‘Yacht Rock’ Documentary Makes A Case For The Smooth Legacy Of ‘70s And ‘80s Soft Rock

(L-R) Michael McDonald and Christopher Cross from ‘Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary.’

credit: Courtesy of HBO

Almost 20 years ago, the irreverent comedy series Yacht Rock debuted on the web, lovingly spoofing popular ‘70s and ‘80s artists — such as Steely Dan, the Doobie Brothers’ Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Christopher Cross, Toto and Hall and Oates — whose smooth music blended rock, pop, jazz and soul. Throughout 12 hilarious episodes, Yacht Rock depicted an aspect of the Southern California music scene from over 40 years ago when soft rock dominated the charts and became commercially successful.

Yacht Rock the web series has long been on hiatus following its initial run in 2005. Still, its legacy lives not only by lending its name to the genre but also by inspiring tribute bands, music-themed cruises and other related endeavors. More importantly, the series rekindled interest in and revitalized the careers of those artists. Now a new HBO film, Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary, which airs on Max this Friday, offers a more historical yet still lighthearted look at the genre as it features interviews with some of the artists above — along with commentary from younger generations of musicians like the Roots’ Questlove and Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino and critics/journalists such as Amanda Petrusich and Steven Hyden.

“I set out to make a fun movie,” says Yacht Rock director Garret Price, whose other credits include Woodstock 99 and Daisy Jones and the Six. “It was really important to me. I went in saying, ‘I want to make a fun movie, but not make fun of these guys.” And I hope I found that balance in the film.”

Price acknowledges that ‘yacht rock’ is a polarizing term for the artists who made this soulful and sophisticated music between the 1970s and 1980s. But once McDonald and Cross came on board to be interviewed for the film, other musicians like Loggins and the members of Toto followed suit.

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“I went in pitching [to] the artists, ‘Look, I’m obviously going to talk about how this came to be, but I really want to give you guys a chance to define the music you were making yourselves,’” Price recalls. ‘That was kind of my first approach but also kind of set up the parameters of what is or isn’t yacht rock [and] giving respect to the guys who created the web series.”

“Some people think it’s hilarious,” Price also says of the artists’ initial reaction to the yacht rock term. “Some people have had a hard time accepting it, and others absolutely despise it. Again, [it’s] me saying, ‘I want you guys to define this time of making music.’ They were so excited to talk about that time period and unguardedly also.”

But outside of the laughs that the original web series generated, soft rock during the 1970s and 1980s was a very creative time when a good number of musicians like McDonald and the members of Toto ended up on other artists’ records as session players in addition to making their music. All this cross-pollination could be traced to Steely Dan — the duo of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker — who hired these ace musicians for their albums, most notably 1977’s masterpiece Aja.

“I call Steely Dan the ‘Big Bang of Yacht Rock,’” says Price. “It’s kind of like where it all started. These guys were all influenced by their time working with Donald and Walter, and you see how they took that influence into their own music. I really wanted to set that up at the beginning of the movie to show that this was changing the musical landscape of Los Angeles at this time period.”

Another important part of the yacht rock story addressed in the documentary is the influence of Black music on these predominantly West Coast-based white musicians. “I think that’s one of the reasons they all didn’t love the word,” says Price, “because I think people hear ‘yacht rock,’ they associate rich white people. They wore their influences on their sleeve. They adored and loved Black music. So I really wanted to get that across in the film, that this kind of sound is paying respects to the R&B, jazz, the soul music, the gospel music that these artists loved.”

The inclusion of Questlove and Consentino along with Thundercat, Mac DeMarco and Paramore’s Brian Robert Jones in the documentary shows how today’s younger musicians have embraced yacht rock. “Their knowledge of this music is so deep, too,” Price says. “You can tell it’s genuinely influenced their own work. I knew Thundercat had worked with Kenny and Michael before. Quest loves this music, he’s talked to Michael and Chris on his podcast. I knew they were all fans of this music.”

While the new documentary had the full participation of key figures like McDonald, Cross and Loggins, one person who didn’t appear on camera was Steely Dan’s Fagen. Price recorded a phone conversation (later used in the movie) in which he asked Fagen if he was interested in being interviewed for the project. Instead, Fagen could be heard uttering an expletive and then hanging up on Price. Still, Fagen allowed the use of six Steely Dan songs for the film.

“I think he got what he wanted to say across,” Price says of his memorable exchange with Fagen, “but it’s also a wink that he understands the importance of this term that has come to define a lot of their music and how it’s brought in new fans….I think he gets it. He’s got a sense of humor. He’s got a character he’s got to keep up.”

Meanwhile, Price’s movie has earned the stamp of approval from J.D. Ryznar and Steve Huey, the co-creator and host respectively of the original Yacht Rock web series whose title coined the genre (Both of them also appear in the documentary). “Ever since the term took off and our baby left its nest, we’ve been trying to tell people what yacht rock really is about,” says Ryznar. “And I think the documentary does a great job of it.”

“The two main things that I always hope people take away if they listen to us about what we thought yacht rock meant,” Huey adds, “is number one: it’s not just white people’s music. It’s a hybrid genre with the influence of Black music, jazz and R&B. And the other thing that I hope people take away from it is that for all the joking around, we really love this music and we love the guys who made it. I think that comes across really well in the documentary.”

Recently, Ryznar and Huey attended a Grammy Museum event in Los Angeles for the film that included McDonald, Cross, Toto’s Steve Porcaro and David Paich, and Ambrosia’s David Pack. It was the first time Huey and Ryznar met the musicians they previously spoofed in person. “I was afraid to meet any of them until I saw them happily participating in this documentary,” said Ryznar. “I was like, ‘Okay. They’d probably like to meet me. They’d probably like to say hi.’”

“These guys have been the butt of jokes through the prime of their careers,” says Huey of the musical acts parodied in the series. “And I can see where it would be difficult if there’s this web series out that’s a comedy show about your music. I can see how it would be difficult to differentiate the affectionate jokes from the mean ones when there have been probably too many over time. I think they’ve all pretty much more or less come to terms [with that]: ‘This is a thing, and it’s ultimately helped our careers and it’s helped preserve our legacies.’”

The popularity of the series also has been life-changing for its participants even after it ended in 2010. “ I still occasionally get recognized in public for it,” Huey says. “I still occasionally get dates out of it, which blows my mind…In some ways, it’s like having a secret identity.”

Meanwhile, Ryznar and Huey are working on a book about yacht rock, but the verdict is still out on whether the web series could ever be rebooted. “The possibility is there,” Ryznar says. “Whether or not all the things come together properly, TBD.”

“I would say that it’s easier to do the web series when you don’t know any of the stories behind how the songs came about,” adds Huey.

Price hopes that viewers’ takeaway from Yacht Rock the film is the genre’s important place in music history. “It should be there along with everything else happening,” he says. “And I’m so excited that it’s premiering the day after Thanksgiving because a lot of families are going to be together. It’s going to be a little bit more contentious this year than other years. There’s nothing better than bring a family together than watch this film and just enjoy the smooth, sweet sounds of yacht rock.”

“I also hope that people will take away that you know from the documentary that this for us was a labor of love,” Huey says. “Early on we had some people interpret the web series as, ‘Oh, this is snarky ironic hipster b*******.’ I can see how some people might take that away, but you know that wasn’t our intent. I hope that people take away from this — with regards to us and this term that it’s affectionate — that we love this music. We love the people who made it. We hope people are inspired to go investigate all of the breadth and depth of the yacht rock genre because there’s so much out there.”

Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary, directed by Garret Price, premieres on Max, Friday, Nov. 29.