"Ride Captain Ride" was written by Blues Image’s guitarist and lead singer Mike Pinera and keyboardist Frank "Skip" Conte. Wikipedia tells us that Pinera was looking at his Rhodes electric piano and noticed it had 73 keys, and the line "seventy-three men sailed off, from the San Francisco Bay" came to mind, and "it sort of wrote itself after that." The song in a slightly shortened form from the album (1970’s Open) was released as a single and quickly went to #4 in the US and Canada, and also reached #23 in Australia. It was Blues Image’s only hit.
Song of the Day: Blues Image, “Ride Captain Ride”
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This was a catchy song. I had the Blues Image album on 8-Track cartridge and truly enjoyed their sound. That tape got a lot of play with me.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
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Shame they all went their separate ways without more recognition. I liked their sound, too.
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Just a great song… I was only 3 when it came out but I remember this one and Brandy…when I hear one I think of the other…why I don’t know. Great selection John.
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The third one I think of is the song I’ll feature tomorrow. Stay tuned!
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I remember this song, well! Good song.
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It’s one of those songs that comes out and stays popular for years: great hook, catchy melody, good lyrics, well played.
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I am now going to show my age. Back in the day, a real treat for our family was to go to Abbey’s Pizza Inn for dinner. We didn’t have much money, so this was quite a big deal. Abbey’s had a juke box, and it was three songs for 25 cents. My brother and I each got to pick one, and my mom picked the third. I almost always chose “Ride Captain Ride” if it was on the machine.
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Oh, I remember three plays for a quarter. Remember the boxes on the tables that controlled the jukebox? Them was the days…
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This was a single controller on the wall, and I had to stand on a bench to push the buttons (my folks always let us do that for our selection).
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This one evokes memories of the summer of 1970… when I was starting to be aware of the music on the radio.
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There are several songs that could fit just about anywhere between 1964 and 1974, and this is one of them. I couldn’t remember if I was in grammar school or high school, then I remembered that the summer of 1970 was between grammar school and high school…
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