MAX has the Documentary.
I’ll watch it soon. Looking forward to the music they feature.
I thought it was because “Sailing” is considered the quintessential yacht rock song. And you sail on a…
See, that’s part of the thing I don’t get.
Steely Dan? Yeah, sure, probably due to the meticulous “curated” nature of the production, you’ll hear it in a grocery store or something.
But what’s actually there in the music are burning, innovative guitar solos, backed by the very best bassists and drummers who ever recorded in a studio. The best of the dozen or so musicians on each instrument who tracked for Fagen and whom he selected during the mixing process.
Speaking for myself alone, as someone who despises pop music in general, ever since Cher started abusing the Autotune effect and since Ice-T became a full-time actor instead of an influential presence in music, Steely Dan doesn’t belong on the list of shame.
And BTW, edited to add, that clip from CNN is worth watching! I never watch random crap like that, but Donald Fagen’s response is very nice. “Well, I’ll tell you: why don’t you go fuck yourself!” (Yeah, that’s a spoiler, but it needed to be spoiled for those who don’t have any interest in sound bites from random news websites).
In a similar vein is Soma radios channel Left Coast 70s… My gf and I play “name that tune” when we tune in. (often because we cant agree on what to listen to…default to Left Coast)
Not only is the term meant to be insulting, I actually thought Steely Dan was the only yacht rock band.* I figured Sirius was straining the definitions to make a whole channel. I mean, the Doobie Bros? Alan Parsons? No way.
Why is it insulting? It’s music clueless rich people play to look sophisticated and get laid. They don’t like it for the music, they like it as a means to an end.
*IMO, whichever genre Steely Dan is, they are the only band in it. They sound like no one else, and no one sounds like them.
Okay boomer.
“Dad Rock”, to me, means Huey Lewis and guys like him.
Is “yacht rock” derogatory to the artists? Probably not, as long as the residuals keep pouring in.
In the web series Yacht Rock, it was implied that any song with Michael McDonald was fair game. So “Peg” by Steely Dan, I’m looking at you…
I would put some Steely Dan in the category. Not all of it. Certainly nothing on Royal Scam.
I think of the term Yacht Rock like the term Hair Metal. It’s derogatory but in a good natured way. Kind of like “Can you believe we listened to this? But actually it’s kind of great.” Both Yacht Rock and Hair Nation are on my presets.
Hopefully Fagan’s wife knows not to use the term
Steely Dan’s music is well crafted and melodic but never in a million years would I call it yacht rock. “Reeling’ in the Years” off their first album is one of the most scathing put down songs of all time. Not something the stereotypical yachtsman would want to hear while cruising on the bay.
Okay, the last two I see fitting the category, but since when is “Running On Empty” soft rock, let alone yacht rock?!?
A Sail Boat. Yachts have engine rooms and Flying Bridges. At least in my book.
You see, with a sailing vessel, you have to know what you’re doing. You gotta have skills.
You can just sit around with a drink on a Yacht. Hell! Pay somebody else to drive it!
Just watched Hozier on SNL. Yacht rocks lives.
I doubt anyone would consider Fountains of Wayne to fit in the category. However, they are definitely rocking on a yacht in the video for “Mexican Wine”.
I’d classify Jackson Browne as “heartland rock”, along with Springsteen, John Cougar Mellencamp, and to a certain extent Bon Jovi.
Whereas I classify him in the “1970s singer-songwriter” group, along with James Taylor, Cat Stevens, and Jim Croce.
There’s some overlap, but none of those guys did anything as heavy as “Running on Empty”, and thematically I think Browne has more in common with Springsteen than Taylor.
(As an aside, I recently heard Joan Baez’s cover of “Fountain of Sorrow” for the first time, and I can’t decide whether I like it better than the original.)
That was the first (and only) song I thought of in connection with the “genre”.
I can understand how Fagen wouldn’t want to be associated with soft pop-rock carrying that label, making it sound simultaneously elitist and lame (picturing 60-somethings* wearing turtlenecks, Dockers and penny loafers).
I’m not sure why Sirius would devote a channel to it. Aren’t there already at least half a dozen others playing similar stuff?
*I also laughed at this meme:
