Let’s be honest, it’s easy to stereotype yacht rock as the relatively safe and timid music of choice for a certain white and privileged demographic. Let’s open a bottle of Pinot Grigio, cue up Ambrosia, Christopher Cross, Michael McDonald, Loggins & Messina and Loggins WITHOUT the Messina, and hit the high seas!
Shame on us. OK, shame on me. First, even those of us who mock yacht rock just might have a song or two or 22 or 222 from that genre stored in our playlists. And, as the entertaining, breezy and comprehensive documentary “Music Box: Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary” (yes, they spell it that way) on HBO/Max so aptly points out, this thing we call Yacht Rock is an expansive, somewhat arbitrary term that encompasses a wide range of music produced by some enormous talented artists in the 1970s and 1980s — music that even if we don’t love, we most definitely should respect.
Though Yacht Rock crosses into Easy Listening, Adult Contemporary, Lite Rock and Soft Rock territory and I couldn’t for the life of me delineate between all those categories, there is a consensus that certain artists fit the mold. “It’s like pornography,” says journalist Molly Lambert. “You can’t definite it necessarily, but it’s very clear when something is or is not Yacht Rock.”
Fred Armisen, who was part of the team that affectionally and brilliantly lampooned the genre with the two-part documentary short, “Gentle and Soft: The Story of the Blue Jean Committee” (who can forget the band's debut album, “Catalina Breeze”?), says of Yacht Rock, “It’s like the singers all seem to be saying, ‘Hey, it’s going to be OK.’ ”
Yacht Rock is also maybe the only modern music genre that was defined years after its heyday, which the documentary outlines as roughly 1976 to 1984. In 2005, two years before the advent of YouTube, the “Yacht Rock” online video series did a hilarious job of fictionalizing the genre; a decade later, Sirius XM Radio launched the Yacht Rock channel. There was a series of “Now That’s What I Call Yacht Rock” CDs, and Yacht Rock legends, most notably Michael McDonald, have been lampooned and referenced on a myriad of TV series. (In present day, the avuncular McDonald, who now looks like George Lucas’ twin brother, recalls being so high that when he saw Rick Moranis impersonating him on an “SCTV” sketch, he wasn’t sure if it was real, or he was hallucinating.)
Director Garret Price (“Woodstock 99"), who is clearly a fan of the music, nimbly weaves in current-time interviews with Christopher Cross, Kenny Loggins and various session greats and producers with archival footage. We’re taken back to the L.A. music scene of the 1970s, when Steely Dan was emerging, creating a fusion of sounds that resulted in some of the most exquisitely produced albums of all time.
Donald Fagen and the late Walter Becker were famously perfectionist; a half-dozen of the best guitar players in the world tried and failed to master the solo on “Peg” before Jay Graydon came in and nailed it. That same song featured the doubled vocals of one Michael McDonald, who would be the first face on the Mount Rushmore of Yacht Rock, from his supporting role with bands such as Steely Dan, his joining and essentially reinventing the sound of the Doobie Brothers, key backing vocals on songs such as Christopher Cross’ “Ride Like the Wind” and his enormously successful solo career. (Years after Yacht Rock faded, McDonald remained relevant, as when Warren G sampled “I Keep Forgettin’ ” for the iconic single “Regulate.”)
The documentary makes the convincing case that the sound was influenced by Black music, from gospel to jazz to R&B, and that Yacht Rock doesn’t mean White Rock. Says Questlove: “Al Jarreau [is] Yacht Rock; the Pointer Sisters’ ‘Slow Hand,’ Yacht Rock; George Benson, ‘Turn Your Love Around,’ that’s Yacht Rock.” The sound was also unique in that it so often highlighted the character of the sad sack who lost the girl, the “fool for love” if you will, e.g.,“What a Fool Believes,” “Fool’s Paradise,” “The Fool in Me,” “Who’ll Be the Fool Tonight,” “I’ve Been Played the Fool Again,” “How Do the Fools Survive?”, “Foolish Heart,” “Who Will the Next Fool Be,” “Only a Fool Would Say That,” etc., etc.
While McDonald, Cross, Loggins and other Yacht Rock gods have come to embrace the label, not everyone is onboard. When director Price gets the reclusive Donald Fagen on the phone and explains the subject of his documentary, Fagen says, “Oh, Yacht Rock. Well, I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you go f- - - yourself?”
Steely Dan still Steely Danning out there.
