Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary

Year 17, Day 203 - 7/22/25 - Movie #5,087

BEFORE: I mentioned that I have a few docs this year where the cast lists are SO huge that I could basically drop them in anywhere in the chain and they'd probably link on both sides, you know, provided that I stay more or less on the same topics, of pop music and TV and film actors and such. The first one was probably "Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple", with a cast of 265 all told, both live interviews and archive footage. Today's film probably counts as the second of them, spanning an entire sub-genre of music, but also including footage from talk show hosts, comedians and news reporters, of course. That leaves at least one more doc with a giant cast, two if I change my mind and decide to include the one about Barbara Walters, who, well, interviewed just about everyone over the years. But let me deal with all the paperwork processing the giant cast of today's docs, then I'll think about whether I want to bring Barbara and her enormous posse in to this year's party. I'm kind of on the fence about it. 

Elvis Presley carries over from "Casa Bonita Mi Amor!" Really the best thing to do with these well-stocked docs is to use them to get out of any linking jams, like that whole classic rock thing kind of dried up and I was forced to use the Beatles and Elvis at the end to make my connections. There's just no artistry in that, the Beatles are in nearly every music doc. So I promise better links ahead, and weirder ones too. 

THE PLOT: Chronicles the rise of the smooth West Coast sound pioneered by artists like Steely Dan, Toto and Michael McDonald, exploring its widespread influence. 

AFTER: I love this sort of documentary, it doesn't really take itself too seriously, nor do its featured musicians, many of whom are still active and playing on nostalgia tours thanks to the long memories of their fans, combined with the over-specialization of satellite radio channels, which is partially for the re-classification of several 70's and 80's artists as "Yacht Rock". Also, they're all still talented and still able to play and compose music, they're just plain old. Well, the ones that are still alive are old, people like Walter Becker and Brian Wilson found a way to stop getting older, but I don't really recommend it. 

There are Yacht Rock radio channels, Spotify playlists, Pandora streams, it's a genuine thing and there's also a list of which musical acts are "Nacht Rock", meaning they don't belong with the Yacht Rock, although apparently there's much debate about what is in and what is out. Toto's definitely in, while Hall & Oates are completely out. (No yachts in Philadelphia, it's technically not on the coast.). The Doobie Brothers are definitely in (anything with Michael McDonald is in) and thankfully, Jimmy Buffett is technically OUT. (Too Caribbean and not sophisticated enough, and I'd have to say I agree.). Christopher Cross is way way IN, even though he wrote "Sailing" and most yacht rock is NOT about actual boats, but he's kind of the exception that proves the rule, while Elton John, Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles are all NOT invited to the yacht rock party. The songs all have to be smooth and evoke leisure, often with a bit of melancholy, and songs like "Hotel California" and "Saturday Night's All Right for Fightin'" are really just musical stress dreams. Look, I don't make the rules, I just learn to live by them. 

Yacht rock seems to be composed of a lot of songs that I play for my wife in the car on long road trips, when I'm trying to stump her with songs from the 70's. Boz Scaggs (one of her favorites), Ambrosia, Robbie Dupree, Kenny Loggins (the older stuff), Toto, and the Doobie Brothers.  Plus all of the lesser 70's one-hit wonders, and now I wonder if Gordon Lightfoot qualifies, we play a few of his songs in heavy rotation, but he was probably too early. The doc traces the origins of the genre back to Steely Dan, who used Michael McDonald's talents on a few albums, then McDonald went on to join the Doobie Brothers, meanwhile the guys who would eventually form Toto were working on simply EVERYONE's albums, from Christopher Cross's "Sailing" to Michael Jackson's "Thriller". They were kind of like what the Wrecking Crew was to those 1960's Beach Boys and Mamas & Papas albums, the guys working behind the scenes, adding instrumentation here and there, and creating this new sonic vibe that was bouncy and relaxing at the same time, and made you feel good listening to a song about a guy that got left by a girl, but still you can't help but enjoy it because the chord progression is REALLY cool. 

Tangentially there are black artists who qualify as yacht rock, too, like Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" is in, because it was written by Steve Porcaro from Toto, and then there are some songs by George Benson and Grover Washington Jr. that have the same sound, so they're kind of in, too. You'd think that Yacht Rock would be an exclusively Caucasian thing, because, you know, yacht clubs are probably more racist than golf clubs, but it's not really like that, this genre transcends racism because (supposedly) the bands didn't care about the color of your skin, they liked you if you could come up with a great guitar solo that fit the bridge exactly. When you know the sound you want the song to have, you just hire the guys who can give you that sound. And in the 70's the sound of Steely Dan and the Doobies was king, and from their ashes rose Toto and a hundred other bands that tried to replicate their sound. Yeah, I know, they claim a song called "Africa" written and performed by an all-white band isn't racist at all, I'd kind of like to see the paperwork on that one. 

You can call it adult-oriented rock, or the West Coast sound, but there was a web-series a few years back that helped coin the term "yacht rock" and it seems to have stuck. You don't need to own a yacht to enjoy it, and if the term sounds funny to you, remember that they had classical music for a few hundred years before anyone called it "classical music", really it had to be over before it ever earned that name, and sure, the 70's and 80's are over, so now it's time to look back it and re-define it. MOST of the included artists are enjoying the resurgence - really, any time that songs you wrote and performed 50 years ago are back in the public consciousness, you should be thrilled about that, and prepared to pack a bag and go out on tour again, even if it's on the nostalgia circuit. What's ironic is that Daniel Fagen of Steely Dan, the man whose music probably had the most to do with the start of this trend, hates the term and refuses to capitalize on it. Watch until the end of this film to see what happens when the doc director finally gets Fagen on the phone and requests an interview. 

The other thing that's kept some of the yacht rock alive is that "Doobie Brothers bounce", which usually involves upbeat chords played on an electric piano.  Some of them proved to be irresistible when the hip-hop artists were looking for songs to sample - "Regulate" by rapper Warren G (feat. Nate Dogg) uses four bars from Michael McDonald's song "I Keep Forgettin' (Every Time You're Near). Once you hear it, you can't unhear it, and there are many more examples of this trend.  De La Soul famously sampled the Steely Dan hook from "Peg", of course. If you read a lot of album credits, eventually you'll end up with one of those giant bulletin boards full of pushpins with string or yarn connecting them, and you'll look like an insane person trying to keep track of all the connections. Very relatable, for me at least. 

Who cares? It's all just great music, enjoy it while you can, it's summer and that's the best time to crank up the stereo, pour some pina coladas and just relax with the A.C. on, because it's too damn hot to even go to the beach. Yacht rockers are right, Jimmy Buffett sucks, but Michael McDonald and Christopher Cross have CLASS, man. 

Directed by Garret Price

Also starring Fred Armisen (last seen in "Will & Harper"), Bethany Cosentino, Christopher Cross, Mac DeMarco, Jay Graydon, Steve Huey, Steven Hyden, Brian Robert Jones, Gary Katz, Jason King (last seen in "Listening to Kenny G"), Molly Lambert, Kenny Loggins (last seen in "The Greatest Night in Pop"), Steve Lukather, Michael McDonald, David Pack, David Paich, Alex Pappademaas, Prince Paul, Amanda Petrusich, Steve Porcaro, Questlove (last seen in "American Symphony"), Brenda Russell, J.D. Ryznar, Tom Scott, Rob Tannenbaum, Thundercat, 

with archive footage of Peter Allen (last seen in "Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story"), Diana Ross (ditto), Rosanna Arquette (last seen in "Being Mary Tyler Moore"), Mo Astin, Burt Bacharach (last seen in "Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did for Love"), Quincy Jones (ditto), Carol Bayer Sager (ditto), Lance Bass (last seen in "Trolls Band Together"), JC Chasez (ditto), Chris Kirkpatrick (ditto), Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, Walter Becker, George Benson (last seen in "Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President"), Ritchie Blackmore, Anthony Bourdain (last seen in "Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain"), David Brinkley (last seen in "ReMastered: Tricky Dick and the Man in Black"), Joni MItchell (ditto), James Brown (last seen in "Little Richard: I Am Everything"), Jackson Browne (last seen in "Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple"), George Clinton (ditto), Sammy Davis Jr. (ditto), James Gandolfini (ditto), Mark J. Goodman (ditto), Daryl Hall (ditto), Herbie Hancock (ditto), John Oates (ditto), Bonnie Raitt (ditto), Ronald Reagan (ditto), David Byrne (last seen in "The Greatest Night in Pop"), James Ingram (ditto), Al Jarreau (ditto), Cyndi Lauper (ditto), Madonna (ditto), Anita Pointer (ditto), June Pointer (ditto), Ruth Pointer (ditto), Prince (ditto), Lionel Richie (ditto), Dionne Warwick (ditto), Bobby Caldwell, Larry Carlton, Jimmy Carter (last seen in "Join or Die"), Ray Charles (last seen in "Travelin' Band: Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall"), Dick Clark (ditto), Chevy Chase (last seen in "The Last Movie Star"), Bill Clinton (last seen in "Joan Baez: I Am a Noise"), Hillary Clinton (ditto), John Ford Coley, Phil Collins (last seen in "Wham!"), George Michael (ditto), Alice Cooper (last seen in "Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon"), Stevie Wonder (ditto), Stewart Copeland, Don Cornelius, Simon Cowell (last seen in "The Super Bob Einstein Movie"), Bryan Cranston (last heard in "Kung Fu Panda 4"), Dash Crofts, Billy Crystal (last seen in "Little Richard: King and Queen of Rock 'n' Roll"), Phillip Daniel, Ted Danson (last seen in "Made in America"), Joyce Dewitt, Nate Dogg (last seen in "Head of State"), Michael Douglas (last seen in "Shining Through"), Dr. Dre (last seen in "Jagged"), Daryl Dragon, George Duke, Robbie Dupree, Billie Eilish (last seen in "American Symphony"), Donald Fagen, Jimmy Fallon (last seen in "Butterfly in the Sky"), Donald Glover (ditto), Joey Fatone (last seen in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3"), Will Ferrell (last heard in "Despicable Me 4"), Tina Fey (last seen in "Tom Hanks: The Nomad"), Warren G (last seen in "Listening to Kenny G"), Marvin Gaye (last seen in "Whitney"), Barry Gibb (last seen in "Elton John: Becoming Rocketman"), Merv Griffin (last seen in "Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind"), Bill Hader (last seen in "IF"), Don Henley (last seen in "Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice"), Gregory Hines (last seen in "Waiting to Exhale"), Michael Jackson (last seen in "The Beatles: In the Life"), George Martin (ditto), Reggie Jackson (last seen in "Yogi Berra: It Ain't Over"), Chaka Khan (last seen in "Sheryl"), Stevie Nicks (ditto), Joe Walsh (ditto), Bobby Kimball, Jimmy Kimmel (last seen in "Ezra"), Mark Knopfler (last seen in "Under the Volcano"), Simon Le Bon (ditto), Kris Kristofferson (last seen in "Alice Doesn't Li Here Anymore"), Jason Lee (last seen in "Tell"), John Lennon (last seen in "Killing John Lennon"), Paul McCartney (ditto), Ringo Starr (ditto), Annie Lennox (last seen in "Little Richard: I Am Everything"), Shelley Long (last seen in "Dr. T & the Women"), MC Lyte (last seen in "Girls Trip"), Jim Messina, Bette Midler (last seen in "Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story"), John Travolta (ditto), Rick Moranis (last seen in "George Carlin's American Dream"), Olivia Newton-John (last seen in "Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over"), Ray Parker Jr. (last seen in "Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives"), Charlie Parker, Jeff Porcaro, Mike Porcaro, Danny Pudi (last seen in "American Dreamer"), Otis Redding (last seen in "Billie"), Kyle Richards, John Ritter (last seen in "Gilbert"), Smokey Robinson (last seen in "Beatles '64"), Joe Sample, Boz Scaggs, “England Dan” Seals, James Seals, Paul Simon (last seen in "Ali & Cavett: The Tale of the Tapes"), Suzanne Somers (last seen in "Say It Isn't So"), Danielle Spencer, Sylvester Stallone (last seen in "The Expend4bles"), Sting (last seen in "The 100th: Billy Joel Live at Madison Square Garden"), Barbra Streisand (last seen in "Sid & Judy"), Donna Summer (last seen in "Love to Love You, Donna Summer"), Andy Summers (last seen in "Count Me In"), Jake Tapper (last seen in "Memory"), Ted Templeman, Toni Tennille (last seen in "Tina"), Ernest Thomas, Justin Timberlake (last seen in "Reptile"), Kathleen Turner (last seen in "Beautiful"), Lenny Waronker, Grover Washington Jr. (last seen in "Blues Brothers 2000"), Betty White (last seen in "Being Mary Tyler Moore"), Brian Wilson (last seen in "The Beach Boys'), Bill Withers, and the voice of Howard Stern

RATING: 8 out of 10 yacht rock songs with "fool" in the title (another dead giveaway)