2 Hours of Sonic Fun: "Yacht Rock: The DOCKumentary" on HBO & MAX

[Pink Freud]

I fully expected not to like this movie, but absolutely loved it! Artists Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Toto, Steely Dan, Chicago's Peter Cetera era, Christopher Cross, Boz Scaggs; producers Michael Omartian, David Foster, Ted Templeman, et al.

The term "yacht rock" was coined years ago by a couple of online comics, and it stuck, representing polished, richly layered rock/pop influenced by R&B and blues, without the trademark anger, rebellion, and anarchy of 1960s rock so many boomers grew up on. So many of these songs lack the rock-roots anger, replaced so often by contemplative reflection and regret that comes with experience and wisdom.

I think the "yacht rock" label sticks not to the music, but to its fans, because so many angry hard-rock teen fans cleaned up and acted respectable --- wearing "Hard Rock Cafe" t-shirts on vacation, of course --- to earn the good living they now enjoy while still grooving to finely written and composed songs from rockers that now appear on Lite FM playlists. Imagine the 1970s fave "Don Kirschner's Rock Concert" airing today on The Hallmark Channel.

NOTE: Listen closely; right about now you can hear the empty little head of this forum's resident boomer-hating troll hissing, waiting to explode.

Fun findings from the Yacht Rock Dock-umentary:

Who knew a bad reaction to a medical shot by Ritchie Blackmore would open the door for Christopher Cross's own rainbow?

Who knew Michael McDonald's stratospheric rise started with a phone call with an invitation --- on 3 days notice --- to pack his Wurlitzer piano and join Steely Dan on tour?

Every rock fan knows of The Wrecking Crew that played on thousands of hit songs in the '50s and '60s. Toto alone could be that Wrecking Crew of the '70s and '80s.

With all the lawsuits accusing songwriters of plagiarizing hit songs, how on earth, after the success of the Doobies' "What a Fool Believes", could Robbie Dupree possibly have gotten away with his blatant knockoff "Steal Away"?

Amazingly often, while lyrics may take weeks or months to create, when The Muse hits, that melody or instrumental lick is THERE. It's why so many musicians keep a recorder next to the bed, in case The Muse arrives just before waking.

At the Grammys where Christopher Cross basked in winning....well, everything....for his debut album, he expressed a wish to meet Barbra Streisand, who attended and fully expected to win that night. Cross was advised, "Honey, this is not the night."

Amazing how many L. A. musicians regard Steely Dan's "Aja" as very nearly The Perfect Album.

Toto had so little faith in "Africa" that they reluctantly stuck it on as the final song on Side Two of its album, and continue to be amazed at its popularity, especially with an unwieldly lyric including "Kilimanjaro" and "the Serengeti" in the same line.

One of the wisest moves by Cross's record company was in NOT putting any photos on the front or back cover of his super-selling debut album. The man was not good-looking at all, and the studio wanted people to imagine how the chirpy-voiced Cross might have looked.

There is a hysterically funny video spoof of Michael McDonald's ubiquity in '80s pop music highlighted in the dockumentary.

Who knew Kenny Loggins was 6' 4"?

[MikoTython]

Saw Pablo Cruise WAY back in the day, at Chico St. Girlfriend was obsessed w/ them. I didn't mind them at all.

It's all just popular music. Or was. What we have now... well... better not to say.

[Pink Freud]

When I lived in L.A. and got fully immersed in learning all I could about entertainment, I was always amazed at the random, dumb luck, everyday occasions that only through kismet paired talented musicians and actors with the very people who could make them stars. If there's one overall thing I learned about showbiz in L.A., it's this: NOBODY, BUT NOBODY MAKES IT BIG ALONE. Listen to the Paul McCartney song "Take It Away", with the lyric "In the audience watching the show with a paper in his hand...some important impresario has a message for the band...". That happened dozens of times at The Troubadour alone.

Super-producer Ted Templeman, who appears briefly in the documentary, was assigned by his label to check out this new L.A. rock band called Van Halen, and he started to walk out unimpressed, especially with their constantly off-key lead singer David Lee Roth. However, on the way out he wanted to grab a cup of coffee from the vending machine near the exit...but found it out of coffee.

He knew there was another machine by the other exit, next to a stairwell he walked by, where Ted accidentally heard this ungodly talented guitarist warming up for his next session. It was a young Eddie Van Halen. Templeman was so impressed he persuaded Van Halen the band to record Eddie's warmup routine, later titled "Eruption", and the rest of their first album for him. The rest is history, but.......what if that first vending machine hadn't been out of coffee? From such happy accidents are careers and legends sometimes made...and not made, sending seriously talented people who didn't get that break back home on a sad, long bus ride to have to work a real job and play local bars and community theater on weekends.

Every rock fan knows of The Wrecking Crew of ace session musicians that played on thousands of late 1950s and '60s hit records. Why, of all these great musicians, was Glen Campbell tapped to record his own albums and land a CBS-TV summer replacement series? Easy. Not only was Campbell musically gifted, but this was a burgeoning TV era, and Campbell was very good-looking.

In the summer of 1982 I had a season-long, loving relationship with Glen's future mother-in-law, a sweet, gorgeous Clayton dress designer (Joni) with her eyes on Hollywood, who later married a St. Louis commercial real estate developer (Jerry), the father of a NYC Rockettes dancer (Kim) who became Glen's long-loving wife.

I was never a fan of Brit rocker Joe Jackson, but especially after his song "Steppin' Out" was playing on the stereo in my home when Joni came over on a holiday weekend to tell me she was going back to Jerry, sharing my tears and shattering my heart for months. To this day, 42 years later, I still relive it whenever that song reaches my ears.

After Joni and Jerry married, they became high-tipping semi-regulars where I moonlighted as a server, always asking for my station and treating me like family. Super classy people, and it shocked me to learn that after Jerry's death, Joni moved to the very town in AZ where my current wife and I attended church services where B. J. Thomas frequently played benefit concerts we attended, ministered by the clergyman who later married us.

Like I said above, random occurrences and happy/heartbreaking accidents.