Last night, I ventured into the smooth seas of HBO’s “Yacht Rock” documentary, and I’m left wondering if “brain rot” is too kind a term. This film feels less like a documentary and more like a celebration of a musical era that many of us tried to forget. It’s a glossy, soft-focus glorification of what went wrong with popular music in the early 1980s.
The documentary’s central thesis, hinging on Steely Dan as the origin point of Yacht Rock due to their use of session musicians, is fundamentally flawed. To suggest that Steely Dan, with their intricate jazz harmonies, cryptic lyrics, and sheer musical innovation, are the bedrock of this genre is a disservice to Donald Fagen and Walter Becker’s genius. They were astute enough to see the shift in the musical landscape around 1981 and wisely exited the stage. What emerged was a diluted, bland imitation of their sophisticated sound, which the documentary seems eager to champion.
To be fair, not everything categorized as Yacht Rock is inherently bad. Toto’s “Hold the Line,” for instance, possesses a certain raw energy that transcends the genre’s typical smoothness. And some of Michael McDonald’s work with the Doobie Brothers holds up well. However, the documentary seems to elevate the imitations and dilutions, the endless copies that grew fainter and more saccharine with each iteration. The film even suggests that the Doobie Brothers’ “What a Fool Believes” represents Yacht Rock’s peak. But wasn’t it the countless inferior copies that truly defined, and ultimately marred, the genre?
One particularly jarring omission in the “Yacht Rock Documentary Hbo” is the story behind Michael McDonald’s hit, “I Keep Forgetting.” The documentary conveniently overlooks the fact that this song is heavily derivative of Chuck Jackson’s 1961 hit of the same name, penned by legendary songwriters Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller. McDonald was compelled to acknowledge this similarity, adding Lieber and Stoller to the songwriting credits and presumably settling financially. This significant detail, a clear example of the genre’s derivative nature, is conspicuously absent, raising questions about the documentary’s integrity.
The film’s narrative further crumbles when it lauds Christopher Cross as a Yacht Rock icon. While Cross might be a pleasant individual, his 1981 Grammy sweep for “Sailing” feels like a cultural misstep of epic proportions. In 1981, a vibrant and diverse musical landscape thrived, featuring groundbreaking artists like Prince, Talking Heads, Blondie, The Police, Elvis Costello, and the burgeoning rap scene. To suggest that “Sailing” was a superior song to “New York, New York” or that Cross’s album held more cultural weight than Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” is not just debatable; it’s musically absurd.
So, yes, I’m venting. But “yacht rock documentary hbo” genuinely provoked this reaction. It joins HBO’s perplexing Stax documentary from earlier this year in a growing list of missteps in their usually stellar non-fiction film catalog. HBO has proven its capacity for insightful documentaries, making their stumbles in the realm of music history all the more disappointing.
