Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary

YACHT ROCK: A DOCKUMENTARY (2024) One can be forgiven for still not understanding what the definition of this sub-genre is supposed to represent even after watching this enjoyable documentary. "Yacht Rock" is an invented term by a couple of comedians about a slice of music from the 70s and 80s with Christopher Cross and Michael McDonald being the patron saints.

A broader definition would be soft rock from that era with an emphasis on the "L. A. Sound". The term is both too broad and too restrictive - Steely Dan are the forefathers even if they rebel against being lumped in (in an amusing clip, Donald Fagan hangs up on Director Garret Price when he tries to interview him by phone). The Doobie Brothers weren't Yacht Rock until Michael McDonnell joined them. The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac aren't members because they don't have enough jazz. Hall & Oates were too Philly etc.. Some of Michael Jackson's work is Yacht Rock, but not most. The contradictions never cease.

Regardless of the silly definitions, YACHT ROCK is a pretty enjoyable piece. Cross, McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Toto (almost by definition, if a member of Toto played on your record, you were an honorary Yacht Rocker) and others who participated have their careers covered in good detail and are allowed the time to speak for themselves. Even if the early inspiration (a web series) began with a mocking tone, the artists here are treated with respect. Cross, in particular, comes off as a very human character. One monster hit album and then never able to come close to duplicating it again. Still, he perseveres and seems content to just doing what he loves.

YACHT ROCK may have a dubious premise, but it's an enjoyable look at a place in time which had a certain sound that many still find warm and comforting to this day.

Omg did I love this. I am not into the music so much, but as a person born in 1974 - it was the backing track to my entire childhood. It was so interesting to learn about all of the studio musicians but most of all ...what a group of sweethearts. Really. I was dying of cuteness. It's not that often that you see a bunch of men just full of joy. It was interesting to revisit that time and learn how the sausage was made. Everyone was just a bunch of goofy looking nerds! But SUPER TALENTED NERDS. Even if you hate the music, definitely give it a watch. I promise you - you will be full of smiles at the end.

I watched this having grown up with the genre from a perspective most don't have. I started listening to this music on a plugged in AM/FM cube clock radio I snuggled with in my bed at night and progressed to hearing it in the stereo system I installed in my 1973 Ford LTD on Jensen speakers and a Clarion cassette deck. The documentary took liberties with what this music was labeled after the fact, and Steely Dan, while sharing many musicians on their albums, is not Yacht Rock. I support Donald Fagen's reaction at the end of the film based on that.

I think Christopher Cross, in all his drug inspired creativity, defines this genre as advertised. When I was in high school and "Sailing" won song of the year, we were all shocked. In retrospect, it was right for the time. It just wasn't The Police and The Clash which I was in to, yet admittedly I enjoyed the song at the time too. I'm a musical chameleon, which is probably why this rockumentary resonated with me.

Many artists were missed, and I won't capture them all, however there was no mentioned of jazz influences like Michael Franks and barely notation of Stanley Clarke and easy listening artists Seals and Crofts. Yet it was wonderful to see Brenda Russel, Toto, the Pocaro Brothers, Larry Carlton, and so many others. Yet let's be real. Michael McDonald defines this genre. Because he sounded like he sang. He defined session musicians of the era. And he comes across as very genuine. I put the success of Yacht Rock on him. A humble label for much larger 80's blue eyed easy listening soul. I'll always be grateful to him for that. He is the core of this sound and of this film. And for the hundreds of lesser known session musicians who worked their asses off every day to make this sound, I salute you and your work ethic.

Not sure why the documentary went into Michael Jackson's "Thriller" other than the Toto backing band connection though the MTV introduction to the scene was a genuine massive moment. Suddenly you had to be visual and audible in your craft.

And it should be no wonder to me why I love Bozz Scaggs "Silk Degrees" so much. The Toto guys were in the band and helped define his sounds.

But how they kept putting "Aja" by Steely Dan as the definitive Yacht Rock album? No. There was a lot more happening in that scene than that one album that shared session musicians yet was so much more jazz, R&B and epic storytelling Oddessy style than anything else. Don't wrap Yacht Rock around that. Call it something else. It created something different. Culling it into this genre is lazy journalism. Yet the producers seemed to want it to be that way. Donald Fagan, your on the spot reaction was dead on. 😎

Remember the band "Ambrosia"? They had several hits in the mid-1970s, perhaps most notably, the song titled "You're the Biggest Part of Me." Now listen to the 1981 Grammy-winning hit written by pop soundtrack maestro Kenny Loggins and that ubiquitous, blue-eyed soul singer named Michael McDonald, "What a Fool Believes." Are they in fact the same dang song? Well, in 2005 or so, comedians on the Internet decided they were at least in the same genre and it needed an evocative name: "Yacht Rock." Christopher Cross and Toto (David Paich, Steve "Where's My Yacht" Lukather and the Porcaro brothers) are all prominently featured in this documentary about a musical period in history, along with every other studio musician playing on most of Steely Dan's albums. As a guy who reviewed musical albums and concerts back in college in the late '70s and early '80s (before moving on to movies and TV), I might quibble with some of the inclusions (e.g., Steely Dan's AJA is a genius work of jazz-R&B-rock fusion), it is ultimately fun and quite humorous to discuss this "pseudo-genre" with its many progenitors. What's the "dockumentary's" funniest moment: the filmmaker finally reaching Donald Fagen on the phone to request an interview "to discuss your music and genre," be asked "What genre is that?" answering "Yacht Rock," to which the great Mr. Fagen replies, "Why don't you just go F¥C£ YOURSELF!?" and then hangs up! That, alone, earns this documentary a rating of 7.5/10.

I would never mock the so-called "yacht rock" genre because that's the music I loved the most during my high school and college years. I didn't even know this type of easy-to-ridicule soft rock music had a name, and it didn't until a comic pre-YouTube web series dubbed it so in 2005. Directed by Garret Price, this breezy 2024 documentary cogently chronicles the genesis of this music and its brief reign on the pop charts and at the Grammys from the late '70's to the early '80's concurrent with the emergence of punk and disco. Steely Dan is credited for molding the sounds, in particular, with their classic "Aja" album in 1977. Steely Dan's Donald Fagen refused to be interviewed for the film as he found the yacht reference insulting, but the era's other stars are accounted for and provide interesting insights into their creative processes. They include fondly remembered artists like Kenny Loggins, Christopher Cross, and the genre's self-effacing king, Michael McDonald. A nostalgic nugget for those of us who grew up during this period.