Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary

Excellent look and interviews from studio, musicians and artists from the late '70s and '80s. The documentary showed a lot of how jazz and blues inspired the music was from these artists. The only part I did not like was where they showed how some rappers used. Michael McDonald's music in the 90s. That part was unnecessary in my opinion. I've never been a fan of people stealing other artists' music.

Other than that, I loved the interviews from the studio musicians that were parts of many albums. It was great to hear personal insights and how a lot of groups got their starts. I did not know that Toto was made up of so many studio musicians. Not a fan of Michael McDonald's voice, but I loved his stories and the documentary pointing out all those songs that he sang on during this time. It was really hilarious when they tried to get Donald Fagen of Steely Dan to comment on the phone.

I've been a fan of the music ever since XM started the station in 2016. And the YouTube videos that started the Yacht Rock name are just hilarious! I highly recommend you check them out if youhave not watched them yet.

Well-researched and edited survey of the sound that dominated the AM airwaves in the late 1970s and the musicians and technicians who were part of the scene. There are many interiews with members of Toto, Doobie Bros, and contemporary artists that reveal and trace both well and little known connections between diverse artists and bands. The contencious issue of whether or not Steely Dan can be considered Yacht Rock is covered. No spoilers but it's hillarious. As for my husband and I, we are of the belief that Steely Dan can never be considered Yacht Rock because they are such haters. The proof is in the lyrics: Royal Scam, Showbiz Kids, Only a Fool Would Say That, Haitian Divorce, to name a few. They even hate on themselves, and we love them all the more for it!

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.

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.

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.