Rick Beato gets all uppity about “Yacht Rock”…

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Oh well, the term is nothing to with the likes of Richard Branson , Philip Green or Robert Maxwell then . Or Billy ocean .🙂

[meterman]

6 hours ago, gjones said:

Unless my band was a ironic tribute to that genre (such as Young Gun Silver Fox) , I wouldn't want my music to be classed as 'Yacht Rock' which is seen as pretty lightweight vacuous stuff. Steely Dan certainly isn't lightweight or vacuous and Donald Fagen obviously shares my opinion.

Honestly, YGSF aren't doing it ironically, they truly live and breathe all that AOR stuff from back in the day. Doobie Brothers, Hall & Oates, Christopher Cross, Steely Dan, Average White Band, Michael McDonald, etc. You might catch YGSF individually talking about other music styles but the two main guys consider what they themselves play as Yacht Rock and will straight up tell you that the AOR stuff is the absolute pinnacle of modern music.

 

Donald Fagen, on the other hand, always believed that Steely Dan were operating way above mere mortals like the artists named above. I can't listen to them with a straight face, I find them too blanded out to be funky and too smoothed out to be rock and roll. To me they wouldn't be classed as Yacht Rock, more like Fuzak (that'd be Jazz Fusion crossed with Muzak).

 

Rick Beato might hate the term 'Yacht Rock' but he sure loves a lot of the music. There was an online video series about 20 years ago that spoofed all the AOR stuff, and I think some of the original musicians were happy to be rediscovered by kids who had missed out on all of it the first time around. 
 

Eddie Chacon's comeback basically happened on the back of the AOR revival. Ned Doheny got rediscovered and his back catalogue has been plundered by the likes of YGSF and others. And there's hundreds of new bands and artists that would be happy to be lumped in with 'Yacht Rock' bands of old. It's definitely a thing, and has been for ages. It's just surprising that Rick Beato came 20 years late to the Yacht Rock party 🎉 
 

 

[Passinwind]

5 hours ago, ezbass said:

 

Pretty much what was previously referred to as AOR. 

Or in the US, something that rhymes with "soft rock."

[chriswareham]

4 hours ago, oldslapper said:

Conviction “trumps” facts these days (see what I did there???)

 

There has been research into this - the confidence that some people have in their "gut feeling", and how right or wrong that conviction is. Turns out that people's preconceived notions about something they don't actually understand are almost always wrong. Drastically wrong. Seems to be bloody obvious to me, but as you say, Trump's gut feeling, sorry, I meant to say gut feelings trump actual knowledge and facts these days.

Edited December 27, 2024 by chriswareham

[asingardenof]

7 hours ago, odysseus said:

Am I the only person who has, until this thread, never heard of the term 'yacht rock'?  👽

I have heard it but not in a complimentary context

[SteveXFR]

Yacht rock seems like a particularly appropriate description for the ultra bland and inoffensive rock like Journey and Train etc. 

I'm a fan of punk. I wouldn't be offended if it was referred to as dumpster rock or sewer rock or tramp rock.

[TimR]

1 hour ago, meterman said:

Donald Fagen, on the other hand, always believed that Steely Dan were operating way above mere mortals like the artists named above. I can't listen to them with a straight face, I find them too blanded out to be funky and too smoothed out to be rock and roll. To me they wouldn't be classed as Yacht Rock, more like Fuzak (that'd be Jazz Fusion crossed with Muzak).

 

They spent an awfully long time producing albums that were absolutely perfect. Multiple takes using different musicians to play solos on a single track to find the right one etc.

 

Which is quite an odd thing for Rick to like considering his penchant for warts and all (non-quantised and non-autotuned) recordings.

[paul_5]

1 hour ago, TimR said:

 

They spent an awfully long time producing albums that were absolutely perfect. Multiple takes using different musicians to play solos on a single track to find the right one etc.

 

Which is quite an odd thing for Rick to like considering his penchant for warts and all (non-quantised and non-autotuned) recordings.

Sounds to me like they spent too long producing those albums; an incredible stable of top-flight players that should, in theory, sound amazing, but it’s just lifeless and insipid. 
 

shame really.

[Frank Blank]

6 hours ago, Skinnyman said:

The other 30% being maths stuff I never watch.

 

...and tram cab rides around The Hague.

[Bassassin]

7 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

The clickbait thing certainly has the potential to become self-defeating.

 

At least a quarter of all videos that YouTube offers me unprompted involve thumbnails showing attractive women suffering some sort of wardrobe malfunction ... their synthetic boobs are just about to escape from their blouse, or their split skirt is just about to ride up and show her crotch.

 

If I spent my time watching porn or clicking on insulting thumbnails like that, then I can see how that might be happening. In practice, the opposite is true. I refuse pointblank to click on anything that's obvious clickbait. End of.

 

And still YouTube drenches me with boobs and crotches. 

 

Turn off your watch history, it won't drench you with anything. You'll just get a blank screen & a fairly unobtrusive but slightly naggy prompt to turn your history back on so it can spam you with more borderline porn. Which you can easily ignore, or scream "F*** YOU YOUTUBE, YOU'RE NOT MY MUM!!!" at, depending on your mood.

[Skinnyman]

47 minutes ago, Frank Blank said:

 

...and tram cab rides around The Hague.

I think he just prefers to be called William these days….

[Downunderwonder]

AOR, new one on me.

Album Oriented Rock,

Adult Oriented Rock,

Or????

[meterman]

3 minutes ago, Downunderwonder said:

AOR, new one on me.

Album Oriented Rock,

Adult Oriented Rock,

Or????

Good question, I always thought it meant Adult Oriented Rock, but Album Oriented Rock would work as well. 
 

MOR was Middle Of the Road (Carpenters, Neil Sedaka, etc) but AOR could also be Anodyne Overrated Rock, I guess?

 

I know everything comes back in fashion, given enough time, but I never honestly thought young kids would be getting into yacht rock, not even ironically. I've seen the crowds at YGSF gigs and they're full of 20 year olds with mullets and Hawaiian shirts. With their parents, dressed the same. Not for a joke either.
 

What's next, Captain & Tennille back in the charts, or an Osmonds revival? 

Bring on the revival of this, I'd say...

 

 

[TrevorR]

7 hours ago, chris_b said:

I do the scaled down version. . . . Paddle Boat rock.

Paddle boat rock…? Isn’t that CCR? Rollin’ , rollin’, rollin’ down the river…

[TimR]

33 minutes ago, meterman said:

Good question, I always thought it meant Adult Oriented Rock, but Album Oriented Rock would work as well. 
 

MOR was Middle Of the Road (Carpenters, Neil Sedaka, etc) but AOR could also be Anodyne Overrated Rock, I guess?

 

I know everything comes back in fashion, given enough time, but I never honestly thought young kids would be getting into yacht rock, not even ironically. I've seen the crowds at YGSF gigs and they're full of 20 year olds with mullets and Hawaiian shirts. With their parents, dressed the same. Not for a joke either.
 

What's next, Captain & Tennille back in the charts, or an Osmonds revival? 

Bring on the revival of this, I'd say...

 

 

 

Seems to be classic rock album material.

 

All those great songs on classic albums that were never released as singles.

 

Basically every song Rush has ever done. 😉

[peteb]

10 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

You can't imagine such people admitting to liking punk or country music. It's to be expected that Mr B, who likes to boast of being chums with all those LA super session cats, will not approve. I think it's quite amusing.

 

The trouble is that you're completely wrong! As a producer, Beato worked with a number of punk and garage rock bands. His big break was co-writing a number one country hit, which led to him working with several big time country songwriters. 

 

One of the things I like about RB is that he has a pretty wide background in lots of musical styles - he might love Steely Dan, but he also sees the value in The Clash. He used to be a lecturer in music, so he does come from an academic background, which is probably what you don't like about him. For me, he seems likable and is very enthusiastic / knowledgeable about lots of different types of music and I generally find his content interesting. Each to his own... 

 

[peteb]

11 hours ago, Mykesbass said:

The term is blooming awful, and coined some 40/50 years after the music was first made. I'm totally with him on this.

 

I agree - it's just a lazy, patronising label to deride perfectly legitimate top quality musicians.

 

It also has a slight whiff of racism about it! Quincy Jones produced polished RnB based pop music with strong jazz, soul, fusion and rock influences, which everyone praises to the skies. Toto produced polished rock based pop music with strong jazz, soul, fusion and RnB influences and all the would be hipsters form a queue to sneer. Quincy even used the same players, not to mention that Steely Dan used guys who played on Aretha Franklin hits (as well as QJ records). 

 

Edited December 28, 2024 by peteb

[Dan Dare]

2 hours ago, peteb said:

The trouble is that you're completely wrong! As a producer, Beato worked with a number of punk and garage rock bands. His big break was co-writing a number one country hit, which led to him working with several big time country songwriters. 

 

One of the things I like about RB is that he has a pretty wide background in lots of musical styles - he might love Steely Dan, but he also sees the value in The Clash. He used to be a lecturer in music, so he does come from an academic background, which is probably what you don't like about him. For me, he seems likable and is very enthusiastic / knowledgeable about lots of different types of music and I generally find his content interesting. Each to his own... 

 

 

Perhaps you didn't read my comment properly. I wrote "those who perhaps take themselves a mite too seriously and therefore want their taste in music to tell the world how they are fellows (it's almost always blokes) of taste and discernment". I was not referring to Beato personally, who I quite like. I find a lot of his stuff interesting, too and have enjoyed many of his excellent interviews.

 

I also love Steely Dan, but it is undeniable that they (particularly the late Walter Becker) took themselves a bit too seriously and adopted a very superior attitude to a lot of music and musicians. I can like something without needing it to be put on a pedestal and I don't get upset if someone mocks or parodies it. 

[prowla]

Here's some yacht rock with a great bass line.

 

 

As an aside (and different song I know, but...) when Simon Le Bon's yacht capsized it was dubbed "A View To A Keel". 🙂

[NancyJohnson]

I watched Rick Beato's post last night.  In fairness Trevor, he has nothing bad to say about any of the musicians lumped together under the Yacht Rock banner/genre, he just hates the terminology.  It is pretty awful, let's face it.

[2elliot]

I'm off to Google this bloke and Yacht Rock... never heard of either of them.

[Leonard Smalls]

21 hours ago, meterman said:

Donald Fagen, on the other hand, always believed that Steely Dan were operating way above mere mortals like the artists named above. I can't listen to them with a straight face, I find them too blanded out to be funky and too smoothed out to be rock and roll. To me they wouldn't be classed as Yacht Rock, more like Fuzak (that'd be Jazz Fusion crossed with Muzak).

Me too!

They're barely even Fakin' The Funk!

[Belka]

I've enjoyed quite a few of Rick Beato's videos over the years, but I think he's totally embarrassed himself with this - either because he's completely missed the point of both the documentary and the original Yacht Rock skit, or because he was deliberately in 'Click Baito' curmudgeonly old git mode.

He also omits some information and gets stuff wrong. He is quite happy to play the Donald Fagen phone call, but forgets to mention that Fagen was also quite happy to license six Steely Dan tracks to be used in the documentary, so there's probably an element of him wanting to maintain his 'difficult' persona while being happy to get the exposure he knows the TV show will get. Also, JD Ryznar and Hollywood Steve (two of the original makers of the Yacht Rock skit) were not producers of the dockumentary, they're just guests interviewed on the show. 

Personally I don't get the negativity of Beato and some here about the term 'Yacht Rock'. Both the documentary and the original skit were very sympathetic towards the music and have only served to spread it to a wider, and younger audience, and anyway, it's no worse than terms like 'Hair Metal' or even K-pop which also lump different artists into one category but noone seems to complain about.

The Yacht Rock skit show is hilarious too. It's not cringe, it's both very sympathetic to the music, but also completely ridiculous and quite surreal (Michael McDonald saving Giorgio Moroder's home planet by using the smooth grooves of Sweet Freedom to destroy the black hole that Hall and Oates come from). They are a bit harsh towards Jimmy Buffett however.  

Edited December 28, 2024 by Belka

[chriswareham]

19 hours ago, meterman said:

Bring on the revival of this, I'd say...

 

The Saints were awesome, up there with The Church as one of the Aussie bands that shoud have been far more successful than they were.

[cetera]

23 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

Yacht rock seems like a particularly appropriate description for the ultra bland and inoffensive rock like Journey and Train etc. 

 

Neither of which ARE yacht rock.... so you've missed the point...

 

As for the style of music and the term 'yacht rock' that has been affectionately applied to it, I love it. The Doobies, Steely Dan, Hall & Oates, Ambrosia, Toto etc are some of the finest musicians with the best written, arranged and performed music in popular music history.

 

Yacht Rock has seen a huge resurgence in popularity over the last few years, raising the profile of the classic original artists....and enabling a movement of fantastic new artists like Young Gun Silver Fox, Dawn Patrol, Page99, State Cows, Joel Sarakula, Big Horizon etc

 

I'm loving it.... and Beato is just posting clickbait.