All aboard… Celebrating Yacht Rock!
Summer is here!
It’s time to take a musical voyage back to the ‘70s and ‘80s.
Photo by Joel Goodman
Now that Summer has officially arrived, it is time to celebrate the season with some smooth-sailing Soft Rock hits from the late '70s and early '80s. Last Friday, I had the opportunity to see another local cover band (The Yachties) perform several of these great tunes live and in-person; an awesome way to kick off my Father’s Day weekend!
Yacht Rock is not a music genre per se, it is a recently-coined description of the broad music style and aesthetic associated with California-based Soft Rock. Originally known as adult-oriented Rock (AOR) or the “West Coast sound,” California-based Soft Rock was one of the most commercially successful genres from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s; so many great songs!
According to History.com author Ratha Tep, Yacht Rock “is a 21st-century concept popularized by a group of music-obsessed friends—JD Ryznar, Hunter Stair, Dave Lyons, Lane Farnham, and Steve Huey—for the online comedy series Yacht Rock on Channel 101 in 2005, which coincidentally was the same year YouTube launched, helping it become a viral sensation.” Music critic Chris Molanphy further explains, “The yacht was meant to be a metaphor about the high-end quality of the music. But on the internet, folks took the nautical idea literally, even though Ryznar had named the music for playing while on a boat, not about the boat per se.”
Our first Summer… Me and the Mrs. in 2005.
Just admit it… these are great songs. Whether we call them Soft Rock, Adult Contemporary, or Yacht Rock, like fine wines, these songs get even better with age. Yacht Rock continues to grow in popularity; a mixture of discovery and re-discovery. One of my favorite channels on SiriusXM, “Yacht Rock Radio” debuted ten years ago and I have been a listener ever since.
However, a recent HBO documentary or “dockumentary” about Yacht Rock and a perceived hyperfocus on its style and aesthetic instead of the music itself, has led to some backlash from a few musicians, writers, and podcasters.
For me, several of the albums and songs that are now described as Yacht Rock are masterworks and showcase a high level of musicianship. Around ten years ago, I met the legendary Jeff “Skunk” Baxter at an event where he shared his experiences as the guitarist with both Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers.
I also recall the 1999 Classic Albums documentary about the recording of one of my favorite albums, Aja (1977) by Steely Dan. The band’s founders, the late Walter Becker and Donald Fagen discussed their shared appreciation for Jazz and described their painstaking and meticulous process of recording.
Aja, as well as other Steely Dan albums, feature some of our greatest musicians, including the late saxophonist Wayne Shorter, drummer Bernard Lee "Pretty" Purdie, guitarist Larry Carlton, and singer/songwriter Michael McDonald, who lent his signature background vocals. For example, "Don't Take Me Alive" from Steely Dan’s previous album The Royal Scam (1976) opens with an iconic Larry Carlton solo. Skunk Baxter provided another legendary solo for one of Steely Dan’s biggest hits, "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" (1974). Baxter joined The Doobie Brothers soon after.
In short, these memorable artists, albums, and songs do possess an aura of sophistication, which pairs well with the finer things in life.
Yacht Rock staples like Steely Dan’s “Josie,” Robbie Dupree’s “Steal Away,” Hall and Oates “I Can't Go for That (No Can Do),” and the most excellent, "What a Fool Believes" by The Doobie Brothers, still take me to a good place and bring back memories of my childhood. Arguably, only music has this ability to defy the restraints of space and time.
I’m your captain…
Photo courtesy of Anthony Woodard
“Time flows in a continuous stream — yet our memories are divided into separate episodes, all of which become part of our personal narrative. How emotions shape this memory formation process is a mystery that science has only recently begun to unravel. The latest clue comes from UCLA psychologists, who have discovered that fluctuating emotions elicited by music helps form separate and durable memories… ‘Changes in emotion evoked by music created boundaries between episodes that made it easier for people to remember what they had seen and when they had seen it,’ said lead author Mason McClay, a doctoral student in psychology at UCLA.”
- Ober, Holly, University of California - Los Angeles. “Why emotions stirred by music create such powerful memories”. November 20, 2023
Coming full circle… Much to the chagrin of my kids, these tunes also seem to always make it on our summer road trip playlists. Whether it is Dana Point, Hilton Head, or the Gulf coast, if there is a beach, Yacht Rock is our soundtrack…
Photos courtesy of Anthony Woodard
As a lifelong, amateur musicologist, I also appreciate the stories, not only about the artists, the bands, or the music industry, but about how music itself creates lasting memories for me, my friends and family, and even strangers. All aboard!
