Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary

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. 😎

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.

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.

Most rock documentaries are about adulation; this one is about adulation via ridicule. The genre label now known as 'yacht rock' derives from an obscure, low-budget web comedy series from 2005 of the same name, in which some of the stars of the late 1970s and early 1980s soft rock scene in Los Angeles - people like Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Christopher Cross, Steely Dan, and the Toto guys - are parodied and ridiculed. However, the basis for it all was the web series creators' love of the music these guys made, and this is the phenomenon explored so brilliantly in this new HBO documentary made by Garret Price. Many of the most famous 'yacht rockers' of that era, such as McDonald, Loggins, Cross, Steve Lukather, Steve Porcaro, and David Paich, appear and talk willingly about the scene they once were a part of and helped form, while others refuse to take part, telling director Price to "go f*ck himself" when he calls them up (Donald Fagen of Steely Dan). The inclusion of this sound clip is just one of the many gems that make Yacht Rock: A Documentary into one of the most enjoyable and enlightening music documentaries I have seen in a while.