Yacht Rock a Dockumentary (1 Viewer)

[Saintman2884]

The rise of MTV and the music video kinda killed Christopher Cross and erased him from popular music history for a while. There was nothing marketable about his look or style at all and his career basically vanished over night. He went from topping the charts to not even being able to chart within 4 years.

The rise of MTV and music video completely changed how popular music was presented, marketed and promoted and late 70's artists like Cross, Michael McDonald or Loggins didnt have the great visual appeal or aesthetic that would them more relatable as sex symbols or would-be actors. David Bowie sort of copied a bit from Peter Gabriel's playbook in reinventing his solo career in the early 80's by recording and producing odd, peculiar (yet very successful) albums and off-kilter music videos like Gabriel did (although not nearly as weird or unusual like "Sledge Hammer").

Guys like Phil Collins and Genesis may not have been "matinee idols" but they were saavy and career-conscious enough to adapt to MTV's new musical video aesthetics. Here's a thing that documentary didnt tell you: maybe Phil Collins wasnt some MTV Brad Pitt of the early 80's but like his daughter Lily Collins, he grew up being an actor and was completely comfortable transitioning for that role on MTV as much as he was respected and revered as a singer-songwriter, producer and drummer. In the early 80's, although she was struggling with some substance abuse issues (mostly cocaine) Stevie Nicks was still considered a major sex symbol and talented singer-songwriter and front-woman in her own right along with Lindsey Buckingham.

 

[Saintman2884]

too late

Don't feel ashamed that you felt then that bands like Motley Crue, Poison, Ratt, Cinderella, and rest of mid-late 80's Sunset Strip hair bands sucked and still do. I feel the same way, frankly, Guido and I'm so forking glad an angrier, potent yet more politically and socially relevant PNW punk offshoot called Grunge killed them off. Popular music needs a long-overdue, underground more genuine genre or off-shoot like Grunge to make music, culture and our overall society a little more interesting then over-commercialized retreads or worn-out cliched gimmicks. In the late 70's, The Who's Pete Townsend wrote and recorded a song called "Music must change" amidst the transatlantic punk explosion in U.K. and U.S.A. and that sentiment remains as true now as it did 45 years ago.

I'm actually glad bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Mud Honey ruined the careers of Warrant, Winger, Mr. Big, Poison, Ratt, and humbled Motley Crue a little bit out of their high-flying 80's stupid, inane and fake "Girls, Girls, Girls" decadence. It epitomized everything that Kurt Cobain pointed out that was fake, superficial and over-commercialized about the L.A. hair metal scene.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

The rise of MTV and music video completely changed how popular music was presented, marketed and promoted and late 70's artists like Cross, Michael McDonald or Loggins didnt have the great visual appeal or aesthetic that would them more relatable as sex symbols or would-be actors. David Bowie sort of copied a bit from Peter Gabriel's playbook in reinventing his solo career in the early 80's by recording and producing odd, peculiar (yet very successful) albums and off-kilter music videos like Gabriel did (although not nearly as weird or unusual like "Sledge Hammer").

Guys like Phil Collins and Genesis may not have been "matinee idols" but they were saavy and career-conscious enough to adapt to MTV's new musical video aesthetics. Here's a thing that documentary didnt tell you: maybe Phil Collins wasnt some MTV Brad Pitt of the early 80's but like his daughter Lily Collins, he grew up being an actor and was completely comfortable transitioning for that role on MTV as much as he was respected and revered as a singer-songwriter, producer and drummer. In the early 80's, although she was struggling with some substance abuse issues (mostly cocaine) Stevie Nicks was still considered a major sex symbol and talented singer-songwriter and front-woman in her own right along with Lindsey Buckingham.

Probably the biggest song right before MTV took off was Escape /Pina Colada - a song targeted for people in their 30s (ish) as almost all yacht rock was
The real sea change for Mtv is that the age demo shifted by a decade or two
It went from gearing to adults who were going to buy concert tickets to kids at home eating pizza rolls

And I think your inclusion of Bowie gets it backwards- Bowie, other glam rockers and funk bands like Parliment and EW&F presaged the visual elements of music
MTV did what Bowie, et al were already doing, not the other way around

 

[Saintman2884]

Probably the biggest song right before MTV took off was Escape /Pina Colada - a song targeted for people in their 30s (ish) as almost all yacht rock was
The real sea change for Mtv is that the age demo shifted by a decade or two
It went from gearing to adults who were going to buy concert tickets to kids at home eating pizza rolls

And I think your inclusion of Bowie gets it backwards- Bowie, other glam rockers and funk bands like Parliment and EW&F presaged the visual elements of music
MTV did what Bowie, et al were already doing, not the other way around

Bowie was experimenting with making music videos in the late 70's with "Heroes" and some of his best, state-of-the-art recordings were done with Brian Eno in the late 70's/early 80's so I do see where you're coming from. David Bowie also helped rescue and resurrect proto-punk Detriot rocker Iggy Pop after The Stooges fell apart for the final time in 1974 and helped him kick heroin for a while so he started work on The Idiot. Bowie even toured with Pop in 1977 as his piano player. They both made a very famous appearance on the Dianna Rigg show during that U.S. tour in 1977.

 

[Mr. Blue Sky]

So i had a chance to watch it tonight, and it’s late where i am so ill probably have thoughts to share at a later time.. but i thought it was excellent .. and ill say that i absolutely loved the touch at the end with Donald Fagen telling the director of the dockumentary to go **** himself .

 

[Mr. Blue Sky]

But Kenny Loggins is horrible IMO.

Shut ur whore mouth .. Loggins is a living legend.. as they say in the dock, ‘Kenny Loggins cannot be contained to one genre of music .’

 

[superchuck500]

Shut ur whore mouth .. Loggins is a living legend.. as they say in the dock, ‘Kenny Loggins cannot be contained to one genre of music .’

Yeah, Loggins is like gravity - you can't deny him.

 

[Optimus Prime]

The rise of MTV and the music video kinda killed Christopher Cross and erased him from popular music history for a while. There was nothing marketable about his look or style at all and his career basically vanished over night. He went from topping the charts to not even being able to chart within 4 years.

I was just talking about Cross recently and about it seemed like he was a much bigger star than I thought he was

 

[saintmdterps]

One of the Yacht Rock (series) creators said something to the effect that the big 70s rock bands were called "arena rock" . . . the 70s smooth bands are "marina rock"

I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you there about 1977. I think the flower is clearly blooming at that point - and the Steely Dan stuff on Aja to me is the fine Columbian of yacht rock. In fact, it's as important of a year for yacht rock as any other, perhaps even the most important because you have to credit the vanguard.

These sounds are so smooooooth!

1977 songs in the Yacht Rock hall-of-fame:
- Pablo Cruise "Love Will Find a Way"
- Boz Scaggs "Lido Shuffle"
- Steely Dan "Deacon Blues", "Josie","Black Cow"
- Player "Baby Come Back"
- Loggins f/ Stevie Nicks, "Whenever I Call You Friend"

Sacrilege, but I like Boz Scaggs' Breakdown Dean Ahead better than Lido Shuffle

 

[saintmdterps]

Don't feel ashamed that you felt then that bands like Motley Crue, Poison, Ratt, Cinderella, and rest of mid-late 80's Sunset Strip hair bands sucked and still do. I feel the same way, frankly, Guido and I'm so forking glad an angrier, potent yet more politically and socially relevant PNW punk offshoot called Grunge killed them off. Popular music needs a long-overdue, underground more genuine genre or off-shoot like Grunge to make music, culture and our overall society a little more interesting then over-commercialized retreads or worn-out cliched gimmicks. In the late 70's, The Who's Pete Townsend wrote and recorded a song called "Music must change" amidst the transatlantic punk explosion in U.K. and U.S.A. and that sentiment remains as true now as it did 45 years ago.

I'm actually glad bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Mud Honey ruined the careers of Warrant, Winger, Mr. Big, Poison, Ratt, and humbled Motley Crue a little bit out of their high-flying 80's stupid, inane and fake "Girls, Girls, Girls" decadence. It epitomized everything that Kurt Cobain pointed out that was fake, superficial and over-commercialized about the L.A. hair metal scene.

Hair bands had their 15 minutes, but I do still like Cinderella's Shake Me and Shotgun Messiah's Heartbreak Boulevard. Shake Me for being evocative of a certain hair-raising trip I took to Ocean City, Md in my MGB back in 1989. 90+ mph all the way over. Said to myself "It's a good day to see the judge..."

I'm far more open than I used to be way back when, and I do like some of the Yacht Rock artists. Even though yachts themselves stand for the pretentiousness my delicate punk/anarchist sensibilities despise

The radio station in the rehab gym played a lot of Yacht Rock, but then switched to 24/7 Xmas music for the holidays. In the manner of the third-world tinpot banana republic dictator I am at heart, I orchestrated the station's overthrow just to ensure I didn't hear Mariahdeth. I must remain eternally on my toes at all times lest a coup d'état be mounted...

 

[superchuck500]

Sacrilege, but I like Boz Scaggs' Breakdown Dean Ahead better than Lido Shuffle

In fairness, I'm not sure if Lido Shuffle is yacht rock. I mean, apart from the song's name being the same as a deck on a yacht. I think Low Down is.

 

[saintmdterps]

In fairness, I'm not sure if Lido Shuffle is yacht rock. I mean, apart from the song's name being the same as a deck on a yacht. I think Low Down is.

I like Breakdown Dead Ahead better than both

 

[superchuck500]

I like Breakdown Dead Ahead better than both

It's a lonely trail you blaze

Didn't Boz and Steve Miller grow up together?

 

[Saintman2884]

It's a lonely trail you blaze

Didn't Boz and Steve Miller grow up together?

Sort of. Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs were both original members of the Haight-Ashbury mid-late 60's S.F. "counter-culture" jam-rock, pop bands like the Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and lastly, Santana. I think Scaggs played rhythm or co-lead guitar in the Steve Miller Band up until his major breakthrough, 1973's The Joker. IIRC, Scaggs left for an eventually very successful solo career after the Joker's release because it wasnt until 3 years after that album's release that Steve Miller Band released a follow-up, 1976's Book of Dreams.

Despite being of the most critically and commercially successful bands of the 1970's and early 80's, Steve Miller still strikes me as one of rock's most underrated, somewhat over-looked acts and musicians over the past 50 years. He could jam with the best of them even if his band became more well-known for their many radio-friendly hits in the 70's and early 80's. Songs like "Living in the USA", " Space Cowboy", "Gangster of Love"--they were good, well-written tunes in his pre-Joker days. He was also a very sharp, highly intelligent businessman in that he held out for a huge signing bonus and a then-high royalty rate. He was one of a few rockers who helped eventually change the economics of rock music where it became more artist-friendly.