Pablo Cruise A Word From the Executive Director

By Gian Paul Morelli

It is absolutely rare to find a late 70’s band with most of its original members intact.  But that’s who we have here with Pablo Cruise. And that is why I wanted to hear their sound bounce off the walls of the Columbia Theatre. I tried bringing them in two seasons ago but that fell through.  So, determination played a part in getting them to Longview.

In the mid to late 70’s, after listening to the quadraphonic sound of King Crimson and Pink Floyd, blasting my ears out and rattling walls with Van Halen, Aerosmith, and AC/DC; disco-ing out to the Bee Gees while wearing polyester shirts and bell bottoms, it comes as a complete surprise that I still love that Pablo Cruise sound so much. 

Possibly it was the influence of my college Frat Friend “Big Dave” who thought Pi Kappa Phi fraternity should adopt a token “Theatre Weird”—even though the theatre department beat them at soft ball three years in a row—but I digress.  Big Dave was the first frat guy I knew who loved Martinis and Stingers over whisky and beer.  He was a native Californian with a bushy red beard and no mustache –looking suspiciously Amish in appearance.  But he was always telling me about the West Coast music scene while sipping from a stemmed glass.  And Pablo Cruise was his latest find.

So, here we were one late summer in 1975, him ripping the cellophane off the self-titled Pablo Cruise album, settling back in his partially broken Pappasan chair, Martini in hand and a Swisher Sweet in the corner of his mouth (I poured and followed suit). “Isn’t this the smoothest sound?” he slurred. “You just feel like you’re sailing away.” 

They call it “Yacht-Rock,” some marketing term invented in 2005 to fill a Pandora station.  There’s still a debate as to what that actually is.  Back then, in winter, Pablo Cruise rotated with Jimmy Buffet (which sorta makes sense) while my twin sister cleaned her apartment.  In our collective mind it was escapism—Pablo was on the Yacht, Jimmy just sloughed down the beach—and my sister and I talked about a vacay in the Caribbean.  She made it to the islands, it took me a few more years to feel that soft island breeze and smell that shrimp.

But right now, in January in SW Washington, we can all use a little escape—and Pablo Cruise will take you there.

More information on Pablo Cruise at the Columbia? CLICK HERE