Yacht Rock: what is it and what's its origin?

Cafe Society
101

Or Lovin’ Spoonful.

Back on topic, since I’ve been pondering this.

I think we can (sorta) agree about the years that were Peak YR, i.e. somewhere from the mid 70’s and ten about ten years. And what happened during that time was that studio equipment got magnitudes cheaper and more powerful.

When Floyd and Parsons recorded Dark Side of the Moon in the EMI (now Abbey Road) studio, they had to contend with 16 channels. The nature of the album required them to to multiple overdubs and down mixes. I’ve seen a couple of documentaries and all five of them were on the consoles and other paraphernalia trying to juggle tape loops and such as the VCS3.*
In the documentary History of the Eagles, curmudgeon Henley complains about recording with producer Glyn Jones. The producer used three mics for the drum set and thought that was enough and according to Henley Jones said that it was good enough for Bonham, so Henley should hit harder.

All this is to say that by the end of the decade 32 channels was common and for the biggest productions, maybe even 48 or 64. This meant that it was possible to put a mic on each drum (so snare, toms, kick and two overhead, IOW at least six). Each channel could then be fiddled with to achieve what was consider the optimum sound. The floor toms a little to quiet? Up the gain. More oumph to the kick? Run that alone through some processing box (often a reverb).

And so back up singers had their own channels, horn(s) had theirs, bass, rhythm guitar, lead, keyboards, vocals… plenty of channels to spare and each could be tweaked in myriad ways.

So they did. And the result of them playing around gave us a sound that was too polished, too perfect and the end result felt… well whatever pejorative term one would use to describe YR.

Case in point, and I’ve posted this before. Christopher Cross can really… well, shred his guitar. If you listen closely, it’s buried deep in the mix of Ride like the wind. Rick Beato did a video on this and later a follow up with an interview with Cross. Well worth checking out.

*Which looks like this:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EMS_VCS_3.jpg#/media/File:EMS_VCS_3.jpg

102

I’m a little surprised that Boz Scaggs’s “Lido Shuffle” is on that list; it doesn’t really seem like “smooth music” to me (even though his backup band was proto-Toto). I remember liking that song and listening to his greatest hits on Youtube and being disappointed that the rest of his hits were much, much mellower.

103

Like a lot of popular music from the 1970’s and 1980’s it is now in the soft/mellow/adult contemporary rock ghetto. It’s the stuff that shows up on Siruis stations like ‘The Bridge’ (70’s soft rock) and ‘The Blend’ (70’s-90’s soft adult contemporary hits). Folks that lived it may not so regard it (“that’s a gritty tale about a loser!”), but the programmers have ghettoized it and there it now lives for forever more.

The overlap between soft rock and yacht rock is huge.

104

There are working-class small-town Americans in New Jersey, too. Springsteen grew up fairly poor, the son of a factory worker and a secretary.

105

Wouldn’t Jimmy Buffet be a classic example?

Though perhaps he’s a bit too country to be classified as rock…

106

I know. I’ve lived in New Jersey for 20 years. Which feels like a weird thing to say out loud.

But that’s my point. I mean yes, John Mellencamp’s songs tend to evoke more of a “Midwestern farm community” feel while Springsteen feels more “East Coast blue collar factory town” (although both regions have factories and farms), but they tend to be songs that speak to the working class.

Not the sort of music I like to listen to while drinking a margherita on my boat while watching the sunset.

107

As someone who grew up spending a lot of time making tape mixes and later fine-tuning iPod playlists, I find it’s often not easy to classify entire artists by genre as they often experiment and try different sounds. Furthermore, as time goes by, I find that a lot of the distinctions and nuances tend to get blended together as a generic “70’s sound”.

Case in point, many of the songs and artists being discussed cover a wide spectrum of genres ranging from rock, adult contemporary, folk, R&B, smooth jazz, and even disco. If I were making a playlist out of many of these songs, I could probably add songs from artists like Elton John, Billy Joel, Sting, or Pink Floyd that might blend seamlessly with a “Yacht Rock” theme.

108

Maybe if I were in the (corner) off waiting for my next chance to go out, I’d be listening to “yacht rock,” but once I was actually there, it’d be sea shanties all the way!

109

I was thinking that both he and Michael McDonald have some decent hard rock cred. Cross filled in for Ritchie Blackmore at a Deep Purple gig (sadly it doesn’t seem to have been recorded). And McDonald co-wrote the lyrics for Van Halen’s “I’ll Wait”.

110

Yes, Yacht Rock is whatever the marketing people at SXM say it is. It can be anything that evokes a feeling with their target audience.

I feel that any genre can be blended into Yacht Rock. Glenn Frey’s Smugglers Blues should fit right in. Bob Seger is a well-known yachtsman on the Great Lakes, so include some of his songs as well, Fire Lake would be a good one. Jackson Browns Running On Empty is something people with boats can relate with. There is no rule here.

111

Kenny Logins is similarly associated with Yacht Rock with songs like “This is it”.. But he’s perhaps better known for non-yacht rock songs from rockin soundtracks for Tom Gun, Footloose, and Caddy Shack.

Similarly, the 70s soft rock classic about the The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot probably isn’t “yacht rock” for obvious reasons.

I think what makes it yacht rock is that earnest soft rock adult contemporary smooth jazz sound with the keyboards and sax and falsetto singing.

112
113

Heh, I was wondering what Pink Floyd songs you might include. Then I remembered this one.

114

While I’m here, this is one of my favorite SCTV skits, involving Rick Moranis as Michael McDonald:

115

The Yacht Rock web series focuses specifically on these songs as the epitome of YR.

You can’t take the rock out of yacht rock.

116

I recently heard an interview with McDonald where he talked about that sketch. Said he had just come back to his hotel room after a performance and smoked some pot. Turned on the TV just in time to see that sketch. He said “The first thing I thought was. man, that was some really good weed!” He also mentioned that years later, Rick Moranis apologized to him about that sketch, but he told, “No need to apologize! That was really funny.”

117

And Rick Beato watched the Yacht Rock documentary.

118

I was doing a google maps search just now and came up with this street view image that I just have to share:

Yep, there’s touring “tribute band” called Yacht Rock Review. From their website:

"Inspired by the golden era of soft rock, Yacht Rock Revue has mastered the art of recreating the breezy and laid-back tunes that defined a generation. From the sun-kissed melodies of Steely Dan and Michael McDonald to the velvety harmonies of Hall & Oates, their repertoire spans an ocean of beloved hits that evoke memories of palm trees, ocean breezes, and carefree summers.

Whether you’re a longtime lover of the yacht rock era or a newcomer to its smooth grooves, Yacht Rock Revue promises an unforgettable journey across the azure waters of musical history. So grab your captain’s hat and set sail with Yacht Rock Revue for a melodic adventure like no other."

119

That will really, really make Donald Fagen’s day about his sun-kissed melodies.

120

We’ve had a hundred comments in this thread saying that Steely Dan isn’t yacht rock and that the term lumps too many diverse styles together.

Nobody cares. Beato* is beating a dead horse. Yacht rock is a thing. It’s a 24/7 channel. It’s all over the internet. The world doesn’t care if the label is askew on the bottle.

Way back when in about the early 1970s, people in the sf community fought hard against the use of the term sci-fi, because they deeply wanted to make the genre respectable and the term denoted cheap movie footage. Then in 1977 Star Wars appeared, and the field has been called sci-fi virtually every moment since. Some people still fight against it, but the battle was lost long ago. Worse, sci-fi sometimes feels like a victory. An sf book won the Booker Prize this year and the author is adamant that she wasn’t writing science fiction but a “space pastoral.” I wish I were kidding.

Yacht rock started as a joke. People like jokes. The joke won. Accept it. Analyze the joke if you will, as long as you remember that analysts of humor are never thought to be funny.

* I like Beato and I’ve listened to a lot of his videos. He’s also from Rochester, my town, so that gives him an edge. This video… well, I get. I agree. But he’s spitting into the wind.