainly with “Solsbury Hill”)!
What’s Going On Here?
Another favorite band of mine, The Raspberries, blew up in April 1975, about a month before Genesis lost Gabriel. Eric Carmen (above, far left), like Gabriel in a few short weeks, was left wondering what his now-bandless future looked like.
Between 1972 through 1974, The Raspberries, with four studio albums and Carmen as their lead singer and main songwriter, became the lead float in the rapidly growing parade of early-’70s power pop acts (joining the likes of Big Star, Blue Ash, Badfinger, Cheap Trick, The Flamin’ Groovies, The Nazz—and Todd Rundgren solo—Pezband, The Rubinoos, Shoes, Roy Wood solo, his Wizzard, and more).
As William Ruhlmann of AllMusic put it: “Carmen achieved far greater success with his debut solo album than he ever had with his old group, The Raspberries. In part this was because, freed from the restrictions of leading a rock band, he could indulge his taste in big, lush ballads. That’s what he did here, especially on the album’s three Top 40 hits, one of which, ‘All by Myself,’ was a gold-selling #2 hit.”
It’s likely Eric’s alleged propensity for “big, lush ballads” was the product that attracted the all-but-drooling Clive Davis to pounce on the former head Raspberrie to mold him into a Barry Manilow 2.0 for Arista Records. In fact, I remember following all this at the time, and reading about Davis signing Carmen. I wasn’t alone in hoping Clive wouldn’t turn a perfectly good rock’n’pop songwriter into a schmaltzy, middle-of-the-road lounge act. Just to be clear, I’m a longtime big, fat Fanilow. To wit:
Frankly, much like the Gabriel debut, doubts were quickly dispensed for Carmen’s debut after the first track, produced, like all four ground-breaking Raspberries albums, by Jimmy Ienner, Carmen’s only reasonable choice. And, Carmen, it should be noted, arranged every song, and played guitar, synth, harpsichord, and piano. He wrote 9 of the ten songs, with “On Broadway,” of course, being a cover of the Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil/Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller classic.
“Sunrise,” if you bend your ear just a tad, even seems to have some surprisingly Genesis-ian touches: A lengthy, atmospheric synth intro, a Steve Hackett-like guitar solo over the piano…..then, POW!
Spector meets Beach Boys in a rollicking rouser, propelled by a jet-stream of virtually-constant harmonies throughout! Every musician on the album sang back-up, even the drummers, Mike McBride (from The Raspberries) and Dwight Krueger!
Joining them on backing vocals were Steve Knill (bass), Richard Reising (guitar, synth, harpsichord), Dan Hrdlicka (lead guitar), and George Sipl (keyboards)! The studio custodian may have gotten in a few bars, as well!
“Sunrise”: It’s almost as epic (and ambitious in its arrangement) as the ‘Berries’ 1974 “Overnight Sensation (Hit Record),” but, as the opening album track, was certainly not without its new-day, “I’m beginning a new era” symbolism (something I’m not getting from Gabriel’s “Burgermeister” post-Genesis opener).
Add a false ending, a bitchin’ bridge, a modulation, more guitar soloing, a rack of horns, and the kitchen sink in the song’s last minute, and Clive has suddenly escaped the wrath of the angry pure-pop-for-now-people cognoscenti: “Go ahead, Clive, you’ve earned the right to direct Eric, now, into a couple of million-selling ballads!”
Audio-only YouTube video of The Eric Carmen Band performing “Sunrise” live, 1975
Couple-minute video interview with Eric by Dick Clark on American Bandstand, 1975
Sutherland Bros. & Quiver, “Arms of Mary,” 1976, Columbia Records
This is the literal merging of two previously-existing bands into a brand new act! Imagine Yacht Rock kingpins The Doobie Brothers joining with The Eagles to form The Doobie Brothers & Eagles. Few have ever heard of SB&Q, even after a few-album-stint on Columbia Records in the late-’70s.
From BestClassicBands.com: “Quiver were a British rock band formed in 1970 by Tim Renwick and Cal Batchelor. In December 1972, they teamed up with The Sutherland Brothers, and became known as Sutherland Brothers & Quiver, releasing soft rock music and achieving success with the songs, ‘(I Don't Want to Love You But) You Got Me Anyway’ and ‘Arms of Mary,’ a #5 UK hit.”
Quiver had two albums on Warner Bros. Records (U.S.): a self-titled debut in 1971, and Gone in the Morning the following year. Early members of Quiver included guitarist, Tim Renwick, who went on to join Al Stewart’s band, drummer Willie Wilson, who later worked with Pink Floyd, as well as David Gilmour, and bassist Bruce Thomas, who helped form Elvis Costello’s Attractions in 1977.
The Sutherland Brothers (Iain and Gavin) were signed to Island Records and put out a self-titled debut in 1972. Their second single was “Sailing” (written by Gavin Sutherland) which had much UK radio play (and is featured above), but was commercially unsuccessful and was later covered by Rod Stewart in 1975. It became an international hit for him.
Their second album, Lifeboat, was recorded with different backing musicians. They released another two singles in 1972, then in early 1973, in an effort to diversify and expand their folk-based sound, the Sutherland Brothers joined forces with a local rock band known as Quiver. Six albums were released under that SB&Q name from 1973-77.
“Arms of Mary” was written by Iain Sutherland, and appeared on their Reach for the Sky album on CBS Records worldwide in 1975, produced by The Albert Brothers.
Iain Sutherland told the UK’s Stoke Sentinel in 2015 that he recalled writing “Arms of Mary” at the family farmhouse in the Stoke-on-Trent village of Stockton Brook, adding: “The stuff about the opening line’s ‘the lights shine down the valley,’ I was looking down through Endon basically,” citing the village of Endon situated in the Churnet Valley.
“The main reason we left [previous label] Island Records was because they wouldn’t distribute singles from our albums in the United States.”
Grand Funk “Bad Time,” 1974, Capitol Records
Grand Funk Railroad: The three-headed Monster of Brontosaurus Rock plodded their way through three-chord thud-anthems and fueled many future hippie bands. The trio of Mark Farner (guitarist/lead singer), drummer Don Brewer, and bassist, Mel Schacher, formed in their hometown of Flint, MI in 1969, and recorded for Capitol.
They were a fixture on FM “progressive rock radio” in 1969 and into the early ‘70s, selling out large arenas and stadiums, when a pop epiphany struck them (meaning Capitol had sent a memo insisting they break through to AM). Enter drummer, Don Brewer’s surprising upbeat anthem, mid-summer 1973’s “We’re an American Band” (Brewer actually sang the song, as well).
After their previous albums were either self-produced or produced by their manager, Terry Knight, they sought out pop-meister, Todd Rundgren, to produce their album of the same name, their seventh (which included newly-added keyboardist, Craig Frost). The song got to #1 in the U.S.
Two years later, Mark Farner wrote and sang “Bad Time.” A rather simple, but catchy pop-rock confection, The Raspberries’ pure pop combination of Capitol and producer Jimmy Ienner collided again, and Grand Funk created a #4 U.S. hit.
Great piece as always! Interesting how volatile the post-band future for some artists can be. Some achieve even greater success (on a commercial and creative level) whereas some never manage to match the heights of the bands they left behind. I’ve often wondered whether this is due to talent, luck, synchronicity with the times, or a combination of these (and more).
You set us up to believe that Eric Carmen was a possible replacement for Gabriel in Genesis! Ha, now that's a perfect use for AI, if ever there was one!
As a fellow lover of the leisure water-vessel music, I appreciate this "part 2" post. Count me as one who did not know Sutherland Bros. & Quiver. and Bruce Thomas was in the band? That was the mind-blown factoid for me. 🤯
Lastly, "Bad Time" is one of my all-time favorite songs. I will admit, though, to preferring The Jayhawks version of it.
https://youtu.be/CprL7Wtf5x8?si=MJhx2P-iI4UOM33V