Yacht Rock

The Doobie Brothers - What a Fool Believes
Michael McDonald - I Keep Forgettin' (Every Time You're Near)
Kenny Loggins - This Is It
Loggins & Messina - Sailin' The Wind
Christopher Cross - Sailing

Diddy Wah ventures into unchartered waters today with a mini-focus on the posthumously coined music genre, Yacht Rock. Emerging out of California in the mid to late 70s, fusing blue-eyed soul and impossibly smooth rock-pop, Yacht Rock represents a body of tuneage that I've always kept at arm's length. That all changed when I witnessed the true potential of smooth music through the documentary series 'Yacht Rock' screening at a YouTube near you. Now, gently impassioned vocals coasting over soft beats and light synth stabs have new meaning to me and hopefully, after this mellow introduction, you too.

In 1977 Michael McDonald joined The Doobie Brothers and set about transforming them from a boogie rock combo into extra smooth AM radio favourites. One year later, from the album 'Minute To Minute' came his crowning glory, 'What A Fool Believes'. A tune that drifts out of speakers with such ease that afterwards it leaves you wondering whether you have actually heard a song at all.

Michael McDonald's debut solo LP, 'If That's What It Takes', came out in 1982 and from it comes 'I Keep Forgetting'. Relative to his Doobie Brothers material this track is hard rhythmic funk and lyrically McDonald is in a much darker place. Just over a decade later it would help reveal hip hop's smooth side when Dr Dre sampled it for Warren G and Nate Dogg's G-Funk smash, 'Regulate'.

For his 1979 release, 'Keep The Fire', future soundtrack staple Kenny Loggins teamed up with Michael McDonald. Together they produced the mid-tempo classic, 'This Is It'. Loggins' breathy lead vocals tell of a relationship on the edge while heavy strings and McDonald's high pitched backups lend a dramatic touch.

From Loggins & Messina's second LP, 'Full Sail', comes 'Sailin' The Wind'. Released in 1973, 'Sailin' The Wind' -- as you would imagine from Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina's backgrounds with The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Poco respectively -- has a light country feel while also incorporating touches of the sea-like shimmering, drifting sax and nautical lyrics that helped define the Yacht Rock sound. The boat rope and distant fog horn sound effects, that a keen ear will pick up at the beginning of the song, are pure class.

Christopher Cross scored perhaps the biggest hit of the Yacht Rock era with 'Sailing' from his 1980 self-titled debut album. That year he won five Grammy Awards including the grand slam of best record, song, album, and new artist. 'Sailing' contains no shortage of shimmery sounds along with a meditatively repetitive guitar line and, like all good soft rock, sentimentally reflective lyrics sung in a smooth bordering on bland manner.



Channel 101 - Yacht Rock