Joe Lynn Turner needs no introduction. Long before he launched his solo career in 1985, his years fronting Ritchie Blackmore‘s RAINBOW (“Difficult To Cure”, “Straight Between The Eyes”, “Bent Out Of Shape”) established him among the most dynamic vocalists on the metal scene, an accolade that was only amplified by stints with DEEP PURPLE (“Slaves And Masters”) and Yngwie Malmsteen (“Odyssey”).
Clearly, Turner knows a great guitarist when he hears one, and Marcus Nand is no exception. Born in Spain and a student of flamenco guitar along with blues and rock, Nand has incorporated his diverse influences on such projects as the Los Angeles-based metal band FREAK OF NATURE, which featured WHITE LION singer Mike Tramp, and the world music-influenced rock band ZIROQ with famed David Bowie bassist Carmine Rojas.
Nand‘s first solo album, 2024’s “The Traveler”, was described by Forgotten-Scroll.net as “a PERFECT album” for anyone enjoying “sweet, harmonious, exceptional rock music.” FOO FIGHTERS keyboardist Rami Jaffee raves, “Marcus knows how to write a song that feels truly rock and at the same time, truly worldly”; ALICE IN CHAINS‘ Mike Inez says, “He is a great example of a dedicated musician carrying the torch of his genre well into the future.”
And still “Ride Captain Ride”, the mighty fruit of this devastating partnership, leads both players into a whole new arena. According to the late songwriter Mike Pinera, the song was written “in about 15 minutes [and] we cut it right that day.” It lifted his band BLUES IMAGE to international fame and, with close to 25 million Spotify plays to its credit, it remains one of the greatest rock standards of all time.
And one of the greatest Yacht Rock classics as well, which is what makes Turner and Nand‘s treatment of the song so fascinating, as it preludes one of Cleopatra Records‘ most highly anticipated albums of the year, “Yacht Metal – Yacht Rock Goes Heavier & Louder”.
Nand has always loved the number. “I’ve been a big fan of Joe Lynn Turner for years, so getting the chance to play on this track was a real thrill,” he said. “It was also a lot of fun to revisit ‘Ride Captain Ride’ — such a classic! I wanted to stay true to the spirit of the original while giving it a heavier edge without losing what made it special in the first place.”
Turner added: “It was 1970 and ‘Ride Captain Ride’ was the big song…it went to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart but was forever engraved in our lives. I played it in my cover band a thousand times.
“It was a real joy to do a new version for Cleopatra…a fun tune with a positive message…hope you enjoy it as much as I still do!”
Featuring contributions from Thor, Vinnie Moore, BULLETBOYS, Cherie Currie, URIAH HEEP veteran Mick Box, MEGADETH‘s Chris Poland, MANOWAR‘s Ross The Boss, VIXEN‘s Britt Lightning and another RAINBOW alumnus Graham Bonnet, “Yacht Metal” is guaranteed to uproot everything you have ever thought you knew about both the genre and the songs that sail on it. A lineup that also includes “Takin’ It To The Streets”, “Just The Two Of Us” and “You Can Do Magic”.
Pinera spoke about the super-weird coincidence that has also established “Ride Captain Ride” in the annals of rock’s most Fortean favorites. He wrote the song on a Model 73 Rhodes piano, and the song’s opening rhyme riffed on that number… “73 men sailed out from the San Francisco Bay….”
He said: “Now, here is the weird thing that happened. It got released, it was in the Top Ten, No. 1 in a lot of regional markets, and my manager gets a call from the Pentagon, wanting to know how I, as the writer of those words, knew about the secret spy ship USS Pueblo? My manager goes ‘what are you talking about? I don’t think Mike knows anything about that stuff. Ask him about the latest Gibson guitar and he’ll know, but he doesn’t know anything about secret spy ships.’ Which I didn’t. But it turned out that I had written a song that coincided with an incident that had not yet happened; it took place after the song was released; and here’s what made it so freaky. There were seventy-three men on board who sailed out from the San Francisco Bay on this secret spy mission that nobody was supposed to know about, and they got in trouble out there on the ocean, they were captured and taken prisoner. Seventy-three men sailed off into history. As far as I was concerned, those lyrics were free form flow of consciousness stuff, but then you get to the third verse…
“At one of my concerts years later, I met the radio guy from the USS Pueblo who told me something I didn’t know about that third verse, that while they were actually being captured, it was during a massive storm and they couldn’t get the word out that they needed help because the bad weather was blocking the radio transmission.”
Photo credit: Agata Nigrovskaya
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