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♪ (THEME MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
In the late '70s in Los Angeles,
there was a very particular sound
and it was dominating pop culture.
And then, 25 years after the fact,
a group of comedians create this web series
and all of a sudden the name "yacht rock" was branded.
But what I was interested in
was talking to the artists and giving them an opportunity
to define the music they were making at that time.
♪ (THEME MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
(CROWD CHEERING)
♪ ("TAKIN' IT TO THE STREETS" BY DOOBIE BROTHERS PLAYING) ♪
FRED ARMISEN: Yacht rock, to me, it's a very relaxing feeling.
It's like the singers all seem to be saying,
"Hey, it's gonna be okay."
It has this certain-- It sits in a certain zone
where it's not-- it's not that it doesn't rock,
but it doesn't rock too hard.
You know what I mean? It doesn't rock, but it rocks.
♪ You don't know me But I'm your brother ♪
♪ I was raised here In this living hell... ♪
It's one of those things that you know it
when you hear it. It's like pornography.
You can't define it necessarily,
but it's very clear when something
is or is not yacht rock.
♪ You ♪
♪ Telling me the things You're gonna do for me ♪
♪ I ain't blind and I don't like What I think I see ♪
♪ Takin' it to the street ♪
♪ We're takin' it To the street ♪
♪ Takin' it to the street... ♪
QUESTLOVE: For me, it's a utility
more than it is music.
Like, it's just always there when you're shopping,
when you're at the dentist's office,
and in my case, even in the principal's office.
Like, it's always there... (CHUCKLES) ...when you need it
and it's always there when you don't need it.
♪ Takin' it to the street ♪
♪ Takin' it, takin' it ♪
♪ Takin' it to the street ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah... ♪
THUNDERCAT: I've never identified it as yacht rock.
I've never looked at it as, like, a...
Something that was... "Oh, yeah, that's over here."
I, like-- I've always looked at it
from the inside being like,
"Dang, that's just amazing songwriting."
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Takin' it to the ♪
(CHEERING)
♪ ("RIDE LIKE THE WIND" BY CHRISTOPHER CROSS PLAYING) ♪
Let's try "yacht rock sails again" for two.
Yacht rock is a genre, but it's also just a vibe.
MICKEY GUYTON: Hey, y'all been listening to yacht rock?
I listen to it on the app...
-(CLEARS THROAT) -...24/7, no card required.
KYLE RICHARDS: What's yacht rock?
It's music you listen to on a yacht.
Oh...
CLEVELAND BROWN: There's a yacht rock cruise
that leaves from the Quahog Marina tomorrow.
And I'm not even kidding!
PHILLIP DANIEL: For those of you who don't know
what yacht rock is, you do know what it is.
It's all of your favorite hits from the '70s and '80s.
It just happens to be its own special genre.
♪ And I've got Such a long way to go... ♪
KEVIN SUCHER: So we'd play the stuff that,
you know, when I was younger,
I listened to in the dance chair.
♪ So I'll ride Like the wind... ♪
♪ I don't wanna do Your dirty work no more ♪
♪ I was born the son...♪
LIZ LEMON: You know, the whole thing would turn out like a movie
where Christopher Cross sings a song like...
♪ All my days I've been waiting ♪
♪ Gunned down ten Gonna ride like the wind... ♪
♪ You don't know me But I'm your brother ♪
♪ And I've got Such a long way to go ♪
♪ Such a long way to go ♪
I've drugged all the concessions so you'll do what I say.
Drugs at a Steely Dan concert? I never thought I'd see the day.
♪ Gonna ride like the wind ♪
♪ (VOCALIZING) ♪
♪ (SONG CONCLUDES) ♪
♪ (MELLOW MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(NOTIFICATION DINGS)
QUESTLOVE: I remember on my Myspace page,
someone gave me a link
to something called Yacht Rock.
This is like pre-YouTube.
Like, YouTube is 2006 and this came out in 2005.
Just like a whole bunch of these comedians
that decided to put these vignettes
of like, "How this song got made."
STEVE HUEY: We were living in Los Angeles.
We weren't making very much money.
And one of the things that we did
was we bought dollar vinyl records
from the local Amoeba Records store.
And the stuff that was available for a dollar
was a lot of soft rock.
We'd read the credits on the back of these albums
and we'd see the same names popping up
over and over and over again.
And eventually, it clicked, like...
"This is a scene."
JD RYZNAR: I was obsessed with, like,
"Guys, you wouldn't believe it,
but the guys in Toto are on this Michael Jackson album.
The guys in Toto are on this Steely Dan album.
Listen to Michael McDonald on here.
I bet you never heard him here before.
Oh, Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald wrote
'What a Fool Believes' together.
Oh, look at this cover of Full Sail
with Loggins and Messina. They're on a boat.
And there's this vibe.
This is well-crafted stuff.
This is relaxing stuff.
It's high-class music.
It's like a yacht. Yacht rock."
From 1976 to 1984, the radio airwaves
were dominated by really smooth music,
also known as yacht rock.
HUEY: The way we like to explain it is
almost all yacht rock is soft rock,
but not all soft rock is yacht rock.
We always meant something
that sounded like a million bucks.
It wasn't literally about, like, boats or whatever.
RYZNAR: And so you've got bands like Steely Dan,
Michael McDonald,
with and without the Doobie Brothers.
Kenny Loggins, Christopher Cross,
Toto, all of these great musicians.
They were making elevated pop music
that's infused with jazz and R&B.
That's what a fool believes, Kenny!
That's what... That's what a fool believes.
(HUMMING)
QUESTLOVE: Somehow, we had a space in our heart
for this Yacht Rock series,
which gave people this sort of newfound look at this music
that no one wanted to claim as their own,
but we loved it all along.
We were just afraid to let you know
that we have a soft space in our heart
for this genre of music.
♪ (“LOVE WILL FIND A WAY” BY PABLO CRUISE PLAYING) ♪
RYZNAR: All of a sudden, this new "genre" we made up
started to get embraced by the world.
It's now time for a very special yacht rock tradition,
a visit from our old friend, Captain Zog, who's going to come
and teach us all the latest yacht rock dances.
JAKE TAPPER: There were more expressions of love
in that press briefing than on the average yacht rock album.
Look, I love yacht rock as much as the next person,
but eventually, I want to see Journey, right?
♪ It's all right Once you get past the pain... ♪
HUEY: I think the moment that we realized
it really transcended its origins
in the web series was when SiriusXM
debuted their yacht rock channel.
ADAM RITZ: It's the weekend Yacht Rock Radio.
We will connect the dots between the Marvel Cinematic Universe
and the Yacht Rock Radio universe.
RYZNAR: Now, there's all these yacht rock cover bands
wearing captain's hats and doing silly dances.
♪ Love will find a way ♪
AMANDA PETRUSICH: The fact that the term emerged
from what was essentially
a comedy show, did have a really big impact
on the way that the music is now ironically appreciated.
When in fact, I think the records
that they were making were entirely sincere
and earnest and pure.
Yacht rock!
STEVEN HYDEN: All the caricatures
that people use
to define this made-up genre,
like the mustaches and the leisure suits
and the smooth grooves are pretty reductive.
Some of the caricatures aren't even true.
No musician in California in the '70s,
I guess other than, like, the Captain
from Captain & Tennille
was actually wearing a sailor's hat.
You really have to get past these superficialities
to understand what this music really is.
And when you do that,
it actually becomes a much richer saga
of how this thing came to be.
And that's the story I think that people need to know.
(TRAFFIC RUMBLING)
♪ ("CAVES OF ALTAMIRA" BY STEELY DAN PLAYING) ♪
ANNOUNCER: The nation's bicentennial holiday is down to
its last hour, and it has been a day of...
JIMMY CARTER: 1976 will be the year
of inspiration and hope.
♪ I recall when I was small ♪
♪ How I spent my days alone... ♪
ROBERT W. MORGAN: This week, on the Special of the Week
it's the Dan of Steel, Steely Dan.
The bizarre brainchild of the bizarre brains
of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker,
Steely Dan have proven that weird words
and wired melodies can exist side by side.
♪ Made alive a worldly wonder ♪
♪ Often told but never seen... ♪
We like to call Steely Dan the primordial ooze
from whence yacht rock sprang.
ALEX PAPPADEMAS: Donald and Walter from Steely Dan
never really set out to become what they became.
When they entered into the music business,
professionally, it was as staff songwriters.
The problem with the songs that Donald and Walter
were writing at this time is that nobody
could really record them.
There was always something sort of inscrutably weird
about the lyrics.
GARY KATZ: I don't know that I ever asked Fagen,
"What does this mean?"
For one, I didn't want him to think I didn't know.
And for two, most of the time
it wasn't a matter of knowing literally as it was
how it made me feel.
♪ ("REELIN' IN THE YEARS" BY STEELY DAN PLAYING) ♪
♪ Your everlasting summer You can see it fading fast ♪
♪ So you grab A piece of something ♪
♪ That you think is gonna last ♪
♪ Well, you wouldn't even know A diamond ♪
♪ If you held it in your hand ♪
♪ The things you think Are precious ♪
♪ I can't understand ♪
♪ Are you reelin' In the years? ♪
MICHAEL MCDONALD: I moved out west in 1970.
I was signed to and dropped from a couple of labels,
you know, and I was kind of going the way
of most people who come to LA with a dream
and realize that it probably ain't gonna happen.
I started playing clubs
to get out and meet other players and stuff.
And along the way, I met some guys
who were auditioning for bands that were getting ready
to go on the road. One of them was Steely Dan.
About a year later, I got a call
from the kid who sat in on drums.
It was Jeff Porcaro, and he said,
"Man, I was thinking about you, and you need to come down
to this rehearsal I'm at. It's with Steely Dan.
We're getting ready to go on the road."
So I threw my piano in my Pinto and drove down to rehearsal.
♪ ("BAD SNEAKERS" BY STEELY DAN PLAYING) ♪
MICHAEL: It was interesting because there had been many gigs
that I had practiced the material for
weeks in advance,
and didn't get the gig, you know?
And here's one where I walked in,
I didn't even know half the songs, you know,
and they were just teaching it to me on the spot.
But I was so determined
that I wound up learning the songs
basically from being taught by Donald what the songs were.
It certainly wasn't my piano playing
that got me the gig.
It was pretty much my ability to sing high. (CHUCKLES)
♪ Yes, I'm going insane ♪
♪ You know I'm laughing At the frozen rain ♪
ALEX: By the Katy Lied album,
the band is essentially Donald and Walter
and whoever is there that day.
Basically, they start bringing in
these really talented LA-based session guys who can play
anything they put in front of them.
JAY GRAYDON: Jeff Porcaro and I were working a session.
During the hour break,
Jeff says, "I've got a 15 IPS tape
of Katy Lied."
The album wasn't out yet. And my jaw was on the floor.
♪ When Black Friday comes ♪
♪ I'll stand down By the door... ♪
JAY: My first thought was, "These guys sound like me."
Jazz chord changes, but rock, pop grooves.
People would say, "Well, you sound like Steely Dan."
And I'd go, "Well, we think the same.
We're in the same lines melodically.
We're closet jazzers that are making pop records."
(LAUGHS)
♪ When Black Friday comes... ♪
GARY: We were getting more successful.
People wanted to play on our records.
For me, it was like going to the candy store.
TOM SCOTT: There was a period of time,
particularly in the middle to late '70s,
in which there was a group of LA musicians,
they could play virtually anything.
Sit down and read anything and any style.
STEVE LUKATHER: People call you on the phone,
say be it Village, be it Sunset Sound,
be it, you know, Capitol.
In 12 to six, they hire for the week or whatever.
Sometimes we knew the artist, sometimes we didn't.
Every day was a thrill because you didn't know--
We didn't know what we were gonna do.
There was no demos, there was no rehearsals.
Most of the time we listened to the song once
and all of us have arranger ears.
And that just means we can hear parts
in between the basic chords and the melody.
And that's what they hired us to do, to fill in the blanks,
because we were good at it.
When I got into high school
is when I really found out about studio musicians.
When I met the Porcaro brothers, you know,
Steve Porcaro, and Jeff and Mike.
Jeff was in Steely Dan when we were in high school,
and David Paich was his best friend,
and Dave was working on those records too.
GARY: They were cocky, really young, full of piss,
but we'd get perfect performance almost every time.
DAVID PAICH: I started doing sessions when I was 16.
My father had been in the business
as an arranger.
Everything with sessions was word of mouth.
If you played on a hit, everybody wanted
the person that was on the hit record.
So I started getting calls.
Jeff and I, we'd always hang out,
and we'd each try and get each other on that session.
STEVE PORCARO: My brother Jeff was the one who was
just so naturally gifted
and he started getting hired all over town
and he would recommend us to these guys.
It was an amazing time for us and for music too.
Basically, we're all trying to do what George Martin
and the Beatles and Brian Wilson did
in the studio, and just take it another step.
BRIAN WILSON: Watch me on that part.
RYZNAR: Back in California,
the Beach Boys were looking at what the Beatles were doing
and wanted to copy that
and used a lot of The Wrecking Crew,
the early LA session guys.
And the yacht rockers were sort of the second generation
of session guys after The Wrecking Crew.
JAY: On "Pet Sounds,"
you've got gorgeous pop with hip changes,
great melodies, great harmonies, everything, man.
It was the beginning of a new era.
JASON KING: If you think of the music
that was coming out of LA
in the early 1970s, the Troubadour,
and the Whiskey a Go Go, and Carole King
and James Taylor, Laurel Canyon, The Eagles.
And then on top of that, Motown had moved
to Southern California in the early 1970s.
JAY: So that means we've got Stevie Wonder.
Now we're getting into R&B.
RYZNAR: Well, there's a lot of elements
to proto-yacht.
Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind & Fire,
who were doing incredible forward-thinking things
with their music.
And another element was jazz fusion, The Crusaders,
Herbie Hancock.
These were the guys that were early adapters
of the Fender Rhodes electric piano.
That's sort of the backbone of the yacht rock sound.
Then we got Joni Mitchell.
And she goes from the simple three-chord stuff
to using jazzers.
RYZNAR: Then there's Seals & Crofts
who were becoming more studio perfectionists
and bringing in guys like David Paich
and Jeff Porcaro, who were bringing in
more complex ideas into the sessions.
HUEY: These guys take the Steely Dan sound
out into their own projects, incorporate it
into everything else that they're doing.
It widens the sonic palette of the Los Angeles music scene
and all this other stuff that's kind of bubbling
under the surface.
JAY: This all comes together into this group
of all different kinds of artists
that got melodic
and used jazzy kind of chord changes.
♪ ("I BELIEVE IN LOVE" BY KENNY LOGGINS PLAYING) ♪
Good evening. Elvis Presley died today.
He was 42.
REPORTER: The moviegoers wait for six hours or more.
They are waiting to escape.
INTERVIEWER: I mean, we've just had so many...
Kinda burnt out
on all the social commentary movies we've had.
MICHAEL SHEEHY: You're in tune with the mellow sound
of KNX FM 93.
Loggins and Messina, now just Loggins
with a new kind of sound.
Moving from country rock to the late '70s, it's all
about being soulful, funky, and oh, so smooth.
Just the thing to get a rocker on the radio
in the disco-fied times.
Do you believe in love? Well, Kenny does. Listen up.
♪ I see faces ♪
♪ Coverin' an empty 'I' ♪
♪ Empty spaces where... ♪
KENNY LOGGINS: We were on the road,
and I remember hearing Stevie Wonder
and going, "Well, this is really different."
"Wow, I wanna--
How do I do that? What do I do to do that?"
♪ I believe in love, I do! ♪
♪ I believe I'm feelin' good ♪
KENNY: And I'm hearing all these chords
that I've never heard before.
And it's totally influencing my songwriting.
So I evolved from the folky thing
into sort of a synthesis of smooth jazz
and a synthesis of R&B.
And then I start to want to move
my voice around a little bit, and play with how I sing.
♪ I believe in love ♪
RYZNAR: The thing about Kenny Loggins is he tried shit.
Like, he tried cool, interesting stuff,
and his albums are, like,
really experimental for pop albums.
HUEY: Kenny Loggins cannot be contained
in one genre.
He has to explore. He has to push his boundaries.
So even when Kenny Loggins does yacht rock,
he's only doing it
a couple tracks an album most of the time.
But when he does it, it's so good
and so genre-defining
that he's still up on the Mount Rushmore.
(CROWD CHEERING)
KENNY: There was some bounce-back on going solo.
I didn't realize at the time how difficult it was
to go from a successful duo into being a successful soloist.
And I credit Stevie Nicks a lot with my breakthrough
because it was the duet with Stevie
that really made, ultimately,
the huge difference in launching my solo career,
'cause she was so loved at the time.
♪ Sweet love showin' us A heavenly light ♪
♪ I've never seen Such a beautiful sight ♪
♪ Sweet love flowin' Almost every night... ♪
KENNY: I had become fortunate
in becoming the opening act for Fleetwood Mac
during the rise of Rumours.
I like to say I went on the Rumours ride with them
because I was out with them for,
you know, six, seven months and became friends with the band
and especially Nick and Stevie.
And she said to me one day, probably
we were drunk out somewhere and she said,
"If you need a chick singer, give me a call."
And it's like, "Okay, got that going for me."
♪ You and I were meant to be Forever and ever... ♪
KENNY: The thing I learned early on is,
I'm not writing for other people,
I'm writing for me. And if I can hit that nerve
that either makes me wanna dance or makes me wanna cry,
then I've got that song.
♪ I always wanna Call you friend ♪
KENNY: I've discovered that when I care about a lyric,
when a lyric really touches the heart of the matter,
it touches other people.
So, my job has been to try to
really nail that emotion so that the song
becomes a soundtrack to your life.
♪ ("MINUTE BY MINUTE" BY THE DOOBIE BROTHERS PLAYING) ♪
STEVEN: I think if you want, like, a microcosm of how
mainstream rock music changed from the beginning of the '70s
to the end of the '70s, that-- like, the Doobie Brothers
are probably the best place to go.
♪ Hey, don't you worry I've been lied to... ♪
STEVEN: You look at the beginning of the '70s
and the Doobie Brothers are like this post-Woodstock, good time
boogie band that bikers listen to in bars.
And then by the end of the '70s, they've evolved
into this jazzy pop R&B band that is using a lot of chords
and playing songs with tricky time signatures.
It's a big, big change.
♪ But minute ♪
♪ By minute, by minute By minute ♪
♪ I keep holding on ♪
♪ I'll be holding on... ♪
MICHAEL: You know, at that time, Jeff Baxter was touring
with the Doobies for the greater part
of a couple of years and became an integral part
of their live show.
And, well, they needed one other guy to kind of fill in
for vocals and backgrounds and stuff.
And Jeff threw my name in the hat.
He pretty much guaranteed that I could handle the gig
because they didn't have time to really audition anybody.
So I met up with them in New Orleans.
I showed up again with my trusty Wurlitzer piano
and I practiced for two days,
and finished out the tour from there.
♪ But minute, by minute ♪
♪ By minute, by minute... ♪
TED TEMPLEMAN: The evolvement
of Michael McDonald joining the band,
instrumentally, it's changed a lot
because there's been emphasis on keyboards
rather than guitars.
And now the guitars
in a lot of the instances are secondary to the keyboard
in terms of how you cut your tracks.
♪ Call my name And I'll be gone... ♪
MICHAEL: It's been said that I changed
the band or something, but you gotta understand
the Doobies were always that kind of band.
Long before I joined them,
they really hearkened to that template of bringing
a lot of different types of songs to one album.
So it was really a group effort.
♪ Someone ♪
♪ Minute by minute, By minute... ♪
MICHAEL: You know, we were big fans
of like, Earth, Wind & Fire
and Ray Charles, and some of these acts,
their music was fairly sophisticated.
You know, we weren't nearly as good.
But inadvertently, we brought something to it
that we didn't even realize, you know?
The Doobie Brothers? Were you a half-brother?
QUESTLOVE: When the Doobie Brothers were on What's Happening!!,
I thought they were like a scary rock group.
And then I was like, "Okay, I like this guy."
He has a really comforting voice akin to a really funky Muppet.
That episode came on and then
every Black person I knew watched it.
And then suddenly, we were Doobie Brothers fans.
HUEY: To us, yacht rock has to be
conscious of the existence of Black music.
Whether it's a jazzier artist or more of an R&B artist,
there has to be some of that element in there for it
to sound like yacht to us.
JASON: What's interesting, I think, about yacht rock
is that you had these sensational White musicians
who had been acculturated on Black music styles,
on R&B, on jazz, on gospel.
They could play that music authentically.
They were not musical tourists.
They were kind of musical cosmopolitans.
PORCARO: The Black influence on our music
is obvious on our records.
It's for real, you know? That's all I can say.
It was really in our bones.
KENNY: We were taking elements of R&B
and putting our own sensibilities
of melody and style to that. That's what you do.
You write what you hear. You write what you feel.
BRENDA RUSSELL: There was more of an open feeling
about all music in general with musicians, you know.
I heard it described as cross-pollination.
You could play anything in the '70s.
There were no rules, so to speak.
JAY: I never had any problems,
'cause as soon as they heard the White kid play,
the White kid's accepted.
It's, "Where do you put the pocket?"
"Do you got the right groove, man?"
"Can you play in tune?"
"Whatever, that's all that matters!"
PRINCE PAUL: For me, growing up,
a lot of the artists we listened to,
it just goes by melody.
It goes by, "Oh, that's funky." Or, "It's soulful."
And a lot of those artists, at least in my community,
we didn't even know that they were White artists.
You know, you hear it on the radio,
you get a vibe, all your friends are singing it.
And, you know, later on,
when you buy the album, you go, "Oh!"
(LAUGHS)
Oh, he's not Black. Okay. (LAUGHS)
NARRATOR: Welcome to the land of Steely Dan.
ALEX: Steely Dan's Aja is the record
that stereo salesmen use
to demonstrate how good a set of speakers is.
Whatever you think about
the production sound of the '70s,
that is the pinnacle of what they were aiming for.
Even if you hate it, you have to acknowledge
that it is the most perfectly recorded album
of all time.
GARY: We showed up at the studio until we were dead tired.
We stayed at the studio.
In all the time we worked, neither Donald
or Walter ever said, "How much have we spent?"
Never once.
As Donald would say, "It's my money."
♪ ("PEG" BY STEELY DAN PLAYING) ♪
Donald wanted to use me alone again, you know,
'cause I had done it on a couple tracks
on the Katy Lied album.
♪ I've seen your picture... ♪
MICHAEL: They liked the sound of me singing all the parts
and then doubling myself.
So, they looked for opportunities to kind of
use that as a... almost like an instrument,
you know, more than just backgrounds, you know.
♪ So won't you smile For the camera... ♪
MICHAEL: But I realized that the harmonies
were a little more complex
than I was really astute enough to handle.
So, I found that I was having difficulty singing
to the part I had just done.
And I said, you know, "Donald, do me a favor."
I said, "Just show me each part, note for note."
GARY: I remember, you know, Donald would go out as he would
and he'd say, "This is the part."
And Michael sang it, you know, perfect the first time.
And I pushed the button, I said, "Okay, let's double it."
And Donald leaned over me and said,
"He sounds like a thousand camels in the courtyard."
♪ Peg It will come back to you ♪
♪ Peg It will come back to you... ♪
MICHAEL: When we heard it back,
I kind of went, "Wow, that's amazing."
WALTER BECKER: We were very fortunate.
We got some really great performances from musicians.
We took a long time doing it, so things that didn't work out,
we just kept throwing them away
until we got something really special.
MICHAEL: I was always looking at Donald
to see how I was doing. (LAUGHING)
And if he ever shot me a look, my immediate go-to was,
"Oh, my God, I'm getting fired," you know.
Steely Dan is famous for rejecting drummers
and bass players and guitarists.
JAY: With "Peg,"
I was the seventh guy to take a shot at the solo.
ALEX: Jay Graydon will go down
in history as the man who pulled the sword
from the stone, and it ends up being
one of the greatest solos in the Steely Dan catalog.
♪ ("PEG" BY STEELY DAN CONTINUES) ♪
BRIAN ROBERT JONES: I've tried to learn
the guitar solo from "Peg."
I made it, like, three seconds in and I was like,
"I can't play this." Like, "This is too hard."
He bends two strings at the same time.
And he's doing it all over the neck in perfect tune.
And, like, no one can do that. Like, no one's doing that now.
There's maybe a guy,
maybe a guy, maybe one guy is gonna do that now.
JAY: Fortunately, it worked,
and I got away with musical murder.
♪ (SENTIMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
THUNDERCAT: I remember my dad brings home Aja,
eyes dilated immediately.
(GASPS)
AMANDA: For a long time, I thought, "Steely Dan,
man, that's just music for dorks and weirdos."
And I felt myself sort of allergic to the idea
that music was a kind of math equation
that could be solved.
And if you just worked hard enough in the studio
and you did enough takes
and you programmed everything perfectly,
that somehow you could make this cultural artifact
that would be gleaming and wonderful and timeless.
And that to me is so antithetical
to the idea of punk rock
that it's almost like the circle closes
and it becomes somehow incredibly punk rock
that they did that.
PRINCE: When you listen to the album, it is flawless.
From the mixing to the production
to the musicianship,
but it still doesn't sacrifice the soul.
And that to me is pretty amazing.
How do you get perfection
and kind of a soulful vibe at the same time?
It's hard to achieve.
RYZNAR: Aja is probably the creative apex of this music
because along with it being hugely influential
to other artists
who wanted to emulate that level of complexity,
it also sold like hotcakes and got the public ready
for, like, this smoother, more complicated pop music.
MICHAEL: I remember, with Steely Dan,
thinking, "It's amazing,
these guys were the darlings of pop radio,
and these songs are so atypical."
And the audience never hesitated to love this music, you know,
from the first time they heard it.
Their music doesn't fit the mold of what the rules
for pop music are at all, you know.
It's funny, I was actually thinking
"Peg" was recorded here at the studio, and Aja.
LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM: Sing the melody for a second,
'cause I just want to see if it sounds any good at all to you.
If we left your melody on there
and I just sang, like, the lower part or something...
LUKATHER: This is a legendary studio,
Village Recorders.
And this particular room, studio D,
was added later in the '70s,
right before Fleetwood Mac did Tusk.
And they hired a bunch of studio guys and friends
and stuff to come in and hire us to play
and just kind of work the bugs out of the new Neve desk
that was in here.
We were the first ones to make new music
in this beautiful room.
♪ It's not your situation ♪
♪ I just need contemplation Over you ♪
♪ I'm not so systematic ♪
♪ It's just that I'm an addict For your love ♪
FILM CREW MEMBER: Countdown, roll nine. Toto, take one.
(ALL LAUGH)
INTERVIEWER: Just tell us a little of how the group formed
and... uh, Steve?
Well, we've known each other for a long time
in different ways, like David and Jeff Porcaro
went to school together,
and myself and Steve Porcaro went to school together
just a couple years behind these guys.
PAICH: We were Valley dudes, literally,
and the heart of the Valley is, like, Grant High School,
where we used to work homecomings and dances.
We tried to get experience whenever we could,
you know, playing with anybody, any jazz band,
any rock band you could.
We were just thirsty for music.
We were kind of like a nonviolent gang,
you know? (CHUCKLES)
PORCARO: I had always hoped that David Paich and my brother,
that they were going to put together their own band,
but then they started doing so well
in the studios, I'd kind of
given up hope. I figured, "You know what?"
David Paich was this burgeoning producer
and songwriter,
and Jeff was working day and night in the studios.
I figured, "They're not going to stop that to start a band.
No way is that going to happen."
HUEY: In 1976, you get David Paich
and Jeff Porcaro touring
and playing on Boz Scaggs' Silk Degrees album,
and David Paich is Boz Scaggs' co-writer on that album.
Makes himself a name in the music industry
by turning this album into a hit.
Suddenly, these guys make Boz Scaggs
into a rock star,
and the music industry says,
"Wait, who are they?"
♪ Hey, boy ♪
♪ You better Bring the chick around ♪
♪ To the sad, sad truth ♪
♪ The dirty lowdown... ♪
RYZNAR: When Silk Degrees came out
it became the new sound of LA.
PAICH: Boz and I just sat down and we just clicked.
We just started writing tunes like "Lowdown"
and "Lido Shuffle."
It was just organic and spontaneous,
and I think we got to bring the initial Toto sound
to those records.
PORCARO: As soon as Boz toured, I joined their touring band,
and then Lukather.
LUKATHER: You know, I look back at pictures of myself
and, like, I thought I was so grown up, man.
I look like I'm 12 years old, zits on my face, you know.
(LAUGHING) It's pretty funny, man.
I mean, I was really young, and I was still a teenager.
PAICH: Someone came up and suggested,
"Well, hey, you guys should form your own group."
And we were, like, winking out the corner of our eye,
"Oh, that's a great idea," you know,
'cause we'd always planned to reform our high school band,
and Toto ended up being that band.
♪ Hold the line ♪
♪ Love isn't always on time ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh... ♪
LUKATHER: You know, like, our first single came out,
everybody dug it, and it was all over.
We had a hit record. My God, the dream comes true.
And we started selling a lot of records
and we would go out for,
you know, a couple of months here and there
and then get back in the studios
because we had this great studio career.
We wanted to figure out a way to do both.
PAICH: Toto was just a really popular band
to call for sessions because we were kind of a unit
and we are a little bit more rock and roll,
a little bit more cutting-edge than most session players.
LUKATHER: If you look at the collective discography,
it would be staggering.
We were everywhere. I mean, crossed a lot of party lines.
♪ Hold the line... ♪
PAICH: People like Jackson Browne,
Steely Dan, Seals & Crofts.
Lukather would get calls from Cheap Trick
and Alice Cooper.
Jeff would play with Dire Straits,
Bruce Springsteen.
But I played on over 2,000 records,
and I know Luke probably did, like, four or five thousand,
and Jeff probably did four or five thousand.
We were, uh... We were pretty busy.
PORCARO: Whatever success we had with Toto,
we still loved getting called for other things.
And then taking the studio chops that we had,
not having to hire other people to come in,
we were, uh, self-contained.
PAICH: We really had a confidence at the time,
and because of the level that the musicians were at,
music was obtainable real fast,
and the creativity level set a bar
that was there at the very beginning.
♪ (PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CHRISTOPHER CROSS: My band in San Antonio
at the time was called Flash, and my manager, Joe Miller,
he had a club called The Jam Factory,
and he booked Deep Purple on their first US show.
And Ritchie Blackmore, the guitar player,
got a reaction to a flu shot, and he couldn't perform.
So, Joe talked to the band and said,
"Look, I got this guy, you know, Chris Geppert,
he's a big fan of Ritchie's, and he could probably sit in."
So, they told people, "Ritchie's not here,
Chris is gonna get up and play guitar."
"You can get a refund if you want,"
but 80 percent of the people stayed.
Ritchie later told me that,
"We had people sit in over the years,
but no one ever subbed for me in my entire career except you."
And I said, "Well, you know, there you go."
♪ ("NEVER BE THE SAME" BY CHRISTOPHER CROSS PLAYING) ♪
CHRISTOPHER: The original demos I did,
all the songs ended up on the record.
I financed my original songs by selling weed.
I had a very successful weed business,
and I bought, you know,
a tape machine and some consoles and stuff
and invested in the studio in Austin.
And then when I got my demo done,
I looked at Billboard magazine, saw Mo Astin,
chairman of the board at Warner Brothers.
And I said, "Well, Mo Astin, he's too important.
I can't get to him."
Well, I didn't know anything about A&R.
I sent my tape to Mo Astin's assistant.
He had nothing to do with A&R.
But he got my tape, and he kind of liked it.
And he went to lunch that day with Lenny Waronker,
head of A&R, and forced Lenny to listen
to the tape in the car.
♪ The way that you did That very first day ♪
♪ And I'll ♪
♪ Never be the same Without you here... ♪
CHRISTOPHER: Lenny told me years later
that had I just sent it to A&R,
it would've been rejected outright
because they weren't really accepting anything.
So it was pretty serendipitous that I sent it to the wrong guy.
♪ No, I'll... ♪
RYZNAR: Christopher Cross came in wanting to make
a Steely Dan album.
And he had a producer who worked with Steely Dan,
who didn't want him to make a Steely Dan album.
And as a result of that tension,
they came up with something totally original.
CHRISTOPHER: Michael Omartian, my producer,
I drove him crazy with Steely Dan.
Like, "Everything we have to do as good as Steely Dan.
"We gotta do this, Steely Dan, Steely Dan."
So, I came in the studio, the lights were dim.
He was at the piano, he'd just played the piano solo.
I came in, and he said, "What do you think?" And I said,
"I think there's a note in the second bar
that's a little late." And he said, "I was emoting."
You know, I said, "Well...
But, I mean, I don't think Steely Dan--"
But he said, "That's it, I'm done."
And he left. He got in his Porsche and left.
HUEY: Anytime Steely Dan fans get mad at us online
that Steely Dan isn't yacht rock,
the artist they most wanna be
disassociated from is Christopher Cross
because they don't think
he has anything to do with Steely Dan.
And that means that they're not reading album credits.
Christopher Cross's albums were produced
by Michael Omartian, who did a lot of arranging
and piano work for Steely Dan.
He's got guest spots from Larry Carlton.
He has guest work from Jay Graydon
on guitar as well.
And very important, he's got backing vocals
from Michael McDonald.
MICHAEL: We were working at Amigo Studios,
and I knew Michael Omartian, his producer.
There was a track that he thought it would be great
if I could do some backups. I said, "Sure," you know?
He was so gracious about everything.
We were nobody, you know, but he--
It's not the way Mike's mind works.
He's not trying to evaluate, "Who are you?"
You know, "What is this going to mean in my career?"
"Is this something worth me doing?"
You know, "I'm Michael McDonald."
It's just not the way he thinks.
It didn't take us very long to do it, really, did it?
It went pretty quickly,
and I knew I liked Chris, I had no idea that
we would be friends the rest of our lives. (CHUCKLES)
♪ ("RIDE LIKE THE WIND" BY CHRISTOPHER CROSS PLAYING) ♪
CHRISTOPHER: I was playing at a club in Houston.
We were doing "1985" by McCartney of Wings.
And in the middle of that song, I started doing this...
(VOCALIZES)
It's a C minor, sort of. (VOCALIZES)
People would go crazy.
They'd start dancing and moving around.
It just seemed to really connect with the audience,
so we would jam on that riff.
And then we drove from Houston down to Austin to record,
and I was sitting in the front seat of the van
and I'd taken acid, and I wrote the words
to "Ride Like The Wind,"
driving from Houston to Austin on acid.
♪ It is the night My body's weak ♪
♪ I'm on the run No time to sleep ♪
♪ I've got to ride Ride like the wind
♪ To be free again ♪
♪ And I've got Such a long way to go... ♪
CHRISTOPHER: It was really cool, but it happened so fast.
"Ride Like the Wind" was at the top of the charts
and then the next thing I know,
I was out with The Eagles,
and then on the road with Fleetwood.
But my first tour was with Bonnie Raitt,
and in the middle of the tour, Bonnie came to me and said,
"I think I should be opening for you." (CHUCKLES)
♪ And I've got Such a long way to go ♪
♪ Such a long way to go... ♪
RYZNAR: "Ride Like the Wind" is such a strange song,
because Christopher Cross is singing like an outlaw,
and you don't believe it for a minute,
'cause his voice is so friendly and kind.
And then Michael McDonald comes in with...
♪ Such a long way to go ♪
And you're like, "Oh, maybe they are criminals.
He's hanging out with this guy?
Okay, they're up to trouble. I get it now."
ALEX: One way to know if you are listening to yacht rock
is if you hear the sound of Michael McDonald's voice.
He is such an important sonic element
to so many of these records.
There's that SCTV sketch
where Rick Moranis plays Michael McDonald,
and it depicts the life
that I think Michael McDonald lived at this time,
which is that he is running from session to session.
MAC DEMARCO: I love that.
In the '70s, the sessions are happening.
Michael's so busy that he can only come in
and do that and he's got to go. You know, it's amazing.
♪ And I've got Such a long way to go ♪
♪ Such a long way to go ♪
♪ To make it To the border of Mexico... ♪
MICHAEL: We were in some hotel
and just sitting there smoking a joint.
And in the middle of it I just said,
"I think I gotta go. I'm a little too high."
And I said, "I wanna go lay down."
(CHUCKLES) So I went into my room.
I used to leave the TV on.
As I walked in, it was-- SCTV was on.
And I thought maybe I was hallucinating.
The whole time, I'm saying, "Is this really happening,
or am I just losing it," you know?
And years later, Rick Moranis apologized to me.
I'll probably need you next week. I'll give you a call.
Okay, see you.
MICHAEL: Because I guess he wondered
if I was offended by it or something.
I said, "No, quite the opposite,"
you know? (CHUCKLES)
It was-- I got a lot of mileage out of that, you know?
♪ ("YOU BELONG TO ME" BY THE DOOBIE BROTHERS PLAYING) ♪
JASON: When you hear Michael McDonald,
he has this ability to do
what some of the great R&B singers did,
which is to testify,
which is really a kind of,
you know, gospel kind of church tradition.
And, you know, he doesn't sound like anybody else.
♪ Why'd you tell me this ♪
♪ While you look For my reaction... ♪
I remember they said,
"We got this song called, 'You Belong to Me,'
and we just need some background."
And so Michael starts to sing it for us.
And when he starts singing...
♪ I've got lovin' eyes... ♪
...we just froze. I was like, "Oh, my God,
what is that coming out of his mouth?"
♪ Tell him ♪
♪ You belong to me ♪
♪ Tell him you were foolin' ♪
-♪ You belong to me ♪ -♪ Oh... ♪
BETHANY COSENTINO: His style of singing,
like it's such a thing.
And I think that it is something
that like a lot of people mock or have made fun of
at certain points in time, but really it's like
what makes a person their own artist
is their individuality.
And I think that Michael McDonald
just has one of those voices and it's like
you could hear it from a fucking football field away
and you'd be like, "Oh, there he is,
Michael McDonald, that's his voice."
-♪ Tell him ♪ -♪ You belong to me ♪
♪ That you belong to me ♪
♪ You belong to me... ♪
HUEY: I don't know if it was us
who dubbed Michael McDonald the king of yacht rock,
but if it wasn't, it should have been.
You hear Michael McDonald popping up
on so many other yacht rock tracks.
It underlines that this was a scene and everybody worked
on each other's records.
♪ (FUNKY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
KENNY: When I first heard Mike McDonald,
I said, "I got to write with that guy.
This is what I've been looking for."
And the first thing we wrote together was
"What a Fool Believes,"
which is like the quintessential yacht rock song
of the era for some reason.
Still trying to figure that out.
I tell the story of my poor sister.
She's gonna hate me.
About-- She came over to my house to clean the house
'cause she knew Kenny Loggins was coming over.
I hadn't met Kenny yet, and she was,
like myself, a big fan of his, you know.
So I was playing things at the piano
while my sister was cleaning my house, you know?
And then just as I was about to head up
to his front door, I heard the...
(HUMMING "WHAT A FOOL BELIEVES")
And he's singing...
(HUMMING "WHAT A FOOL BELIEVES")
'Cause there were no words.
And then when he got to the end of that part
of the verse, he stopped.
I said, "I'm thinking about playing this for Kenny.
What do you think?" She goes, "I don't know about that one."
And she goes, "He might think you're trying
to write a circus song or something," you know.
And just at that moment, Kenny was outside the door
and the doorbell rings.
KENNY: And I said, "That thing you were just playing,
can you play that again?
I think I know how the next part goes."
So I looked at my sister and kind of,
you know, but...
And if it had been ten minutes later?
If it had been ten minutes later...
-Song of the year. -...I would have never played it for him, yeah.
♪ He came from somewhere Back in her long ago ♪
♪ The sentimental fool Don't see ♪
♪ Tryin' hard to recreate ♪
♪ What had yet To be created... ♪
"What a Fool Believes" gets a 100
on what we call the "yachtski scale,"
where we rate all the yacht rock songs.
RYZNAR: This is 100. This is the high bar
from which we measure all other songs.
♪ She had a place in his life ♪
♪ He never made her Think twice ♪
♪ As he rises to her apology ♪
♪ Anybody else Would surely know... ♪
DONNA SUMMER: The song of the year is...
Whoo! "What a Fool Believes."
♪ What a fool believes ♪
♪ He sees... ♪
MICHAEL: I always enjoyed writing with Kenny
because I always thought he was such a great composer.
For me, I always felt like that brought
my writing up to another level.
I had to kind of reach a little higher.
They were something different from what I wrote
on my own, you know?
KENNY: It took a long time for Michael and I
to recontact each other
after "What a Fool Believes" won a Grammy.
There was this unspoken feeling of how do you top that?
What do you do for a second song?
Like a sophomore jinx thing.
Finally, I ran into him on the street one day
and I said, "We gotta get together
and write a second song."
So, let's just write a shitty song,
get that out of the way.
You know, do that thing that we're afraid of.
And then-- So the shitty song that we wrote was "This Is It,"
which won a Grammy the next year.
♪ This is it ♪
♪ Make no mistake ♪
-♪ Where you are ♪ -♪ This is it ♪
♪ Your back's to the corner ♪
♪ This is it... ♪
RYZNAR: "This Is It" was huge at the time. I mean,
you watch NCAA basketball in the early '80s or late '70s
and they're playing "This Is It."
That's the theme song to like NBC's coverage.
HUEY: They also co-wrote "Heart to Heart"
with David Foster.
And that's, I think,
Loggins's finest yacht rock moment of all time.
♪ Does anything last forever? ♪
♪ I don't know ♪
♪ Baby, we're near the end... ♪
THUNDERCAT: One of my favorite songs,
for real, for real is "Heart to Heart."
I don't think there's ever been a moment psychologically
where I didn't feel the pain
of what Kenny was expressing in that song.
I was like, "Oh, my gosh,
this guy's pouring his heart out."
♪ Heart to heart ♪
♪ Does anything Last forever... ♪
QUESTLOVE: Oftentimes, you hear these great songwriting duos
in music history,
and I really wish that Loggins and McDonald
wrote and did more songs together
because clearly there's a magic synergy there.
It's the perfect marriage of poetry,
the right musicianship, the right emotions.
♪ Heart to heart... ♪
HUEY: Around the late '70s and early '80s,
you start to hear other people copying
the "What a Fool Believes" piano riff.
The most obvious example is Robbie Dupree's "Steal Away."
It's in the title.
♪ Why don't we steal away ♪
♪ Why don't we steal... ♪
I mean, one of the things that unites some of the songs
that we would call yacht rock is
this thing that's been coined the "Doobie bounce,"
which is basically a rhythmic motif.
♪ No, I can't take it... ♪
HUEY: You hear how much that piano riff gets reused
or reconfigured into somebody else's own idea.
♪ Baby, goodbye ♪
♪ Can't you see You're not changing? ♪
♪ Oh, baby ♪
♪ When the band is In the groove ♪
♪ He's so shy ♪
QUESTLOVE: It's that sound of the Fender Rhodes,
basically, translating
what your body feels as you're sitting down.
It's perfect sitting down dancing music.
♪ Watch your step Or you'll end up... ♪
♪ Get used to it ♪
♪ When nobody's watching I'll cry... ♪
♪ Open your hearts ♪
♪ If you don't want me to ♪
♪ ("KISS ON MY LIST" BY HALL & OATES PLAYING) ♪
HUEY: We also hear "Kiss on My List"
as a little bit of a "What a Fool Believes" rewrite,
just in the little back-and-forth piano riff.
But Hall & Oates are not actually
a yacht rock artist.
RYZNAR: They're from a different world.
They have R&B influences,
but they're Philadelphia influences,
very specific.
Another example is Fleetwood Mac.
Fleetwood Mac should be yacht rock
by all definitions of the term,
but they don't really have the jazz there.
HUEY: The Eagles are not yacht rock
because The Eagles are a country rock band.
They might be a real smooth, mellow country rock band,
and they might be from LA, but they're not yacht rock
because there's way too much country.
RYZNAR: The thing about the villains in the web series,
we put them in there as villains because they weren't yacht rock.
They were the opposite of what we felt the scene was.
♪ Be on the beach In the Caribbean ♪
♪ With the cheeseburgers ♪
RYZNAR: The scene was friends who like, wanted to make cool,
smooth, interesting music together.
That was the time when, like,
yacht rock was exploding on the radio
and to get a hit,
you just had to sound like "What a Fool Believes."
It was a really influential song and I don't think
a lot of people give credit to it for that.
You can really see a world before "What A Fool Believes"
and a world after.
♪ (GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
DAVID PACK: It was just such a beautiful time.
Everybody's influencing each other.
And we had spent so much time
on the road with the Doobie Brothers.
Michael was just crushing me with his voice, his songs,
and the Doobies with their two drummers.
I mean, if you could have heard him back then
like I did in '78, '79.
It was just, like, a soul Pavarotti on steroids.
(VOCALIZES) It was like, "Oh, my God," one note
and the auditorium was just like...
It was like, "Oh, my God."
And I thought Ambrosia, I think in comparison,
like, "Oh, my God, we got a long way to go, guys."
And I think it was that frustration
of, "I wanna break through with something great."
One day I went to Michael, "How did you come up
with those changes for 'Minute by Minute'?"
He said, he goes, "You know, David,
those practice books by Handel, I study those
and I kind of study how chords work
with each other and interlock with each other
and interesting key changes."
And all of a sudden, that sort of unlocked something
in my imagination to go out further.
♪ ("BIGGEST PART OF ME" BY AMBROSIA PLAYING) ♪
PACK: So, after that little tip by Michael,
I'm messing around.
All of a sudden, I just hit on the chord sequence.
(HUMMING)
On the way to a party for the Fourth of July,
my family was running late.
I set up the piano for a few minutes, and that all popped out.
-♪ There's a new sun arisin' ♪ -♪ In your eyes ♪
♪ I can see a new horizon ♪
♪ Realize ♪
♪ That will keep me realizin' ♪
♪ You're the biggest Part of me... ♪
PACK: I came back the next day
forgetting that I had written something,
played the cassette and I was like,
"Whoa, that's-- that's cool."
So the next day I was like...
♪ Make a wish, baby ♪
Oh, now that works. "Make a wish," you know?
Then the whole thing opened up.
♪ Make a wish, baby ♪
♪ Well, And I will make it Come true ♪
♪ Make a list baby ♪
♪ Of the things I'll do for you... ♪
PACK: Honestly, if Ambrosia hadn't toured
with the Doobies all those months,
I don't think I would have written that song.
I want to give credit that Michael inspired me
because he was doing what I would call
progressive R&B pop.
That song, "Biggest Part of Me," has become sort of my signature.
I sang it for President Clinton for his first dance.
He was right in front of me with Hillary Clinton dancing,
and I sang, you know...
♪ Make a wish, baby ♪
He turned around, he goes, "I love that song."
♪ Together ♪
-♪ We are gonna stay together ♪ -♪ Forever ♪
PACK: When we're creating it, we're just...
we're just putting our hearts and souls into it.
We're putting our pain, I mean, Paul McCartney even said,
"I never paid for a therapist, I just did music."
♪ Part of me ♪
ALEX: I think yacht rock became a safe space
for a certain kind of man to express emotions
at a time when men were maybe just starting
to learn how to do that.
I think, you know, it's the '70s,
we're going to therapy,
we're exploring parts of ourselves
that maybe we hadn't explored before.
And there was something about not having to put up
a macho front in quite the same way.
♪ Hello, yeah It's been a while ♪
♪ Not much, how about you? ♪
♪ I'm not sure why I called ♪
♪ I guess I really just Wanted to talk to you ♪
RYZNAR: It's men talking about their mistakes,
and it's men talking about how sad they are
about their breakups.
And there's always been music like that.
But there's something about yacht rock
where men just embrace being the sad sack loser
in a really big way.
♪ I'm not talking About moving in ♪
♪ And I don't wanna Change your life... ♪
HUEY: Repeated over and over again
in a lot of yacht rock songs, you have this theme
of the heartbroken fool,
hearts running free,
a lot of guys singing very sensitively
about how their love affair didn't work out
or their love affair never happened
in the first place,
or, "Man, that girl really loves someone else and not me."
♪ Stay at home and watch TV ♪
♪ You see, it really Doesn't matter much to me... ♪
QUESTLOVE: Hard rock is supposed to be like the machismo,
cis-hetero male affirmative soundtrack music.
And, you know, yacht rock is kind of the opposite of that
'cause it's emo, it's emotional.
♪ I'd really love To see you tonight... ♪
MOLLY LAMBERT: That's part of what gives it its longevity,
is it's like these songs are about timeless issues
of, like, wanting to love and be loved.
And that never goes out of style
'cause that's the human experience.
♪ Say I love you Then say goodbye... ♪
ROB TANNENBAUM: You could declare not just your sensitivity
but your torment at how sensitive you are,
your sense of being ravaged by having feelings,
which, I think, is fairly unique to yacht rock.
♪ ("SAILING" BY CHRISTOPHER CROSS PLAYING) ♪
CHRISTOPHER: I was just sitting at home,
my oldest son was in the crib,
and, uh, I was just kind of messing around,
and I started playing this riff,
and believe it or not, I just started singing,
and I sang the first verse
and the chorus to the song completely unsolicited.
It just sort of came out.
Where? I don't know where from.
♪ Well, it's not far down To paradise ♪
♪ At least it's not for me ♪
♪ And if the wind is right You can sail away ♪
♪ And find tranquility ♪
♪ Oh, the canvas Can do miracles... ♪
CHRISTOPHER: And once I got the verse and chorus,
I just got up, walked around the linoleum floor
of my shitty apartment and just said,
"Wow, that's something-- there's something there."
♪ Sailing ♪
♪ Takes me away to where I've always heard it could be ♪
♪ Just a dream And the wind to carry me... ♪
CHRISTOPHER: To me, the song, it's about transition
that you experience through art
and that place that art takes you.
But I did some sailing when I was young
with an older friend of mine,
and, uh, I always joked that, you know,
had he taken me bowling,
it probably would have been about bowling.
But it doesn't matter. If you dig the groove,
whatever you like about it, just enjoy it.
I used to get irritated when people didn't think it was
anything more than just sailing in a boat.
And it was cool, NSYNC did it, they had a huge hit
with it and it brought it to a much younger audience
and I've had some people bring their kids
to shows who are younger,
and this one little girl came up to the booth and said,
"That's so cool you played that NSYNC song tonight."
And her mother said,
"That's not it, that's his song, it's not NSYNC."
♪ If the wind is right You can sail away... ♪
HUEY: "Sailing" is where you finally get
a yacht rock song that's literally about sailing.
It's not as overtly jazzy
as a lot of the other cornerstones of the genre,
but considering who it's coming from
and what it's about lyrically, it has to be up there.
We've got to take at least one thing literally.
♪ Sailing ♪
♪ Takes me away to where... ♪
THUNDERCAT: That song, I'm again belting 'em out loud.
You know, don't catch me in, like, Ralphs.
I'm, like, juggling pomegranates and, like,
singing into bananas.
PETER ALLEN: Okay, open it up.
-The winner is... -They're my friends.
-"Sailing," Christopher Cross! -Yes! "Sailing."
-(AUDIENCE CHEERING) -Christopher Cross, "Sailing"!
YOUNGER CHRISTOPHER: "Sailing" was really never
supposed to be released as a single,
but I gotta say, I'm really glad it was. And...
It's certainly my favorite song off the album,
and I don't know what to say. I'm speechless.
This is the greatest night of my life.
Thank you very much.
STEVEN: I mean, most people don't sell five million records
on their debut.
You know, most people don't win five Grammys
for their first record.
You beat out some biggies who will probably never forget.
-Dangerous people? -Yeah.
MAC DEMARCO: And everyone was like, "My God,
he's taken all the Grammys." Like, "What's going on?"
People must have been pretty angry about that,
which is funny. You know, it's funny.
Streisand, Sinatra.
-Yeah. -Huh? Did you hear from them?
Did they send you congratulatory telegrams
-and say... -No. Um...
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
CHRISTOPHER: She was not a happy camper.
I think someone had told her that she was gonna win.
As a matter of fact, I think
it might have been Aretha or somebody.
And I said, "This is so exciting.
I'd love to meet Barbra Streisand."
She said, "Honey, tonight is not the night."
ROB: He swept the three major categories,
and he added a fourth, which was Best New Artist.
And that's kind of incredible, that in your rookie season,
you win the triple crown and win rookie of the year.
And no one duplicated that
until a few years ago when Billie Eilish did it.
MOLLY: Truly a song like "Sailing"
becoming the most popular song in the world
feels to me like a viral hit now, you know?
Where you're like, you couldn't predict
that that would be the song that everybody would love.
♪ ("ROSANNA" BY TOTO PLAYING) ♪
And that's it. The biggest revolution in...
Today marks my first State of the Union address to you.
PRESENTER: It's NBC week and tonight, what's so funny?
JACK T. COLTON: God damn it, man.
The Doobie Brothers broke up.
Shit. When did that happen?
♪ All I wanna do ♪
♪ When I wake up In the morning... ♪
PORCARO: Toto did real good out of the gate,
but, um, we maybe got a little indulgent
and thought we could do whatever we wanted to do,
and the second album did not do quite as well.
PAICH: I never thought I'd experience
pressure from a record company.
But after our third album also failed to do results,
they said, "Well, can you still come out with another hit?"
And it was kinda like a do-or-die situation.
So I realized that we had to put everything
that we possibly knew about making a great record
into one album. And I started writing "Rosanna."
♪ Not quite a year Since she went away ♪
♪ Rosanna, yeah... ♪
PAICH: I'd written a song,
and the day that I was finishing the song,
Steve Porcaro walked into the house,
and he was with Rosanna Arquette.
And of course, she charmed everybody.
Everybody fell in love with her, including me.
And I just said, "Rosanna, huh?"
PORCARO: I think her name just fit perfect.
And I'm sure he had a little crush on her,
like everyone else did at some point, probably.
♪ Meet you all the way ♪
LUKATHER: "Rosanna" is like the Toto track.
We knew we had something there, and when it came out
and was a hit again, we were like... Phew!
♪ ("AFRICA" BY TOTO PLAYING) ♪
PAICH: We already had the Toto IV album done,
so we were just messing around with some new keyboards,
and I played this riff.
And then I wrote a song
and brought it into the studio, and everybody decided,
"Well, we have a little bit of spare time here.
Let's-- Let's fool around with it a little bit."
♪ I hear the drums Echoing tonight ♪
♪ But she hears only whispers ♪
♪ Of some Quiet conversation... ♪
PORCARO: Let's talk about the song "Africa."
Last song on side two.
Who puts their only number one song
as the last song on side two? It was buried.
Now we worked our asses off on it for sure.
Jeff did all these tape loops.
It was very, very cool what we did.
I killed myself on that song.
I was doing all kinds of weird stuff
with my modular synths.
You know, we worked hard on everything we did.
Having said that,
Lukather and I didn't even think it should be on the album.
LUKATHER: Oh, I did say
that I would run naked down Hollywood Boulevard
if it was a hit record.
♪ It's gonna take a lot To drag me away from you... ♪
PORCARO: The lesson in humility for us,
you know, shows what we know.
And it's our only number one hit.
♪ I bless the rains Down in Africa ♪
♪ Gonna take some time To do the things ♪
♪ We never had, ooh-hoo ♪
GARRET PRICE:
PAICH: Oh, boy, that's a deep one.
I usually don't respond to that question anymore.
But just my desire to travel and stuff.
I'd never been to Africa,
but that didn't let that stop me writing a song
about it, you know?
♪ For some solitary company ♪
LUKATHER: You know, we've made the whole record
before the lyrics were on it,
so we didn't really know all the Serengeti stuff,
you know, which we still laugh and cringe at.
♪ Rises like Olympus Above the Serengeti... ♪
PORCARO: We, of course, gave him a hard time.
We would repeat some of those lines
back to him mercilessly, you know what I mean?
"What? What is..." You know? But the record company
was real big on "Africa," and I remember I was
in a hospital, and I was walking down the halls,
and I heard "Africa" coming out of the radio,
and I was like, "What?" I couldn't believe it,
that they were playing it on the radio.
You know, that tune?
♪ I bless the rains Down in Africa ♪
♪ Gonna take some time To do the things... ♪
HUEY: I think "Africa" has that quality of, "What is this?
Where did this come from?
Why are those the lyrics?
Why can't I get this out of my head?"
BRIAN: It's one of those songs
that you've heard it so many times
and it almost gets annoying, but then that chorus hits.
♪ It's gonna take a lot To drag me away from you... ♪
You're like, "No, that's pretty good, isn't it?
That's-- That's-- That's pretty good."
JASON: I actually love Toto.
I mean, in terms of writing melodies,
the quality of the musicianship itself is also superb.
What I don't love about Toto is the lyrics.
Just the chutzpah,
the audacity of a White rock band
making a song about Africa,
a continent that you've never actually been to.
And don't get me started on the video.
The music video, that was-- that's crazy.
Um, I don't even think you can imagine
anyone doing that now.
Although, what's weird is that because of this hipster,
ironic detachment moment we live in,
people think it's the greatest song
that's ever been written.
Here we go with the song, "Africa," Weezer!
♪ I bless the rains Down in Africa ♪
(GROANS)
♪ Gonna take some time To do the things ♪
♪ We never had ♪
LUKATHER: Nobody laughs harder than we do.
God bless, you know?
It's connected with a lot of people
and it drives a lot of people crazy,
but come on, man, we cut that in 1981.
Think I haven't heard this song a couple times, huh?
STEVIE WONDER: The winner for Album of The Year
-is Toto. Toto IV. -(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
♪ ("AFRICA" CONTINUES PLAYING OVER TV) ♪
His first solo album on the Warner Brothers label.
Let's put some hands together, gang, for Mr. Michael McDonald.
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING, CHEERING)
♪ ("'I KEEP FORGETTIN'" BY MICHAEL MCDONALD PLAYING) ♪
QUESTLOVE: I remember that episode of Soul Train,
seeing Porcaro and Lewis Johnson and Greg Phillinganes
playing with Michael McDonald. That's a staple episode.
Like, anytime that a White artist
ever appeared on Soul Train,
that's just a different type of cosign.
We say that, you know, you get a lifetime pass
to the barbecue.
♪ I keep forgettin' We're not in love anymore ♪
♪ I keep forgettin' things Will never be the same again ♪
♪ I keep forgettin'... ♪
MICHAEL: A lot of the Black stations,
those were the stations that picked up
my first single, "Keep Forgettin'."
They made it a hit. When I stopped by
while I was on the road with the Doobies,
they would play your whole album.
And the DJ would talk to you about each song.
And by the time you got to the airport
to go to the next town,
there'd be people in the baggage claim going,
"Hey, I just heard you on the radio."
And it was very electric.
It caused a buzz, you know, that we weren't used to getting.
♪ And I know ♪
♪ That it's hard for you ♪
♪ To say the things ♪
♪ That we both know are true ♪
♪ But tell me how come... ♪
JASON: You have these White rock musicians
essentially making R&B music,
and some of them get played on Black radio,
but also there are some Black artists
who'd figure out that in order to get radio play
at a time of great segregation
in the music industry, they need to be able
to do adult contemporary music.
QUESTLOVE: Oftentimes, I think yacht rock is associated
with, like, White groups
and White songwriters and producers,
but I know more Black yacht rock
than I do "traditional" yacht rock.
Al Jarreau's music, yacht rock.
Pointer Sisters' "Slow Hand," yacht rock.
You know, George Benson, "Turn Your Love Around,"
like, that's yacht rock.
♪ Turn your love around ♪
♪ Don't you turn me down ♪
♪ I can show you how ♪
♪ Turn your love around ♪
RYZNAR: George Benson is an example
of a jazz guy who goes pop
and just the act of doing that makes yacht rock.
JASON: A lot of these artists are realizing
that in order to have the kind of careers
that they'd like to be able to cross over,
and to be able to reach non-Black audiences as well,
they had to sort of curb
some of the more aggressively funky aspects
and make a more polished, genteel music.
But I also think they gravitated to that sound.
So many Black musicians, like, we love
some of the White easy-listening and adult contemporary music.
♪ Lucky ♪
♪ I feel in love with you... ♪
BRENDA: You had to really know who you were as a Black artist
because I remember walking into a record company
and I said, "Okay, I'm not R&B."
And he said, "Honey, you Black, you R&B."
(LAUGHS) I went, "Oh, excuse me, I didn't know."
So, you know, it was hard to cross over into the pop thing
because people had a preconceived idea
of what you're supposed to sound like.
THUNDERCAT: Al Jarreau, George Benson, George Duke,
and many to name off.
There's a part where I'm just like,
"That was allowing the art to lead."
There was a moment that was golden.
There was a time when you could see Steely Dan,
Stanley Clark, George Duke, and Frank Zappa
on the same bill.
And Stevie Wonder, and it'd be like this...
"You lucky motherfuckers.
You lucky son of a--" If you got to see that,
you could chop one of my toes off.
Yeah, you could. Doobie Brothers?
(HESITATES) Take the pinky. Take it, it's worth it.
QUESTLOVE: All of these artists,
they just provided the soundtrack of our lives,
and then suddenly all that changed,
where not only did you have to sound a certain way,
you had to look a certain way.
This is it. Welcome to MTV, Music Television,
the world's first 24-hour stereo video music channel.
♪ I heard you on The wireless back in '52... ♪
ALEX: MTV sort of scrambles everything
because suddenly it's about who's coming up with the visual
and who can be a rock star changes.
♪ Oh, oh ♪
AMANDA: Artists of the MTV era, you know, Prince, Madonna,
Michael Jackson, they were visually astounding.
You couldn't take your eyes off them.
So I think there was this sense of music
becoming a more multidimensional enterprise.
And I think a few yacht rock artists probably got left behind
in that transition.
♪ Video killed The radio star... ♪
GARRET:
Hated it. I didn't study to be an actor.
I didn't work on my look.
You know, that was always a beef
about we didn't have an image, we didn't look the part.
CHRISTOPHER: The "Video Killed the Radio Star" thing,
it was just absolutely true in my case.
I just wasn't comfortable. I think my physicality,
I think part of it was that I was never--
I was always kind of a shy guy.
♪ Oh, oh ♪
MICHAEL: When videos came along,
I felt like one of the silent screen stars
who was entering the realm of the talkies.
It's like, "Well, why are they doing that?"
Because we've developed this whole art form
that is based on listening to the songs.
I was afraid that with videos,
people were gonna start watching music
and not listen to it anymore, you know?
♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
ROB: You didn't have to be great looking to be on MTV,
but you did need to have an interesting look
or to be deadpan or have a wink.
Phil Collins was a huge star on MTV.
Was he a matinee idol?
No. But he played along.
Cyndi Lauper is a gorgeous woman who went far
out of her way to make herself look weird
and crazy.
So the videos become bigger, funnier, more colorful.
And there are bands that want to play along with this
and bands that don't.
HUEY: You have MTV putting all these new stars
on the airwaves that crowds these guys out.
You get the influence of new wave
and synth pop. And then on top of that,
you also get the immediate impact
of this big blockbuster album that knocks
a lot of these more adult contemporary artists
off the pop charts.
ANNOUNCER: Michael Jackson is back in action
with his new album, Thriller.
ALEX: Thriller certainly helps hasten the end
of this moment because among other things,
it's the dawn of the mega music video
that turns everything upside down.
But at the same time, even Thriller is stocked
with guys who came from that scene.
It's, uh, the-- the final result of a dream
that we had in a studio a year and a half ago, and it worked.
This kind of a thing only happens as a reaction
of what the world wants, I think.
JASON: In a lot of ways, Thriller was Michael Jackson's
transactional commercial album.
They were really strategic and really shrewd,
and they decided to make the album
a kind of marketing exercise.
What if every song on the album could appeal
to a different audience?
HUEY: Thriller is very eclectic.
It's got a bunch of different styles
of music on it,
but they didn't have a lot of time to record it.
If you're going to pump out an album
in a short amount of time, you need supporting musicians
who can also do it all.
And that's where the Toto guys came in.
LUKATHER: I met Quincy Jones through David Foster
when Quincy was doing The Dude record.
Q took a shine to me, man. I just went in there.
He said, "I'm doing Michael's next record.
I want you to be part of it."
RYZNAR: The first thing we cut was the Paul McCartney duet,
"The Girl Is Mine."
Quincy began to collect Totos.
Quincy would use Steve Porcaro often
to do keyboard parts and to program synthesizers.
By the time Thriller came around,
he also brought in David Paich and Jeff Porcaro.
So now you've got almost the entire band
of Toto working with Quincy Jones
to back up Michael Jackson on a lot of the tracks.
But Quincy just needed one special song
to finish off the album.
♪ Looking out Across the nighttime ♪
♪ She hopes To be the first in line... ♪
PORCARO: When I wrote "Human Nature,"
we were at a point after Toto IV,
they were wanting to do more stadium rock.
I played it for him and no one jumped up and down
and said, "Boy, did you knock one out of the park."
But, uh, Quincy heard it accidentally and just,
I think, loved the atmosphere,
which is always what I've kind of been about.
What was great is he let me reproduce my demo
for the most part.
♪ Why, Why? ♪
♪ Tell her That it's human nature ♪
♪ Why, Why Do they do me that way? ♪
QUESTLOVE: There are literally no words of what it was like
to be alive watching the Thriller effect
happen to the music industry.
But 40 years down the line, I think it did a lot
of damage to what we knew as a certain type of music
or a certain type of creative process.
Because once Thriller comes, your visuals have to be right.
It just started a tsunami effect
that if you didn't get down with it,
you just drowned and you're out of it.
INTERVIEWER: Um, how do you see this album
different from your first one?
This album will be a little more plain.
It'll be like, um...
Well, maybe simpler in places.
There may be songs without drums or whatever.
And, you know, more space to the record, probably.
INTERVIEWER: (LAUGHS) So wish you lots of luck
-and please... -Thanks.
INTERVIEWER: Let your smash coming,
you know, keep coming here.
Good. Everybody will be looking for it.
Hopefully, it'll be worth the wait.
CHRISTOPHER: Radio had been embracing
my first album across formats,
and they sort of decided I was a balladeer at that point.
He's in a tuxedo, riding with Burt Bacharach.
He's schmoozy, he's schmaltzy.
So then work reflects your personal life.
And I'd been through a divorce,
and I wrote a very ballad-heavy,
torchy kind of record.
Some very pretty songs on it,
but it wasn't as eclectic and balanced as my first record.
And I think I lost a lot of momentum at radio.
And so as time went on,
I was always battling that sophomore jinx.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
STEVEN: With Christopher Cross,
what explains his career is gravity.
The winners are Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager,
-Christopher Cross, and Peter Allen. -(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
STEVEN: He had all these extraordinary achievements
right away.
He shot into the stratosphere,
and there just was nowhere else
left to go but down at that point.
His albums speak for themselves. They sell in the millions.
He's here tonight with a song from his second album.
Here's another great talent for you to meet.
-Christopher Cross, here. -(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
CHRISTOPHER: It was sort of meteoric
and there was nowhere to go but down.
I was not prepared for it.
I went from playing clubs to 20,000 seaters.
So I don't think I handled the whole thing very well.
And, you know, kind of wish I could go back and do it again.
But I think that period of time was just kind of a big blur.
And I was just treading water to keep up.
I didn't really acclimate to my success
until I wasn't sort of famous anymore.
HOWARD STERN: Oh, you know who's stopping by?
Uh, Christopher Cross.
Remember that guy?
HUEY: Once we get into the '80s, movie soundtracks
become a safe haven for a lot of these yacht rock guys
to extend their pop stardom careers
at least a few more years.
That's where the commercial opportunities
are available for them all of a sudden
in this new, video-centric MTV age.
Thanks to soundtrack success with songs like
"Footloose," "I'm Alright," and "Danger Zone,"
this star continues to mix movie hits
with his own singing and songwriting.
RYZNAR: Once Kenny Loggins started to transition
to movie soundtracks, he blew up.
That turned out to be his bread and butter.
STEVEN: The thing with Kenny Loggins is
that he's still a yacht rock artist,
but he's not really making yacht rock songs.
But really, like, that was the point,
that he was maybe the most successful
at distancing himself from this sound
that by then had become passé.
RYZNAR: And then you get "Sweet Freedom,"
Michael McDonald's chance to finally do
a successful movie song like his buddy Kenny Loggins
had been doing for the last couple of years.
And it's the exclamation point at the end
of the yacht rock era.
STEVEN: In a way, the "Sweet Freedom" video
is almost like the beginning of what you see
at yacht rock tribute concerts. It's almost like the genesis
of what that genre is going to be
like, 20 years in the future.
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
HUEY: When you get into the mid-'80s,
all the major figures
of yacht rock pretty much slipped
one way or another.
Michael McDonald is struggling trying to make his second album.
Donald Fagen has writer's block after The Nightfly,
and he just sort of retreats into the background.
Kenny Loggins is getting into synth pop and soundtrack work.
Christopher Cross, he's also having some writer's block.
Toto fired Bobby Kimball,
the guy who did all the high vocals,
and was struggling to replace him.
ROB: Artists run out of hits. It happens.
The zeitgeist moves on without you.
The fact is Top 40 careers have a natural end.
They always do and always will.
PORCARO: I'll quote my brother Mike.
Mike used to always say,
"The groove is a delicate thing."
You know, especially when you have success,
it's hard to keep your humility, uh, and not think,
"Oh, I've got it figured out now."
STEVEN: And you can only have so many hit albums
and number-one singles and Grammys
before the public just says, "Enough.
No matter how good you are, like, we need something new."
1985?
Poof!
Like a fucking fart, man.
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
(RECORD SCRATCHING)
PRINCE: It just caught us from the first play.
As soon as you heard it, you just like--
it just spoke to you.
♪ I've seen your picture... ♪
PRINCE: The Aja album, but specifically "Peg,"
was definitely a hood song
because you heard it in the hood.
You could hear it blasting in people's houses, at parties,
and that's probably one of the big influences
why when Pos from De La heard it, he's like,
"Yo, we gotta use this."
Because it was etched in our childhood growing up.
♪ ("EYE KNOW" BY DE LA SOUL PLAYING) ♪
♪ Greetings, girl And welcome to my world ♪
♪ Of phrase I'm right up to bat... ♪
PRINCE: The music was incredible to begin with
because you're starting out with a base
that's already hit song just based on
the instrumental itself.
But then the inspiration of the lyrics
and how the lyrics were and it was beautiful.
It's about, you know, love, relationships.
But he could have rhymed about buckling my shoe
and eating crap over that beat and it would have worked
because the music is just so... (CHUCKLES)
...you know what I'm saying, just so dope.
QUESTLOVE: In the case of De La Soul,
they decided, "You know what?"
"You mere peasants are taking from the low-hanging fruit
of James Brown and George Clinton
and the incredible bongo rock band.
Like, anybody can do that.
But can you do something with this Hall & Oates thing?
Can you do something with this Steely Dan thing?
Can we find magic on records by groups
that are not under the funk ilk?"
And the answer is a resounding yes.
If it has a pulse, and if it has life,
it's up for grabs.
♪ Eye know I love you better... ♪
HUEY: Yacht rock has a foundation
in jazz and R&B,
and the result of that is that Black audiences
appreciate this stuff sometimes more
than the White audiences did at the time.
So that's how you get Warren G sampling
a Michael McDonald record for a gangster rap hit.
♪ It was a clear black night A clear white moon ♪
♪ Warren G was on the streets ♪
♪ Tryin' to consume Some skirts for the eve ♪
♪ So I can get some phones Rollin' in my ride ♪
♪ Chillin' all alone ♪
♪ Just hit the eastside Of the L-B-C... ♪
When I first heard "Regulate," I'm like,
"I know what this is." (LAUGHS)
It becomes a point when you're making hip-hop songs,
who has the smarts to use it first?
And I'll give them credit for taking it
and hearing something and go,
"We're gonna make something out of this. This moves us."
MAC: It makes sense, though, because it's like,
the records just sound so good.
Like, I'm sitting there with the headphones on,
being like, "Oh, my God," like, "How did they mic the drums?"
Like, this is insane, you know? But it's like,
it sounds that good. You might as well just use it.
And that Warren G song is dope.
So it's like, they already did it once.
Let's just bring it back.
JASON: When you look at the rise of G-funk music
in the 1990s, that is a kind of smooth,
laid-back approach to hip-hop.
It made sense in a lot of ways that they would reach back
to the West Coast sound of the smooth funk
and jazz of that time period.
♪ I'm tweakin' Into a whole new era ♪
♪ G-funk, step to this I dare ya... ♪
He's talking about G-funk and G is for Gangsta.
You know what I mean?
Like, the lineage of N.W.A. is Warren G.
And one of the most important songs
of the G-funk era is "Regulate."
And he's, like, giving Michael McDonald new life.
It's almost like he gets a second chance
at going to the top.
♪ Gangster twist If you smoke... ♪
MICHAEL: Warren liked the groove.
He loved Jeff's drumming, and he just loved
the chord progression we had come up with.
So he sampled it for this track of his,
and it became a massive hit.
And of course, that was the version
my kids liked. They'd go, "Why don't you do
the... Warren G's version,
because, you know, yours is lame?"
♪ ("SHOW YOU THE WAY" BY THUNDERCAT PLAYING) ♪
THUNDERCAT: From the beginnings of hip-hop to now,
the value of the right sample, the right chop,
the right beat is just as important to me
as the value of the song that was created.
And you can play an instrument,
but that doesn't mean you have feel.
And there's a certain froth of what these moments create
that you can only get from that.
You can try to call somebody to replay it
and it'd be like, "Man, that sucks."
It's like, well, yeah, because you're talking
about Donald Fagen. Like, what are you talking?
You can't...
There is one of these people,
even though we all have similar traits
and we've all been given the same sets
of fingers and hands for the most part,
there's a part where, nah, man,
when that person does it, that's theirs.
So you can only get it from them.
♪ Where no one can tell Their worlds apart ♪
♪ We'll live with dark Just take the ride ♪
♪ It's your boy... ♪
THUNDERCAT: "Show You the Way" is this moment for me.
Like, "What can I do to this? What is this?"
It's always ticking in my mind.
And in the back of my mind, I was definitely like,
"Man, this is Kenny and Michael." (LAUGHS)
♪ Your heart Is struggling, baby ♪
♪ Trying to believe ♪
♪ There might be something That you just couldn't see ♪
KENNY: Thundercat, somebody asked him on camera,
you know, who he would like to write with.
And he said, Kenny Loggins and Mike McDonald.
♪ Let me show you Show you the way... ♪
MICHAEL: So we all met up at the studio.
Steve played us a bunch of stuff he was doing.
And there was one thing he had already started.
And one of us, Kenny or I, said,
"That kind of rings our bell, you know, right there."
♪ Wake up and dream ♪
♪ Tear down the wall ♪
♪ Before you believe... ♪
THUNDERCAT: I would always introduce Michael McDonald,
like, "Michael fucking McDonald."
You know, like, I'd make sure to emphasize that.
To be able to share the stage with him, like,
this guy's, you know,
like, you've influenced every decision I've made
when it comes to the types of way I express myself,
when it comes to musically.
It was a trip, man. It's--
Anytime he's ever come out, and even Kenny,
it's like, it's been a trip for me.
Thundercat, Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins.
-(AUDIENCE CHEERING) -Fantastic!
I fully expected to be totally forgotten by the end
of the '80s, you know, and gone the wayside
of other musical genres that had their moment
in the sun, you know.
(SING-SONG) The tambour in my voice allows me
to communicate with whales.
♪ Maybe that can help ♪
FRED: There's nothing greater in a way for any genre
of anything to be joked about
because it means that it's relevant.
It means that it's identifiable.
-♪ Catalina Breeze ♪ -♪ Catalina ♪
FRED: I mean, in a way, Blue Jean Committee,
you could see it as a joke
but it's still completely done out of love.
When I hear those songs, I'm like,
"How did they do this?"
Boy, they were not in a rush.
-WALTER WHITE: Steely Dan. -Uh, no.
WALTER: Yes, absolutely. No, look.
No, in terms of pure musicianship,
I would put them up
against any current band you can name.
AMANDA: In recent years, there has been a shift
that I think has opened up some space
for dunking on White guys, you know?
And I think yacht rock is folded into that.
Warren, you lucky motherfucker.
You need a smooth groove? Sample this.
ALEX: This thing, you come to it jokingly,
but then you suddenly find yourself
appreciating it sincerely.
And I think that that's sort of beautiful that like
all of these records were sitting in the dollar bin
waiting for somebody to pull them out
and kind of make a case for them.
And it feels fresh and it feels like a '70s
that we haven't necessarily strip-mined culturally.
And I think it's an amazing achievement
to retroactively name a genre
through your low-budget web series
that you're filming in your apartment.
STEVEN: I can't really think of another genre
that was like invented to describe music
25 years after the fact.
Another genre that, uh, wasn't named at the time,
that was named way after was classical.
Beethoven, you know, Mozart, none of these people were going
like, "Yeah, we're classical artists,
we do classical."
And they were like, "Do you wanna do something else?"
Like, "No, we're gonna play classical."
QUESTLOVE: Upon his passing, I was trying to figure out
the most heartfelt, loving tribute
that I could pay to my pal, Anthony Bourdain.
And I crafted a playlist.
And I think of all my playlists,
that's probably the most followed.
Like, everyone and their mom comes to me either to start
an argument with, "Take that off the playlist,
that is not yacht rock," to "You forgot these ten."
So, go figure.
But you're drowning in the past, Mike.
And I got your life jacket right here.
It's called the '80s.
And it's gonna be around forever.
Fuck you, Loggins.
KENNY: At first, I felt, like, a little insulted,
like we were being made fun of.
But I began to see that it was also
a kind of ass-backwards way to honor us.
And it was pretty funny, you know, the whole sort of
alternate reality history that they were creating.
They had taken what we were doing
and defined it as a genre.
We hadn't really seen it that way.
To us, it was just the next logical step in making,
you know, pop music.
When are we gonna be done?
TODD BISHOP: Till you get it perfect.
Take 537.
MICHAEL: What's funny about it to me was my son
couldn't wait to show me this thing he'd found
on the Internet. And it was hysterical.
I couldn't deny that it was funny.
I thought it was kind of uncanny at times how they made up
these personalities that more or less
had some basis of truth, whether they knew it or not.
I always thought it was kind of flattering
to be made fun of because obviously,
it made an impression on somebody.
Whether it's good or bad,
it doesn't really matter at that point, you know.
-We love yacht rock! -(CHEERS)
It's a funny thing. It's sort of like forensic labeling.
It's way after the fact
that this term has come into parlance.
And as a result,
it's probably done more for that kind of music.
So, you know, in the end,
I guess it was a good idea. (CHUCKLES)
PACK: I've made peace with yacht rock,
but for the first few years, I just hated it.
I'm like, why did they pick our generation
to make all of our music into like a big joke,
but it's turned into this cottage industry
as... (CHUCKLES) I mean...
I'd love to see what Donald Fagen says
about Yacht Rock Radio.
(DISCONNECT TONE BEEPING)
LUKATHER: I don't know what it is about all the music
that I've ever been involved with,
but there has to be a silly title involved
with it as well.
"Yacht Rock." Where's my fucking yacht?
I played on all those records.
At the same time, call it what you want.
People like the music.
GARRET:
It was called my career. I'm going to work today,
and that's the music I'm playing.
PORCARO: Every day, I wake up real early,
and I go to work in my studio writing songs,
trying to come up with the next "Human Nature."
That's all I do now, and I'm in heaven.
I'm loving it. Um...
I'm 65, and there's not that many people
that care anymore, but in my head,
I'm living the dream, so...
KENNY: I really never imagined that I'd be doing it this long.
I'm so lucky that I get to sing for a living.
How sweet can that be?
Even though my later records didn't sell, you know,
and I made 12 of them, the drive to do it
never really dissipated.
I just kept on doing it
because it seemed like sort of a natural process
and an insatiable need I needed to do it.
I think I know why I was put here,
and I think I did my best to honor that, you know?
But my fantasy has been like, you know, if I do retire,
I'll be able to do all the things I promised myself
I'd do, which I probably wouldn't do.
But, uh, you know, like exercise
and eat right and paint
and get a little gig somewhere, three nights a week,
learning all these songs I've always wanted to do live.
But I realized the reality of that is
I'd have some drunk sitting there...
-(LAUGHS) Yeah. -...asking me to...
requesting songs, I'd have to get some sign
that says, "No fucking requests."
♪ ("I GOTTA TRY" BY MICHAEL MCDONALD PLAYING) ♪
♪ Maybe it's true What they say about ♪
♪ Maybe we can't Make the ends meet ♪
♪ Maybe we'll all have To do without ♪
♪ Maybe this world's Just incomplete ♪
♪ Well, we all look For truth in this life ♪
♪ Searching with hope inside ♪
♪ If it's so hard living In a desperate world ♪
♪ We all do the best That we can ♪
♪ Some people see a change ♪
♪ Some will remain the same ♪
♪ Others will live their lives ♪
♪ Under the gun ♪
♪ Some see the road as clear ♪
♪ Some say the end is here ♪
♪ They say It's a hopeless fight ♪
♪ But I say I gotta try now ♪
♪ Oh, I've gotta try, baby ♪
♪ Maybe it's too much To think about ♪
♪ Maybe there ain't nothing Left to say ♪
♪ But if our time Is really runnin' ♪
♪ Then this ain't no time To run away ♪
♪ 'Cause we're Destined to look ♪
♪ For the truth in this life ♪
♪ Searching with tearful eyes ♪
♪ If it's so hard living In a desperate world ♪
♪ Then tell me why was I born? ♪
♪ Some people see a change ♪
♪ Some will remain the same ♪
♪ Others will live their lives ♪
-♪ Under the gun ♪ -♪ Gun ♪
♪ Some see the road as clear ♪
♪ Some say the end is here ♪
♪ They say It's a hopeless fight ♪
♪ But I say I gotta try now ♪
♪ (SONG FADES OUT) ♪