Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary

This almost meme-ish like of a title, "Yacht Rock", 😆 docking-rockumentary 🤣 (or vice-versa) in music, albeit, jazzy-rock from the 70's-80's really struck chords in me reliving the years & just brings it home for those who lived the times in this epic retrospective; literally playing on almost every emotion... a true muse of Americana, bringing it all together. The sounds are... literally, exemplary & smooth! Time to bust out the caviar, cheese & crackers... oh, and don't forget the wine Buffy! Avast as we set sail and enjoy the sounds of the artists who brought them to us and celebrate in this epic journey! I love it & I hope you do too. If this music is before your time, download Yacht Rock the next time you have a pool side barbecue or what have you and enjoy the sounds baby! And if you have a yacht, crank it up & party on! Fair winds and following seas ye landlubbers! 😉 To the folks who brought us this "dockumentary", you all rock! Thank you! 💪😎

As "Yacht Rock: A Documentary" (2024 release; 96 min) opens, we are in "1982, Santa Barbara, California", and the Doobie Brothers are on stage doing "Taking It To the Streets". A number of talking heads, including Questlove, talk about the LA music scene in the 70s and early 80s. We then go to "1976" and examine the unlikely influence of Steely Dan on what would become Yacht Rock, a term not invented until decades after the facts. At this point we are 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from director Garrett Price ("Daisy Jones & the Six"). Here he examines the phenom that has become a musical subgenre called Yacht Rock. If you are a certain age and familiar with/grew up with SoCal music from the mid-70s and early 80s, much of this music is quite familiar, but you probably had never thought of this music as being its own genre. The Doobie Brothers (led by Michael McDonald), Toto, Kenny Loggins, Christopher Cross, and other such acts are among the big names in Yacht Rock. "It rocks, but not too hard, but it rocks!" claims one talking head. I will not spoil how exactly Steely Dan fits in all this, you'll just have to see for yourself. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised how insightful and entertaining this all was. (At the very end of the documentary, the director ends up speaking with Steely Dan's Donald Fagen. Just watch!)

"Yacht Rock: A Documentary" started streaming on Max a week or so ago and I just watched it the other night. If you are a music fan, young or old, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

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. 😎

Fantastic explanation of how this phenomenon came to be. Great recap of some unique moments in entertainment with amazing characters from our very own music world.

Not seen a rockumentary done so well in a long time using old fashioned storytelling and a retrospective that wasn't used before.

And if you are a fan of this genre you will relish in the scores used and hopefully discover new ones.

Questlove dives deep with the audience to bridge many gaps that we did not even know existed and that is what makes this doc so special. I hope it wins that Emmy if just to maybe see all those musicians in one place together again.

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.