Ride, Captain, Ride

[coniferouspine]

Awesome song, or what?

Just pulled this out tonight -- "Ride Captain Ride" by Blues Image, circa 1970. I remember I had the 45 rpm single back when I was a kid, listened to it a thousand times..."73 men sailed up, from the San Francisco Bay..." Anyway, tonight I was just grooving on the production of it all, I wish more bands today sounded this awesome! Great sounds and killer arrangements! The recording technically really meshes with the music, if that makes any sense.

Here's something somebody might want to think about or use: I don't know whether this recording was 16-track or 8-track, but there is this really great thing that happens early in the song -- first, after the keyboard intro, which is probably about the coolest electric piano sound ever recorded, then the drum kit comes in with a regular snare sound, but after the first verse or so it sounds like the snare is doubled by a rim-shot overdub on the snare -- he's just tapping the stick on the rim along with the beat that's played by the first snare on the basic track, but it makes the whole thing get fuller and thicker than it would be with just the regular snare drum sound, they've added another layer to it. If you were gonna build the dynamics up, logically you might have thought "start with the rim shot tap, then go to the full snare" but hey, they reversed it and put this arrangement together, it just builds the tension and sounds really fresh, even now 20+ years later and after I've had like ten+ beers. Then the coolest thing, for all you diehard analog fans, is that the fabulous rimshot overdub disappears completely when the chorus kicks in -- with all these chiming, ringing guitars -- I'm guessing because they used the same tracks for the extra guitars, and then sure enough, the rimshot comes back later on in a quiet part of the song. It's almost Beatle-esque, the way they pull off all these subtle changes in a real limited mixing framework. I guess I just wish more bands today could do that sort of thing, with that much cool stuff happening per second of song, or at least I wish that more people would make music I like this much, 'cause it's a lot less jarring if your arrangements are classy and make sense as a song, y'know. But I thought that was a cool trick about the snare overdub, thought someone might like to pick up on it.


The least you can do is give some props to "Ride Captain Ride"! C'mon! Does anybody else think this song is groovy? Oh, God, I need to go to bed now...

[trodden]

hahaha you're drunk......


Now that song is stuck in my head,.... cool, now i can annoy my housemates with something else besides the outkast song...

[JGriffin]

Definitely a cool song, a great recording. I've always loved the acoustic guitar fill right after the "San Francisco Bay" lyric--the tone and everything.

Other great electric piano riffs, btw, include:

"Summer In the City," the Lovin' Spoonfull
"Mama told Me Not To Come," Three Dog Night

[wing]

i love the guitar solo at the end.. why doesn't it go on longer though?

[GrimmBrotherScott]

That song is as fat, bloated and old as...well...me. I auditioned for a cover band at one time and I am standing there and they tell me that I MUST learn that song as an "audition" and I told them to fuck off, packed my gear and left.

What dicks.

s

[DJEmbarrassment]

yeah, i love that record (blues image - "open") it sounds incredible. and, as far as i can tell, it's never been released on CD. if you like the way Ride Captain Ride sounds, look for the LP at used record stores - it's really some nice blues rock. the guitar playing (and tone) is great.

eric s.

[Kyle Motor]

That reminds me of "Beach Baby" by First Class. Same era (kinda), great song/Beach Boys rip-off, awesome sounding recording.

[NewYorkDave]

"Ride, Captain, Ride?" "Beach Baby?" Damn, you guys are giving me a serious early '70s flashback. Those songs were all OVER the radio when I was a kid. I've barely thought about them at all in the past 30 years, then you had to go and open your mouth...

I must go and drink now.