In Defense of Yacht Rock
“The canvas can do miracles, just you wait and see.”
After the psychedelic haze of the late 60s came the golden age of classic rock in the early 70s. Everything from the sound, the stages, the ambition and the hair was big and it was epic. But then, rock and roll took a turn. Instead of speedy, ballsy, blistering overdriven guitar solos, rock music was coming out that could be described as “smooth”, “soft” or worst of all “something I can play on my yacht.”
Yacht Rock
There is no clear definition or canon of what is and isn’t Yacht Rock and for the most part in this story the term will be used interchangeably with Soft Rock. There are a few shared traits- drums got a little less thunderous, guitars got cleaner and hair — well hair stayed just as big unfortunately.
This isn’t a moment in rock history to be ignored or embarrassed by. Yacht Rock should be just as celebrated as golden age rock that came before it.
Natural Step
Yacht Rock was a logical next step for the evolution of music. Guitarists wanted a larger toolkit of chords, so they borrowed from jazz musicians, drummers wanted to be tighter and more technical, bassists wanted more to do than to stay on the root note, so they adopted slapping from funk musicians, and with the developing technology of synthesisers, keyboardists had an expanded palette of tones. Rather than improvisation in the performance, the bands valued rehearsal.
Steely Dan were one of the great pioneers of this new rock sound. They continued on the rock and roll tradition of adopting the roots of the great black musicians before it and instead of taking their roots in blues, they took their roots in both jazz and funk. Their meticulousness in the studio is legendary. During the recording of Aja, they had a rotating cast of the best studio musicians suited for the specific part. For the recording of the “Peg” guitar solo, they brought in and rejected 6 different guitarists before accepting the 7th one to get the exact kind of guitar solo they wanted.
This obsession with crafting the perfect sound means that the albums from this era are some of the most well engineered and mixed albums of all time. Aja and Gaucho are golden standards of mixing and testing out a new Hi-Fi stereo.
As it’s been pointed out before, Hall and Oats took their roots from Detroit soul music. At first, the only stations that would bother to play their music would be the black soul stations.
“Love Will Keep us Together” could easily have been a b-side of a Stevie Wonder song. Although, nothing can forgive Muskrat Love…
It Keeps You Runnin’
“Say, where you gonna go girl, where you gonna hide?
You go on leavin’ out your heart and all it’s sayin’ down deep inside.”
In 1976, due to medical issues The Doobie Brothers needed a new lead singer. They contemplated even disbanding but one of the members suggested contacting the former Steely Dan touring keyboardist Michael McDonald who was crashing in a friend’s garage. McDonald had some demo tapes of songs he’d written and a few of them made up the basis of their album Takin’ it to the Streets. That album featured “It Keeps You Runnin’” one of my all time favorite songs.
The song is a minimalist funk masterpiece. There are more moments with no words than there are moments with them. The quote above is the entirety of the first verse. If this song were released today, people would be going crazy for it. It’s a weird song and McDonald has one of the most unique voices in popular music.
Heart to Heart
“Does anything last forever? I don’t know.”
Just as Neo sees the world through the falling green digits in The Matrix, I hear the rock and roll in Kenny Loggins. This gets me as pumped as any Zeppelin song. This isn’t a song to be “jammed,” this is the work of a really skilled and rehearsed band working perfectly in sync. The bass pops and slaps and surprise drum hit on the and-of-4 are all taken from funk.
Kenny Loggins was also a killer singer. He had an incredible range with an ability to express all sorts of emotions in each register. One of my favorite things to think about when watching live videos of Kenny Loggins is that it always looks like forcing a smile when singing like somebody reminded him offstage before the show to appear more likable.
Be Happy
Yacht Rock is a little ridiculous and that’s part of the fun. Ever since I started listening to soft rock, I lose my voice after a car ride because I’ve been blasting Toto and singing along at the top of my lungs. We can all afford to take things a little less seriously; so hop in your car, crank up the “Lido Shuffle” ride like the wind, and let my love open the door.
