Japan Sony Music does similarly-themed compilation CDs for session works of Steve Lukather and Jeff Porcaro. Jeff Porcaro's even has a Vol. II.
I don't think there are. Given the constraints (sound, era, locale, musicians), I 'd guess the total number of true yacht rock songs is probably—at most—about half that. It really depends how strict you want to be, especially with musicians, because I've discovered really good of-the-era yacht rock tracks on obscure releases from Scandinavia, France, Hawaii, and Eastern Europe, so I'm sure there's more of it out there that will surface eventually.
I think it's more accurate to say that Steely Dan had a yacht rock era, which is the case with most artists who performed yacht rock. Aja and Gaucho are yacht start to finish, while the earlier albums might have one or two yacht rock tracks combined.
Before Aja, Steely Dan were hanging out at the dockside bar, drinking Cuervo Gold and smoking some fine Columbian...they didn't actually get a charter in until Aja. With Gaucho they traded in their secondhand Aja yacht for a brand spanking new one.
The solution to this dilemma is a very simple one: it is a matter of just asking the Channel 101 guys who claim to have coined the term whether they actually invented it or redefined it from a previous source. There's the answer.
Walter Becker: So I’m pretty positive you guys are familiar with this whole Yacht Rock thing… Yeah! [Laughs] I wanted to ask you about it because I think it’s kind of strange and interesting that you guys are involved with that. There’s this whole idea of smooth music, with the Doobie Brothers and Kenny Loggins and people like that. What is your feeling about being lumped in with that, and do you feel it’s accurate? That’s just basically a gag, and I see why we would be lumped in with it. There are a lot of reasons why we would be lumped in with it, and yet there are a lot of—I mean, for example, to take someone who’s probably the furthest from where we are, like Christopher Cross, okay, who’s just doing these very simple songs; he was doing them I’m sure with some of the same musicians that we used, in some of the same studios with some of the same sonic goals in mind: a very smooth or shall we say polished product. And we ended up doing that—or maybe I should say we started out doing that, because it was our perception that if you were going to use jazz harmonies, it had to sound tight, professional; nothing sounds worse than sloppy—than kids playing jazz, you know what I mean? And so we sort of felt obliged to do that because of the kind of music we were doing. And so I think it’s great. I think it’s very amusing, the idea that all of these people knew each other, and I suppose, you know, we certainly knew Mike [McDonald], we worked with Mike, and we knew the Eagles, not as well, and the idea that we were sort of battling with each other in various types of feuds and situations, I think it’s pretty funny. I think it’s great. But when you hear a comparison like that do you ever wonder if people are actually listening to your lyrics and picking up on the idea that these songs are actually very cynical? Yeah, I do, and I think our idea was to some extent that it would work either way. In other words, the songs would work whether you got to that level of the lyrics or not. And that’s the way it actually seemed, like when “Do It Again” was a hit, people didn’t even know what the words to the song were, but they knew the song, they knew they liked it, and they knew the mood of the thing. And later on I guess some of them found out what the actual words were. And I think the ironic relationship of words to music and so on, you have to figure that some people are going to be more in on the joke than others, or that the complementary nature of the sounds is going to be more important that the paradox between the lyrics and the sounds. So you do actually consider that to be a paradox: smoothness of music versus dark content? Yes, absolutely. I mean, the way it seemed to us at the time was that with music, it’s very hard to find something that hasn’t been done before. Similarly, writing text, writing words is the same thing. But once you put the two together and you can relate them in all sorts of weird ways, it opens up a whole new range of effects that you can get to. And particularly we were influenced a lot in that by black humor, where the writing was simultaneously often very sad and tragic and very funny.
XM's version of Yacht Rock is about 70% accurate. I do not consider Fleetwood Mac as an artist that fits the format. And not every Christopher Cross hit is Yacht Rock.
It's interesting that he brings up Christopher Cross, because, as he said, he's guilty by association more than anything else. At the end of the day, you have to listen to the music—just because Christopher Cross has all the key musicians and is of the era does NOT mean he's yacht rock. "Sailing" in fact, is as about as far from yacht rock and you can get.
If the sole consideration to determine whether a song is yacht or not is its sound, and not its theme, lyrics and time period, then many are the songs that reproduced quite faithfully the musical requirements for a song to be considered of the genre, that were released way after 1984 or whenever the Yacht music era ended, and many are the themes expressed in the lyrics of songs that, although they are acoustically yacht are not necessarily nautically inspired or having a fool as its main figure in the story line of its lyrics. If you think about it, Fender piano and electric guitars continued to be played after 1984, just as "classical" music continues to be composed even today. A piece of music composed today can sound exactly as it sounded as the period during which that music used to be composed, given the fact that musical instruments do not go away. The only thing that cannot be possible is, obviously, the reverse, which is, for instance, creating rock and roll in the eighteenth century, because some of the key instruments essential for rock and roll did not exist in the eighteenth century. So my question is, what makes a song yacht?
Thread Starter, Your ruling on the following tracks: "For Your Eyes Only" - Sheena Easton "Xanadu" - Olivia Newton John/ELO "On the Radio" - Donna Sommer "Strange Magic" - Electric Light Orchestra "Even the Nights are Better" - Air Supply "Here I am" - Air Supply "I'm Not Moving" - Phil Collins "I Just called to Say I Love You" - Stevie Wonder "Never Gonna Let You Go" - Sergio Mendes "Just You and I" - Eddie Rabbitt "Slow Jam" - Midnight Star "Closer Than Friends" - Surface "Kiss of Life" - Sade "I Don't Want to Live without You" - Foreigner "The One You Love" - Glenn Frey
That's exactly why I asked the question, is it the sound alone that makes a song yacht, or do also its theme, lyrics and time period? "Sailing" from Christopher Cross does not fulfill the acoustic requirements to make it a Yacht song, but in terms of theme, lyrics and time period, it couldn't be more Yacht.
Yeah, I think that trips up a lot of people. Being about yachts, or having a nautical theme, does NOT make a song yacht rock. Very few yacht rock songs refer to anything nautical, and most of the "boat" songs tend to be more of the Jimmy Buffet novelty Caribbean ilk.
Agreed. I think Christopher Cross was a critical plot element of their series, so they're reluctant to backpedal. By their own criteria, "Sailing" is a terrible yacht rock song—virtually every element is wrong. So instead, they've created an exception where they basically acknowledge Cristopher Cross isn't yacht rock, but is simply because he's Christopher Cross and he should be.
It's a valid question. So let's break this down. Sound. It's not the sole consideration, but it's a consideration, and it's the one consideration that's a deal breaker—if it doesn't sound anything like a yacht rock song, then it simply can't be a yacht rock song. So if you take "Sailing," yes, it has virtually every key musician. Yes, it's of the correct era and from the correct locale. I'd argue that thematically and lyrically it's not particularly correct, but I supposed the argument could be made. But if you actually listen to it, that didn't add up to a yacht rock song. It's a sappy, plodding, pensive soft rock sobfest that wouldn't be at all out of place on any Air Supply album. So while all elements are factors, sound, in the end, trumps all.
Oh, I like these. Let's see: "For Your Eyes Only" - Sheena Easton: Nope. "Xanadu" - Olivia Newton John/ELO: Nope. Jeff Lynne has a very particular sound, which, while I find very cool, really has no yacht elements. I've heard ONJ has some yacht tracks, but I've yet to hear one. "On the Radio" - Donna Sommer: Nope, straight-up disco. "Strange Magic" - Electric Light Orchestra: Nope; re: "Xanadu." "Even the Nights are Better"/"Here I am" - Air Supply: Nope. From 20 feet away, Air Supply might seem to fit the bill, but at the end of the day, it's hookless, sentimental soft rock—zero edge or irony. "I'm Not Moving" - Phil Collins: Oh, this was an interesting one. I'd never heard this song before and, while I actually really liked it, it strikes me more as Collins' homage to ELO than yacht rock. "I Just called to Say I Love You" - Stevie Wonder: Nope. This is a terrible, terrible pop song that is awful and anyone who likes it is a bad person and I hate you. "Never Gonna Let You Go" - Sergio Mendes: Nope. I'd never noticed it before, but this is pretty similar to "Sailing" in a lot of ways. Has some of the elements, but again, it's more sentimental soft rock than yacht. "Just You and I" - Eddie Rabbitt: Nope. He comes up from time to time in the yacht discussion, but this track is a straight-ahead love ballad. "Slow Jam" - Midnight Star: Nope. This song is—wait for it—a slow jam. Quiet storm, maybe, but yacht, no. "Closer Than Friends" - Surface: Nope, another slow jam. "Kiss of Life" - Sade: Nope. She's been the subject of many a debate. It's smooth and jazzy for sure, but a) it's a love song and b) it doesn't really go anywhere, it just kind of plods along. It's also from 1992 which, while not necessarily a deal breaker, is way outside of the yacht era. "I Don't Want to Live without You" - Foreigner: Nope, although I don't really know what the hell that was. It's sort of an adult contemporary power ballad… thing. "The One You Love" - Glenn Frey: Nope. Has a few of the elements—I hear some electric piano—but again, essentially a love ballad with some sultry sax.
I disagree with the premise that yacht rock must have such narrow parameters. It's like saying that all disco songs must have a specific tempo, or that all rock songs must feature 3 chords and a guitar. There's plenty of room in the yacht rock boat!
