Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary

This yes, dockumentary, has funny moments. Through its many original participant interviews, plus some younger musician expert interviews, that a younger generation making up a name in the 2000s for most of the non hard or punk rock pop music of the late 70s is a funny idea to begin with.

But musically, and speaking as a working musician of 50 plus years, this is a really dumb premise for a 90 plus minute program. They actually note in the script that fans of the acerbic, sardonic and sarcastic Steely Dan say the Dan music wasn't Yacht Rock, which is no doubt because it's emphatically true, and that even fans of softer rock of that era think the music of Christopher Cross was a bridge too far in terms of sheer musical weightlessness, which is again because that performer was indeed pretty awful. But at least, we learn Cross was also a one time reefer dealer and once sat in for Deep Purple's Richie Blackmore, so at least that was surprising and arguably original research.

Otherwise, trying to tie together the music of the Pointer Sisters with Toto and Kenny Loggins and the musically regrettable Ambrosia because the same session guys play their records is just a bridge too far for a musical documentary theme. They played on records by those artists, and also on great Steely Dan and featherweight Cross albums, because they were the best musicians available in Los Angeles where so much pop music was then recorded.

So again, a stupid and thin premise, with the saving grace of a good sense of humor by the directors and some of the interviewed musicians about the stupid premise.