I can't go for that: Yacht Rock

Kebabkid

Enjoying this and just watched Episode 1 and about to watch Episode 2. Toto, Doobies, Steely Dan, Eagles, Joni, Hall & Oates, Boz Scaggs etc.

I'd never heard the original of 'Summer Breeze' by Seals and Croft-stunning!

axisus

?? TV show?? Channel??

drofluf

axisus said:

?? TV show?? Channel??

It's on BBC4. Which reminds me i need to record it. 

Kebabkid

This ∆

Woodandwires

I thoroughly enjoyed episode one, some of my favourite guilty pleasures in music but I never realised it was called yacht rock after all these years

Kebabkid

Woodandwires said:

I thoroughly enjoyed episode one, some of my favourite guilty pleasures in music but I never realised it was called yacht rock after all these years

Me neither. AOR, Soft Rock, Classic Rock, Melodic Rock and even Dad Rock, but Yacht Rock? Nah.

It's good and Ep1 was on the 70s and Ep2 concentrates on the 80s and I believe there are just the 2 episodes

In the 90s I played in a band that played all this stuff and had 3 guitarists. It was musically challenging at times (Steely Dan parts and Eagles' vocals) but so much fun.

EricTheWeary

Katie Puckrik, bloody hell where’s she been? 

Cocaine Cowboys. That’s a seventies covers band name for you, thanks Katie. 

I’m watching episode 1. It’s not necessarily my favourite music ( well, it’s not) but it’s a well made documentary; not being an uber fan probably helps as I can’t pick nerdy holes in it. I was going to complain about the presence of Mark Ronson but as his step father was in Foreigner I guess he’s qualified to be there. 

It’s a reminder of how different the U.K. and USA charts were back then ( although I haven’t checked much in the 21st century). I watched the Chicago documentary ( on Netflix I think) a while back and they were huge for decades in the USA but just a couple of hits here pretty much in the twilight of their career. 

ICBM

Kebabkid said:

Woodandwires said:

I thoroughly enjoyed episode one, some of my favourite guilty pleasures in music but I never realised it was called yacht rock after all these years

Me neither. AOR, Soft Rock, Classic Rock, Melodic Rock and even Dad Rock, but Yacht Rock? Nah.

I’ve never heard of it either, and I grew up roughly when most of that stuff was popular. I even like some of it. It sounds like a recent made-up term to me.

When I saw the title the first thing I thought of was Queen on Adnan Khashoggi’s boat...

p90fool

It's a new term to me too, and the lumping in of Steely Dan with some incredibly lame drivel will mean I won't be watching the programme either. 

monquixote

I think Dan Harmon did a pisstake show about the genre called Yacht Rock and it's stuck.

welshboyo

Lukather's impression of Jay Graydon was very funny....

EricTheWeary

ICBM said:

Kebabkid said:

Woodandwires said:

I thoroughly enjoyed episode one, some of my favourite guilty pleasures in music but I never realised it was called yacht rock after all these years

Me neither. AOR, Soft Rock, Classic Rock, Melodic Rock and even Dad Rock, but Yacht Rock? Nah.

I’ve never heard of it either, and I grew up roughly when most of that stuff was popular. I even like some of it. It sounds like a recent made-up term to me.

When I saw the title the first thing I thought of was Queen on Adnan Khashoggi’s boat...

It's clear in the documentary that it's being applied retroactively. 

welshboyo

p90fool said:

It's a new term to me too, and the lumping in of Steely Dan with some incredibly lame drivel will mean I won't be watching the programme either. 

In all fairness, its quite light on Steely Dan - there was some early footage of them playing Reeling in the 1st episode and apart from a few soundbytes of Jay G doing Peg solo that's about it - Doobies/McDonald and Toto actually appear to have the most airtime so far.

ICBM

EricTheWeary said:

It's clear in the documentary that it's being applied retroactively. 

Ah. So smart-arse journalistic wankery then.

Kebabkid

Lukather is a naturally funny guy.

There's some repetition in Eps 2 but still worth a watch for the cheese.

I liked Young Gun Silver Fox and I've been listening to some of their stuff and if you like this sort of stuff, State Cows are worth a listen

EricTheWeary

ICBM said:

EricTheWeary said:

It's clear in the documentary that it's being applied retroactively. 

Ah. So smart-arse journalistic wankery then.

A programme presented by one of the presenters of The Word being smart arse? Surely not...

I think the idea is that yacht rock is a broad term that covers quite a range of non challenging Californian aspirational musics from singer songwriters to blue eyed soul. 
___________________________________________________

Steely Dan certainly get a look in despite a question mark over wether they fit in this category at all. Whilst it's a fairly broad category in which Katie has put anyone who will turn up for an interview I'm inclined to think that they don't fit. If it's about hummable love songs set in California they didn't do that. 

welshboyo said:

p90fool said:

It's a new term to me too, and the lumping in of Steely Dan with some incredibly lame drivel will mean I won't be watching the programme either. 

In all fairness, its quite light on Steely Dan - there was some early footage of them playing Reeling in the 1st episode and apart from a few soundbytes of Jay G doing Peg solo that's about it - Doobies/McDonald and Toto actually appear to have the most airtime so far.

joneve

Peg and Reeling, specifically, fit into the sound/era they're describing perfectly and those are the two songs that were most focused on. Sorry if that upsets any Steely Dan muso super fans. I don't see it as a slight on Steely Dan at all. Some of the music that was featured is great (Rosanna) and some not so great (Africa is a bit of a stretch to be a "great" song).

I really enjoyed it - had never heard the term before, but Spotify have a 10 hour playlist dedicated to it and although some of the songs are a bit of a stretch, it's great so far! Mostly just great 70's and 80's cheese, which I love. 

No idea if it's still available for there was a really good Doobies Documentary on Sky Arts or Beeb 4 a few months ago too, which is worth a watch. I forgot how good they were with Mush Mouth fronting them. 

Whitecat

I really enjoyed the "series"...

I am a Steely Dan superfan and I have no issue whatsoever with this being lumped in with that "genre" as it were. Fits perfectly, as it's more about pristine sonics and sheen and just outright brilliant musicianship rather than how many inverted jazz chords can be built into a pop structure.

Agree that the Spotify playlist(s) reach a little to pad out - they have quite a bit of straightforward AOR in them... but the series itself covered most of the important pillars of it.

joneve

Whitecat said:

I really enjoyed the "series"...

I am a Steely Dan superfan and I have no issue whatsoever with this being lumped in with that "genre" as it were. Fits perfectly, as it's more about pristine sonics and sheen and just outright brilliant musicianship rather than how many inverted jazz chords can be built into a pop structure.

Agree that the Spotify playlist(s) reach a little to pad out - they have quite a bit of straightforward AOR in them... but the series itself covered most of the important pillars of it.

Wis'd 

And yea, the "official" spotify one that's 10 hours could have been a lot shorter and removed all of the AOR stuff...but lucky for me, I like that too, so it's providing a great soundtrack to monday's work day  

Funkfingers

Yacht Rock is an Internet meme, coined for the benefit of present day audiences rather than anyone who lived through the era when the music first appeared. 

Coke Rock might have been a better catchall term. If nothing else, it would distinguish the West Coast acts from the East Coast and Mid-West heroin and amphetamine-fuelled lot.

Ultimately, a good song is a good song.

EricTheWeary said:

Mark Ronson ... his step father

Now, there is a worthy subject for a two-hour documentary.

Blueingreen

Enjoyed the first episode a lot, even though some of the talking heads’ theorising seemed very contrived. I enjoy the kind of revisionism where people go back and admit that stuff that was considered naff at the time was often better than the stuff that was considered cool.

The vagueness of the term is problematic especially given that it’s being applied retrospectively - no-one thought they were making a yacht rock record - so where do you draw the line between yacht and not yacht?

The second episode was weaker. I also think that if you’re going to make such a feature of Hall and Oates you should acknowledge that arguably their two finest tracks, She’s Gone and Sara Smile came before they went yacht and scored bigger hits.