Summer Means Yacht Rock

Cross wrote "Ride Like The Wind" while on acid. That's the best Yacht Rock song story of all.

 

Fleetwood Mac is a strange example. Pretty much all of Christine McVie's songs are Yacht Rock. Pretty much none of Lindsey Buckingham's. Maybe 50-50 of Stevie Nicks'.

Meanwhile, FM alumnus and Buckingham's predecessor as lead guitar/ vocalist, Bob Welch, was definitely Yacht Rock.

 

Buckingham's guitar style is unique, but sublimating his guitar to the overall song, which is one the many things Buckingham was great at, is very yacht rock.

There's decent guitar in some yacht rock songs, but no guitar solos per se. Or if there are? They're very subdued like "Peg" by Steely Dan or Don Felder's solo that closes "I Can't Tell You Why". It's to some degree influenced by Buckingham's way of approaching music though perhaps not his actual style of playing. A yacht rock example might be Pablo Cruise's "Love Will Find A Way", a song that has guitar in it, and it jumps out in the mix here and there, but isn't a guitar song necessarily.

And besides, "Hold Me" is very yacht rock. He co-sings it with McVie and his guitar absolutely makes that song.

It all boils down to the fact that yacht rock is a very studio-based genre, part of a very conscious effort on the part of both artists and labels to make studio-based music in the late 70s and early 80s. And Mac was as studio obsessed as any band ever was. Perhaps only Steely Dan was more so, and of course, they might be the zenith of yacht rock.

 

It is interesting when you think of Toto as the hub of Six Degrees of Yacht Rock.

 

Well, they did play on probably play on 50 percent of the music produced from 1976-84.

 

I actually have Michael McDonald in that slot, but there’s at least a chance he played on every non-metal pop rock track recorded between 1974-86.

 

Stevie Nicks and Nicolette Larson were backing voices on a lot of Yacht Rock tracks in the late 70s as well.

 

I think my favorite episode of the HBO show Vinyl was when they went out to LA to check out the music scene. One of the things that hasn't gotten enough attention is the "death" of regionalism in music, artists can collaborate with anyone anywhere via computers and files, don't know how often groups of musicians get together to just jam or develop a sound anymore. You are just as likely to be familiar with the New York scene as you are the Atlanta, Nashville, Austin or SF music scenes.

 

What is the song you have heard on the channel that you can't stand?
When I hear anything fuckin Bread I reach for the dial.
Thirteen Billboard Hot 100 hits between 1970-77.

 

That second line had me laughing for minutes.

Yet another example that Billboard is not proof of quality ...

 

Sam-
I feel bad saying it as nearly all the bandmembers are dead.
I just think that bands like Bread are why soft rock gets a bad rap.
The years 1976-84 are the accepted parameters of the genre. Anything before does not quite fit, IMO.
I would not say that anything after 1984 should be discounted ... Sweet Freedom was 1986 and I'd argue yacht rock stretched well into 1987-88 with artsts such as Kenny G and Richard Marx (like 'em or not).

 

Thing is, I think Michael McDonald was a help, not a hindrance.

IMO, he made the Doobie Brothers infinitely better. One of my uncles and I will forever disagree on this one ... he thinks McDonald ruined the group. I didn't think the Doobie Brothers was awful without him, but they were better with him. The life and music he injected turned them from L.A. Rock lite into something much better.

I mean, look at the story ... they were about to break up, then "What A Fool Believes" hits No. 1. The group was smart enough to NOT leave that money on the table.

"China Grove," "Long Train Runnin'" and "Jesus Is Just Alright" were decent. "What A Fool Believes" is miles ahead of all of them. Even did a good job with "You Belong To Me," though Carly's version needed no follow.